Hunting items that you sorta can’t believe you purchased??

[Smells Like Sulfur]

I have 50 lb of number two shot, and 1000 12 gauge shot cups, I don't reload, and I only shoot black powder.

It was so much cheaper to buy them in bulk, but every time I look at the massive bags I am reminded how ridiculous they are.

 

[deerhunter10]

Gonna need that money to buy groceries....but I will swear by Ozonics regardless. I get nothing out of it but moments of knowing it works.....endless videos and photos of it.......just watching them not knowing that I am there.

It's also dangerous. While it may help it is most certainly not 100 percent. Have the scent crusher version of it, was Give to me and stopped using it. It works so so but it is dangerous to you from my research.

 

[lung-buster]

A friend of mine actually won a device that was spoiled with thread, and connected to the nock of an arrow. The idea was that you could follow the thread to find your game…
He said he shot at a deer and the arrow got about half way there when the thread got caught- and turned the arrow towards the ground.

Idk- I'm more of a KISS kinda guy myself.

Game tracker. I had one and remember shooting over a doe that just stood there with the string going across her back. Never did stick one using it.

 

[double browtine]

I never bought one but a friend did. They made this grunt tube type thing. It wasn't one that you blew. You held it in your hand and it had a little plastic piece. One piece was like a corrugated tube and the other was like a little curved scraper that you slid across it. If you did it slowly it would make a clicking noise, faster and it sounded kinda like a grunt. He said he thought it was worthless, until one time he was hunting and saw a buck making that clicking sound while tending a hot doe.

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

I'll admit I do. Had a buddy moving so I gave them $50 for their washer and dryer and put them in my basement. Wash a towel and wash cloth with my clothes every fall. I know you can't fool a deer's nose but it's better than smelling like a and wash cloth with my clothes every fal

Do you honestly know how many people go through every single individual step.....but stop and get gas or breakfast.....then scream about scent control? I have always put my hunting clothes outside (before bow season and take them off and hang until Christmas there)on the porch to "air out"....gets cold on many mornings. But towels and wash cloths are washed in DDW. We spend so much time and money only to forget that the simple fact is....we didn't actually do anything. I am lucky and don't have to get in my vehicle to hunt.....but who sprayed their interior with scent elimator (whatever kind) before getting in?

wash clothes, towels, and me. Hang outside then pack in tote and load in truck. Get to my parking area. Step outside and change clothes and boots. Sounds stupid to many folks but it's what I do and I'm too old and stubborn to change now. Trying to "hunt the wind" in the mtns of the upper east end is near impossible so I do anything that might give me an extra 3 seconds to get off a shot.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Dan Fitzgerald shot the string on his arrow some. It was pretty cool to see the string peeling off.....until it broke! LOL

 

[Laserman1]

A friend of mine actually won a device that was spoiled with thread, and connected to the nock of an arrow. The idea was that you could follow the thread to find your game…
He said he shot at a deer and the arrow got about half way there when the thread got caught- and turned the arrow towards the ground.

Idk- I'm more of a KISS kinda guy myself.

It's actually still sold on 3 rivers archery for traditional bows. I know some guys there still use it for turkey.

 

[348Winchester]

Camoflauge.

 

[Lost Lake]

I never bought one, but the cough silencer was a funny one.

 

[mike243]

Scent wicks, had I known how bad it ran doe's off I would have saved my $$

 

[knightrider]

The drurys dog whistle for turkey hunting

 

[BSK]

Cover scents. All of them. I used to hunt a farm with multiple big groves of cedars, so I used the cedar cover scent most often.

Doe-in-heat scents. I don't know what that stuff was, but it wasn't deer pee. It smelled awful.

Deer sucker. Someone gave me one, so I tried it. Had a doe group with a yearling buck tagging along, and when that yearling smelled the sucker, he came over, grabbed it in his mouth, yanked the whole thing out of the ground and ran off with it, the doe group hot on his tail. For 200 yards I could hear that buck running through the underbrush with the sucker's stick clickity-clacking against every limb. It worked but...


As an addendum, in the category of "Best product other hunters think is a waste of money:" Scent-reducing soaps. They are the bomb, and truly help if you have scent-jumpy deer. The deer can still smell you but they will assume you are much farther away than you really are.

 

[themanpcl]

Back in the day the cover scents.. fox piss and all of that. Now days I never thought I'd see a day where I pay for my camera to send me a picture of a deer but I do it for 12 of them.

I used skunk scent,,, before I got in the vehicle,,,, on my boots and clothes....

 

[themanpcl]

View attachment 210715

used it once....

 

[JJ3]

As an addendum, in the category of "Best product other hunters think is a waste of money:" Scent-reducing soaps. They are the bomb, and truly help if you have scent-jumpy deer. The deer can still smell you but they will assume you are much farther away than you really are

I completely agree with scent-free/killing soap — use the green kind that comes in a bottle. Also use scent and UV killing detergent and dryer sheets, then we store our clothes in plastic bags. Anything I can do to reduce my scent profile. If deer get right downwind of you they are still going to get whiff of you. But Ive also had them walk downwind catch whiff but continue their activities. Again just trying to reduce scent profile.

Most useless purchases were the cover scents — fox pee and such. Also Tinks and similar doe and buck pees. I used to use it when I was hunting in woods — sometimes I'd hear a deer coming but then they'd reverse course when they got downwind of the tinks. Then I started hunting mostly fields and I'd put some tinks out offset from my wind. It only took me about 3 times watching does totally throw on the brakes and high tail it in the other direction, for me to quit using it all together. It stinks and my experience is that the deer think so too. Other hunters will swear by it as strongly as I swear by soaps and detergents.

I do everything I can to not introduce unexpected scents.

 

[Madbowh]

Scent never matters, it's movement and get as far off the ground as possible I had 6 does and 2 bucks(1-5.5 ) lay in bow range last week and I lit and smoked 3 cigarettes while they were there. They were there for my entire morning sit as I hunt their bedding. I do scent away spray only 1 bottle a year I spray only if I've got really sweaty. I've also watched 2 bucks fight about 50yds away they took so long I finally sat had a cigarette the 8 came up went right back down then the 10pt 5.5 yr old come right to me I put my smoke out and shot him under my ladder stand, missed he circled back for a kill shot at 10yds.

I don't really have anything I can't believe I actually bought it. Where I started in life was rough so I'm watching everything I buy. I guess I could say I can't believe I own over 10 cameras, they were all bought on sale under$30 but guess I can't believe I have that many.

 

[younggun308]

I was incredibly skeptical, but I can affirm that Ozonics works. Total game-changer in how deer behave with it, completely relaxed, whereas without it they can tell something is up—not spooked enough you cannot see them, but they are less likely to hang around as long because they're anticipating a reason to run.

 

[dsa5455]

I was thinking the other day about a trail timer that I once saw for sale at Walmart. It was a retractable string that you strung across a trail. It was only good for a single "trip" so there was really no way for it to be valuable for deer use. Always wanted one but never bought it as a young kid.
I did however convince my mother to buy me the tree lounge. 'Twas the heaviest, loudest stand I ever strapped to my back or attempted to hang on a tree in the dark.

I bought both of these items. I remember having to wipe the oil off the Tree Lounge so I could paint it. It actually was a very sturdy stand but man it was heavy and sounded like a freight train sliding it out and attaching to the tree. Later I bought a Lone Wolf hand climber but would leave my Tree Lounge at the base of the tree and have to only climb up. That wasn't to bad.

 

[dsa5455]

View attachment 210715

Me

 

[DCA-DEER]

Still own two tree lounges my favorite climber but I don't carry just set em then come back to hunt of course mainly hunt out of box blinds now