J
jason
Guest
I was wondering how important is scent elimintaion you all you guys. And what scent products do you use, (besides scent suits)?
Thanks and good hunting!
ONLY 24 MORE DAYS LEFT!
Thanks and good hunting!
ONLY 24 MORE DAYS LEFT!
How important is scent elimination to you???
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Rackaddict
Life Member
Jason, Scent elimination is, in my opinion, the most important part of your bowhunting preperation. If your a great shot and have a super spot to hunt and go into the woods without eliminating as much of your human scent as possible, all your work is for nothing. I wash all my gear with H.S. Scent laundry detergent, shower with H.S. Scent shampoo and soap and use the Scent Shield deodorant. I store all my clothing in an air tight container as well to keep them free from foreign odors. When I'm dressed and ready to head out into the woods I spray my boots and clothes with H.S. Scent spray. Since I began this routine a few years ago, I can't begin to tell you what an improvement it has made in my hunting success. Best of luck to you this season!
Cornfed
Bowhunting Addict
Jason,
I agree with Rackaddict....... scent elimination and religiously hunting with the wind in your favor separates the average hunter from the consistently successful hunter..... I have used Scent Killer brand products with great success..... Each night after hunting I turn all of my hunting clothes inside-out and spray them liberally with Scent Killer and let them dry on a clothes line indoors..... especially socks and inside of boots......
A year ago one of the major hunting mags had an interesting article about different brand eliminators.... no brand names mentioned, but they claimed to have tried different brands on boots and pants legs....... hunting dogs were unable to track on some brands and others they could easily track..... makes one wonder about the effectiveness of some of the products sold..........
I agree with Rackaddict....... scent elimination and religiously hunting with the wind in your favor separates the average hunter from the consistently successful hunter..... I have used Scent Killer brand products with great success..... Each night after hunting I turn all of my hunting clothes inside-out and spray them liberally with Scent Killer and let them dry on a clothes line indoors..... especially socks and inside of boots......
A year ago one of the major hunting mags had an interesting article about different brand eliminators.... no brand names mentioned, but they claimed to have tried different brands on boots and pants legs....... hunting dogs were unable to track on some brands and others they could easily track..... makes one wonder about the effectiveness of some of the products sold..........
Fishbonker
Life Member
The first Mrs. 'Bonker used to insist on using a particular brand of detergent because she belived the sales pitch that it worked the best and left zero reisdue. In fact, this detergent was supposed to be so good that if you used it in a laundramat you should run an empty load with this super soap just to clean out everybody elses dirt. While this may or may not be true, even if I take all the precautions necessary, such as scent free soap, won't your clothes pick up some of the scent left from the previous detergent? The current and final Mrs. Bonker uses a scent and dye free national brand so I'm not too woried about that, but what if the load just before I wash my cammos was my greasy bibs? Do you then run an empty load just to clean out the washer?
On to the next step. Lets say you want to "activate" your "carbon" (insert any brand). Do you put it in the dryer that just dried a load of towels that had a softner sheet? Won't your carbon suit pick up the scent of the last load dried with a softner sheet? Where does the air come from before its heated? Remember that mess of fish you fried up last night? I know its not considered proper etiquette to dry one's cammo in anything but the wind, but what if the cammos are dried in the same dryer as the rest of the family clothes? See where I'm going here? We can, and should be, as scent consious as possible. Even fanatical about it, but no matter how hard you try you can never be scent free. Oh yeah, so you just showered with scent eleminating soap, remember that load of towels with the softner sheet?
In a perfect world, and I don't doubt that there is somebody out there that does this, and if they can and do I'm jealous, that has a washer and dryer used only for hunting clothes and that washer and dryer are in some sort of building free of the everyday odors of life.
For me I think I'll take my cammos down to the Cedar River and soak 'em for awhile then beat them on a rock (only if they are new) then let 'em dry in the wind. That is if Cedar Rapids hasn't dumped a few thousand untreated gallons of their resident's finest offerings into the river.
The 'Bonker
On to the next step. Lets say you want to "activate" your "carbon" (insert any brand). Do you put it in the dryer that just dried a load of towels that had a softner sheet? Won't your carbon suit pick up the scent of the last load dried with a softner sheet? Where does the air come from before its heated? Remember that mess of fish you fried up last night? I know its not considered proper etiquette to dry one's cammo in anything but the wind, but what if the cammos are dried in the same dryer as the rest of the family clothes? See where I'm going here? We can, and should be, as scent consious as possible. Even fanatical about it, but no matter how hard you try you can never be scent free. Oh yeah, so you just showered with scent eleminating soap, remember that load of towels with the softner sheet?
In a perfect world, and I don't doubt that there is somebody out there that does this, and if they can and do I'm jealous, that has a washer and dryer used only for hunting clothes and that washer and dryer are in some sort of building free of the everyday odors of life.
For me I think I'll take my cammos down to the Cedar River and soak 'em for awhile then beat them on a rock (only if they are new) then let 'em dry in the wind. That is if Cedar Rapids hasn't dumped a few thousand untreated gallons of their resident's finest offerings into the river.
The 'Bonker
W
wisco kid
Guest
Scent control is one of, if not the most important aspect successful bowhunters. Sure, a guy can get lucky once in a while on a whitetail that for whatever reason ignored the human scent. But consistent bowhunting success is not possible without some sort of scent reducing or hunting the wind strategy.
I have to chuckle to myself whenever a fellow hunter says "The big boys just don't come in close enough. They always pass by or hang up 30-40 yards out..just out of range." Or another common story "Twice he passed out of range, but close to another stand I have. So the next day I sat in the other stand closer to the trail he's using, and the next day he comes through the stand where I was the previous two days!"
To me, those are classic cases of a hunter not doing enough to combat his scent. I have neighbors like that. They can't figure out why they can't score on the big ones. Sure, they have carbon suits, but I see them lingering around their camp all day in their hunting clothes, then they put on their outer layers (which they hang in the breeze) and their carbon suits and expect that to do the trick.
And there is no such thing as scent elimination. Maybe someday they will invent a self-contained system that can do that.
But for now, I use a combination of soaps and scent eliminators, including making my own spray out of baking soda, and a few other ingredients. I'm pretty sure that's what all the expensive name brands are made of anyway. I have alternate sets of clothes and never wear the same set more than once or twice without washing. We build an open-air shed to keep our clothes outside overnight at our hunting cabin. The shed is away from the cabin so it won't pick up human created smells. I have four pairs of rubber boots and wash each set after one use.
I use a scent-lok suit, but I've been busted in that enough times to know they are not foolproof. So, I pay more attention to the wind and thermals. There are some absolutely killer spots that I just can't hunt in the evening because no matter the wind direction or speed, the cooling temps get that scent onto the ground.
Scent control is a lot of work, but hey...that's why a trophy whitetail is such a prize. If you can fool a big-boy's nose, you've accomplished something.
I have to chuckle to myself whenever a fellow hunter says "The big boys just don't come in close enough. They always pass by or hang up 30-40 yards out..just out of range." Or another common story "Twice he passed out of range, but close to another stand I have. So the next day I sat in the other stand closer to the trail he's using, and the next day he comes through the stand where I was the previous two days!"
To me, those are classic cases of a hunter not doing enough to combat his scent. I have neighbors like that. They can't figure out why they can't score on the big ones. Sure, they have carbon suits, but I see them lingering around their camp all day in their hunting clothes, then they put on their outer layers (which they hang in the breeze) and their carbon suits and expect that to do the trick.
And there is no such thing as scent elimination. Maybe someday they will invent a self-contained system that can do that.
But for now, I use a combination of soaps and scent eliminators, including making my own spray out of baking soda, and a few other ingredients. I'm pretty sure that's what all the expensive name brands are made of anyway. I have alternate sets of clothes and never wear the same set more than once or twice without washing. We build an open-air shed to keep our clothes outside overnight at our hunting cabin. The shed is away from the cabin so it won't pick up human created smells. I have four pairs of rubber boots and wash each set after one use.
I use a scent-lok suit, but I've been busted in that enough times to know they are not foolproof. So, I pay more attention to the wind and thermals. There are some absolutely killer spots that I just can't hunt in the evening because no matter the wind direction or speed, the cooling temps get that scent onto the ground.
Scent control is a lot of work, but hey...that's why a trophy whitetail is such a prize. If you can fool a big-boy's nose, you've accomplished something.
S
sddeerhunter
Guest
First of all, there is no such thing as scent elimination, it's scent reduction or diluation.
I think there is certain situations where scent affects the deer more than others. If the deer isn't use to human interaction, scent control becomes more of an issue, but deer who live near humans are less likely to become jumpy when our scent is in the air. On our ranch, my ground blind is 100 yards from our hired-man's house and northwest of the most promiently used deer trail. As all of you know, the wind in the Midwest comes from the NW in the fall. Two years ago, 5 bucks, including 3 P&Y were taken from that blind and last year 4 bucks were taken. I guarantee that every deer could smell the hunter, but it wasn't an unusual scent, since we are harvesting during the day. My deer from those years were at 4 and 7 yards. I'm just saying that after enough interaction, deer can get use to anything.
Now, I'm not saying scent control isn't important, just the opposite. I own all the Scent Lok products and use them religious when I'm hunting somewhere humans normally aren't and have even gone as far as rolling in a silage pile or intentionally stepping in cow crap to cover my scent We have just noticed that wearing the same coveralls or coat that we wore while picking corn or baling doesn't spook the deer when they are use to it. Sure there are times that they smelled something they didn't like but for the most part, it works. Part of it is that I have the ground blind about as air tight as I can get it. I've even gone to the blind after my tag was filled to just watch the deer and was chewing Cherry Skoal tobacco, which is about as foreign of a smell I could find for SD in November and the deer still didn't mind. I had 15 to 20 buck, doe and yearlings eating in front of me for over 20 minutes while I'm spitting 20 yards away.
Just a different perspective from a prairie farm kid. Most guys who aren't deer hunters usually think that I'm BSing them about that ground blind situation, so I usually spare them the most unbelievable part. Can you guess...
Only 19 more care free days for SD bucks.
I think there is certain situations where scent affects the deer more than others. If the deer isn't use to human interaction, scent control becomes more of an issue, but deer who live near humans are less likely to become jumpy when our scent is in the air. On our ranch, my ground blind is 100 yards from our hired-man's house and northwest of the most promiently used deer trail. As all of you know, the wind in the Midwest comes from the NW in the fall. Two years ago, 5 bucks, including 3 P&Y were taken from that blind and last year 4 bucks were taken. I guarantee that every deer could smell the hunter, but it wasn't an unusual scent, since we are harvesting during the day. My deer from those years were at 4 and 7 yards. I'm just saying that after enough interaction, deer can get use to anything.
Now, I'm not saying scent control isn't important, just the opposite. I own all the Scent Lok products and use them religious when I'm hunting somewhere humans normally aren't and have even gone as far as rolling in a silage pile or intentionally stepping in cow crap to cover my scent We have just noticed that wearing the same coveralls or coat that we wore while picking corn or baling doesn't spook the deer when they are use to it. Sure there are times that they smelled something they didn't like but for the most part, it works. Part of it is that I have the ground blind about as air tight as I can get it. I've even gone to the blind after my tag was filled to just watch the deer and was chewing Cherry Skoal tobacco, which is about as foreign of a smell I could find for SD in November and the deer still didn't mind. I had 15 to 20 buck, doe and yearlings eating in front of me for over 20 minutes while I'm spitting 20 yards away.
Just a different perspective from a prairie farm kid. Most guys who aren't deer hunters usually think that I'm BSing them about that ground blind situation, so I usually spare them the most unbelievable part. Can you guess...
Only 19 more care free days for SD bucks.