Question about scent control in the early archery season. should be a hot one.

[MIKEXRAY]

I hunt a mile and a half up a ridge and 5 or 6 years ago used to just wear hunting clothes all day from the truck. I sweated all the way up & all day, I also sat on a good trail up wind during the day as you want to do.  The last three years I have worn shorts & a t-shirt on the hike up & carry my washed hunting clothes in a sealed garbage bag. Once I get to my hunting area I strip,  wash off, use scent free towels & spray and dress in my hunting clothes for the day. The animals I see has at least tripled & I am getting closer then ever. The last 3 years I have killed more game then the previous 10 and I give a lot of credit to my regiment. I spent $ 20 , it includes clothes washing soap, deodorant & spray.  The confidence I gain by doing this is huge.  I hunt the Bumping unit and its all good to say hunt the wind only but the way it swirls in those mountains will drive you crazy.  Mike

[krapmit]

Thanks for the reply . I like your idea

[jechicdr]

There's a difference between cold scent and warm scent.  The scent you leave behind walking through an area quickly becomes a cold scent, not very threatening, which is why you will see elk in an area you may have walked through or spent time hanging out.  When an elk is downwind of you, it will smell the fresh "warm" scent.  How far downwind an elk (or deer) can smell you depends on how much scent you are giving off.  If you are "clean and scent free", you might get away with crossing upwind 50-100 yards (I did a 50 yard once that way.  Wind was coming at my back as I was looking at elk coming up a trail, soon to cross my downwind side.  I had some cover, so I took a deep breath and held it, ducked and scooted quickly across the upwind side so my scent trail would be blowing down behind where they had just come from.  I let my breath out and watched as the elk walked up within 10 yards of where I was standing).  If I were smelly, then crossing that close would have surely spooked them.

I do believe you will see more elk with less scent.  I don't use cover scent unless I am sitting in a spot for a while and I'll usually place wafers about 30 yards each direction cross wind, in the hopes that an elk will come upwind before it reaches my scent cloud.

[Cylvertip]

Do a search on Scent Control .  There have been several other threads on this.  I know I wrote a book on it in one of them

[pianoman9701]

stay downwind?

[Giggles]

use an ozonic. it works on tv. too expensive for me so i'll stay down wind.

[Goshawk]

Sent blockers are a rip off for hunters, but are very effective in doing what they are designed to do; separate the hunter from his money.
There is an interesting test that was done using a police dog and various cover scents. The dog never failed to pinpoint the person and his nose is not nearly as good as a deer's. http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/deer-hunting/finding-deer-hunt/2012/06/cover-scents-work-better-odor-reducing-produ
I once saw a video tape where a bear was feeding on a bloated whale on a beach in Alaska. When the wind changed, she pulled her head out of that rotting carcass winded the camera crew and with a snort swapped ends and took off down the beach. Animals live by scenting predators and not being over whelmed by other scents.
Bottom line. Stay as clean as you can and hunt "smartly".

[washelkhunter]

We use cover scents with good results. Our approach is based on a triad. Scent, sight and sound. If you can succeed at two out of the three you  will be able to get close and/or give animals pause to allow a shot. Body odor is bad news. You have to be able to bath every day using scent free soap. I then rub a pine, cedar or fir cover scent thru my hair and all over. A fresh spritz over the clothes and im good to go. Ive had elk feeding within arms reach before, twice last year alone. And its very important to keep your face and hands covered at all times.

[huntnnw]

Okay well here is my take on the matter.  Many will probably disagree.  I don't think that scent control is very important, I also think that it is very overrated.  Here is why.  Even with all the scent killer or elk pee in the world, you are still going to smell like a human, you just can't hide it.  Animals have such a keen sense of smell it is pretty much impossible to get rid of the smell.  This is why paying attention to the wind is one of the most important things you can do.  Who cares if you stink, if the wind is in your face! 

However all of this isn't to say that you shouldn't make an effort to reduce your smell.  I keep myself clean, (granted I don't sweat much), I also spray down with a fresh earth scent killer before I head out on every hunt. I also tend to hang my clothes in the wind to help them air out.  Aside from that I use a scentless deodorant/antiperspirant.  That's about it, the wind is your best and worst friend.

  and for every bull arrowed there was some luck involved with the wind staying good for the shot to happen

[JPhelps]

I don't give one ounce of my attention to scent control and give 100% of my attention to making sure the wind is right for the elk I am hunting.

[jechicdr]

Sent blockers are a rip off for hunters, but are very effective in doing what they are designed to do; separate the hunter from his money.
There is an interesting test that was done using a police dog and various cover scents. The dog never failed to pinpoint the person and his nose is not nearly as good as a deer's. http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/deer-hunting/finding-deer-hunt/2012/06/cover-scents-work-better-odor-reducing-produ
I once saw a video tape where a bear was feeding on a bloated whale on a beach in Alaska. When the wind changed, she pulled her head out of that rotting carcass winded the camera crew and with a snort swapped ends and took off down the beach. Animals live by scenting predators and not being over whelmed by other scents.
Bottom line. Stay as clean as you can and hunt "smartly".

Read that one too.  Thought a good extension of that study would have been to take dog downwind 50 yards and see if he could do the same thing.

[huntnnw]

I tested the suits and sprays out one year in my field..I had a buddy who was a nut about the scentkiller clothing and sprays..I told him to shower and do if he was to hunt put on the clothes and wear them outside for a few hours..I then took his clothes in a bag and sat them in the field about a 100 yards from the tree line. The field had a wind every day that blew from the trees into the field. A ton of deer would feed into this field every night and as the sun set the wind shifted and blew from the field into the trees. As clock work deer were feeding out.. the sun set and the wind shifted it was less than a minute before the first deer alerted and then another and couple began to snort and stomp and then bounded off with half the field of deer in tow. Mind you hes not even in the suit! imagine if he was be even more scent being produced.

[JPhelps]

In my experience, you can fool their eyes and ears but NEVER their nose. 
As for cover scents I use the analogy of dropping a deuce and then spraying the spray as you leave the bathroom.  You walk back in there and 5 minutes and it still smells like crap just mixed with cinnamon or vanilla.  I have little faith in cover scents.

I believe that if the wind is in your face a cigarette smoking, tuna fish eating guy that hasnt showered in a week will have no problems getting close.

[buckfvr]

I tested the suits and sprays out one year in my field..I had a buddy who was a nut about the scentkiller clothing and sprays..I told him to shower and do if he was to hunt put on the clothes and wear them outside for a few hours..I then took his clothes in a bag and sat them in the field about a 100 yards from the tree line. The field had a wind every day that blew from the trees into the field. A ton of deer would feed into this field every night and as the sun set the wind shifted and blew from the field into the trees. As clock work deer were feeding out.. the sun set and the wind shifted it was less than a minute before the first deer alerted and then another and couple began to snort and stomp and then bounded off with half the field of deer in tow. Mind you hes not even in the suit! imagine if he was be even more scent being produced.

Did they see it or smell it ?  Ive seen the same reaction to them seeing something out of place or new to their routine.  Im an anal wackjob about scent control.  Scent free soaps and deodorants, scent free clothes wash, spray down...etc..all my hunting clothes is bagged clean, in large zip lock storage bags, and then in big tubs, boots too. I have had deer uncomfortably close without detection.  Not saying you are wrong or even that I am right....just comparing notes.

[TheHunt]

This comes up every year...

Wind is your friend or your enemy.  You need to check the wind often.  Every time you move aound a finger check it.  Wind can have eddies based on the ground terrain you are hunting.  My wind detector is always in my front pocket as well as a little string hanging from my bow that a slight breeze can pick up and move so that I can see the direction. 

If it is hot and YOU or your PARTNER sweat like a pig.  Keep the sweat off the trees.  e.g.  You do not put your hand on a tree next to a well traveled elk road.  It is like putting up a huge warning "Danger" ahead sign on the elk road. 

The wind and the terrain are your concern.  Elk are fairly lazy animals and you need to pick out where the bull will come to you.  They will only come in far enough to see the spot in which the sound came from.  So the sweaty betty's need to keep down wind and estimate where that brown bugger is going to pop out.  Than be about 30 to 40 yards from that location.  The thicker the vegetation the closer they have to come to see the location of the sound.  BUT if they have been called to over, and over, and over again they will want you to come to them.

I have killed plenty of elk in my days with a bow.  It is easy to kill a satelite bull.  But difficult to kill a herd bull with cows in heat.  That is why we all love the sport. 

I do not use any scent period other than unscented laundry detergent with UV killer and unscented deordent.  I can smell the elk better and it is more pleasant hunting experience.   Just keep the wind to your advantage and you should be good.