The Hunting Beast

Do you think someone could get it done bowhunting in the heat wearing this outfit? Consider there is no mosquitoes or poison ivy possibiities. Why not just take your shirt off/wear shorts on the way in to cool down, and hunt much of the afternoon much the same?

Is there a single negative to hunting in shorts with no shirt?

I wouldn't say camo and scent control don't make any difference... Just that scent control has very little to do with the outcome of your hunt. Camo is more important. The point I got out of the camo discussion is that name brand don't matter, what matters is really blending into your surroundings...
As far as going in shorts and shirtless, I would say your going to get pretty scratched up. I often hunt in a T-shirt on hot days or travel in a t-shirt with my jacket bungee'd to my stand and my arms get tore up pretty bad. I generally spray down with bug spray when they are unbearable, if there not to bad I just bare with the skeeters.

I say Watch your Sound, Control your sound, and blend In!

When hunting , you actually use Bug Spray ? Thats strange to hear from someone such as yourself . I would have thought you would stay away from spray on stuff such as that . HUMMMMMMMM......... We use Thermacell's for spring bear season but then again we do not have to tend with the bugs for our deer season here .

Thermocell all the way!!!!!

I have heard a lot of good things about thermacell... Might have to give that a try.

Bug spray ain't a problem IF you're hunting the wind properly.

dan wrote:I have heard a lot of good things about thermacell... Might have to give that a try.

They are amazing.

Call me crazy, Dan, but wearing bug spray would make me feel like I just worsened my odds. As if I didn't smell bad enough, now I have aerasol in the air if I spray in the tree, or rubbing on things as I walk in... I get it, products sell - so does the concept that sells the product.

We all agree deer have a GREAT sense of smell, who's arguing that? Right? I mean it's science...

Why suggest to hunters, not to worry about scent control? I'm not questioning your credentials, your wall of bucks is incredibly awesome and I (assuming 'we') know your aptitude for deer hunting is outstanding, which is why I want to learn more. We've had some great conversations, Dan, let's keep this thing rolling till it's beat to death because I know I'm not the only one that is questioning the idea of not excercising scent control.

From a hierarchy perspective, understandably, blending in is key (anyone wear guilly suits?), but if you're hunting a 5 acre parcel, and the wind shifts so Muddy's ideal "hunt the wind right" excercise no longer is effective, than what? Might as well climb down and head home....

Am I wrong to assume what seems obvious - that eliminating as much of the strong scent as possible will increase your odds compared to hitting the woods sprayed down in cologne, bug spray, deoderant, BO, whatever... Or is the key point that there are simply bigger impacts on success than scent, and those factors are where the effort should be excercised the most?

I also want to say that I've had deer walk past me in situations where I WAS smelling of some sort of strong scents, AND wearing bright blaze orange, BUT, I've also been busted in both cases.

I wore flip flops to my stand once because I forgot to put boots back in the car. I actually carried them with me cause they were loud, and put them on to get up in the stand. I have worn camo t-shirts many times because of the heat. No bug spray for me but use the Thermacell, we use it in the boat, the yard....love it! I am not a big player of the wind, mostly because I guess I haven't quite figured it out all that well but I do know it does switch directions at times, so my shower/spraying down every part of my body ritual works for me. If and when I stop seeing deer then I am guessing I will change it up.

Myself I try to control my scent as much as I possibly can. Where I hunt it is very hilly and the wind seems to switch around all the time. I try to hunt the stand I feel is best for the wind, but you never know for sure where the wind will come from. If I wanted to stay in a stand for the "right" wind, I would be changing stands several times a day just to keep up with the changing wind!! Changing stands several times a day is really not an option with the limited land I can hunt on. This is why I try to control my scent as much as possible. Just my .02

Learning the wind for your property is the hardest obsticle for me to over come. After reading and trying to understand as much as I can about thermals....I'm looking at my properties in a totally different perspective. It's tuff to find that "perfect stand" that we are all looking for.

I use bug spray as well when bear hunting. Bear to me have a much better nose then that of a whitetail. Wind direction means everything and It just goes to show what a person can get away with.

Bug spray or thermacell they both give off an odor, just that the thermacell isn't as strong, but if an animal gets downwind of it it will smell it just the same.
I think camo is a huge part of blending in to the environment, the brand don't matter. I guess if you had a full body camo tatoo you could hunt naked if you wanted to.