Scent Control

I am a bow hunter and so far this season I have been pleased with my scent control but I want to know what some of yalls best techniques are? Are scent blocking clothes worth the money?

The wind is your best friend but scent free clothes and body are very important also if you want to get really close to wary game.

shower with non-scented soaps
arm and hammer deodorant, non scented
wash all clothes (except jacket and insulated bibs)in all natural, no scent detergent
dry with dirt scented dryer towels
put immediately into a dry bag and seal it up.

put on the morning of hunt after any and all smelly foods are away. never put gas in the truck the morning of a hunt or with hunting clothes on.

i just purchased cabelas scentlock silent weave insulated bibs so once the temps drop to the 20-40's i will give them a try. normally around 250 bucks, got mine for 80

if the wind is wrong, i'm not worried, but it is better to have the wind in my favor while bowhunting.

As hard as you try to be scent free and buy the best scent free clothing the deer can still nail you if the wind is not right. You might fool a few but you won't fool the older and smarter deer.

sure, its possible, but consider one's diet, the more meat and un-healthy food you eat the more you stink. its just the way it is. Eat healthy foods and natural b.o. will be far less; put on a cover scent and the deer won't even know you are there.

No beans or onions before you go out.

BS. Cover scents don't cover anything.

Won't happen 100% of the time, not 50% of the time. You might fool a few dumb young ones that don't care but you will not fool 100% of the mature deer. I never use scent free clothes or cover scents at all. I have deer that never bust me around all the time when the wind is right. If the wind swirls or they come in wrong then they not likely to stay around very long. I'll hunt the wind and pick my location to my adventage over wasting money on gimmicks.

I eat apple scented corn with all my meals when I hunt. I keep my clothes stored in it also.

This reminds me... I put on off bug repellent when I went to the stand this past weekend. It was a scented can. Walking to the blind it just kept going through my head that that smell was familiar, it finaly hit me it smelled exactly like mummies apple scented corn!

When I first started hunting about 15 years ago, I tried all the scent cover products out there, shampoo, soap, deodorant, etc. and over the years I realized that I just wasted my money on all those bogus products that make no difference when you're out hunting.

I use to hunt with a guy whose family ate meat but he was a vegetarian = worse B.O. I ever smelled. Guess, veggies aren't that healthy after all.

So I guess you are saying is eat what you want...if your gonna stink your gonna stink no matter what you eat

There's no such thing as scent free clothes. At best, it should be called scent reduced clothing. Hunt the winds and reduce your scent output as much as possible by bathing in no scent soap, deodorants, and wash clothes with no scent detergent. Put your clothing outside to air out the night before you hunt. Field & Stream magazine did a test of scent free clothing and used a drug sniffing dog to find the hunter. In each case, the dog was able to sniff out the hunter dressed in scent free clothing. I use to buy high dollar scent free clothes until I realized it was a waste of money.
PS...On my last hunt my guide and I used Windicator to constantly monitor wind direction. Windicator is a small eye dropper bottle filled with talc powder. We always planned our movements based on the winds.

I think sent control helps but i am a firm believer in obviously wind direction but most importantly elevation. The higher the better IMO.

haha, did he take showers and use deodorant? food isn't the only factor . it takes the whole package to work right. i guess it comes down to personal preference and experience.

if done right, scent control works. however, if you expect scent control to make up for lack of hygene and care, it won't work.

I've got scentblocker and scentlok suits but rarely use them any more. Just regular clothes washed in scent free detergent seems to work as good as anything. I do everything i can but really not a scent freak like i used to be. If you only hunt with good wind you have nothing to worry about.

i use scent free detergent, but only after i clean the washer and run it with just water a few times. then i store all my clothes in a waterproof bag. i get dressed at the truck, spray down with scent elimination from apparition scents, i spray cover scent on my boots and hat. definately play the wind, its your force multiplier.

This is what I do and have had the best of luck with. However i have 3 brothers and we always go places in my pick up truck, so it usually smells worse than anything. all kinds of nasty B.O. and farts all mixed into a little closed off space. so i have gotten to the point where i will wash two sets of clothes in unscented laundry detergent (Dead Down Wind Evolve 3D) and dirt scented dryer sheets. one set is for driving out to where i hunt and it is just a shirt and shorts/jeans, then when i get to where i am going i put on my hunting clothes. keeping the clothes sealed off to the outside world is important. before i did this i would get busted any time a deer was even close to my downwind but now i have deer walk 5 yards away from me downwind with no thought that i was ever there. im very confident in this.

When I go to our ranch for the most part right now we have a lot of projects we are working on. I bust my but all day and typically hunt out of box blinds wearing what I worked sweated got diesel etc on all day, no problems.

I also have gone bow hunting this year quite a bit more and have been sitting in bush blinds a popup and have in past sat in a lawn chair just to see whats coming. I don't wash my clothes in anything I wear my normal Degree Cool Rush deodorant and the only thing I have had smell me was a deer at a couple feet down wind and I sit on the ground to boot. I will never buy into any of the scent lock clothes or sprays.

last time I was out at the lease we stayed into dark for some night time hunting. I had 4 bucks come to the feeder we were upwind from, all were down wind of me and my son, and we were wearing normal clothes with no scent apparel or remover or anything else. We sat in the bed of my pickup and watched the deer move form the tree line to the feed pen and eat for along time. Then one got out and started walking right toward us. He walked straight into our downwind and just stopped and looked. He didn't see anything moving so he kept walking. It wasn't until we started talking that he trotted a little ways (maybe 20 yards) further into our downwind, and then he stopped again. he never blew, never ran off, he just walked to the fence and jumped over. The other three eventually went their way from the feeder, but none got that close to us. The buck that got close was at one time less than 20 yards from us, sitting in the back of a pickup, wearing normal clothes, upwind...

Does that mean my son and I are naturally scent free? I think it really means the deer had nothing to fear from us as the hunting pressure is low and he didn't know what we were so it didn't startle him.

I have had more deer blow at me when they can't see than when they actually smell something. If they smell and see something they don't like, they bolt. When they can't see what they smell, they typically blow to get a better idea of what it is they can't see. I have had more deer blow at me during night time predator hunts than any other time, and mostly we run into them without knowing they were there.

Same night as the previous story, we had a coyote walk within about 15 yards of us, straight down wind of us...he was coming right toward us and I think he was curious more than anything what the smell was, but there was a tree between him and us and my son couldn't get the gun up in time before he bolted.

I think scent control is more complex than just trying to cover it or get rid of it, and sometimes having scent is better than having a weird scent. just my $0.02

Are there lots of people around these deer all of the time?

We have worked on a feed pen with one person or more smoking, dropped the butts and squashed in place. Dropped beer cans to pick up later, in other words we didn't care about scent control. This feeder is visible from our cabin, 100 yards, within an hour of picking up and leaving we had deer in the feeder pen.

Deer ignore any scent they are used to smelling that hasn't created a warning. Different noises, scents, pickups, ATV's even people will cause the deer to go into warning modes. In my opinion the more time you spend in the area all year long the less cautious they are.

IME deer are actually more gentile and less likely to flee from humans if they hardly ever see or smell anyone.

I agree, on larger rural properties there is a good chance you may find deer that have never had any interaction with people and don't know they need to be afraid.

King Ranch comes to mind. Many bowhunters stalk and kill bucks on the ground on that ranch. The old Welder Cameron was like that in the 80's and 90's and still some pastures were like that into the 2000's with deer that would stand around you at 20 yards.

The lease is on a ranch with a bunch of mom cows and calves, and I know the deer don't habitually stay on the lease they come in from neighboring properties or along the creek beds, though they do bed down on the lease at times.

So I think these deer have very little interaction with people. This is not a state park where people feed the deer all the time.

I completely agree. The ranch I hunt has supposedly not been hunted in a while before I got on it (couple years, so chances are most of the deer were not alive last time it was hunted) and the feeder pens have been up for 16 months and the only deer we shot last year were single doe...

The rest of the deer around don't know to be afraid from my feed pens at least, and probably don't really know human scent is "bad".

I plan to change that this year

Testing the scent theory. Im out at ny stand right now, upwind of my feeder by 15 yards. No shower and no scent lock clothing. I just peeed on the ground 20 yards upwind of my feeder.

Time will tell whose theory is better. If i get a downwind shot i concede that scent proofing is not worth it...i hope im wrong, i need meat

When iam on my way to the stand I find a wet cow patty and step in it or I find a cedar bush and just kinda jump in it and wallar around in it like a big bull . But yea I think the best thing is just hunt the wind.

Poor testing methods, try mine...

Wrap fresh dog droppings in your best scent lock material, spray it with your best spray and stick it under your wife's side of the bed. Let me know how well that worked

I know this sounds strage, but my father leaves a sweaty shirt in his stand every summer after we clean up at the deer lease. His thinking behind it is the deer get use to his scent and haven't been shot at, so they are calmer. Must work cause he always sees deer and shoots most of them with in 40 yrds. We do hunt doss area.

Actually, that's an interesting theory/practice. I think resident deer on a particular piece of property become accustomed to their surroundings over time whether its vehicle traffic, other critters, or intervention by humans. However, I too subscribe to the "wind is my friend" philosophy and always try to keep it in my favor.

I shower with scent free soap and use scent free deodarant. I also dont put on my hunting clothes until I get to the area to hunt. I keep my clothes in scent lock plastic bags after washing and drying everything with scent eleminator detergent and dryer sheets. I also store the clothes after spraying with autumn or dirt scent spray. Masking my scent has worked because so far the only time deer have run off is when I made a sound or they saw me and those times was when I was up wind of them and on the ground.

As for me I use scent control products along with the wind. Also, I use a cover scent that is nature to the area I'm hunting

I just hunt the wind, that's all. If the wind is bad I hunt a different stand or I don't go.

Cow patties are my best friend when bow hunting.

I use scent free detergent to wash clothes and hang on clothes line to dry then pack in bag with cedar branch!!! Wash with scent free soap and use scent away spray when I go out and hunt the wind!!!

obviously hunting the wind trumps all, but my contention is that you cannot guarantee where the deer will come from everytime you hunt, if you can afford some "scent control" and/or cover scent, why not? its not going to hurt, it might work just enough to help that one time you need it.

The wind. End of story. If it makes you feel better, spend 4 or 5 hundred bucks on Scent Control products, but if you don't pay attention to the wind, you can be in a plastic bubble and it won't matter.

I know the wind is important but I can only hunt a few days a year and the wind is out of my control. I want to make the best out of the few days of the season I actually get to hunt.

Ive heard a few guys talk about smoking their clothes over a campfire, any thoughts on that?

stay out of the area at least a month before the season starts..fill the feeders..camera cards etc on the last
day of the hunt..and hunt tha wind...

well i have to say, i had 1 doe come in @15 yards downwind of me last night. she must have really wanted that corn because even after looking up at me she went after it anyway. i guess the desire for corn trumps scent anyday. up in new york where baiting is illegal, she would have been gone, or never come in at all.

1) Hunt the wind. Period.

2) If you can't position yourself down wind, try to get up high where the wind/thermals carry your scent above the deer. I've got a tripod that is 15' higher than the level the deer are at. Most of the time I can hunt a bad wind and get away with it because I'm up high.

3) If you can't do #1 or #2, minimize your scent with techniques above, and hope you get lucky. I wash my stuff in scent-free detergent, shower with scent-free soap, and try not to let my clothes get to funky, but I always hope I don't have to rely on that due to #1 and #2.

thats all i am saying, but you still cant control where the deer come from, if one comes in downwind i would rather have at least tried to control my scent and get lucky than be sitting up there in Tide washed clothes and Axe deoderant.

wish i knew how to position my stands so the deer come in downwind every single time. guess i could hunt backed up to a lake....or a cliff....or the great wall....or a HF......

I do wash hunting clothes with scent free detergent just because I have to wash them so I figure may as well. Either that or use ALL Fresh Scent Flowers or whatever the wife buys. I think the deer is going to smell you but it's possible (10%?) they may think you are further away then you are. I think you have to hunt the wind anything downwind is going to bust you 80 to 90% of the time.

Two years ago I experience the perfect experiment and got busted three times by the same doe and two fawns and watched it happen real time.

They were crossing - my left to right - CRP downwind of me stiff 15 mph wind. Cold day.
They were Calm just walking then the doe hit my scent stopped like she had hit a brick wall.
This was 150 yards downwind.
She got nervous, fawns behind her nervous she backed up out of my scent and worked her way closer tried to cross again at 110 yards. SAME thing happened and she wouldn't cross that scent.
Backed up worked her way CLoser tried to cross the scent again but at about 80 yards this time they turned and fled. Tails flagging. Back the way they had come.

I think the scent got stronger the closer she got and at 70 - 80 yards she'd had enough.
I was showered and wearing 'scent free' hunting clothes..

If they had been in timber the same thing would have happened but I would have never known.