I don't want to start a feud, and I certainly don't want to tick off any sponsors of the site, but can we have a logical discussion of whether or not Scent Eliminators actually work. In my mind, I've been questioning this for quite awhile, and I simply can't see how they work. That being said, I'm not a scientist, I'm not a professional researcher, I simply don't understand how these products can possibly work. Sure, they may work on humans, but deer? I've read article after article trying to make a determination for myself, I've tried to find unbiased research and simply can't. Can someone show me otherwise? Can you show me a test, taken from an independent source stating that these products work? I'm not talking about your personal experience, I mean a legitimate study on the issue. I came across this article in my latest search, and when you read the analogies that they use (on a dog) and knowing that a deer smells considerably better than the best bloodhound, how can these products work? I'm falling under the belief that they're snake oil. Here's an interesting article marveling at a dogs ability to smell. NOVA | Dogs' Dazzling Sense of Smell Here's a snippet. (remember deer sense of smell is considerably better than a dog) 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. Dogs' sense of smell overpowers our own by orders of magnitude—it's 10,000 to 100,000 times as acute, scientists say. "Let's suppose they're just 10,000 times better," says James Walker, former director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University, who, with several colleagues, came up with that jaw-dropping estimate during a rigorously designed, oft-cited study. "If you make the analogy to vision, what you and I can see at a third of a mile, a dog could see more than 3,000 miles away and still see as well."
So the thread has 51 views and no responses with any information stating that these products work. Does anyone else besides me find the lack of definitive information interesting? Crickets.
You make a valid point in that there is really no unbiased scientific studies out that prove the effectiveness of these scent eliminators... My theory - I would rather just use them and eliminate even a small percentage of my scent than to go into the woods without it.
The bottom line....if they give you more confidence, use them...if they make you hunt a spot when you shouldn't due to the wind direction , you shouldn't as you have a false sense of security
Scientifically proven? Don’t think I could pull something up right now. Personal opinion they may not work as good as its talked up to be but if it even helps the slightest bit that’s one step closer to being as scent free as you can be. Granite I know we will never be able to be completely scent free but if I can become as scent free as possible I am all for it. For are area it is very rare that deer not smell human odor every day. It’s kind of like they have a gauge in their head and they can tolerate when that gauge is at half way but when it starts to go over that half way point (going above half way as in the scent is getting stronger) they start to worry. So if all of these scent killers can help tune down my scent so it’s not as strong they are working good enough for me. Do I khow that this is truly happening? No but I like to think that it is happening
Right, that's what I'm getting at exactly. And again, I'm not basing what I "believe" on anything scientific. Here's another snippet from the article. Put another way, dogs can detect some odors in parts per trillion. What does that mean in terms we might understand? Well, in her book Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz, a dog-cognition researcher at Barnard College, writes that while we might notice if our coffee has had a teaspoon of sugar added to it, a dog could detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water, or two Olympic-sized pools worth. Another dog scientist likened their ability to catching a whiff of one rotten apple in two million barrels. And again, they're talking about a dog, a deer has a considerably better sense of smell. I don't see how these can work at all. I also read somewhere that a whitetail deer can smell a drop of urine from 400yds away. If that's the case, I believe that all of these scentkillers and scentkilling systems are an exercise of futility. I don't think they can work even for a millisecond.
Check out the scent smoker thread. I was the same way you were until I tried it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I feel there is no way we can outsmart the nose of a whitetail. But I will continue to use them even for that little better chance of the buck of lifetime
Have two people get hosed down like they were contaminated with some kind of hazmat. Now they are almost and I say almost smell the same. Have them dress the same looking like twins. One uses some kind of scent killer the other nothing. Insert them into the woods or field at different times but with the same wind direction, speed etc. See what happens. Last week I spilled gas on my hands. I notice I left my scent free scent kill wipes out on the bench. I took it wiped my hands with 1 wipe and no gas smelling hands.
I think it helps a little. Good luck ever fooling a whitetail. Its all about the wind. But reducing odor can't hurt. I don't go overboard but I do spray down before each hunt. I tried soaking my ghillie in a carbon powder mixture last year. Cant say it helped but don't think it hurt and the bottle cost $8 I think?
My friend, you already know your answer of what you think, why ask the question??? Check out a scent smoker though, now that is a weapon of mass destruction when it come to hunting whitetail
The more the wind the better they seem to work. You have scent not matter what you do, but anything you can do will help. I also use cover scents when ever passible. Scotty
From personal experience, the scent killer I use works for me, and works well. Last year on multiple occasions I had deer walk the trail that I had just used to walk to my stand and they never got spooked or alerted to the fact that something was different or wrong. Opening morning last week I spooked two deer not 20 yards from my stand when I was walking in. They ran off and as soon as I was settled in my stand they came right back. Mama was stomping and snorting for at least 30 minutes but they never spooked or ran off. They hung around well into shooting light and even had 3 more deer come in within 15 yards. She knew I was there, or at least had been there since she saw me, but never picked up where I was. Do I think I am lucky...absolutely. But I will keep using what I use because so far it has not shown me it is a waste of money. -Andrew
But the question wasn't about personal experience, and we know that playing the wind is your best chance. What I'm asking for is an actual unbiased study stating that these products work in the slightest way. The personal experience component can't be used, because you don't know what caused the deer to do what they did. What's interesting to me is that the post has been up for 2 days, nobody has been able to produce any evidence that these products work in any way shape or form. The only things I've found are carefully worded documents from the manufacturers themselves.
I am losing faith in them over the years. I haven't used carbon clothing in years. Even when I did, after a couple years I only used it because it was the most comfortable fleece suit I could find. I do spray down still, but who knows. I use it more for entry/exit, and who knows if that even changes anything, I've had it go both ways. I don't think there is anything you can do if they are downwind from you. Hunt the wind, learn the thermals, and try to pattern how deer travel with them.
