Scent control ?

I curious of what others use and do to control their scent while deer hunting. I think I’m about in the middle of hunters when it comes to scent control. I wash all of my hunting cloths in a non scented soap prior to each outing. I normally run a empty cycle thru the washer to remove any left over scent from the prior Wash cycle. I also run a long cycle of scent free bath towels thru the dryer to try and clean any left over scents from prior cycles. As soon as my cloths come out of the dryer I pack them in Rubbermaid tote which has a few fresh cut pine branches in the bottom ( I hunt in a area with lots of pines ) so the scent should be normal to deer in the area. I bath with sent free wash the evening before or morning of the hunt. Once I am at my hunting location I spray down all my outer clothing with a scent killer – I make sure the boots are sprayed down real well. I Normally carry my outer jacket to the stand to avowing getting all sweated up. I’m not really sure how crazy a hunter needs to go with the scent control thing. I know hunters who do nothing in the way of scent control and shoot deer every year and others who are way crazy about it and haven’t got a deer in many years. Just curious on all of your thoughts.

I gave up on scent control clothing. I place stands where they work for different wind directions and hope for the best. A little cover scent for myself and my boots has worked just fine.

I don’t find that buying special scent control clothing really provides a large benefit, but I am a huge believer in following a scent “minimizing” process and use pretty much exactly the same steps that you described thumper. What I’ve learned over the past many years is that no matter how careful we are about scent, etc. repeatedly hunting a specific stand or an area will result in the deer feeling pressured and changing their pattern. My best success has been early season hunting/watching fields to understand where deer are entering the fields then doing a hang an hunt. Later in the season I will cover ground looking for sign (Scrapes, rubs, etc.) and also do a hang and hunt. Hunting the same stands/locations over and over seems to result in quickly diminishing results.

Will

I hang my hunting clothes outside for the season. Other than that I do not think you will fool a deers nose. I play the wind mostly. I do believe scent control can be beneficial but if a deer is down wind of you it will more than likely smell you no matter what you do.

I’m the same as you for the most part. I don’t bother with scent blocking clothing.

I wash ALL hunting gear in sport wash but mainly cause it restores gortex, water proofing, and rids the UV light…as well as helps with BO.

What comes out in your breathe matters more than scent control clothing. Boozing, smoking, meals the evening before heavy on onions or garlic will haunt you. Chili…the old mainstay camp meal is a bad idea before hunting. Unless you’re hunting a super remote area where people’s odor seldom, if ever, gets the scent control clothing is a waste of money since deer in other areas smell people all the time. The exception might be when creating scrapes or tending to scrapes. The worst odors people can take in the woods with themn is coming right out of their mouths.

I know some people who take the scent control to the Max. They get dressed in their hunting cloths only once they get to the woods, Watch what they eat for days prior to going hunting, Rinse their mouths with Hydrogen Peroxide, Shave all their body hair. Its crazy all the things I heard of people doing to be scent free

I’ll spare all the details, but I’ll just say all the scent control stuff is primarily marketing BS. Especially during gun season, and I used to do your same process almost identically.

fishthumper wrote:

I know some people who take the scent control to the Max. They get dressed in their hunting cloths only once they get to the woods, Watch what they eat for days prior to going hunting, Rinse their mouths with Hydrogen Peroxide, Shave all their body hair. Its crazy all the things I heard of people doing to be scent free

What’s interesting to me is hunters go through these elaborate routines and yet there’s no proof that any of this makes one bit of difference. Does it reduce human scent 90%, 50%, 2%, 0%? Only the deer know for sure, and they aren’t talking.

There’s just no proof that any of this scent control stuff works to a degree that matters to the animal. Ozone generators seem to be a possible exception to this, but there are still plenty of question marks about how they work and when they work best.

I just try to do some common stuff that while not “reducing” scent, at least doesn’t add more strong scents. I use no-scent laundry detergent, soap, etc. I air out my hunting clothes.

IMO the #1 “scent control” that you can practice is working with the wind direction. Whenever possible, I try to keep the wind in my favor. The “whenever possible” part of that is key, I know it’s not always possible.

Grouse

I have a pretty solid routine of scent minimizer. Clothing care is almost identical to OP. Base layers get washed after 1 sit, I have plenty of pairs. When possible my clothes hang in/under a stand of pines behind the house. I use non scented deodorant and soaps starting in September, till I’m done hunting. I wear “scent free” rubber boots which get scent eliminating powder and spray after each use, and put on top layers of clothes at the base of my tree. I do have some longer and tougher walks up hills to most of my stands, so sweating even at 10 degrees happens quickly. I spray off with eliminator spray. I pack only an apple and 2 plain oat granola bars and water for all day sits. I won’t have to pee or crap all day…… After doing these things for about 7 years or so, while some may think it’s crazy, I can honestly say i have seen more deer, been busted less, have more deer under my stand and directly down wind (on accident) then I have had in the previous 15 years. Hands down it’s more effective. Foolproof no, but better.
I try my best to avoid walking any “deer” trails en-route to stands, and hunt stands according to wind directions. But we always have those deer that come from the wrong side, at the wrong time. If that deer happens to be a shooter, that’s when all the extra crazy routines pay off.
To each his own, I don’t mind putting forth 10x the effort or preparation than any of my friends.
Most of them are eating tag soup…

Like so many others here, I hang my hunting clothes outside for many, many days prior to the opener. I turn the clothes inside-out for at least three days of airing, then right them and give them another three or four days. I bring them in at night so no one swipes them….and yes that’s happened to me once. I think natural ozone is a great odor buster. The ozone pumps that create artificial ozone in huge amounts…..s’pose the deer can smell the difference?

I’m a full believer in rubber boots and scent killer on them to cover my trail. I also try not to walk in tall grass or let my clothing touch anything near the stand. Beyond that I faithfully play the wind and wash my clothes maybe once a year (wool pants never). I really have not been convinced that reducing the scent as many have talked about makes any difference, but I am also not saying it couldn’t. I just don’t believe scent is the type of thing removing say 75% is going to help one bit. I also haven’t read anywhere if the scent comes from clothes or your lungs in my research to confirm one way or another. I have read your lungs have a surface equal to a tennis court or something. If they can smell even a tiny bit of your breath, I don’t see how washing your jacket could matter in the big picture.

Play the wind. Try this too. Works as well as the store bought scent likker sprays in my opinion. Just make sure not to stir for about 2 days before bottling. Good, safe huntin to ya!

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I assume most of the responses and original question posted was towards archery hunters. I do not archery hunt, I only gun hunt (with a scoped rifle), so the range is not nearly as big of an issue for me. I do use scent killer on my boots every morning before walking to my stand and I put my hunting clothes outside for a few days ahead of time. Plus, I sit in an elevated stand that is about 30 feet up so my scent mostly dissipates in the clouds.

The only reason I have scent free detergent is it was dirt cheap at the scentblocker garage sale about 5 years ago. I wash my clothes a day or two before opener and they don’t get washed again until I either shoot a deer (sweat badly) or the season closes. Never really bought into the idea of scent control, just play the wind.

For guys that throw their freshly washed clothes in a Rubbermaid until its time to walk out in the woods, don’t you think your clothes absorb the Rubbermaid smell? When I open a Rubbermaid container, I get a huge woft of that unique plastic smell. I’d imagine your clothes absorb some of that smell and if humans can smell it, I’m guessing deer can too.

The stand I hunt is about 25 feet high. A treehouse more like it. I have a chair, sidewalls at 2 1/2 feet all the way around. A nice solid attached wood ladder takes care of the climb. There’s a water hole made from a pond liner right there that the land owner keeps filled and that deer love. The nearest other water is a long ways away. Its a magnet. I’ve shot deer within 25 feet of this stand consistently over as many years and never have relied on any of the pricey clothes, but will spray my boots with something when moving around on the ground near the stand site. I watch what I eat during and just before the season and I go out of my way to reduce the chances of sweating while getting to the stand. Wind will do what wind does and I think as long as one stays still and minimizes movement they’ll be fine if deer come along.

I hunt a black powder gun and if any others shoot them the one thing that stands out about them is they will stink if they’ve been fired. With the powder I use I have to have a dirty barrel to get first shot accuracy so if anything will alert a deer, that gun’s smell will. I’ve never seen a deer even act as though there was a bad smell around the stand. I have, on the other hand, gone out to eat with family the night before and had Italian at the Olive Garden and had a deer stop dead in its tracks at 80 yards and look straight at me. And on this occasion I was using a bow and in full camo with plenty of scent stopper. Garlic. I’m convinced that it isn’t what you smell like on the outside because deer smell human everywhere, even in remote areas of farms. The same deer out in the bluffs are those that visit home-sites at night and dine on the old lady’s bushes and succulents and get plenty accustomed to human scent. Trying to cover up the outside smell of a person is laughable…..but that which you exhale or exude in sweat from dinner the night before, or drink while on the stand can be a sure tell to a deer. Which way the wind is blowing won’t matter a whole lot, the deer will zero in on you.

Fox urine cover scent.Very good luck with it. Deer ( and cows)actually have followed my trail right to my tree several times. Curiosity scent?

HYBES wrote:

Fox urine cover scent.Very good luck with it. Deer ( and cows)actually have followed my trail right to my tree several times. Curiosity scent?

I’ve thought about using it on the boots as I have watched fox and deer interact in the field. Interesting idea. I might have to try that. Are you using the urine trappers use?

One at Fleet Farm, think it’s Hunter’s Speciality. I’ve tried several kinds and all seems to work. A little bit on your rubber boot toe and heel. I swear by it.

HYBES wrote:

One at Fleet Farm, think it’s Hunter’s Speciality. I’ve tried several kinds and all seems to work. A little bit on your rubber boot toe and heel. I swear by it.

This has all been tested. I actually believe the test was conducted in MN. They used hot boxes and tried most all cover scents…yeah, nothing worked. Deer have the ability to differentiate multiply odors at once. Now the deer will smell both fox AND human odors.

But hey, if it even works 1% of the time, it may be worth it.

I tried coon scent one fall while bow and it sure didn’t chase deer away, in fact it worked pretty well including the coon. After an incident involving one big boar coon I quit using it. A hang on stand is no place to be arguing with 36 pounds of mad hair, which is what happened.

bob clowncolor…..deer here in the SE corner of the state are so involved with humans that I honestly thing cover scents are waste of money and probably do little to fool a deer. I think they may add to curiosity more than they actually cover so your assessment of smelling both is likely spot on. I just don’t think it bothers them much. Now, repeated use of a trail going or coming from a stand may cause deer to shift travel times somewhat if this path crosses theirs, scent or no scent.

I do spray a basic cover scent the boots and pant legs well before going to the stand and before I leave the stand at night to aid in masking my travel, but I don’t think there’s a lick of harm in tossing a little fox scent, say, on the boots as one is approaching a stand if for no other reason than to bust the monotony of the lone human scent….maybe make the deer think a fox decided to see where the human smell was going, just like the deer might.

When I was in my 20’s I was all bow hunting everything. I got an offer to trial for a fall a musk scent that came in a small milky clear bottle and was an oil scent that had some sort of gland extract in it that settled down to the bottom of the bottle. Shake it up and it mixed really well and all I had to do was dip a cotton ball on the end of the bottle with the cap off and dab that stuff on the bottom of the boots. Its was a curiosity scent and worked very good. I took a ground seat above a ridge break where I could keep tabs on a major trail that crossed below me about twenty yards and offered an excellent hidden place to wait. I had a large doe actually follow my trail in and stopped and smelled my boots while I was sitting there waiting for it to get a little darker before actually standing to watch. I’ve never had a wild deer that close ever except that one time with the musk scent on the boot. That deer had to have been able to smell me as a human but I think this cover or masking scent just kept her calm and curious. I came in high on the trail below and this doe followed my trail in precisely.

I think where people and deer live on a collision course [think in terms of SE Minnesota] most of the year the deer, like people, just start taking the other for granted and deer start to lose some of this inbred fear of man….even in the woods. For most of the year man poses little threat to them and they know that. I hunt private land and enjoy the lack of intrusion by other hunter so my scent is known to the deer and as long as a major league offensive isn’t launched by me the deer simply put up with my scent being there. I seldom see deer running thru the area unless they’ve been pushed from neighboring property. I’ve had several kills where there were five or six deer together at the time and they’re usually relaxed enough that when the gun goes and one of the drops they seldom even run off but rather wait for the dropped one to get up. Conversely, I’ve hunted public land down here where deer would run right up to an outhouse to hide if it thought a driver didn’t see it, scent or no scent, so it becomes a perspective of people/deer interaction. Deer in a human saturated area that are left alone for the most part during an actual hunting season will respond to things like scents differently from deer that are pressured or those who have a limited exposure to humans. On the land I hunt I think a cover scent may help if its not over used. Across the road where the idiots hunt and drive deer all season using bells and whistles [literally] a scent means little. By the way, I see a lot of deer come up the hill when the shooting starts right in my tracks.

Thats a good observation. I also hunt in heavily hunted public land in MN and honestly, I feel deer are comfortable with human scent and ATV’s…in fact, a large portion of the woods we hunt is also connected to a popular and busy ATV trail so deer hear and smell these all year around.

Now when I hunt down south on huge tracks of private land that see no human interaction or ATV use, deer are VERY skiddish of human scent and if you start an ATV up, every deer within hearing distant has just bolted to the next county! Down there you play the wind or your busted. Don’t matter if you use coon pee, skunk cover scent, dead down wind cover spray…they’ll be gone. I think that’s the big difference as in some areas they are used to human scent, others are not. You need to hunt the area your in. But put a buck in rut…you could be wearing high vis flashing strobe lights and they still come in!

good luck you all! I’m catching a fever tonight (buck fever) and won’t be at work tomorrow! Heading up first thing in the morning to beat traffic and get my gear ready.