My Take on Scent Control

[Twenty Up]

Here it goes, feel free to critique and add your own input as well.

My opinion on scent elimination products is simple as this, they work... In the wrong aspect.
What these products do is eliminate the scent on your clothes, so the odor from the oils on your skin, breath, hair ect... become more distinct. The tests from Mythbusters seem to prove this, when the dog found the person coated in scent blockers was found faster than someone in dirty clothes.

My take on cover scents is that they work, to a certain extent. Cover scents help mask your odor and buy a hunter time, and possibly cut the distance your odor travels down wind. When I'm referring to cover scents I am speaking about natural odors such as smoke, dirt, pine needles ect.
I have first hand experience of this working as I had a mature publicl and 4.5 YO 10 point 30 yards downwind of me and he never busted and gave me the opportunity to let an arrow fly. I thank the early morning campfire covering my clothes in smoke and my hilarious ritual of rolling around in dirt before a hunt. I normally get a lot of crap from my buddies for it but it seems to work, as I've never had a deer spook on me when the wind changes.

So in the end, scent elimination is impossible but covering your scent to buy time when the wind changes is a possibility. Playing the wind is your best offense, but masking your scent with a commonly found odor in the woods is a good defense, should Mother Nature work against you.

That's my take on it, anyone else willing to chime in?

[Stanley]

Good post.

[dan]

My issue with your take on this is that other testing has shown that cover scents don't work because deer can seperate and smell seperate odors... But, I have not personally tried smoke. I did experiment with fox urine and skunk when I was younger, neither worked.

[cdeam]

I've tried it all over the years. It's all pixie dust in my experience. The only times I have "beat a deers nose" is when I've been camping for a while. It's happened several times. I honestly think once you get oily and dirty and spend a few hours in front of a campfire you get neutralized or something.
I've heard of guys using smokers on their clothes. Maybe there's something there. Maybe not.
Currently I am of the pay no mind school of thought. I don't wash my clothes unless they get muddy or bloody. I don't shower before a hunt. I don't spray any holy stink water. My freezer is full of venison.

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[Kraftd]

See, I think the statement that you have never had a deer spook on you when the wind changes is where you lose me and others. My opinion is there may be things that you can do to minimize scent dispersion, but I also believe the majority of deer that wind us, we never know are there, or at least never get a visual or auditory confirmation.

I don't have a crazy scent routine, and I never hunt without at least trying to understand the wind/thermal situation and how it may impact things. That being said, I wear clean clothes washed in baking soda and clean rubber boots and unscented deodorant and try to be clean when I hunt. Try not to touch anything walking in if it is avoidable etc. I am in no position to say it helps for certain, but to me it is worth the minimal extra effort in case it buys me even 10 yards in a potential kill situation.

[johndeere506]

I have lots of things that have "possibly" helped. But 2 things I know for sure...

1 I HAVE been winded w expensive scentlok, rubber boots, cover sprays dirt leaves.

2 I have never been winded from UPWIND.

Its always safer to hunt w the wind. My hunting got much less stressful when I placed more importance on that, but I still do both to some extent. Hunting the wind is free though.

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[Hawthorne]

John eberhart going on wired to hunt really stirred the pot around here.

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[Stanley]

My issue with your take on this is that other testing has shown that cover scents don't work because deer can seperate and smell seperate odors... But, I have not personally tried smoke. I did experiment with fox urine and skunk when I was younger, neither worked.

I tried both of those with zero success. I think it is good to try different things. Think of some of the things that we do and use today that were thought of as completely foolish and impossible.

Telephone calls at sea were non existent when I was on a ship in the early 70s In fact it was a good prank to tell the new guys they had a phone call report to the quarter deck. Now it is just the norm having phone service at sea.

[stash59]

I've been thinking alot on this since all my posts on the other thread on Eberharts position.

As I slowly dredged up old memories I came up with almost just as many circumstances where a mature animal (I'm including the really old does in this. Though they don't act the same as mature bucks they are as aware of human odors.) didn't show any reaction to some of my entrance trails/foot steps. Either they happened before I had knowledge of scent control or I had just said to heck with it.

The circumstance that really hit home for me was my missed chance at my 1st true mature buck. The one where my lil bro was on stand 80 yards away and shot and missed a doe. Which spooked the big buck before I got to take my "perfect" shot.

We were both set up on a deeply dug drainage ditch. Running north and south. We both walked in from the north. Walking right thru the main crossing trail that I was watching. There was a good dew on the ground. We both were just wearing our every day work boots. Which were our main foot apparel . The large buck paid no attention to our entry trails. Didn't stop to sniff them or anything. He acted like he never knew I was there. No looks my way nothing.

So just like Dan mentioned in the other post. Where he had a big buck follow a scent trail he had layed down while wearing tennis shoes. They don't ALWAYS follow the rules. Similar cases to this. That happen to people using scent control. Can give them the misconception that the product worked.

I know it had me believing in it. For years!!

[Thermals]

A good friend of mine and real good hunter says you can't beat it and you have to cut a trail somewhere or cut off an area and chose wisely which one gets cut

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[oldrank]

I've been thinking alot on this since all my posts on the other thread on Eberharts position.

As I slowly dredged up old memories I came up with almost just as many circumstances where a mature animal (I'm including the really old does in this. Though they don't act the same as mature bucks they are as aware of human odors.) didn't show any reaction to some of my entrance trails/foot steps. Either they happened before I had knowledge of scent control or I had just said to heck with it.

The circumstance that really hit home for me was my missed chance at my 1st true mature buck. The one where my lil bro was on stand 80 yards away and shot and missed a doe. Which spooked the big buck before I got to take my "perfect" shot.

We were both set up on a deeply dug drainage ditch. Running north and south. We both walked in from the north. Walking right thru the main crossing trail that I was watching. There was a good dew on the ground. We both were just wearing our every day work boots. Which were our main foot apparel . The large buck paid no attention to our entry trails. Didn't stop to sniff them or anything. He acted like he never knew I was there. No looks my way nothing.

So just like Dan mentioned in the other post. Where he had a big buck follow a scent trail he had layed down while wearing tennis shoes. They don't ALWAYS follow the rules. Similar cases to this. That happen to people using scent control. Can give them the misconception that the product worked.

I know it had me believing in it. For years!!

I believe in situations as above the animal may still be registering the scent as human but is distracted at the time. Alot of mature deer do not bolt at the scent but may slightly change direction or slowly turn around n move off.. A buck catching human scent in early Oct is not the same animal in late Nov after a couple months of pressure

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[Kraftd]

To add to oldrank's response, the pull of the rut is strong sometimes. I have had mature bucks do plenty of dumb things when a hot doe is around, and even managed to make a few of them pay for it

Anyway, I would agree that there is a strong chance that the buck smelled your entry, but was just overpowered by the rut, and chose to throw caution to the wind. The simple increase in daylight activity during the rut is evidence enough to me that they are capable of being overcome with stupidity on occasion. To me, this isn't a huntable strategy. I have had plenty of rutted up bucks chase a doe downwind or across an access trail and get boogered up too. Just sort of a crapshoot at that point. During the rut, it's hard to plan for all of the potential craziness. Lord knows I've done plenty of stupid stuff all rutted up!

[oldrank]

exactly Kraftd.

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[johndeere506]

exactly Kraftd.

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I agree good post. The rut can change things sometimes. Its all left to chance though and I'd rather have better odds than just getting lucky.

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[Kraftd]

True on the odds. For clarification, by huntable strategy, I meant planning on a rutted buck ignoring your scent, not the rut.

Best bet in the rut is to make a play based on sign, knowledge and intel and hope for the best in some cases. So many variables, and the movement can be rather unpredictable at times. Specifically the mirco-movement. Meaning, my experience is that during the rut, I have a much harder time predicting the exact movement of the animal around my set. Chasing can be frustrating when you're in the right area but just can't connect, but those crazy days make it all worth it! I remember living vicariously on the from the stand thread the day Dewey killed his buck last year. Great stuff.