Share Your Scent Control Routine

[Woods Walker]

 

ORIGINAL: buckhunter21

JPH, that's a good question, and something I've always wondered too.  A chunk of land that I hunt at my parents, well, my parents has an outside wood stove and the wind has to blow a certain way for the smoke to get to where I actually hunt, but I wonder how they react to that.  I would assume that they are used to it, and it doesn't affect their movement.  As far as a deer camp, I would say that maybe they might be negatively affected by it.  They might put one and one together and put the stove smell with hunters?  Just my opinion.  Obviously this would just affect hunting close to camp...But then again if you have that smell on your clothes and you are farther from camp, that would be a negative as well.

 
Many times, what determines how a specific deer will react to an odor has to do more with CONTEXT and past experiences with that scent. Case in point:
 
My farmer buddy who owns the place we hunt in Brown County smokes, and smells like diesel fuel most of the time. He can walk around the sheds by the old farmhouse we stay in (which is in the middle of the property, so for us to begin hunting, all we have to do is walk out the back door and grab a gun),  and the same deer that run from us "scent-free" hunters if they are near the house, will just stand there and LOOK at his smelly old body!
 
Now...he is up at those sheds most everyday, ALL year long, so they don't associate him with danger.
 
I live on 5 acres, with woods on 3 sides on me. The same deer that I can walk within 25 yards of if they are in my front yard as I walk to the barn every morning to feed, will snort, blow, and act like godzilla is after them if I walk up my driveway at 10 pm to put the recycle box out on the road!  Like I said...CONTEXT.  They always smell me by the barn, during the day. If they wind me at night, they probably wonder, what this old SOB is doing out in the dark at 10:00!
 
One time, just for giggles, I tried something different with them. There were 4 deer in the yard, 25 yards or so away, that watched me walk to my barn. They went back to feeding after I went in the barn and closed the door. I then snuck out the back, and went into the woods just east of them, about 50 yards away, and let my scent blow over to them. The about turned inside out getting the heck out of there! I WASN'T where I was supposed to be!

[Goose]

Buckhunter21  I store the scentblocker stuff seperatly because it is always absorbing odors, so keeping it in its own bag its not obsorbing odors from my other clothes that dont have scentblocker  ie: my underarmour or other garments I wash periodically in scent free soap but not after every use so I dont want my suit filling up with other odors if I can avoid it. Might not be needed but hopefully I get a little more absorbtion from the suit between recharges. As far as the smoke goes I think every deer will react differently and I would avoid it at all costs. I do smoke (not on stand or in any of my clothes) and try to get rid of all that smell before I go in the woods. Thats another reason why I double seal all of my stuff.

[JPH]

My question was more re. wood smoke getting on your clothing and skin.
 
When in MO, I hunt out of a primitave, one room, cabin with an old wood burner for heat. No shower, only wet wipes. You do not even need to have a fire going to pick up a wood smoke odor. But this property is in Amish country and wood smoke, and people who smell like it, are a constant.

In IA, I hunt from my house. So I shower just as I leave and change into my hunting clothes in the outside air. On would think that I would be more scent free.

But I see little or no difference in how the deer react to me from one property to another. 

[Woods Walker]

ORIGINAL: JPH

My question was more re. wood smoke getting on your clothing and skin.

When in MO, I hunt out of a primitave, one room, cabin with an old wood burner for heat. No shower, only wet wipes. You do not even need to have a fire going to pick up a wood smoke odor. But this property is in Amish country and wood smoke, and people who smell like it, are a constant.

In IA, I hunt from my house. So I shower just as I leave and change into my hunting clothes in the outside air. On would think that I would be more scent free.

But I see little or no difference in how the deer react to me from one property to another. 

 
Yes......"context".
 
What would be interesting, would be if you wore your smoke scented clothing back in Iowa, and see how those deer react.
 
You never know, the results may surprise you.

[hunter480]

Shower in Scent Free shower soap, Scent Free deodorant, clothes all washed in scent free laundry detergent, clothes stored in scent free bags, rubber boots, Scent-Loc liner system in the field, spray down with Scent Killer spray prior to entering the woods.
 
I`ve only been busted once that I`ve seen, and I don`t worry about the wind. With no more ground than my buddy and I have to hunt, if we hunted only according to favorable winds, we could easily loose a third of the season.
 
I`m a firm believer that even a moderate scent control system is a help and worth the extra work.

[JPH]

Wow! You guys have had some amazing success in not being detected. If some guy in a bar claimed to have been only winded 1-5 times, I'd tell him he was full of BS. But you guys have been around here for a long time and I have never seen anything that would cause me to doubt you.
 
Maybe I just reek?

[howhill1]

personally i get nailed AT LEAST once a year that i know of. i wonder how many deer skirt us that we never see. every time i do get busted i can usaully point a finger at some shortcut that i took or find some other chink in the armour that i need to tighten up.

[Woods Walker]

ORIGINAL: JPH

Wow! You guys have had some amazing success in not being detected. If some guy in a bar claimed to have been only winded 1-5 times, I'd tell him he was full of BS. But you guys have been around here for a long time and I have never seen anything that would cause me to doubt you.

Maybe I just reek?

You....you...hang around BARS??  I'm SHOCKED!!!!  [:D]

And I used to hear guys talking about how they go through the most detailed, intricate, scent control methods, and yet STILL get busted frequently, and I thought THEY were either full of BS or were the most incompetant hunters in the world, but then I read about us all having different body chemistries. And then it made sense.
 
I had a friend when I was younger, who bathed everyday, and ate pretty much the same things I did, and yet if he broke a sweat at all, he STUNK!  Or at least he did enough that I could smell it. He didn't hunt, but I have a feeling that if he did, he'd be one that was always getting busted.

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: Woods Walker

You....you...hang around BARS??  I'm SHOCKED!!!!  [:D]
 

 
LOL! Actually I don't hang out in bars (at least not very often). They are too full of hunters who never get busted and former Navy Seals. LOL!
 
Maybe part of this revolves around the definition of "busted". I use that in refrence to ANY reaction, on the part of the deer, to my scent stream. In most cases, this is simply the deer becoming more alert and looking for trouble, without finding any. A deer blowing and running from me is almost always a result of my movement on the ground. But, dead downwind, with the nose in the air, will result in my detection, scent control and all.
 
I really am not a smelly guy. Seroiusly!
 

[ranwin33]

I wash my clothes in scent free/UV free detergent.  Dry them with a dirt smelling dryer sheet.  Pack them in a plastic container with some cut cedar branches.  The container with clothes stays in the storage area of the barn we hunt out of.
 
Once on the farm I'll wash up with scent free soap and shampoo as best I can, but 40 degree water can be a bit chilly.
 
Before I leave to hunt I spray down with scent killer spray.
 
After being in camp for a few days and knowing there is no way I can make myself scent free I'll get a little smoky from the camp fire.
 
Thats about it.  I've never had a deer I've seen make a negative reaction to my presence due to smell.  Can't say about those I don't see. 
 
I don't worry too much about it, I figure with all the work we do around the place and in the woods the deer are pretty much used to what we smell like by the time hunting season roles around.