What do you guys do and do you think it is effective to suppress your scent downwind?
Get off the ground. As high as possible.
Wash gear with scent control detergent, shower with scent control soap.
Keep gear and myself away from pets.
Don't blow up pants in the stand.
Wash gear with scent control detergent, shower with scent control soap.
Keep gear and myself away from pets.
Don't blow up pants in the stand.
Smoke out, build a fire from the local type of leaves and twigs from where I hunt, I usually build the little fire in a bee puffer. Then I get the smoke all over me. Then get in a tree stand
I think scent control is really important, but I’m not as diligent as I should be/know to be.
Typically, I try to know which direction my target deer will be coming in and position myself down wind. I don’t do it every time, but I try to shower with scent free soap and wash my “hunting” clothes in scent free detergent.
I’ve been talking to Deerslayer about his Forget The Wind scent control and want to try it.
Typically, I try to know which direction my target deer will be coming in and position myself down wind. I don’t do it every time, but I try to shower with scent free soap and wash my “hunting” clothes in scent free detergent.
I’ve been talking to Deerslayer about his Forget The Wind scent control and want to try it.
I start with scent eliminating laundry detergent.
Dry my clothes with fresh earth dryer sheets.
Clothes go into a sealed plastic bag with a new fresh earth dryer sheet.
My hunting boots never go to town or touch pavement, and are left on the back porch all season. I occasionally spray them with Dead Down Wind, both inside and out.
I shower and wash my hair with scent eliminating bath soap before going to bed the night before.
For archery, I do have some scent lock leafy wear coveralls, but I seldom wear them for rifle season.
With all of that, I am still attentive to the wind direction.
I often have deer within 10-15 yds but just this week, I had my closest encounter. I was climbing down my stand to leave after dark and a little 6 pt appeared at a scrape 10 yds away. I froze on my ladder, 4 ft off the ground. He freshened his scrape and started walking my direction. When he got to the base of my ladder, he stopped. I thought, “this is it.” He looked around, then looked at the ladder and slowly stuck his nose to my boot. He looked back down the field edge and slowly made his way off. He never alerted or spooked. So, I guess my scent eliminating regimen works.
Dry my clothes with fresh earth dryer sheets.
Clothes go into a sealed plastic bag with a new fresh earth dryer sheet.
My hunting boots never go to town or touch pavement, and are left on the back porch all season. I occasionally spray them with Dead Down Wind, both inside and out.
I shower and wash my hair with scent eliminating bath soap before going to bed the night before.
For archery, I do have some scent lock leafy wear coveralls, but I seldom wear them for rifle season.
With all of that, I am still attentive to the wind direction.
I often have deer within 10-15 yds but just this week, I had my closest encounter. I was climbing down my stand to leave after dark and a little 6 pt appeared at a scrape 10 yds away. I froze on my ladder, 4 ft off the ground. He freshened his scrape and started walking my direction. When he got to the base of my ladder, he stopped. I thought, “this is it.” He looked around, then looked at the ladder and slowly stuck his nose to my boot. He looked back down the field edge and slowly made his way off. He never alerted or spooked. So, I guess my scent eliminating regimen works.
I’ve become much less interested in scent control. I truly believe that if a deer is alert and trying to smell everything, if they are in your scent cone, they will smell you no matter what you do. Of course there are anecdotal stories about wearing Scentlocker and buck walked straight up wind to right under my stand, blah, blah, blah. I’ve done everything under the sun and sometimes it worked and sometimes the deer still spooked. I’ve also done nothing and had the exact same experience. These days, I don’t worry about it and I just try to play the wind. But I’ve been trying to hunt marginal winds, just off axis, more than what a hunter would call an ideal winds. If the direction I think the deer are gonna come from is just off axis from the wind direction, and the deer should be outside my scent cone, they think they have the wind and they think they have the advantage. Big bucks don’t get big by not playing the wind, so if you are always setting up down wind from the food plot or the does, the mature bucks are going to come in from downwind and you will be busted.
I think wind direction is the most important factor. I hunt from a ground blind (same location for 5 years). I hunt with the wind out of the north so the wind is in my face. I dont hunt that blind otherwise. I dont use any scent elimination. I sit in my ground blind with a cup of hot coffee and a cigarette and wait. I've not been busted yet, maybe im lucky I dont know. I will have does in at 40 yards not even know im there. Some people use scent elimination products and I understand. But I believe wind direction is the most important factor.
But then again im old and maybe the deer just dont consider an old fart much of a threat
But then again im old and maybe the deer just dont consider an old fart much of a threat
I used to be really anal-retentive about scent control. About 7 or 8 years ago I finally gave up and just continue to hunt the wind. It has changed my life as I don't stress about it anymore. I still get "lucky" every once in a while with a downwind deer that doesn't pick me off, but that is all I ever got before was lucky every once in a while.
IMO you'll never mask it all, cover it up, or eliminate it all, ever, and it just takes one odor molecule to make it to their nose. That said, my dad hunted with a shiny Stanley thermos in one hand and a Marlboro Light in the other, and some how balanced himself on a 4" thick post oak limb and still manage to release an arrow or pull the trigger lol. Scent elimination products didn't exist back then, and hunting in the NE part of the state there was often zero wind, and he still killed a ton of deer.
