Scent Control! What Scent Control! I Don't Need.........

[highlow]

.....no stinkin' scent control. Just want to pass along an encounter this morning that just reinforces my skepticism about scent control. Had a fork horn come into my shooting range, 20 yards, directly down wind of my ladder stand. Not only that, he browsed for a couple of minutes exactly where I walked on my way to the stand. Had his nose right to the ground but never once indicated he knew anything was awry. Now I know some of you are going to say a year and a half old buck ain't the brightest bulb in the herd but I would have to think that even that young, human scent would have to be a red flag. He showed about two hours after I had passed that spot so there is the possibility my scent was gone. It was very windy to boot. Obviously I'll never know but still have to think this scent control/elimination crap is all a bunch of hooey. Just my opinion so I don't want you scent control advocates to jump all over me.  

[Petrichor]

HMM interesting.. I have been wondering how much there is too it as well.  Would love to hear more on the subj.

[highlow]

Should also have mentioned that all my hunting clothes, except for my safety harness and pack, were in the house all night, subject to all odors present in my house for that period of time. Boots were also in the house.

[fnshtr]

I've bowhunted deer for about 45 years and have used just about every scent control available today (with the exception of ozonics and hex suits). I have had very, varying results.

There are times that deer have seemed to wind me from UPWIND! I've also had some success washing my clothes in scent free detergent that have no UV brighteners, and spraying down my clothes with "scent killer". Have also had some success using vanilla extract.

My conclusion has been to take some precautions, but not to really depend on any. They killed lots of deer with archery equipment before all those products.
Good luck!

[Joeabowhunter]

It's likely the wind currents were in your favour.  There is nothing you can do to stop a deer from smelling you if the wind is in his favour.  The scent you left on your trail was old and like a dog, they can tell.  Last year I "blew" a shot on a nice buck from the ground, 15 yrds downwind of me.  The air currents were going up though and that is the only reason I got that opportunity.  Outside of a rutting buck or a fawn, I've never had a deer that could smell me stick around very long.  With all that said.....I still wash my hunting clothes in baking soda and try to keep my "stink" to a minimum.

[ChuckC]

I believe the deer will do whatever it does and the next one may react differently.  If that deer is used to smelling humans cutting thru the area, maybe it is not so caring about a two hours old scent.

Also, as alluded to above, sometimes our scent does not go exactly as we think.  Breeze blowing that way, scent goes that way ?  Maybe not, depending upon thermals and other things.

I used to take pieces of egg fly yarn ( fly tying buffs know that stuff) which floats almost any time, releasing them into the air at my stand and watch them float around... all over the place sometimes.
ChuckC

[indianalongbowshooter]

wind will scrub scent off the ground if its very windy, plus if thermals are rising deer can be downwind and not smell you as long as you haven't put your hands all over the low lying bushes etc.. have had many deer downwind when the sun is high and thermals are going up..toss some milkweed fluff out on a sunny day sometime and watch it ride the thermals up.

[Matty]

I think another factor is HOW MUCH DO YOU REALLY SMELL!? And I don't mean you're smelling abilities. I'm meaning your ability to stink. Are you a clean person are you well bathed. Does your house stink. Etc. I have friends that I can smell outside of a building and I'm on the inside.       and I know people with zero scent. (To a human of course) I don't whitetail deer hunt. And there are people out there with many hours of experience that will tell you different.
But years ago when I did deer hunt a lot. There would be deer literally all around me at times and we did hardy anything for scent control. Maybe cleaned our clothes in baking soda. And Jung them outside when it was nice. But hunting was just about going to the spot they were likely to be at. Sometimes they came from upwind. Sometimes downwind....

I have shot several deer that came in on my downwind side, while smoking either a pipe or cigar.  One I was sitting on a nice soft badger dig on a steep hill side, catching some rays and enjoying a nice cup of hot Earl Grey and rather spendy cigar.  A doe came down the hill straight into the wind sniffing.  I carefully set my cigar down to avoid a possible grass fire, grabbed my very heavy longbow laid back and shot her at about 20 feet with the bow,  arrow shelf down.  Another time, the month that I hunted with a metal handled compound.  Sneaking on an edge of sumac I saw the area dominant, he was heading towards me, so I skirted the ridge to get around him.  I assumed that I spooked him.  By that time my hand was freezing on the metal grip.  so I hung the heavy machine on a branch sat down and packed my pipe with custom blend of latakia, virginia, baked burley and deer tongue tobacco. It was a damn cold morning and the smoke ran along the hill no higher than it left the pipe.  I saw a better place to sit that was in full sun, I was cold.  I heard a sniff and through the cedars came a nice 8 pointer sniffing as he approached, until he was only twenty-five feet away. I could not reach the hand freezing machine, when he went behind some cedars shrubs I moved to my bow and behind and upwind me stood the dominant.  He saw me and moved back into the sumac sticks, the 8 that was straight downwind stepped fully around the cedars and not looking at me.  That machine took a minimum of 3 seconds for me to get off a shot, the 8 pointer gave me 2 seconds at 15 feet.  I could have killed either deer with any wood gripped trad bow that morning, the smell of my pipe or me had no effect on the deer, but my bare hand on that freezing metal gripped thing made a huge difference on my success possibilities.
On the other side of this, my buddy farmer was telling me how his from boots that smelled like hog poop was the perfect masking scent and no deer could tell where walked.  An hour later a nice buck cutting across the disked field where he crossed with his rubber boots, stopped sniffed his foot print and bolted clear across open country until it was over the hill a half mile away.  My buddy said,"Did you see that? Man I had that one wrong."

[Izzy]

Individual deer  are different from one another  as are people. Some will tolerate a lot more than others. Chances are that very same deer might turn inside out the next time he crosses your path.

I would bet that if he would have been a 150" 10pt that he would not have stuck around 30 seconds! There is a huge difference between a mature buck and a dumb young buck.

Bisch

[jt85]

Good thing it wasn't an old wise doe, everything in the woods would have known you where there.

[The Whittler]

Everything you eat and drink give off scents that any animal can smell. You have to breath and that smells, you ride in your car/truck and that has smells, there is no getting away from it or stoping it from getting out.

The wind is your only friend, so use it and good luck.

[drewsbow]

young deer tend to put up with alot more scent most times

[Jack Hoyt 75]

I you want and try to argue scent control is not needed that's your prerogative.  You may not think it is needed but exactly how does it hurt you or your chances?  It's not like scent control has to cost huge $$$.  It's called scent control not "total scent elimination".

Your not arguing, I hope, that a deers nose is not hundreds times more sensitive than a humans.  You have no idea how many deer winded you farther out or beyond your field of view that turned tail and left and you never even saw them.  Also, yes that big old buck would not have stayed even 5 seconds.

Don't care or worry about scent control, You one crazy hunter!     Good Luck!

PS.  There is several Natural ways of scent control also.

[kevsuperg]

as izzy said every deer is different, i try not to stink when i go out but even with the best scent control i think a deer will still smell you if the conditions are right, the question is do you smell like a threat.
 i would imagine a deer would have to way its options as far as what it smells. if its something it has had a negative encounter with it would probably turn and run but it cant expend energy running off every time it encounters a new or questionable smell.
 i don't use a lot of scent control. scent free shower and deodorant that's about it. i have used a product called nose jammer recently and had some interesting results though.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

"the question is do you smell like a threat?"

I think that is it in a nut shell.... Animals that have been hunted hard and either been shot at, or next to a deer that was shot is going to act differently than one that doesn't associate human scent with danger....

I've seen farmers go out and feed their live stock daily with deer & elk both not even spooked at all, and then watch a hunter approach the same group of animals and they go on high alert.....

I've also seen the same spooky deer i've hunted for weeks, relax and bed down in my yard a week after hunting season.... Tell me these critters aren't smart....

[Doc Nock]

Originally posted by Kirkll:
Tell me these critters aren't smart....

OK...hey, Kirk... These critters aren't smart!

   

Hey...you said to tell you!!!   :eek:    :rolleyes:    

[Yellow Dog]

Originally posted by Bisch:
I would bet that if he would have been a 150" 10pt that he would not have stuck around 30 seconds! There is a huge difference between a mature buck and a dumb young buck.

Bisch

Just what I was thinking  

[killinstuff]

And they don't give a rip what your car or truck smells like, what you had for lunch or what soap you use. Deer smell YOU.  You guys never had a fawn and doe come by and that dumb fawn just does it's thing and the doe comes unglued?  Happens to me all the time.  The 1 1/2 year old doe I killed a few weeks back didn't catch on I was trouble but the older doe she was with did.  The young one died, the older one lived.