Why can I smell my sent free sent blocker or soap or detergent. Yeah I can smell it sort of smells like dirt but isn't labeled to smell like dirt. If I can smell it wont the deer smell it???
Sean, I'm gonna get a little long here, but stay with me..... First off, I was ALL of my clothes in SCENT-FREE Hypoallergenic "ALL or Purex." That includes what I wear to work, what I wear to the woods, what I wear to bed. ALL of it is washed and DRIED in "scent-free." I use Mitchum Unscented roll-on deodorant/anti-perspirant, even in the off season, because it's that good at suppressing odors. From there, I also wear silver ion laced base layers and socks, they REALLY DO WORK. I can get my feet stinking during the summer, and sleep with these socks on a couple nights and they literally kill the stink. Think I'm kidding, call and ask my wife. I'm very serious, they are the bomb, be them the X-Scent, Browning scent suppressant socks or whomever makes them, make sure you get the ones with the silver ion anti-microbial treatment, they ARE that good in my experience. I also bath in a scent-free soap. One of the BETTER ones I've used is actually Johnson and Johnson hypoallergenic baby wash in unscented. Picked them up for $1 at Wally's, way cheaper than the "Hunter's Body wash," and just as effective. You don't need "Hunter's Detergent," and "Hunter's Body Wash," if you play it smart and realize there are effective products in the aisle of every Kroger/Giant Eagle/Safeco/etc, that get you to the same place. Purex is CHEAP, and very effective, for that matter you can use a box of Baking Soda if you really want. Getting deeper into it, I ALWAYS wear a light facemask/neck-gaiter that covers my mouth, ears, and the back of my bald head, primarily for camouflage, but also because that mask keeps the odor from my mouth a little more suppressed. Hope some of that helps and "Good Luck" out there.
Siman, that may be true but the difference could be a hint of human odor that doesn't blow the deer out of the area vs a full snout full that blows every deer from the county....
in about a week or 2 your scent wont matter much at all, because the buck will be in retard mode and if you have plenty of doe N heat scent they will come in and not even pay attention to your smell, unless you haven't shower in 2 days and smell like you just finished PT during the summer.
The 95" buck tonight that I had right below me, and when I say RIGHT BELOW ME, I mean I could have taken his picture through my base of my stand, had NO IDEA that I was there!!! I almost would have considered shooting him, because this was my FIRST trip to the woods with a REAL BOW (compound meaning, rather than crossbow) since breaking my neck and having to regain use of my left arm. All in all, I think I had him pretty well tricked. I have many encounters a year like this, I'm not saying it completely removes all scent, but in the overall realm, it's a pretty sound scent control plan. And he came in from the DOWNWIND side, so he should have smelled me....
OK, I am going to say something, and it might cause some controversy. I have seen a lot of talk about "scent free" and personally, I think its a bit misunderstood. First, to your question, without knowing what product you are using, what you might be "smelling" is not a smell as much as the "absence" of smell. I think for humans, this is a hard concept to understand since smell is not our primary or even secondary sense. But, think of it this way. Everything should have a "smell" just like everything should have a "sight", "look" or "picture." Imagine if for a second, you knew your hunting clothes were there, but you couldn't "see" them, it might appear as just a black hole or absence of anything visual. It is there, so its not neccesarily invisible since nothing is taking up that space where you should be seeing something. For deer, and other animals with a stronger sense of smell, scent is like a visual stream for them. You take something out of the stream, its not neccesarily filled in with whatever else is around it becuase their sense of smell is so refined. I see lots of posts, and always hear lots of guys talking about why did the deer spook when they had scent blocker on. Typically the response is becuase its not 100% effective. My theory is that for a deer, they are walking along, sniffing the air then all of sudden, nothing is there. It would be the same as if we were down the street and all of a sudden, there was a black hole where a building should be. It would probably freak you out as well. Since other "smells" don't fill in the space where your "smell" should be, it comes across like the black hole. What I ponder is the validity of scent blockers not being 100& effective. Most rationale would say that this means that the deer wold still smell you, but maybe think you are further away since the smell is not as strong. Again though, think about yourself and vision. If you are looking down a continuous highway, you can gauge distance even if the highway looks the same all the way to the horizon. Now, lets say that you are looking down at 25 yds, 40 yds, and then at 50 yds something appears that "appears" to be 200 yds away. Again, this would seem unnatural. Another arguement says it doesn't make you seem farther away, just maybe not so strong of an odor so not as threatening. Again, compare to sight. So, in this setup, you aren't seeing a total black hole, but you are seeing maybe 5% of something, kind of like a ghost. Again, not natural so it would freak you out. So, in my theory, not only would you want to remove your scent, but then ideally replace it with something natural to fill in the gap. Personally, I tend to rub leaves on my clothes. I knew a bunch of guys down south that, before the commercial products became so popular, used to take pine needles, shove them in pantyhose then through that in the washer. Probably many will differ in their opinions, but just thought I'd throw this one out there.
Is there any truth to this? My theory is, deer, like dogs and sharks, can smell SO well, that the attempt to cover/mask or rid one's self of human "scent" is simply impossible. We cannot do it. The reason it "seems" to work, IMO, is because like humans, dogs and other species of animal, certain individual deer will tolerate certain amounts of human scent. Just some food for thought.
I'm pretty sure no one or nothing would tolerate your sent Siman. I can't wait until I find a deer stupid enough to tolerate mine.
I think you CAN rid yourself of enough scent to "trick" them, and I've done it hundreds of times. I had 2 does within 7-8 yds of me this morning, on the ground, and they saw me and spooked, not horribly, but they realized something wasn't right, they ran around to the SW of me as we had a NE blowing wind, and stuck their noses in the air 25-30yds from me and tried to smell me to determine if I was dangerous or not, after not apparently being able to smell me, they stomped and stiff leg walked all around, finally satisfied I was nothing more than an UGLY bush, they went on their way, all total, I saw 9 deer this morning, MOST of them came from the downwind side of me, except the two that almost walked over me, none of them spooked. Unfortunately, all were does, and the way the bucks been moving, I wasn't about to blow my spot on a doe when there is a 150+ buck running around here. I've had numerous deer within 10yds of me on the ground, one buck I literally "shoe'd" away a couple years ago because once he got within 5yds, I felt he was TOO CLOSE. With a GOOD PLAN, you can trick them pretty regularly, I have no doubt.
Every deer thats ever winded me has acted EXACTLY like that, its what they do when they smell human scent. Ive never had a deer just "run away spooked", its always a slow getaway...and ive never done more then spray my boots with scent killer. Ive had deer within 10 yards of me a number of times as well. IMO, all this scent killing stuff, is about $.
