I do about the same as you except I wash a load of regular clothes in my scent wash before my hunting clothes to help wash out any smell good detergents. I hang dry outside when I can and I store with pine cones or pine needles in totes. I also go through a couple big boxes of baking soda each season as well. I use it for various scent control reasons.
I do a lot of what guys mentioned, I hunt in or near pine trees a lot and I put a large amount of green pine needles in my storage container that I keep my hunting clothes in. If you take the needles and rub them against your clothes, it activates the oil in the pine needles and is very fragrant. FYI, I use "doe P" by Tink's on the ground near my stand to give the deer the idea that other deer are in the area. One day last year, I got some of the "doe p" on my hand. I took a few green pine needles from a tree, rubbed them between my hand and the "doe p" scent was completely gone.
Great topic boys! I'm a scent control freak, so here's my 2 scents. LOL I always run an empty load through my washing machine with my scent free detergent to make sure I don't have any of the old lady's stuff still in there. Then wash all hunting clothes and equipment. Anything that can hold scent. Clothes, packs, camera equipment etc. EVERYTHING. Wash the rubber boots. I soak them in a solution of my scent free detergent for hours. I wash the inserts with my clothes. Everything gets removed with scent free hands, put into cleaned scent free clothes baskets and moved to outdoor hanging locations. Boots are put upside down on metal(scent free rods) to drip dry outside as well. The clothes and boots are left outside for days to dry. Make sure that nothing is scented around where your stuff is hanging. I spray lawns for a living and that is not a smell you want on your stuff! Time it so that you know everything will be dry and remove all stuff with scent free hands and put into your scent free bags or oversized zip locs. Add baking soda to those containers. Boots included! If you have to use a dryer to dry your clothes(rainy stretch or very cold weather). I always run a bunch of boking soda through the dryer for a couple cylcles to try and eliminate as much as I can. A dryer however is no where near as scent free effective as outdoor hanging!!! When time to hunt, shower, dry with a scent free towel. Naked to get dressed away from anything, never letting any of your stuff touch anything that isn't either scent free or natural ground. Walk into woods with sufficient time to allow minimal sweating. Use scent free sprays in your stand if you feel your scent control has been compromised. When done hunting, get all of your stuff back into its containers or hanging outside without contaminating. If you are thorough with this, you can get away with a lot. Never 100% but pretty close at times. Its a pain in *** but having downwind deer not spook is worth it to me. Hope this ramble helps.
Yeah obviously you missed the part about showering the breakfast sausage out. You also missed the part about me killing a mature buck dead downwind. But hey, ignore proven field results. I heard it said that when a man smells beef stew, he smells beef stew. When a dog smells beef stew, he smells carrots, and onions, and parsley, and beef, and.....
I may be overboard (OCD), but every bit of gear I take into the woods including: safety harness, linemans belt, clothing, hat and lifeline stays in a plastic container outside; loaded with leaves and pine needles from the area; stoys out in the trees 24/7/365. Since the end o flast season that is where they have been. About a month beofore the season (next week or as soon as my wife is out of the long enough for me to sneak a load in, I will wash them in scent free detergent, dry them in a dryer with a scent killer dryer sheet;check for missing buckles, buttons etc, then take them back out side outside to the container with fresh leaves, dirt sticks and pine needles. About 1 week before the opener I take them back out, spray them with primthrin aloow them to dry in the trees them back in the bin. I wait until theweekbefore the season becuase primthrin lasts about 6-8 weeks so that that should carry me into the first frost (Hopefully) when bugs will die down. I only wash tem if absolutley necc. This year, I got a second bin with some of my dads old woodland green millitary BDU's which should be alot cooler than all season hunting camo early season. I also shave all hair and use unscented shave cream (sensitive skin formulas have no fragrance), shampoo and deodarant for the entire season. Honestly, since doing this thelast two years, I have had deer all around me and only been busted once that I can recall (prob many more I never saw) and that becasue I think I moved. Not perfect, but I hunt in the woods so aside from getting as high as possible or enclosed in a blind, playing wind is futile....... the trees create so many turbulances and back currents it is impossible to determine where the wind goes beyond a few yards and there is Zero consistancyin those patterns. Best bet is to not move and reduce scent as much as possible to make him think what ever he smells is a ways off. FWIW imagine turning a river loose into a stand of trees wothout river banks to control it, that is what air flow is like in a dense forest, unpredictable beyond a few yards maybe feet.
i dont have a routine but because we are on a sent control subject, i dont buy sent free detergent or deodorant. if im not sweaty from work i will put my camo on and head to the stand. sometimes i will spray down with sent-a-way or dead down wind. but my question is does just spraying down with the different sprays really make a difference if i dont do the whole sent control system? i would like to afford an ozonics but dont have $500 to shell out
To be honest, most scent controlis just a bakingsodavinegar mix tokill bacteria. Thatis wheremost scent comes from. Outside of that some add a coverscent and.or enzymes to desrtroy surface proteins thatmight cause oder. Washing after each use (IMHO) is not necc if you spray inside and out after wearing and allow the clothing to dry before returningthem to closed container. Never belived in ozone. I think it is a gimmick. Ever been around some one or in a house that has an ozone machine. it smells like ozone, youkow howit smels when there is alot of static charge on fabric!!!! It has an oder.
