Brauker and Jake Ehlinger both do some incredible things for scent precautions. I believe it was them who their blinds they've even installed extremely long tall exhaust stacks to expel any scent inside up and higher.
I’ve gone the opposite direction. I hunt mostly public, so deer that see more pressure than others in the area but not crazy. I used to worry about scent, shower, spray, get dressed in field and would still get busted. The amount of time and money I wasted on it was incredible. Now I just say F it and head in - play the wind. No real difference for me in sightings. Maybe picked off by down wind does a little more but other than that, not enough to change what I do. I think about those long 1-2 mile hikes in Ohio and Indiana that I used to put in, carrying my climber and enough gear for an elk hunt in the west - dripping sweat all the way in. eating food in the stand. Drinking coffee - back in the day redbulls or Mountain Dew. All of that smells. I still killed nice bucks. I’m no Eberhart but I still get out, have fun and kill deer on occasion. I used to feel like I was doing something wrong, almost got anxiety if I didn’t follow my scent elimination routine. I don’t have time to worry about that any more. Play the wind and try to understand the thermals. That’s been more fun. I do use an ozone machine on my clothes on occasion to “wash” them if they start to have noticeable smells. that’s about as far as it goes for me.
yea, I have a pair of long nape fleece pants in Pred Fall Gray, it just attracts burrs and stickers.. Its warm, but I dont wear em much anymore 'cause of the burr thing .. I wore bibs and a coat in Fall Gray this AM, short nape fleece and its much easier to clean off the damn burrs ... didnt see squat but a Coopers Hawk chase a chipmunk and watched squirrels & 2 racoons .. very windy today too .. same place where all the action was Halloween AM.. oh, how things changed, the local scrapes looked dead ... Vac. #2 starts this Fri... been a while since Ive hunted this late with a Nov. vacation ... its make or break then as gun opens on the 18th (last day of vac.) .. I go into hibernation until gun is over, then back at it again if there is still a tag ... I have some good spots I havnt been into 'cause I cant get the wind needed ....
You hit the nail on the head. One thing that kills me about guys like eberhart, or any of them on TV for that matter is that they constantly talk about scent control, etc, yet they have a 100 yard walk to their box blind or whatever. Eberhart hunts michigan and I seriously doubt his walks into stands are overly strenuous. I've come to the conclusion that its a total waste for me to do much in the way of scent control when hiking/hunting in the mountains. Its next to impossible to avoid getting sweated up. I've been reading/watching a lot of the mountain buck hunting content on youtube from various guys and the one thing that I noticed NEVER gets brought up is scent control products, tactics. But they DO talk a lot about winds and more importantly, thermals.
To be fair I walked to my stand the other day with zero top shirt on LOL if a local farmer had seen me they probably thought I was methhead topless walking across the field LOL Despise sweating...but always seem to.
I wish I had that short of hikes to my locations ..... minimum 1/2 mile for most, several that are 3/4 to a tad over a mile (all public land) and no matter how I dress for the walk in, or how cold it is, I'll still sweat (and I'm in shape too).. I do those with a full load on my back, aprox. 40 lbs maybe a tad more in winter .... I do this EVERY HUNT !! ... if I decide to move 'cause of wind, its take it all down, repack the crap back up and then do it again when I get to the new location.... ... it isnt for the out of shape, believe me (btw, I'm 65 !!) .. I miss the days of having pre-hung stands and short walks and little gear to take in .... I have around 30 portables that I no longer use, and wont use on public ... if I ever get back on private (I refuse to lease like I used to), then they'll go back up ...
I hear ya, the older I get the tougher it gets. I'm thankful I'm still in pretty good shape to do what I want. A lot of our public land is bottom up access so its a tough trek in. Using onx, I've learned a lot of these accesses and getting to the top of the hill is 1500ft elevation gain on average. It sucks... lol
I don't much about eberhert. I mean I have always known about him and his hunting family. I was under the impression the dude hunted mostly if not all public land. Is that not the case?
He also typically hunts 25-30’+ high. And maybe he isn’t paying attention to wind, but he’s certainly paying attention to thermals.
