How scent free...

[BobT]

I've shared this before but many years ago I came across an old timer that had a small campfire going right next to him. I asked him if he thought that was a good idea and he told me that in his experience deer are curious and he took many deer while standing next to a fire. He did say to keep it small rather than a raging inferno. The biggest problem with a fire is the movement and noise involved with feeding the fire.

[Bear55]

Funny, when I get busted, it's usually just outside of bowrange. I have had many, many more deer bust my scent trail coming in than bust me sitting in a tree.

But are you seeing the deer that are 100+ yards away that could possibly smell you? They might no blow if they are far enough away but they might know you are there and go the other way.

Again guys I am talk about mature deer and mostly mature bucks. I have gone into the woods stinky this year and had plenty of does, fawns, and small bucks down wind of me. They either didn't care or were on semi-alert but never spooked.

[Musky Buck]

I can agree with the fires and cigarette's etc. Some swear by it doesn't affect them, but you can only say that about the deer you actually see, what about the ones it does possibly spook, often times those deer won't be seen, they'll be long gone and if you do see some you can say see that smoke or whatever had no effect. Anyway, do what your past experience has proven to you and we'll all be fine, man if the deer only knew the scheming that we do, there ears would be ringing daily lol. PS. just had a minor theory, if the smoke or whatever is consistent and the deer can analyze where it is and that it seems normal as far as it's a steady odor vs that of barely caught a whiff, it comes and goes, and then they lose smell of it etc. would that make them more edgy ?

[96trigger]

I can honestly say that I have never had a deer that is feeding 100 yards away from me in a field, ever bust me. I primarily hunt field edges, often, there are deer in the fields eating, with wind blowing and their direction, they don't pay any attention for whatever reason. They usually have to get closer before they even get a hint of me being there. Now, keep in mind, that I practice pretty strict scent control. Sometimes, they can be downwind of me and not spook at all.

[Finlander]

Well here's another thought about scent: If you do scent control like you always do, you'll only get what you've always gotten! So if you only get basket rack bucks, expect to get the same. Go to the extreme by trying to be totally scent free so that monster buck doesn't spook 100 yards downwind allowing you to see it and possibly shoot it!

[Farley]

Here's my theory: First off, i dont think a person can ever get completly scent free. If a deer is downwind of you and you dont take any precautions your odor will be pretty strong and the deer knows you are there. If you shower in scent free soap, wear rubber boots, apply scent killer all over etc... and the deer is downwind from you they might think you were there an hour or two ago but are gone now since your odor isnt as strong as a normal human's, or maybe they think you are further away than you really are. I'm not a deer so I dont know for sure what they think but thats how I justify going to such extremes with controlling scent. I think most people dont do it cause it's such a pain in the arse, but it might make a differnce someday when it matters most.

[96trigger]

Some mornings, it gets darn chilly getting dressed in the field. I also get up earlier so I can shower before I go out. If I sweat all that morning during the hunt, I shower again before I go out in the evening with a new set of scent free laundered clothes. I agree about never being completely scent free. Numerous times I have deer feeding towards me, in fields, and I keep thinking just a little closer, just a little closer, and all the sudden the head goes up, noes goes up. Darn, just outa range. Also, for whatever reason, be it all the scents of the woods, or the trees helping disperse or absorb the smell, I don't have near the trouble with scent in the woods. Often having deer walk directly downwind of me within 50 yards and never know I was there. Last Sunday I was in the woods and had a fawn walk by with no regard to my scent, but momma was cautious. She smelled and circled the tree stand and at one point, had to have smelled the ladder. I couldn't see her and I didn't want to move at all and spook her, but eventually, she got the green light and moved on, she and her fawn hung out next to me for over an hour. I really have no explaination for this, but over 15 years of hunting whitetails pretty passionately, I kind of know what to expect and how read a whitetail's body lanquage.

[deerminator]

I'm a big fan of scent control but not going overboard. I wash my clothes in baking soda or the scent free detergent if I feel like it. Then I throw them in the dryer after cleaning out the lint trap real good. Then I put them in a huge ziplock. After a hunt, if my clothes aren't overly sweaty, I spray them down, line dry them and throw them back in the bag. I'll shower with scent free shampoo/soap when I can. But mainly I just always use the scent free shampoo/soap when I shower each day and I use unscented deodorant each day from opening day through when I'm done hunting.

I agree, alot has to do with where you hunt. When I hunt the burb woods, I'm less worried about scent because the deer are used to it. I've seen bucks nosing around garbage cans. That's not so much the case when I hunt the farms. I know guys who hunt cattle farms that hang their clothes in the cattle barn before going out. Makes sense. I've also seen guys hang their clothes in town, over their deck railing, next to the dog kennel and a street 30 yards away while traffic zooms by. Probably would make more sense to dry those hunting clothes in the dryer!

[mozy]

I hunt the wind. In my opinion and experience, if an animal gets down wind of you it's going to smell you no matter how much scent elimination you do. Most of the hunts I've seen where the hunters have deer straight down wind, are hunts filmed from 20 ft. up and the deer are 20 yards away, their scent doesn't have a chance to get down to the deer.

[bogwalker]

If you subdue your scent and the animal smells you, does the animal think you were there earlier but left because your scent is weak rather than strong?

[JIvers]

I didn't read all the replies, so someone may have already said this...but I am one of those people who believe playing the wind is more important than scent removal. I can walk through gasoline, and if I hunt in a decent breeze where the deer movement will be upwind of me it won't matter.

That said, I do wash my hunting clothes in baking soda and let them air dry outdoors, because cutting down on scent can't hurt. I also do avoid actually walking in gasoline for the same reason. But I do not bother with the scentless soap, deodorant, and things of that sort either, and I am certainly not going to spend three figures on "scent control" clothing.

I agree that the area you are hunting dictates how strict you have to be about scent control. Suburban deer are presumably less bothered by human-type scents than deer in massive public forests.

I hunt in Zone 3, where there is a lot of agricultural activity, including the spot I hunted this morning, where two pickups were parked less than twenty feet from my stand yesterday afternoon while two combines and a tractor were busy taking the corn out. This sort of agricultural activity, even in a relatively remote area so far as human activity goes, makes deer less sensitive to human activity than many people think. The spike buck and the does he was chasing all over the field this AM that was combined sixteen hours ago certainly had no problem with the vehicles that were just parked and running over there. The rut, of course, makes them less cautious as well.

The doe I shot at forty yards a couple hours ago certainly didn't object to that human activity the previous day, and my less than fanatical scent control didn't bother her either, as she was south of me on a day when we had a steady south wind. That's why I hunted that stand, and not one two hundred yards to the south where my scent would have been blowing all over that field.

[Steve Foss]

You know, I've been really anal at times about scent removal. And other times I just don't care and have played the wind. These days it's the wind factor for me.

Best deer/elk hunter I ever knew was an old guy I worked with up at 10,000 feet in Colorado. He was a smoker who never bathed, never spent money on camo. He just wore brown and green stuff when he hunted. That was it. And he reeked so bad that I could smell him myself when I was 50 yards downwind.

He ALWAYS worked the wind. Aside from the basic updraft/downdraft cycle common to the mountains, he knew his country inside out, and knew when a wind change was coming, so he was always ahead of it.

I've never lived in one place long enought to get that level of savvy, but dang if it wasn't a great time watching that man work deer and elk. It was my pleasure to buy him a few rounds at the tavern after a day's work or hunting. But I always checked the air currents in the tavern to make sure I was sitting upwind. Hmmm, maybe I learned a few important lessons after all.

[goblueM]

hah steve good story, i know a guy like that, no running water in his cabin, never bothers with scent reduction stuff at all, just focuses on field craft. far and away the best hunter I know. he plays the wind, sits all day if he has too, and sits still and doesnt make any noise.

in a related matter, he's a big bird hunter and he made a bet with his friend - the guy got all done up in scent-lok and rubber boots and the like, showered in scent free soap, etc. he gave him a 10 minute headstart, then let the dog out on him - dog found him in no time flat, tracked his exact path.

[PurpleFloyd]

I am guessing it depends alot on the area and the normal amount of human interaction that the deer get on a regular basis. In SC minn farm country the deer are exposed to us every day. They come up on the yard past the clothes drying on the line and eat acorns off of the ground, eat out of the garden and anywhere else and never care a bit.

One of the guys in our hunting party has shot the 2 biggest deer we have gotten(15point and a monster 12) while smoking and walking. He is a farmer and would laugh at the thought of cover scent. Heck, right before dark my son and I were sitting in our ground blind and about 6:10 a buck and doe came out about 40 yards downwind from us and I had eaten Hormel Chili with beans for lunch and by that time my farts could have gagged a goat and the deer didn't seem to mind at all as my son drew blood on his first deer, a buck.

That being said if the area didn't have any human exposure I would guess that eliminating scent would be a very prudent move.

[TruthWalleyes]

I had 3 deer visit my ground blind this weekend, each came alone. They all got within 10yds (Got the pictures), and not one of them left scared. They were gosh darn curious, but never scarred off.

I was on a steep ridge, and the wind was blowing in all directions. It would switch and blow my scent right into the deer...but they couldn't see me.

No scent lok junk for me, i'm not a believer. I belive I masked my body scent. When two of the three deer approached me, i put out my cigarrete. They smell the burning, but not the human. imo

[nofishfisherman]

My group just used a bottle of the scent killing spray before we went out to the stand. Its cheap, quick and easy to apply so we figured what the heck, it probably can't hurt. None of the deer we saw winded us, or if they did they didn't seem to care.

[BobT]

Here’s an experience I had over the weekend with scent.

I have two 5 acre alfalfa fields divided by a grassy draw that is about 100 yards wide and low enough to support a small patch of cattails. Along the fence line that marks the southern border of my property, in about the middle of that draw there are a couple short, bushy trees and about three boulders roughly 3’ in diameter. Makes a nice place for me to sit somewhat concealed. My neighbor has already chopped the corn that he had planted to the south but due to wet soil had to leave a small 2-acre piece just to the southeast of those rocks along my fence line.

I usually don’t hunt this area as I am not keen on the idea of slug hunting. It’s a personal thing and I am not against slug hunting, it just doesn’t appeal to me. Anyway, because I was not able to spend the opening weekend up north with my brother, I decided to strap on the .44mag and go sit on those rocks Sunday evening just before sunset. I went out at about 3:30 but before going to those rocks I decided to go all the way to the corner of my property on the other side of that remaining corn. There’s a grassy draw that the deer like to use as a travel corridor and it comes out right on that corner.

I sat there and watched the sunset and then decided to work my way slowly back toward the house. I was following that fence line, using the corn to conceal my movement. As I cleared the edge of that corn blind and entered into that grassy draw between my hay fields, I caught some movement to the south. There were three does crossing that corn stubble heading toward that patch of corn. I ducked down in the grass and took up shelter behind a small woody brushy plant so I could watch them. The wind was from the east and they were south of me and couldn’t pick up my scent so I sat there on the ground watching them for about a half hour.

Eventually they began to move but instead of heading into the corn as I expected they were moving right toward me and the route they were taking would bring them right over my hiding place! I thought to myself, “This is going to be fun to see how close they get to me before they realize I am there. By this time I surmised that it was a doe with her two fawns. It appeared that one could have been this year’s fawn and the other probably last year’s. I didn’t read the regs for this area and thought it was a lottery zone. She was a decent sized doe but thinking I couldn’t take her legally, I just decided to have some fun with them. As it turns out, I am in a management area and can take either sex with my regular license, can purchase a bonus tag, and I qualify for a free tag.

She kept heading in my direction and finally when she was about 10 yards away she caught sight of me and stopped. She stood there looking at me with this totally inquisitive look on her face like, “What the heck is that?” Then the antics began. She’d blow a little, dance a little, blow some more, run about three jumps back, blow, walk in for a closer look…. She kept this up for about 10 minutes while the other two smaller deer watched from behind. It was funny and I could only grin to myself.

Finally, she did exactly as I expected her to do. She began to make a loop downwind to catch my scent. I watched her as she looped and suddenly she stopped and raised her nose to sniff the air. Where she was I figured she hadn’t got a good whiff because she was still a little too far south but I figured the air movement must given her a little taste. After a minute or so she continued further north until she disappeared behind those trees and rocks I mentioned earlier. This would definitely put her directly downwind for a good whiff of me. Her companions had followed her over there and I could still see them in the corn stubble.

After a minute or two she reappeared and the three of them nonchalantly walked southeast over to the southwest corner of that patch of corn and disappeared. That gave me the opportunity to slip out of the area without spooking them.

By my estimation this was not a young inexperienced doe. Her actions weren’t the actions of a greenhorn and like I already mentioned, I believe the other two were her fawns from the last two springs. I certainly could be wrong about that since I didn’t tag her when she was born and, like Asians or colored folks, they all look alike to me.

The point I want to make about this was that as I have been suggesting, human scent alone does not necessarily send deer into a panic and run. I have seen too many deer react to human scent both here in farm country and up north where people are the rarity to believe otherwise. It might only do nothing more than raise their awareness that something is there. I didn’t move; didn’t even blink an eyelid (learned from past experience that they will look for this). I know she got a good whiff of my scent when she put herself 20 yards downwind of my position and she already saw me and suspected something was amiss but they did not become alarmed by it. All they did was change their route to avoid my position. No concern, no panic, just exercising caution. Had I moved or made a sound, that would have been the confirmation she was looking for when she danced in front of me trying to taunt me.

[fr0sty]

I wash my gear in scent feet detergent then hang them to dry. I spray down with scent killer. I wore the same clothes each day I hunted this week. Doesn't sound pleasant, does it? I also shower each night before bed and spray down each layer of my clothes at night.

I had a doe and fawn literally walk right under the box stand I was sitting in. They never scented me, even when the got down wind. I also had a buck down wind of me at about 60 yards. Never was scented either. I always assumed they can smell human scent much further that 60 yards with a 10 mile per hour wind blowing my sting right towards them.

[Gordie]

In recent years I have been a stickler for sent control so much that I think I started to not pay detail to the other things that are important like wind direction,other hunters,noise and so on. Well this yeatr I bought a bottle of sent free spray and didnt even use it I went back to old school tactics and low and behold I shot two really nice bucks. I'm not saying that all those no scent sprays and clothing dont work but I think that it lets us as hunter get to over confident in what we do in the woods to try and get close to the deer. BTW the two Bucks I shot were 45 yards away and they were very close to being down wind of me.

I have all the scent lock clothes,washes and sprays and will most likely use them again and again but this season made me rethink the scent factor in my hunt.

[Arctic]

If you hunt in areas where human odor is rarely found, then it matters big time. Last year I watched a mature doe cross the route I took into my stand FOUR HOURS after I walked in wearing rubber boots. She sniffed for a bit, then turned around 180 degrees and snuck off.

It was a big lesson for me.

I spray scent killer on my boots, don't touch anything on the long walk to my stand, rarely enter my hunting area for a month before the opener, and hunt the wind.

I don't wear scent blocking clothes or the like, as I don't believe you can ever totally eliminate your scent enough to fool a mature buck or doe, unless you get lucky.

[Bear55]

I really think the best thing we can all do is use what works for us on the individual land we hunt. I have managed to get two nice bucks in the past two years by only playing the wind, other years I went as scent free as possible to get deer. I have certain areas where I still use scent control for fear of spooking other deer, some places it doesn't matter because my scent is blowing into an area I don't care about.

This thread points out very clearly that guys are getting it done both ways so use what works best for you, learn from your mistakes and keep trying to be a better hunter because I don't care who you are, at some point we are all humbled by a deer.

[Triple_D]

Scent Killer = Waste O' Money

The Mythbusters did a show on if they could eliminate their scent when tracked by dogs. They tried everything, even charcoal chemical suits and wore a breathing respirator and the dogs still smelt them. I have to think a deer has similar scenting abilities. If it makes you feel better to waste your money on Scent Killer and Scent Lok clothing go ahead but it ain't helping.

[Bear55]

I have to think a deer has similar scenting abilities.

They may have a greater ability to smell than dogs or at the very least most dogs. I found this little snippet of text from an article I read online somewhere. I have no idea of the research is credible or not but if you look at the size of a dogs nose/snout and compare that to a deer they probably have the advantage over most breeds and possibly all dogs.

"The nose of a whitetail deer has up to 297 million olfactory receptors, dogs have 220 million with humans limiting out with just five million."

[fr0sty]

Scent killer sprays may also knock down your scent enough that it doesn't smell like you just came by. Where I hunt, deer smell people all the time. Maybe when they smell me after a spray down, it seems like I was there hours ago, or maybe hundred of yards away.

Or it could also be a total waste of money

[Nightcrawler]

just read in minn., a minn. judge just said the junk doesn't work even makers.