Scent Control Debate

[OutHouse]

The last two deer I harvested were shot with my scent carrying directly toward the animal (bow and muzzy). One from a few years ago was with a group of 5 other bucks and none of them alerted to me. Can't speak for everyone else's experience, but for me I know without a doubt those products work if applied properly.

I have shot a lot of game downwind of me, where I wanted them to be, with bow and rifle.  I don't use scent stuff and don't bother with my super clean natural scent efforts anymore. This is getting into the tease stuff that fishnfur ribbed me about.     I'm not saying that your scent control did not work, merely that there may be another explanation for shooting an animal directly downwind other than that he did not smell you.  The fact is that you shot it downwind of you. The hows and whys and whether the animal could or did smell you are speculation, including my comments.

Re scent of oil, gasoline and loggers:  a faller friend on the Peninsula told me that every day when he fired up his chainsaw several blacktails showed up, including some bucks, and they followed him around to get the moss that grows in treetops.  Deer love it, and a faller serves it up more consistently than wind storms do.  A faller on the east side Okanogen many years ago told me the same about mule deer in one place he worked.  That's a sometimes thing with loggers and fallers, not always.

That's a good point. I actually cannot be certain that it was the scent control stuff that helped me on those hunts. There's just way too many factors. However, with regard to the harvest where 5 other bucks were present, I shot the deer at about 8 yards with a bow. The bucks were in a line following one another with my scent pushing right toward them. In that specific instance, I have a hard time believing the scent control didn't work because of the close proximity with many animals present. Another reason I use it is because where I hunt it tends to have a pattern of swirling winds and gusts that push the scent all over the place. A directional, prevailing wind can be rare so I think it's a good area to use scent control.

[OutHouse]

The assumption that an animal downwind of you is going to have your scent blow directly into a place he can smell you is purely assumptive. When I'm in my stand and bored enough to jab a broad head into my jugular; I will often times pick out fluff from my fleece and let it ride the wind....tracking it as far as I can see it. It's amazing where that fluff will end up.

Obviously scent is going to spread the farther away it gets, it will also dissipate, fluff doesn't spread but it always amazes me where it ends up even when it seems that it would obviously go one way or the other.
Being elevated changes everything as well...so there is that to consider as well.

Agreed. I cannot be certain but I like to think the stuff works!

[Deerelk37]

IMO you can't beat a buck or bulls nose. That being said-I'm going to always use some kind of scent control. It may do nothing, so play the wind. However, if it buys me one second on even one encounter, then it's all worth it. 

[luvmystang67]

The one thing that I feel like really does work is the ozonics.  If you get ozone in your nose you can't smell anything else, it almost kind of hurts.  Hunting whitetails in Texas, I was NEVER winded with bucks coming from downwind when running the ozonics.  I didn't get winded every time when I ignored scent control, but it did happen probably 50% of the time.  I think being up in a tree helped carry scent over their heads in a lot of cases. 

Otherwise, I've seen the field and stream articles.  We flat stink.  You can't wrap your whole body in a garbage bag and eliminate scent.  I truly believe that an animal like a deer or dog will smell you whether you're covered in deer pee, bar oil, you're own sweat or your deodorant.

Last weekend I watched a cow elk walk by me in wide open timber at 10 yards, I had no scent control, hadn't showered or brushed my teeth, and was wearing old spice original scent.  She walked roughly downwind of me, nothing.  She passed DIRECTLY downwind of me, I watched her nostrils flare and she bolted.  I think even with a full suit of scentlock and pine needles I would've seen the same result there.  Due to her proximity, she had to be directly downwind to smell anything, and when she got there I'm sure it was pungent. 

The best part about scent control is that you're playing to something that cannot be proven and that people have firm beliefs about.  We should really all be in the scent control space.  My personal belief is that you stink, you can't help it, and you either play the wind or lose.  Any grace you get with an animal moving downwind is likely to occur with or without pine needle scent.

Rant over.

[bigmacc]

Heres a story of why I put no thought into ever using or spending money on scent control products.....Bone, you know this area I,m talking about ....Late 1950,s my mom and dad were in one of our haunts that is A-a migration route, B-thick,dark and steep, and C-THICK,DARK and STEEP! They had made a make-shift ground blind out of pine bows, limbs and brush next to a blow down. The blind was maybe 30 to 40 feet off of a trail that was being very well used (by the tracks that were in the fresh3" of snow that fell 2 days earlier) my dad figured more were on their way. They settled in, covered themselves good with the foliage  and my mom had her 30-30 ready to go. About an hour after day light my dad had "that feeling" something was watching him(that feeling we have all had at one time or another) but could not see anything.They did not have a lot of visibility in this area because of the "jungle" they were in.My dad whispered to my mom to "not move and be ready". A few minutes passed and my dad SLOWELY turned his head to his left(my mom was sitting on his right), a tank of a heavy horned muley had his face in the blind sniffing my dad, when my dad seen him they were looking each other in the eyes from about a foot apart! The encounter scared the crap out of both of them, the buck blew snot on my dad and jumped about 15 feet in one hop, walked another few steps, turned and stood broadside to them. My dad whispered to my mom"there he is, drop him", my mom in a frenzy had already put the crosshairs on the big fella and was ejecting rounds like the Chuck Connors the Rifleman, the only problem was the "buck fever" had hit so bad she had forgotten to pull the trigger , 5 perfectly shiny, pristine and un-fired 30-30 rounds lay on the ground as the monster disappeared with one more jump and then crashed into that hell hole.....oh the good old days

[bigmacc]

The jist of the above story is my mom and dad both wore Black Bear wool coats back in the day that had been wore around campfires, used during fishing trips from Alaska, B.C, Washington, wore to shovel snow up in Bellingham, change oil in trucks and probably had a few baby's spit up on them, heck my dad would let our dog lay on them during cold camping trips! They had them for years(great coats!) and used and abused them, they had all kinds of smells and scents on them. Didn't seem to bother the deer, they killed a ton of them, heck maybe all those "smells" on those coats had them deer completely baffled and they had to move closer to find out exactly what it was ..

[fishnfur]

Thanks for givin' it up Okanagan.  I don't care what these guys say about you.  I like ya! 

I listened to the Podcasts yesterday.  After the first in the series, I pretty much skipped everything John Eberhart said.  He's clearly on the Scentlock payroll, and is so extreme in his scent control that I couldn't even imagine trying to attain his hermetically sealed approach to hunting.  I pretty much fast forwarded through his interviews about activated carbon.

The interviews with Dan Infalt were really interesting and entirely worth listening to.  I recommend everyone give his interview sections a listen.  He discusses many of the things that have been noted on this thread,especially swirling and multi-directional winds.  Okanagan - this guy seems to think like you.  He hunts dirty but plays the wind well. I was so impressed, I went to Amazon and purchased one of his DVDs on how he hunts big WT bucks in their beds.

Good thread!

[LEN]

Have you ever smelled a smoker long before you came to them or them to you? Humans breath is that bad so cover scent and breathe through a filter. I just roll in the hay for cover scent and not the bailed type.

LEN

[Miles]

Without reading all two pages, here's my opinion.  You could use every product marketed in the scent control hunting world of 2017, or you could just watch the wind...   I could scent myself up with all kinds of "human odors" and still get within bow range if I pay attention to the wind.

[pope]

I don't have years of experience on which to base my opinion, but I have watched two bucks in two consecutive years approach my tree stand from down wind. I assume they were traveling into the wind because of the deer urine I sprayed on the ground, and I am also confident they didn't detect my odor because I was 20 feet up a tree. I should have tagged them both but I only killed the 2nd one. Outside of showering and wearing clean clothes, the only precaution I regularly practice is wearing gloves while climbing into the tree stand. Also, I approach the stand wearing almost nothing so I don't sweat (and I maintain great cardio-vascular fitness all year), then I put on everything I need to be "comfortable" for many hours.

[3dvapor]

I work in the high tech industry.  We lose millions and millions of skin particles a day.  we where special clean room suits to protect the micro chips from Contamination.   These same particles are what the deer and elk pick up.   Unless you put a gortex clean room suit on and respirator on they will smell you.  Keep the wind in your face and you will have better success.

[PolarBear]

Hunting in the rain helps keep your scent from traveling as far.  A lot of the places I like to hunt it are almost impossible or completely impractical to get into without the wind being at your back.  It's just the lay of the land and that is why the critters are in there.  Those folks who's only answer is to "play the wind" must pass up on a lot of good spots.   

[boneaddict]

You know better than that PB

[fishnfur]

I might be off base, but I think his point was that you're going to have to accept the fact that you'll blow out some areas (hunting with bad wind) as you work your way into the spots where the big boys are.

[Cylvertip]

  You cant always play the wind.  I take scent control way to seriously, I know that. 

However, I have very high confidence in animals not detecting me, or at least not detecting me enough to be scared off by my scent.   I have very carefully walked through the middle of a feeding elk herd (20 plus animals) in a clear cut in the Winston during early archery with numerous animals inside 20 yards and the closest being 5yds(which I have pictures of).  All was fine until the battery went dead in my camera and it started beeping.  Prior to that,  the animals knew I was there, but they did not feel I posed a threat.  Many more stories like this with elk, deer, and bear, but this one is the best example I think.

In addition to scent control, I think UV control plays a role.  I use Sport Wash and UV killer on all of my clothes.

I will do whatever I can to up my odds.