question about scent control while bow hunting

We just started bow hunting, and my boy already bagged a hog and a turkey. We are hunting a ground blind about 15 yards from the feeder.

Question: What is better at concealing scent: A ground blind or elevation with a tree stand that has no real cover around it.....

any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks.

Whichever is down wind of the feeder.

I sat in my ground blind several times over the last week and drank a beer and fired up a smoke and they never lifting their head.

Concealing your scent from a deer is not possible in either blind. You leave spore behind every time you enter and exit your blinds. With that in mind, be smart about how you get to your blind. Resist the temptation to go check the feeder before your hunt. Stay out of your kill zones and the paths you expect to see deer. A deer may pick up your scent but that doesn't always mean he will blow out of the field. He will go on high alert. If he gets a second confirmation,sight or sound GOODBY.

I like to use the [i][/i]Dead Down Wind scent cover, works really good.

Normal scent control measures and get yourself some Nose Jammer spray.

Saturday, I had work that needed doing at the ranch and worked up a little sweat without time to clean up before the afternoon hunt. I hunt out a box blind which helps contain scent better than a pop up ground blind, but I also use an ozonics machine. I had several deer approach or leave directly downwind of me during my Saturday evening hunt and while a couple paused as if they caught a scent, none of them alerted, stomped or blew and soon calmed down and went about their business. I don't suggest just getting an ozonics machine. I typically do comprehensive scent control and ozonics is just one component. I was just pleased that tne ozonics seemed to work in my situation.

^^^^^This right here^^^^

There is no such thing as scent control. You can't but anything that will eliminate your scent to the point of a deer not recognizing it. To that point, you go back to the time when man first hunted animal with stone ax and never took a shower and you always use the wind to your advantage, whether elevated or on the ground so either works from a scent perspective as long as your down wind. Unlike early man though, I do suggest you cook your meat.

I did a little trick this season that seams to have worked really well. I cut a 3 foot section of old telephone pole that was soaked in creosote. Smelled like crap. I put it by my feeder a week before bow season. The hogs rolled it around a bunch and spread the scent all over. Two days before I started to bow hunt I rolled it over and put it on the prevailing downwind side of my popup. It may not make my scent go away but it smells like oil and hogs really bad by my blind, both of which the deer are now used to. I have had plenty of deer walk within five yards of my blind with me in it since placing it there. There may be easier ways to control scent but I had the pole laying in the yard so it was a quick job.

I've used this method for years and it has worked for me more times than not.
If you have cattle on the ranch step in their fresh crap on your way to you're stand. This will help cover your tracks.
If you have cedar tree's on the ranch cut off some fresh branches and wipe them on your clothes and boots. Take some extra with you to the stand and crumble the leafs every so often.
This will keep fresh cedar smell around you while you hunt. Most of all hunt the wind

Im a believer in Ozonics. Here is a video of a hunt my son and I did last week. We both got in the tree stand after working up a sweat doing lease work. Wind was blowing directly at the feeder. Normally would not do this but my son really wanted to hunt and I wanted to test out my new Ozonics. Deer came in from directly down wind and never smelled us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbIS8v85lB4

Interesting read

https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/...ug-sniffing-dog

I think everyone has made the wind point. So I'll say in my experience, it seems like a ground blind does a little better job of controlling your scent from being dispersed as much. Just my opinion though

Great read, thanks for sharing. I've been on the fence about ozonics for a long time

Amen. Just another way to separate a man from his money.

It doesn't hurt to try and get rid of scent, or at least minimize it as much as possible, but your greatest and most dependable scent eliminator is going to be your hunting setup taking into consideration wind direction.
Worst case scenario is always going to be a swirling wind caused by straight winds bouncing off tree lines, hills, or having a stand set up in heavy cover where the winds are disrupted by trees.
Pop up blinds help contain scent, and getting up off the ground high enough to be near the tops of the trees helps also.
Putting blinds in a bottom between two hills isn't good evening when winds have laid because your scent will settle in that bottom also. Morning the air rises.
I don't use scents other than doe in heat during the rut and depend on my experiences trying to get the wind to work in my favor.
I'm not saying cover scents are bad, but you can't depend on them 100% at any time, and you have to always depend on the wind direction.
I laugh when I see those guys on TV roll around in a how wallow trying to smell like a pig.
You would have to be near starving to have to go that route.

IMO, the only problem with that test is that the guy and ozonics is hemmed up in a very confined area in which the ozonics can be pretty effective. When you are in a stand with Ozonics or whatever scent control, you are not in a confined area and the ozonics cannot possibly displace your scent over such a large hunting area.

WIND DIRECTION! and I always use Scent Killer, spray and soap, unscented deodorant, store hunting clothes in a sealed plastic leaf bag. There are several opinions out there regarding the effectiveness of scent elimination products. My opinion is that they work to a certain extent. I have tested the theory several times over 30 or so years.

Another thing to consider is the sense of smell of a dog and that of a deer. Deer have a stronger sense and it is their main sense used to survive versus do a job that a human told them too.



Ozonics works in theory but guys at our place use it and still get busted. It might give you a few extra seconds, but it is not a cure all to fool a deer and I always worry more about the new hunter that thinks it is.

I have been in the stand and had the wind shift and the deer not run. I have been in the stand and had a deer circle my stand with the obvious intent of checking for danger and not run. And I don't do anything to control scent. It is best to always hunt the wind, but it doesn't hurt to do your best to keep it at a minimum. Just my

Had a mature buck circle behind me ten yards the other day with my Ozonics running and he never knew I was there. To often deer will find a way to come in from down wind to a feeder. So unless there is no way possible that a deer can get down wind of you, hunting the wind only works most of the time.

Had one circle me Saturday evening and didn't bust me either...I don't use Ozonics.

Guess you smell less intimidating than the rest of us.

Yep, that must be it...and Ozonics must be the greatest product ever made and will make the wind irrelevant for all hunters

Just messing. I do think the Ozonics helps in certain situations. Definitely not perfect though. If I told you it worked 50% of the time would you say it's worth it?

In certain situations, absolutely. There are certain properties that you just don't have the option to only hunt the wind and if it helps just a little (which is what the study showed), it could give you the extra time you might need to kill a deer.

Ozonics works great if your hunting deer in a 10x10 hermetically sealed closet. You may die of asphyxiation, but you should be successful in foiling the deer attempt to wind you.

I'm in the hill country I like elevation every time but I only use it when I can hunt on the edge of a plateau or hill so my scent goes way above anything. I've had deer go right under me and not scent me cause I'm to high.
When I can't do that a ground blind works well. Some good advice is to fold the bottoms of your ground blind in and pile dirt on them. This keeps scent in and also keeps snakes out for the most part. Also only open one window. Keep everything else closed tight to keep scent in. A draft will carry scent out.
I 3rd the cedar rolling trick. I do the same thing. It's not flawless but everything helps.

As for your tree stand you can brush it in. Set up next to some limbs and wire cedar to the tree and limb. Makes a huge difference. You can also partially cut limbs above you and let them hang where you wants them or rope branches together to get them where you want them.

You know I remember these same conversations when scent loc came out. People were crazy about scent loc. Over the years it's went away. You can go into the bargain cave in Cabelas and find rows of it for sale 60 percent off.

Like the old timers say...things that persist..exist. Scent loc is going extinct. I think ozonics will too. I think it helps but doesn't always work.. I have a few hunting shows dvr'd where the buck smells the guy and whirls around and takes off tail flaging... he's up there below his ozonics claiming he's not sure what happened.

Just my opinion

Any of you guys tried Nose Jammer spray? Started using it last year at recommendation of a friend that guides in Kansas. They swear by it. Mind you, it doesn't control or eliminate your scent. What it's advertised to do is overwhelm the deer's olfactory senses to a degree that it impairs their ability to distinguish scent for a short period. They may eventually get your scent but this product is designed to buy you some additional minutes that might otherwise not be practical. I had deer blow at a distance from me but nothing yet that was in the immediate area where I had sprayed this stuff.

EDIT: DO NOT spray this and take a big whiff to see how it works.

So since you brought it up, what does it smell like?

Smells like vanilla. Had a guy on the ranch using it a couple years ago. He claimed it covered up the smell of the beer he was drinking. Have two guys using it right now and have been given some interesting results so far. One guy says he has had several deer come in and follow his trail in smelling it and that they seem to be curious. I haven't used it yet myself.

^^^This^^^

Wind

With the East Tx. Wind Variables and droves of hogs feeding up on my wind fractions it sometimes seems like U need a rubber bag to zip up into. Tryin not to create a wild hog stampede from my sent and working the wind fractions for deer requires me rotating ground by foot. If the wind and thermals get you. Just eat it or leave or move. How many times will a real big mature buck tolerate your muffed up huning grounds is the real question.

Wind in your face

Wind...also I use a little pin-o-pine around the blind is all I use. Rest assured... when deer walk across your steps they know you were there. I walk around throwing corn...they also know I threw the corn and know I was there. Nothing will stop your scent...only will cover to a point.

Cut up a bunch of cedar and simmer it with water over night. Strain it and put in a milk jug. You will never use anything else I have deer walk within 5 yards of me every weekend. It works and it's free.

Use this and step in fresh cow crap on the way to the blind and you will be amazed.