Scent control

[Mike Belt]

You CAN NOT beat a deer's nose. The best you can hope for is to confuse it long enough for it to make a fatal mistake.

 

[fairchaser]

You CAN NOT beat a deer's nose. The best you can hope for is to confuse it long enough for it to make a fatal mistake.

Exactly Mike.

 

[UTGrad]

I'm not changing my strategy over some stupid article.

I will continue to try to reduce my scent when going in the woods AND hunt the wind.

 

[Bucks & Beards]

I'll get a lot of negative feed back for saying this but I use smoke as a cover scent and found it to be quite effective. I do not use it below the knee and use scent eliminators on my boots. Deer don't like smoke smell on the ground. Otherwise they are curious but not frightened once fire season starts they smell smoke regularly. As smoke smell is strong, it overwhelms most other human odors. I am not an odor biologist and I am sure many will tell me I'm nuts that deer can smell seven odors at once but this is my experience over the past 5 years. I often watch deer approach and you can tell when they pick up the smoke and how they react to the smell. Mostly, they are curious and if you can remain motionless for a few minutes, they will go on about their business. Oddly, the youngest deer are the most frightened I assume because they haven't smelled smoke before, but the older deer have and they don't seem too worried. I have killed mature bucks at 10 yards and they were fooled by the smoke. My hunting buddies use as well and initially they were also skeptics but now converts. I am not trying to change anyone's mind on this. I don't really care if anyone else uses smoke. The worst thing that could happen is to train the deer in my area that smoke means hunter. So, that makes me a closet user

fc, is it smoke from those funny cigarettes you smoke?

 

[gator-n-buck]

I look at it this way.... If something gives me confidents than I use it.... There's a couple things I learned over the years about cover scents and keeping my clothes clean in the crazy winds of E TN for over 26 years..... The K-9 just proved it at a close distance....

 

[catman529]

I'm not changing my strategy over some stupid article.

I will continue to try to reduce my scent when going in the woods AND hunt the wind.

if you look at it that way, you could also say you're not using scent control over some stupid marketing that makes you want to buy all the spray, powder and shampoo that you think you need.

The article would be one thing if it was all opinion. But they used trained drug dogs, that have very good noses but not quite as good as deer. If they can pick up on humans like they say in the article, then deer can do even better and your scent control aint doing anything compared to hunting the wind or covering your scent with acorn or ozone. I'm gonna save some money and only buy enough spray for boots and stuff that actually gets smelly to my nose. I have been using the DDW boot powder this year on my shoes and it seems to work well. But for fooling a deer's nose, I'm not wasting the money anymore. I left a climber in an oak stand last year to hunt the next day. I sprayed down the climber, and the ground all around it where I had set it up. I came in the next day showered and sprayed and climbed up and had 7 or 8 deer come in. The doe that came in closest stopped and stomped her foot for a couple minutes, never saw me, before she bolted and all the deer ran away. So much for scent control...

 

[UTGrad]

The article would be one thing if it was all opinion. But they used trained drug dogs, that have very good noses but not quite as good as deer. If they can pick up on humans like they say in the article, then deer can do even better and your scent control aint doing anything compared to hunting the wind or covering your scent with acorn or ozone. I'm gonna save some money and only buy enough spray for boots and stuff that actually gets smelly to my nose. I have been using the DDW boot powder this year on my shoes and it seems to work well. But for fooling a deer's nose, I'm not wasting the money anymore. I left a climber in an oak stand last year to hunt the next day. I sprayed down the climber, and the ground all around it where I had set it up. I came in the next day showered and sprayed and climbed up and had 7 or 8 deer come in. The doe that came in closest stopped and stomped her foot for a couple minutes, never saw me, before she bolted and all the deer ran away. So much for scent control...

Listen to BSK and many of the other experienced hunters on here, using scent control products helps reduce your scent.

 

[catman529]

The article would be one thing if it was all opinion. But they used trained drug dogs, that have very good noses but not quite as good as deer. If they can pick up on humans like they say in the article, then deer can do even better and your scent control aint doing anything compared to hunting the wind or covering your scent with acorn or ozone. I'm gonna save some money and only buy enough spray for boots and stuff that actually gets smelly to my nose. I have been using the DDW boot powder this year on my shoes and it seems to work well. But for fooling a deer's nose, I'm not wasting the money anymore. I left a climber in an oak stand last year to hunt the next day. I sprayed down the climber, and the ground all around it where I had set it up. I came in the next day showered and sprayed and climbed up and had 7 or 8 deer come in. The doe that came in closest stopped and stomped her foot for a couple minutes, never saw me, before she bolted and all the deer ran away. So much for scent control...

Listen to BSK and many of the other experienced hunters on here, using scent control products helps reduce your scent.

yes it does but they still pinpoint you just as easily, I guess BSK has a point in saying the deer thinks you are farther away. But not if they have seen and smelled hunters, they must know that hunters don't usually smell as strong. But in some times it almost seems like they are ignoring your scent. depends on the deer

 

[stik]

depends on the deer

if a deer has not associated a scent with a human or danger, it is as likely to investigate as it is to spook.

 

[deadeye 77]

scent control is a must in my opinion we all smell and it is important to do your part to stay scent free as possible.yes it is hard to beat a deer nose that is how God made them for survival in the woods.some use it some don't I say it is the luck of the draw when you can get close to deer to make that shot.i always believe that when a buck reaches a certain age he seems to develop a six sense and is in a league of his on,he just knows something is out of place.it gives me more confidence when I use scent control.alot of people are talking about making diy scent killers with different liquids.would anyone of you consider using powders like activated carbon powder and baking soda and mix the two?anyone a scientist out there?any info would be great!

 

[bowriter]

Maybe 20-years ago, Tony Knight invented a machine to infuse your clothing with whatever cover scent you wanted or to remove odor from the clothing. I gave me one and I tried it all of one season before giving it away. As I recall, one of the magazines also gave it extremely high marks. It was handy however, for drying your boots or slightly damp clothing.

 

[TENN.BOY]

I try to use the wind as much as possible when I can ,but I also use the same technique as fairchaser ,I started smoking up my close a few years ago and its the best thing I have found to cover up my scent , I bought a $3 bee smoker at a yard sale and that what I use....It may be not seem to be the most logical thing from what I was taught for all those years, but it works for me is all I know!!!!!!!!

 

[deadeye 77]

I understand what what fairchaser is saying we done that before in north Dakota worked good. if there is wood burning in the area sometimes people burning brush or clear cut piles burning it would be the best times to use it as well.

 

[fairchaser]

I try to use the wind as much as possible when I can ,but I also use the same technique as fairchaser ,I started smoking up my close a few years ago and its the best thing I have found to cover up my scent , I bought a $3 bee smoker at a yard sale and that what I use....It may be not seem to be the most logical thing from what I was taught for all those years, but it works for me is all I know!!!!!!!!

Logic is what the advertisers have convinced us is true. The scent industry is worth billions. I've used a bee smoker for years at basically free. The hunting industry can't afford for this to get out. Even now there are hunters scoffing at the notion. We are all brainwashed to some degree.

 

[deadeye 77]

can anyone tell me what zeolites are in scent elimination?

 

[benellivol]

I try to use the wind as much as possible when I can ,but I also use the same technique as fairchaser ,I started smoking up my close a few years ago and its the best thing I have found to cover up my scent , I bought a $3 bee smoker at a yard sale and that what I use....It may be not seem to be the most logical thing from what I was taught for all those years, but it works for me is all I know!!!!!!!!

Indians used smoke. They did alright hunting wild game

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Very interesting, I am surprised that cover scent works better than scent killers.

Bobby Worthington is a firm believer in the skunk cover scent everytime he goes out to hunt.

 

[Winchester]

Interesting tests! As for those using smoke, its not as much a cover scent as it is a bacteria inhibitor, meaning it slows the growth of bacteria, which is where the b.o. comes from! I personally could not stand to smell like smoke all day. The only test that really surprised me was the cover scents vs scent eliminators. Every similar test to this I have ever saw done in the past got exactly the opposite results when comparing the two???
Keeping clean and being as scent free as possible just seems effortless to me as I shower EVERY morning year round regardless of what it is I plan to do, and again later if needed. Not really much different than when hunting outside of using the scent reducing products instead of my normal soaps/shampoos, so no extra effort really outside of the care I take with my clothes and boots.
I will agree 100% that getting there early and hunting as high as possible will do more to help you with a downwind deer than anything else.
If you hunt in hilly terrain the wind will carry your scent in every direction on the map over a period of several hours!

 

[BSK]

I'll get a lot of negative feed back for saying this but I use smoke as a cover scent and found it to be quite effective. I do not use it below the knee and use scent eliminators on my boots. Deer don't like smoke smell on the ground. Otherwise they are curious but not frightened once fire season starts they smell smoke regularly. As smoke smell is strong, it overwhelms most other human odors. I am not an odor biologist and I am sure many will tell me I'm nuts that deer can smell seven odors at once but this is my experience over the past 5 years.

fairchaser,

Smoking clothes has the advantage of killing bacteria and deterring their growth. That is why meats are smoked for curing--the smoking process reduces bacterial quantity and growth. And most hunters don't realize it is the byproduct of bacteria on our skin and clothing that is what produces the "human" odor deer react negatively to. Reduce your bacterial load (skin and clothes) and you reduce your human odor.

That said, cover scents DO NOT WORK. You cannot "overload" a deer's sense of smell. We keep comparing our ability to smell (and we have one of the worst senses of smell in the mammalian world) to a deer's sense of smell (one of the best in the mammalian world). It's a night and day difference.

 

[BSK]

...using scent control products helps reduce your scent.

yes it does but they still pinpoint you just as easily, I guess BSK has a point in saying the deer thinks you are farther away. But not if they have seen and smelled hunters, they must know that hunters don't usually smell as strong. But in some times it almost seems like they are ignoring your scent. depends on the deer

Without question, the more intensely deer have been hunted in any location is going to play into how they react to any amount of human scent. I would suspect many public land deer will react more negatively than lower-pressure private land. However, I've seen hunters be able to get away with a lot, even on public land, when they take scent control seriously. Often, especially in bow season when getting close is critical, hunters often experience a doubling of their deer sighting rate once they take scent control seriously.

 

[UTGrad]

Cover scents don't work.

Example: Take a dump and then try to cover up the smell with air freshener. What do you smell? Crap and air freshener

 

[BSK]

Cover scents don't work.

Example: Take a dump and then try to cover up the smell with air freshener. What do you smell? Crap and air freshener

Now try to imagine that scenario with an animal that has 10,000 times more scent receptors in their nose than we do.