Does it even help?

[Scoutfish]

Scent blockers, scent detergents, scent absorbing fabric.....

Does it even matter?

Here's my thought on it: My nephew uses some brand of odor controling detergent that comes in a bright orange bottle ( if that helps any).

Washes his clothes the night before we go hunting. Next morning at 5am, we get into my truck and ride over to our hunting area. We park my truck in my father-in-laws yard, walk past his pump house, past his workshop, around where his cats and chickens roam, across his brother's cornfield, and into the woods where the stand is.

Okay, the brother's cornfield is constantly being traversed by a an oil leaking truck-ish looking thing, a handfull of their dogs as wells as the neighbors dogs, a few cats, some chickens and who knows what other natural animlas ( squirrels, foxes, deer, possums, raccons, etc....)

Back to my truck: I have two dogs in my house: a Dachschund and a Basset/Blue Tick Coon Hound mix. They are house dogs that sit on the couch, they lay on the couch, they lay on the floor, they lay on the bed when they think they won't get caught. You know...they are pretty damn spoiled dogs.

In turn, I also sit/lay on that couch, I sometimes stretch out on that floor. I definantly walk all over that floor. My son practically wallows all over the floor. WE both ride in my truck all the time.

So, my point is: Between any smells of my house as well as my nephews house ( cooking, people, sweating, pets, trash, cleaners/ disinfectants, food, etc...)
then add in the smell of my truck ( which I have been known to sweat in since I am too cheap to fix my A/C unit) then all the stuff we walk through....

How exactly will that odor detergent help out?


Now, I can totally understand using an odor blocking/ covering spray once you get to the stand, but at the same time, if you don't spray it on every spot you step on while walking across the ground...plus every step of the stand again...or any other place you or your body touches....how effective is it?
You may spray yourself, but every place you touched getting to that seating position now has your smell.

We already know deer can smell between 100 to 150 times better than us, so those footsteps that are at the deer's lever are really pumping out the odor. Each step rung, etc on the way to the stand platform is also putting out that smell too.

Hey! You didn't happen to swing by Hardee's or the 7-11 for a cup of coffee and a ham biscut on the way to your favorite hunting spot did you? Do you smoke or have you been in a place where a smoker has been? Even if nobody was smoking in line at the store, the odor is in their clothes. You can smell it. You can smell it better if you smell 100 time s better than us...you know..like a deer can.

Sounds like the only people benefitting from odor blockers are the people who manufacture them.

So I had an idea: Suppose I go out 3 months before deer season, and hang up one of the stinkiest, smelliest t shirts I have.

A week later, I go and swap out that one for a brand new ripe, sweaty t shirt and again, hang it up next to my deerstand.

You know, one I was wearing while cutting grass and using the weedeater during the middle of August.
North Carolina is probably the humidity capitol of North America...so wse are not holding back on stink!

Every week, take the old shirt down and hang up a fresh stinky shirt up.
I could keep this up right up to deer season.

Come hunting time, the deer should be totally used to and comfortable with the smell.

I figure that the first week, maybe two, they will be leary of the stand area, but eventually, they will soon figure out the smell has not presented any harm or danger to them. Soon, it is just a regular every day smell that is a complete part of their habitat.

So...it might be a little bit of work having to swap shirts every week...but after the first pre season of doing this,,,I wouldn't have to do it any more.
WEll, maybe every 3 or 4 years or so, I might "refresh" the stink to keep it "normal" .

Okay, you agee?

Disagree?

Want to bust out laughing?

[Scoutfish]

Don't get me wrong......I'm not saying the products don't work, but rather - that the way we use them defeats the purpose.

Kinda like being at the beach: When it's time to leave I see so many people alk down to the water to wash the sand off thats stuck to their feet, legs, etc. So they stand in the surf, rinse off all that sand, just to walk right back through that sand again on the way to their car.

[Ohio farms]

You make a lot of good points.
Using detergent in the "orange" bottle and spraying down with scent reducing products, IMO, is important in reducing your scent profile, but that alone will do little if you follow it up with having fried bacon and a smoke after breakfast.
I try to do what I can, but you have to keep things realistic. If the deer is downwind, not matter what protocol you are using, he or she may still very well bust you.

[Deebz]

I know that a lot of guys will go through whatever their scent-elimination routine is as far as washing clothes and such, and then stash them in an airtight container/bag. They wear only the base layer of their hunting clothes in the truck, spray down with some kind of scent killing spray, then put their outer clothes on only after getting to their hunting spot.

I've talked to people who say they get full out naked while changing into hunting gear after parking their truck.

I would think any odors you pick up on the walk in to the stand would already seem normal to that deer in that area.

But like Ohio Farms said... we smell bad. Like you said, deer smell very well. We're always going to get pegged if we get upwind of deer. I try to do what I can to avoid lots of human odors, but I also will only set up to hunt an area where the wind is as much to my advantage as possible.

[Woods Walker]

For the most part this stuff is un-needed crap that someone's trying to make a buck off you with. I've tried a lot of it and finally went back to just keeping my outerware clean and to PLAY THE WIND.

I see and kill up close just as many deer as I ever have.

[HuntingFool94]

All the scents you pick up on the way from home/hotel to hunting area are impossible to hide even with the cover sprays which are impossible to spray in every location on you.
I switched from the spray on cover scents to using scents that deer are familiar with - pine and cedar. Rather than trying to hide my scent I rub clothes with crushed pine needles (free) and store clothes in containers with cedar chunks (can cut your own or get at lumber yard).
These are strong smells and do a fine job of masking human odors.
I also always wear gloves as bare hands leave a noticeable odor to deer.