It's all a waste of time, deer in your scent stream equal spooked deer, doesn't matter what kind of scent products you use.
My Program: Shower, Scent Free Bar Soap PreWash Gear - A&H Liquid store in Gear Bag Use A&H scent free Deodorant Prewash travel clothes...then go. Dress in the Field Full Merino Base top 2 bottom (first lite & icebreaker) Spray Down Pack, Boots Use DDW in Hair, Spray Ball Cap That's Just some of what I do....
The products were designed to help reduce your scent. I am training my dog to find sheds right now. I toss a shed dummy and it falls under the snow. He still manages to catch the wind and find it when it is completely covered. Its hard to imagine how well deer or dogs for that matter can smell but with the products on the market that I have used, I gotta say they kept me in the game.
IMO the only thing that actually works is getting up high in the tree, over 20'. In the hilly terrain that I hunt you never know which way the wind is gonna swirl, so getting up high is the only thing that may help. You can reduce your scent, but will never eliminate it, so don't waste your money on anything but inexpensive peroxide and baking soda.
I start with a shower in scent away soap. I wash towels, travel clothes, hunt clothes, etc all in scent free arm and hammer baking soda detergent. I store all my clothes in a tote with baking soda sprinkled throughout the layers of clothing in the tote. When I decide what clothes I want to wear, I transfer them to my scent proof travel bag. This may sound strange, but I have an old blender that we were going to trash, but I decided to save. I have a few pine trees in the back yard, and about once a week during the season I'll use the blender and chop up a bunch of needles and stems into a powder and just sprinkle that into my scent bag for travel. I like to use natural pine because it has to smell more real than any scent wafers. I can usually smell the pine on me while in a tree. For my boots, I'll sprinkle baking soda in and on them very liberally. I drive to my spot in my travel clothes that have been scent washed and I typically sit on a scent wasted towel as well. I don't always spray down, but if I do it's unscented.
I start with a shower in scent away soap. I wash towels, travel clothes, hunt clothes, etc all in scent free arm and hammer baking soda detergent. I store all my clothes in a tote with baking soda sprinkled throughout the layers of clothing in the tote. When I decide what clothes I want to wear, I transfer them to my scent proof travel bag. This may sound strange, but I have an old blender that we were going to trash, but I decided to save. I have a few pine trees in the back yard, and about once a week during the season I'll use the blender and chop up a bunch of needles and stems into a powder and just sprinkle that into my scent bag for travel. I like to use natural pine because it has to smell more real than any scent wafers. I can usually smell the pine on me while in a tree. For my boots, I'll sprinkle baking soda in and on them very liberally. I drive to my spot in my travel clothes that have been scent washed and I typically sit on a scent wasted towel as well. I don't always spray down, but if I do it's unscented...
Ok that sounds like a pretty easy and less $$$ way fort scent reduction/elimination. I am going to give it a go this year and see if it really works out for me.
First off, everyone using Arm & Hammer laundry detergent are treating their camo with UV Brighteners which are a bad thing. Laundry Detergents for use wth the Army ACU (ArmyStudyGuide.com) There are plenty of individuals here who have had mature deer dead downwind and been successful at harvesting them due to scent reduction steps they've taken. Noone is claiming 100% scent elimintion, but enough of a reduction to let the deer think you're 100 yards away instead of 20. Baking soda has been proven to reduce odors, just ask your mom why she always had a box in the fridge. Activated carbon has also been proven to reduce odors, just ask anyone with a countertop composter. I'm not sure if sprinkling your clothing w/ baking soda provides the same level of odor reduction as wrapping your body in a layer of activated cabon. I would guess not. But I'm sure a solution of baking soda would be a good substitute for scent reduction sprays out there.
I have spent lots of cash on scent products and clothes over the years. Do they work?? Sometimes.. Is the extra money spent on them a good value?? If it increase your confidence then yes it is maybe... The last three years I have used nothing but what mother nature has to offer and a favorable wind to help control scent. I collect decaying wet leaves, white pine branch snippets, cedar snippets, ferns, green sassafras limb snippets & green honey suckle stems with the leaves on from my hunting area in September. These I put into a couple of mess potato bags. I store them in plastic tub big enough to hold my hunting clothes for a month before season rolls around. Hunting clothes are washed in plain ole baking soda, Hung outside to dry and then stored in the tub. This is just the way I do it now.. doesn't mean the guys spending $100 + on scentless soaps, underarm deodorant, scent killer spray don't get better results.
I am with Bone and Siman...in that sometimes the confidence gained alone is worth it at times. Carbon, Baking Soda...and silver also are the main 3 things that hunters utilize and all 3 have been proven in studies to assist in the reduction of scents...not elimination. If there is one thing I am 100% sure of is that you can't beat a deer's nose 100%...but if I can trick it long enough I am fine with it
Masking your scent with something like Autumn Essence or another covering odor may help you 'fool' a deer's nose (long enough for a shot). Wearing 'Scent-Free' clothing may also help... BUT ultimately, the wind is your best friend or your worst enemy... depending on which way it's moving. Keep constant awareness of the wind.
I shower before every hunt and keep my clothes and gear as scent free as possible. I feel this helps marginally, but there is no perfect answer other than playing the wind and thermals. I did play with an ozonics this past fall. While my season wasn't great, I will say I never had a deer that I saw wind me when it crossed downwind from me. I did not get to try it on a mature buck, and to me that is the ultimate test on if the thing is worth it.
I saw something interesting this year, The Field Archer, a member here who makes some really good videos, showed how he put his hunting clothes in a can of deer feed before he wears them. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
I scent wash my stuff, use scent free deodorant, scent free shower, spray down in the field yada yada yada. then this year, i started clipping scent wafers on me in the field. and this fall i had 4 mature does, 12 yards under my stand, they would look at me, sniff the air, then just flick the tail a little bit. So, in doing all that garbage, plus playing the wind, I was able to miss a deer. . . . . . The best thing I've ever heard about scent control, is just that, CONTROL. Do all the scent free stuff, scent free shower, scent wash travel clothes, use the wafers, whatever you want to do. Because your never going to be completely scent free, just make sure you play the wind. And most importantly, you don't need to be scent free, you just need him to give you enough time to make the shot, you don't need to beat his nose, just confuse it long enough so that when he knows your there its too late.
I used to go though the whole nine yards 10 years back, now I dont.., I stay clean keep my cloths clean and hunt. Seems like the less I do the better...if anything I am more productive now then I was when I used everything to could buy Coming to you live from The Peoples Republic of New York
