Hey guys, I was wondering what you guys do or use to cover your scent? I realize that playing the wind is the most important thing but I'm looking for any edge. At the moment besides using scent free soap and washing my gear and street clothes in baking soda I also run down my camo with dirt and leaves from the woods whereI hunt. Thanks for your input guys.
I spray deer dander on the bottoms and sides of my boots sometimes up to my knees on the outside of my pants. just to try and mask the scent my boots and pants may leave.
Think of cover scent like a can of airfreshner in the bathroom, you go in and stink the place up and grab the airfreshner and spray. What does it smell like? Exactly like somebody sprayed a pile of crap with potpourri, you can still smell the underlying crap odor. That is what you smell like to a deer when you use cover scents, a pile of crap that somebody sprayed with earth scent or what ever cover you use.
I usually hang a drag soaked with scent for making scrapes in the brush close to my stand just incase the wind swirls or a deer comes from a direction out of the ordinary.
After scent free wash/showering I try to get high enough so my scent is detected further down wind and just hope for the deer upwind.
I like to take small pine saplings and rub it all over my clothes just prior to walking into my hunt area. Also I take Conquest deer herd calming scent and dilute it into a spray bottle and spray it all around prior to ascending up to my stand. Works well.
Agreed. A cover scent gives deer just one more thing in the air. And it may even be alarming to them.
It will not be alarming to them as long as it's something they smell every day. You will never cover up your human scent 100%. But why not make it a little harder for them to smell you? It's about proximity. Making the deer think you are 200yds away instead of 20. I take pine/evergreen needles and boil them for about an hour. Then strain the liquid into a spray bottle. I use this to spray my clothes and also around me in the tree or blind I'm hunting.
Keep my clothes in a bag with pine and cedar branches in the bottom. Also use dirt and pine cover scents. On 2nd year with this set and they're still strong. One of the mags did a fairly independent test using scent clothing, cover scents vs normal clothing. The results were different from what you'd expect. I'll see if I can find it Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
I use dead down wind products, simply due to their enzyme defeating odor technology. After using their laundry detergent, I typically like to air my gear out for a solid week. From there I pack it into a sealed tote filled with dirt, leaves, pine branches etc. just my personal routine, but I've had pretty good success the last few years with close encounter bow kills. Don't get busted much throughout the season. Good luck ! Sent from my iPad using Bowhunting.com Forums
I wish I could find the article. But I read an article in which they tested so called scent eliminators and covers scents. They used a search and rescue dog. Now while a dog's nose isn't as good as a whitetail it's probably they best nose they could use that would cooperate for a study. Nothing tested fully fooled the dogs nose. The eleminators didn't work at all as the dog went straight towards the source. Cover scents had some effect, the most effective being skunk, acorn and dirt. And they only delayed the dog in finding the person. I think the best was skunk that delayed about 20-30 seconds. 20-30 seconds might not sound like alot, and a whitetail's nose isn't even better. But it might just buy you an extra 10 seconds if the wind shifts at the wrong time. I'll take that extra time.
I use regular doe urine spray my boots and spray on the ground around my stand plus I use unscented deodorant so far it's worked for me I shot 3 deer with my bow this year not including 2 that I missed and ones that didnt present me a shot Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I clean myself and any material with scent killing soaps and detergents, that means all clothing, towels, wash clothes,socks, shorts, packs, etc. I have a small ozone machine for a tote or small room to remove scent but not the type that hangs in a tree with a hunter. I believe all this minimizes scent. I use the wind to my best advantage. I feel the test they did with a dog is a bit off; They re using a trained animal. Maybe it is close enough to a deer but in some cases(low hunting pressure for one) deer might not be that responsive.
