Rubber boot odors

[Squirrelhawker]

ORIGINAL: Sailfish

Funny, I was always told to wear rubber boots when archery hunting because they (deer)  aren't threatened by the smell.

If we were to wash them , spray them down with scent eliminator, etc we might as well just wear our leather ones???

Now I am confused [:o]

 
Rubber does not have the tendency to absorb or leave odors like leather will.

[bckklr]

i've been wearing lacrosse rubber boots for as long as i can remember no problems ever spookin' deer because of the smell of rubber washem & leavem outside the new smell will be gone in a day or so

[shaman]

See, this is where I always have to sit back and scratch my head.

On the one hand, we all go out and get obviously smelly rubber boots.  Then we spray them with scent killer sprays.  They still stink, but we go and hunt with them anyway.  We kill deer, the boots still reek. We keep buying the scent killer, never thinking that what we have is a serious case of  Elephant Repellent on our hands.

You know, Elephant Repellent.  You spray it all over your yard to keep the elephants away. There are no elephants around-- well, duh!  Of course, the Elephant Repellent is highly effective.  Think what it'd be like if we weren't spraying-- we'd be up to our eyeballs in elephants!

Now, mind you. I hunt with rubber boots early in the season.  I have a pair of LaCrosse Bowhunters that I purchased back in 1995.  They're still going strong.  They still smell like the inside of a tire store after all these years.  I used to scratch my head wondering why deer didn't run from the stink, but I gave up.

About 5 years ago, I gave up on wearing my late season insulated LL Bean boots-- they were making my Muldar's Neuroma act up.  I got a good pair of Browning insulated leather boots.  The deer never minded that they smelled like a tannery.  No scent killer.  No sodium bicarb.  All I did was melt beeswax on them to give them a good natural water proofing. It's been 5 years now.  I've bagged the two biggest deer of my life in the meanwhile.  I've also had 10 deer under my stand in a single morning.  Either my deer are absolutely insensate or  . . .

 . . .No!  Don't even think of it!  I'm not saying beeswax is the way to keep from deer smelling your stinky feet.  What I'm saying is this:

The Emperor is running around buck-naked.
The Elephant Repellent is a sham.
The bacon is frying, the coffee is boiling.
It is time we hunters all come down for breakfast and stop the madness.

Wash your clothes in a little sodium bicarb, and put them in a bag and try not to spill gasoline on them and go have a nice life!!!   Talk to your local chemical supply or food distributor.  80 lb sacks of the stuff go for pennies a pound.  It'll last you several seasons.

[JPH]

Shaman, I agree with you up to a point.

Until someone with no vested intreast is selling this stuff performs a scientific study (or better yet a series of them) we will be simply guessing at what works and why. Hunters who give themselves ulcers over this stuff are missing out on what hunting is all about.

That being said, I see nothing wrong (or mad) about a hunter working to eliminate as much scent as possible. In my case, I hunt two TINY properties and I am looking to kill 3.5 year old bucks and a chest freezer full of does every year. I can't afford to take chances. Plus, my scent control OCD gives me something to do with my excess energy. Keeps me off the streets, if you will.

The use of rubber boots to eliminate scent is not new. Trappers were using waders and rubber gloves many years ago. Why does this work? I can only speculate. Leather is porous, which allows it to absorb odor and allows odor to pass through it. I guess my best theory is that the odors held in or passing through leather are more threatening than the odor of rubber.

I wear rubber boots b/c they have come a long, long way in the past decade. My knee high, rubber boots are the most comforable, warmest boots I have ever worn. If they help me escape detection (which I suspect they do) all the better. 

[shaman]

Oh, don't get me wrong.  Rubber boots are cool by me.  I'm just wondering how something that smells  like Naptha can escape a deer's detection.  My beef isn't with rubber boots.  I just wonder about all these scent killer products.

[OHhunter]

Here's my question, What do you all do about the odors that come from the inside of your rubber boots, I always tuck my pants down inside, but you got to figure theres definately some odors coming out the top.  Doesn't this defeat all the effort we put into being scent free and wearing carbon suits?
 
 

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: OHhunter

Here's my question, What do you all do about the odors that come from the inside of your rubber boots, I always tuck my pants down inside, but you got to figure theres definately some odors coming out the top.  Doesn't this defeat all the effort we put into being scent free and wearing carbon suits?

 
I prefer to tuck my pants into the boots. It seems to keep the loose clothing from snagging on fences, slapping brush, etc. But the tops of my boots are so tight that I actually have to fold them and pull them up like hip waders. I can't immagine there is too much scent burping up out of there.

[buckhunter21]

If you are wearing activated carbon pants you're supposed to pull your pants over your boots, so then any smell/odors that come up from your boot get absorbed by your pants.  If you don't have activated carbon, then I would say tuck it in but you probably could go either way.

[JOEL]

i wear rubber boots to keep my feet/pant legs dry from all the tall grass[;)]

[DeerCamp]

I just got new rubber boots this year, so I know how ya feel... I put mine in with all my hunting clothes.. I keep them in a rubber toat... I cut several pines and put them in there and put a little ceader oil in it..( ceader oil is some very very good stuff, VERY STRONG.) I kept them in there tell a week before season, when it rained real good.I sprayed them with scent killer then  I put them on and walked through the woods, mud puddles and all.. I then let them sit out of a day and put them back in the toat with the pines, after I sprayed scent killer on them again.. Cant smell em now.. Hope that helps for ya.