Methods for lowering your level of scent output and other such stuff

[WESTBROOK]

There is no such thing as scent control.

Sorry, but yes there is. Just not many willing to take the necessary steps to make it work for them.

Eric

[Angus]

Interesting thread!  I work at it as well, but there's a lot of tourists strolling on the trails behind my house, and the deer don't get hunted there because of that-not that you can't hunt them there!  Just no one thinks to do it.  They're used to humans but they don't let them get too close.  However, I read an interesting article on animals being able to sense the slight but varying electromagnetic discharge that all things emit, and an attempt to block that by wearing underwear built along the lines of a Faraday cage.  Some researcher in Oregon was testing the idea, and it seemed to work.

[Knawbone]

Thanks for that info, Angus, could very well be something to that.

  Your absolutely right Westbrook, I killed a buck after he walked by me last year. He strolled passed me at a mere 5 ft. away. I put an arrow threw him after he got by me at 7 yrd. Although the wind was dead calm that evening, I'm sure he would have smelled me had I not lowered my scent level. What else was reassuring is the fact that he came up the same path I did.Well worth the little effort it takes to practice scent control. One of the most rewarding bow hunts I have ever had. I was scouting at the time when the opportunity presented itself.

[Yippeekiay]

A friend suggested going to your chosen area, gathering brush,foliage or whatnot, even some dirt and storing your clothes in a bag with these. Clothes take on the scent of the surrounding area.
Sounds plausible.

[Doc Nock]

I could be wrong about this, but over the years here, I keep looking to see what states folks live in who are major proponents of "just hunt the wind".  my informal attention to home states seems to me, always areas with major public land..!  Or they've posted previously that they have extensive acreage on which to hunt. Excellent!

There is no more sound advice than hunt the wind!

Now, having agreed to that, what about hunting in small "patch-work" parcels surrounded by "Posted!" land? Hmmm?

I have ONE way into the land I hunt... it's in a valley with ONE thick ridge..prevailing wind is from our parking area (dictated by landowner) and up toward the one ridge... IF...I try to circle around, I'm rim-rocked (so to speak) by posted ground and have to navigate a lot of thick brush...and the deer travel is from the posted to where we hunt! Noisy to say the least...and rubbing against brush leaves more scent!

The ridge to my right, down-wind, is bordered by houses and the ridge itself is POSTED tight!

Second, these areas I have to hunt (and seems have been for much of my hunting career) are largely "travel corridors".  We've learned to get in EARLY and set up the best we can on cross or downwind of travel paths.

Yet, surprise of surprises! at least HALF the deer wander in down wind into our scent stream.

I try to do everything I can to control scent... I can  NOT alleviate all my scent--true enough...but I CAN reduce the concentration of my scent to allow prey animals to believe I am a lot---LOT farther away than RIGHT THERE with my bow!

hunt the wind is good, sound advice, but c'mon, guys, not all of us have hundreds or thousands of acres to hunt!

[Rob W.]

Best thing I have done is go to the ground. Has made me waaay more conscious of the wind on setup and approach. I also don't sweat up the area hanging a stand and I can adjust immediately for wind changes or time of day, etc. It is also more of a relaxing(for me) way to hunt and that seems to affect my decisions in a positive way. Which produces less stress type scent and overall good mojo!  :D  

Rob

[Knawbone]

All good points Rob, I also hunt from ground blinds and also still hunt, which is my favorite way to hunt. As far as tree stands go, I set them up prior to season or just before a day of  heavy rain. My stands are set up for mature bucks and therefore set up with all precaution. I hunt these stands very sparingly and only when I think the time is right. Usually during the chase phase of the rut or just before.

[Knawbone]

That's exactly my situation Doc, I only go to extremes, where SC is concerned, on my own land which is only 75 acres. It has to be very low impact stealthy hunting or I might as well not hunt it at all. I also have 3000 acres of state land around me with a different set of hunting circumstances. There, I hunt more from the ground and use less concern for scent control. Often just.... hunting the wind more or less.

[KSdan]

Watch a blood hound work. . . it can distinguish one deer from another just by smelling a track.  It can even pass by a gut pile to stay on the actual trail of a targeted deer.  It can decipher one particular person from another in a WalMart parking lot 10 days after the person walked there.  I watched a Secret Service dog combing an entire highrise hotel floor sensing gun powder, only to find the powder in a rifle cartridge case on the top drawer inside one of our desks.  Even a cow can smell electricity charges!

I am just not convinced you can ever beat a mature deer's nose. You may have an immature rut crazed buck.  Maybe even a young doe.  A mature deer may be distracted/or risky in the rut. There may be varied wind currents that are covering you.  But to say that a mature deer can't smell you when thousands of dead skin cells drop at every step, 30-40,000 drop off you every hour.  In addition, your body secretes hundreds of chemicals/odors through hundreds of thousands of pores/orifices on your body continually.    

I submit, you can avoid it, but you can NOT beat a deer's nose.

My 2C from Kansas!  

[Knawbone]

" Forget scent control because there is nothing you can do about your breath!" right?  Wrong again. Here again no one is claiming you can eliminate odors emitting from your mouth 100%. You can lower it to such a level that you can be very close to deer without them detecting it to such an extent that they become alarmed. Here again we are lowering our odors to a level that the deer upon smelling us, thinks we are much further away than we are.

I don't think I need to list all the things you can do to minimize your breath odor, but watch what you eat and use chlorophyll to lower your body odor. Juicing grasses works well and is also very healthy for you. Tablets as others have stated are supposed to work well. If nothing else, at leased brush your teeth with baking soda. I always chew grass and hemlock stems while on stand.

I don't always use a full face mask, but I cover my nose and mouth with a cover I made and spray this with  scent killer.  It works!

Again, it's the conglomeration of preventive steps that make this system work.

[Knawbone]

I think your basing your opinion on the strength of a bloodhounds nose Dan. You may very well be right. But there is no arguing the importance of scent control which is what this thread is about. Your more than welcome to add any of your methods for scent control, but lets please try to keep it along those lines. Thanks

[WESTBROOK]

A good friend of mine for many years is the guy that developed the "Buck Fever Synthetic" products. He would "eat, sleep and think" deer 24/7. He knew you couldn't eliminate your scent, but he also knew/learned that you could control and reduce it to a very low and non-alarming level. He had the deer to prove it too.

Eric

[Knawbone]

Masking or covering your scent is a form of scent control. I don't normally use masking scents like Skunk essence, fox urine, ect. Food type scents like vanilla, apple, corn, acorn, I never use because other than the acorn, are unnatural to the surroundings I hunt. I prefer to smell like nothing at all for lack of a better term. The clothes I hunt in are numerous and varied. After a hunt I air those clothes out and wear a different set the next hunt.

I will however add natural smells to my clothes for certain hunting situations.If I plan to hunt were there are hemlocks, then I'll keep a clean plastic tote filled with hemlock branches for the clothes I intend to hunt in. And likewise one with leaves and acorns for hunting in hardwoods.Being an old trapper, I like to keep things natural and relative to the surroundings I hunt in. For instance, I don't want to smell like a hemlock tree were there are none. Or a red fox 18 ft above ground while tree stand hunting.

[Sam McMichael]

On my place, I think the game has me patterned about as well as I have them patterned. I think the trick is picking the right stand for a given set of wind conditions. My opinion is that if the wind is not right there is nothing you can do to overcome the problem. The crux of the issue is whether or not today they come in up wind or down wind. With that being said, I still use attractant/cover scents quite often. No harm in trying to hedge your bet.

[KSdan]

Originally posted by Knawbone:
I think your basing your opinion on the strength of a bloodhounds nose Dan. You may very well be right. But there is no arguing the importance of scent control which is what this thread is about. Your more than welcome to add any of your methods for scent control, but lets please try to keep it along those lines. Thanks

Good point.  Sorry.  Did not mean to hijack it.  The successful mature deer hunters I know come at it different. Hate to see young guys spend time and money.

[pdk25]

Originally posted by Knawbone:
I think your basing your opinion on the strength of a bloodhounds nose Dan. You may very well be right. But there is no arguing the importance of scent control which is what this thread is about. Your more than welcome to add any of your methods for scent control, but lets please try to keep it along those lines. Thanks

Actually, I think that an argument can be made against the importance of scent control.  I hunted for years on pressured public land in the northeast, using all of the techniques for scent control mentioned above.  I got to witness deer getting spooky and going the other way when "scent free" clothing had brushed against a sapling and deer following the tracks of my "scent free" boots until finally getting spooked and going the other way.  Do whatever works for you, and I wish you success.  I have had just as much or more success since I started not practicing any scent control.  Yes, I know there are tons of stories about deer coming in from downwind, just no evidence that they wouldn't have if scent control measure weren't taken.  I am not saying it can't occasionally matter, just not very often.  The german shepherd that I had when before I got married tracked me to my treestand despite all of my precautions more than once after my wife left it out of the house.  I reckon a deer would have had no trouble either.  I think scent control gives us the sense that we are doing something that helps, and it makes us feel better rather than having a real impact.  Even with the best scent control, there are undoubtedly many deer that you are spooking and just never knowing it.  I have decided to take that same time and energy and get into the woods.  Maybe save all of the money of scent control products and go on a hunting trip somewhere.

[Knawbone]

KSDAN, PDK25, Thank you both for your input and experience on this subject. One thing I see that confuses respondents to this thread is the relationship between two different types of scent. The scent one leaves while walking on the ground and touching or brushing up against things is what I call ground lain scent. Scent you leave on the ground can not be avoided and should not be confused with wind blown scent. Two totally different issues that too often get thrown together and confused as one thing when discussing SC. What can be ( almost ) totally eliminated is wind blown scent. I also know mature hunters ( I'm one of them ) that do practice scent control and are very successful. I have been a hunter and trapper for 40 yrs. Trapping canines requires strict attention to scent control in various forms if you want to be successful, especially where trap shy animals are concerned. Many of us spend hundreds of dollars on bows and equipment, yet say a mere 20 or 30.00 for scent control products is a wast of money. That's about all I spend per year. Well worth it to me. As far as time, I enjoy the extra 15 min. a day it takes to practice SC, again well worth it to me, It has become somewhat of an art to me, much the same as trapping has. I have been a very successful deer hunter over the years mostly because of the knowledge I have gained threw woodcraft and the quarry I seek..... not because of scent control. But the hunting situation on my 75 acre hilly hardwood land, has called for different strategy. This land is were I practice my scent control and has payed off for me. Five Bucks with stick and string in five years running isn't to bad. Like I say, it works for me and therefore wish to share what I have learned with my fellow trad hunters. I also like to just go out and hunt and not bother with scent control, and I do that and enjoy it. But were my land is concerned I will continue to practice a different approach. to tell you the truth I really don't find it that hard to fool a deers nose where WIND BLOWN scent is concerned. You do have to pay close attention to details to be successful at it. Once you develope a routine, it's fairly simple.

 I know there are other TG members that use the same methods I use. They are successful hunters as well and I hope that they chime in and give me some support. Thanks again guys, it's all for the love of hunting.

[Knawbone]

Everyone practices scent control.If you do no more than hunt the wind....that is scent control.Any time we take an action to keep an animal from smelling us.....that is scent control.

 The process go's from there to a virtual science.I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, or a paticular game animals nose.What I do know is that hunters need to remember that the scent you leave on the ground is a completely different set of circumstances than wind driven scent.

 There are many factors that need to be kept in mind when determining what and what may not be pertinent to the equation.For instance, when contemplating ground lain scent, take this senerio for an example:

[Knawbone]

Your bird hunting with your bird dog, or rabbit hunting. The dog starts to birdie,but then becomes confused and wanders back and forth trying to follow the week scent of a bird to the increasingly stronger, fresher scent of the bird.The dog starts to yip and becomes increasingly more excited.Finally, the dog go's on point and you know the bird is there or close.Now assimilate that event to a Deer smelling your track.Do you realize why the dog had problems following the scent trail?

Analogy: Now a wise old Buck is headed toward your stand. The ground is dry and you have lowered your scent by let's say 50%. Does that buck think your a danger, or from his years of experience subconciously think it's an old track and not an immediate threat? I don't know the exact answer to that question.My years as a bird dog hunter and a trapper have taught me that nothing is cut and dry where scent control is concerned.Moisture content of the air and foliage, and on the ground is a big,big factor to consider. Just one equation!

[ChuckC]

not understanding that last concept.  From my point of view the things that make scent are the same, whether they fall to the ground and gather, or are dispersed via wind.  Both are actually happening all the time.
ChuckC