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

[Knawbone]

Always think about where, when, and how you can hunt a particular area.Think scent all the time.Be conscious of where you walk and what you touch.I use a walking stick I made with a few dowels sticking out of it for pushing brush, weeds, and limbs back and out from contacting them.When I near a tree stand or ground blind I normally have a set path and often utilize fallen trees,large logs, and boulders to walk on. Not places Mr Whitetail is likely to travel or use his nose.

to be continued.........

[Knawbone]

Chuck, The difference comes into play when hunting from a tree stand as I do where I practice these SC concepts. I may leave a scent trail to the tree, but the scent I emit from the tree ( which rides on the air currents) can be virtually eliminated by trapping it under my wind proof clothing. By keeping my scent level at a minimum and encapsulating it in my hunting suit, I can and do fool the nose of Deer. I'm not saying or claiming the animal doesn't smell me, but I do believe they at least are fooled into thinking I am much further away than I obviously am. Iv' had too any Deer come from directly down wind too many times to believe otherwise. Does it work 100% of the time? No, but it works more often than I would have thought possible.

[Overspined]

Ive played the deer game for over 20 yrs with a stickbow. I've tried a lot of different tactics. Everyone has a theory, how and what they smell.

Shower with a regular unscented soap, sport wash undergarments, use plastic bags/ tubs, and hunt he wind.  

The less I think about this scent stuff, the more I enjoy the hunt. I wear almost all wool, and down for clothes. That's it. Natural tends to be better at being scent free.  

Did I mention hunt the wind?

PS: never use garbage bags for clothes or meat, they have chemicals to help decompose them and will ruin meat and mess up clothes...

I'd say I enjoy plenty of success doing this. Use common sense, don't walk where the animals will be...it's learning to be the human predator. It takes mistakes and learning from them.

It's not always human scent that gets you busted. I've seen deer track me across frost covered grass, they just smell the vegetation smell from the frost layer being broken, and follow it unalarmed. Dogs and deer share this amazing ability to track in different ways.

I think you can go through great lengths to control scent, bottom line though, don't touch the weeds and brush, wear rubber soled boots, and play the wind right. Nothing else works IMO. Choose stands based on the wind first and foremost.

[ChuckC]

Problem is,  all of us can also quote numerous times of deer and other critters coming up from down wind and not scenting us or at least not acting as if it bothers them. .  without all of the super precautions.

Kinda hard to know anything for certain without some way to test it.
ChuckC

[Knawbone]

Chuck, This is true,there is no way to be 100% sure, and if you read back to some of my previous statements on this thread, I most enjoy simple basic scent prevention and just hunting the wind. I do however practice scent control to a  high level on my own land. I am finding it a great benefit. Let me ask you, does it not make sense to lower the amount of scent you are producing from your body? I, with no question, have and find it fun and productive. And yes sometimes animals come from downwind, but the air currents carrying your scent went somewhere other than to the animals nose. I personally prefer to leave nothing to chance when hunting mature bucks. Also the reason I'm sharing all this, is because I was ask to by a couple of our TG members. I knew I would face a lot of skeptical viewpoints,and that's ok, It's not for everyone and we can all agree to disagree. I do however hope that some will find some useful info among my writings here.

 Thank you for your posts

[Knawbone]

Small ravens and drainages can be used to reach areas with little worry of being detected! How many of us have set up a tree stand or ground blind just off the side of a creek bed? Where possible, traveling up a creek bed threw water to reach such stands can be a dynamite set up. Not much of a scent trail for bucky to detect with that set up. I wonder how many of us scout out great Deer terrain, even picking two spots from which to hunt it. One for a north wind and one for an east, yet we fail to think about or do any preparation to get there undetectable by a Deers nose. Try to think things threw when it comes to scent, It only makes Scents

[Doc Nock]

Once took along a bag full of milkweed pods.  Let a few go in a creek bottom which are notorious for swirling winds...

I watched that fluffy thing with a seed drift off to my left, drift right smack toward a limb, then at the last second it would veer off... watched till I couldn't see it anymore...

20 minutes later...here it comes BACK right to my tree like some freaky ghost!     :eek:    

Then it went the other way... and half hour later..came back again.

Also watched one released from my tree stand float along and it looked like it would slam into a hillside uphill and downwind of me...but nope...it maintained the same elevation (15') that my stand was, all the way up that hill and over the top.

Makes me wonder if scent might be able to stay aloft further than we think???

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

For what it's worth, I greatly appreciate this thread. Thank you for sharing your methods Knawbone! When it comes to scent control, there are a whole slew of theories out there, but my personal opinion is that sweat and the odor it causes is far more alarming to a deer than the scent of a human who is relaxed, at ease, and not perspiring. People make animals out to be superstitious mind readers who can divine our thoughts and intentions, but maybe it is our sweaty predator smell that lets the deer know we are hunting them?    

[Knawbone]

It certainly does Doc. And other times it drops like a rock. Thermals can be your best fiend or your worst enemy. You can Map these thermals and the wind structure of any piece of land as the patterns will repeat themselves. Takes time and effort the more hilly and fragmented it is.A must know for obvious reasons. Good post Doc.

[Overspined]

One thing that works great to keep from burning out stands or areas is to hunt where scent blows into a dead zone where they don't go. On the edge of a river, lake, barren field, whatever.  I'll do this when the wind is bad to hunt good areas or to maintain good hunting undetected and these fringe areas have payed off because....HUNT THE WIND

[Knawbone]

Thank you very much Malachi, I just believe that to be the best Deer hunter one can be, one should never limit ones self from exploring God's great creations. Man is the ultimate predator because he can think. Explore every avenue and facet of hunting and never settle for the status coup.Most importantly, enjoy it!  

[Dan Bonner]

I guess I'm different. I wash my clothes in whatever the wife uses. I put them on before I leave the house or camp. I bathe in dial soap. I use old spice deodorant. I brush my teeth with crest or whatever was on sale when my wife went to Walmart. I don't spray anything or use any product for scent control. I work on my land or camp between hunts in my hunting clothes. I sit by campfires, cook and pump gas in my hunting clothes. I average 5 deer a year with a stick bow. I have killed a couple good ones. The only thing I do for scent control is hunt the wind. I don't think you are wrong for trying to control scent. I'm just too lazy to try it.

Bonner

[Knawbone]

Overspined, Good point on the dead zone, I also like hunting when it's really windy and whipping around. That's also makes for tough scent detection by the Deer. I hear a lot of JUST HUNT THE WIND, but honestly, who doesn't hunt the wind. Sometimes that's just not enough. I seek my quarry by ALL means, never satisfied by average effort.

[Knawbone]

Totally different hunting situation here Mr. Bonner. I'm assuming it's pretty flat terrain where you hunt. Flat land and steady winds must be a blessing. If I'm wrong, please excuse me, but if I  could hunt in Texas, well I'll leave it there. Let me ask you this. Have you ever hunted in hills of W. Virginia, Penns., or NY. Where the deer are as highly presured as they come and the winds are seldom constant and often swirling. Just hunt the wind is not a fit all..... sorry. But I'm glad it works for you and your honesty for being lazy.

[Knawbone]

Please folks, no more HUNT THE WIND POSTS, EVERY ONE WHO IS ANY ONE, HUNTS THE WIND. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING MORE TO ADD , PLEASE DON'T POST

[TroutGuide]

I'm going to jump in here and say where I hunt I try to hunt the wind as much as possible but like others have posted deer are not always predictable in their paths or the wind shifts  unexpectedly. In these situations I feel(it makes me more confident) that using scent control products and precautions increases the odds that a deer will miss judge my location or the threat level that I present. If this makes me sit longer or concentrate on my surroundings better than it helps me be more successful. Otherwise I just as well go home. I know I get busted by deer I see and deer I never knew were there but many times a deer will come in near enough to smell me but not really spook and I "feel" that the precautions I took to be as scent free as possible make this possible. For me it is worth it. What can it hurt.

[Dan Bonner]

Knawbone, I hunt some in TX but the majority of my hunting these days is on my own place in MS. It's in the hills just above the MIssissippi and Yazoo rivers and it is very hilly. The deer in MS do bust me from time to time as do they in TX. In the hills I sometimes hear snorts from alarmed deer 2-3 ridges over and 200-400yds away. But it is always downwind. My level of success in MS is no different than it is in the TX brush country or in the TX hill country. If they are downwind they smell me if they are not they don't.

Bonner

[Dan Bonner]

Oh and BTW the deer in MS are as pressurized as anywhere I have ever seen or heard about. Everyone I know there hunts as its a way of life. The season is 4 months long and the deer are relentlessly hunted from Oct1 to Jan 31. It's all about the wind.

[Overspined]

I'm not sure all the precautions/products really do all that much. I tried extreme measures for years and found them no more effective than using your noggin.  I just think you can't beat their nose when it comes down to it.  You can get lucky.  

Last yr I shot a five yr old buck that I knew would likely pass downwind if he/one came by.  I wear no scent lock, only shower before hunting.  I hunted from dark to 4:30 straight, with one stand location change before he passed me down wind and hooked around where he met my arrow.  All I did was get as close as possible to the trail, and got higher than usual in the tree in HOPES my scent would blow over the deer.  It worked, he even stopped at an obstruction directly downwind at 18 yds.  Using your experience and taking risks is part of the fun.

Keeping scent from ever reaching the animal, no matter how dulled down you think you can get it, is still the key to going undetected.  Years ago I tried doubling up on scent lock garments in addition to all other precautions and it was NO better.

In the upper peninsula of MI, I know of old timers that would attract deer by starting a very small fire in the woodlands and sit there warming up.  I think smoke may be underrated as a cover scent/attractant, yet I've never experimented with it.  Native Americans used to smoke themselves for cover scent.

[Dan Bonner]

Overspined, I agree totally on the height issue.  My pull up rope is 24" and if possible I climb until my bow is off the ground. They are less likely to smell or see me at that height. I do most of my hunting from climbers and I rarely hunt the same tree twice. I go in and come out of my stands so that the wind doesn't blow my scent to where I expect the deer to be. I agree you can't fool their nose. I concentrate on knowing where they are and where they are going and why.

Bonner