Scent controll

[BlakeA]

Just make sure you bring one or two Ozonics machines with you up the mountain and you will be fine

 

[RUT JUNKEY]

I'm with Flatland, it works for me to a point when hunting whitetails in the Midwest from treestands or blinds. I don't go crazy with every product, but I do shower with scent free soaps, and always store all of my hunting clothes in a scent free bag in my truck after washing them with scent free soaps. IMO they don't have to be fancy high dollar clothing, they just have to be kept clean and not worn to McDonalds or the gas station on the way to the field. Rubber knee boots are always part of my gear and if I had only one piece of "scent-Lok" type product it would be a head covering as I believe the sweat from my bald head after hiking in causes more scent than my body under multiple layers. For this reason I stop often on my way to the stand and keep my core temp down by wearing as few clothes as possible and dressing at the stand when I get there. Playing the wind and not hunting particular stands in marginal winds is by far more important to me than any clothing care or product.

On western hunts I throw it all out the window, the hikes are too long and sweaty and when backpacking for a week you are gonna stink, period. We play the wind and thermals the best we can and we get busted, just part of the game. My guess is the game can still detect a sweaty human whether he is covered with smoke or not .

Muskeez just saved me a lot of writing. . .I agree and do the same. . .it seems to work ok for me.

 

[Muskeez]

The biggest difference in East vs. West for me is distances to hunting location and availability to clean clothes. Out west I head in for a week and I am going to stink, no sense carrying a bunch of products in that will only minimally control that. At home I can shower before the hunt, walk a whole half mile, climb in one of 12 stands on 80 acres, depending on time of day and wind direction, and go home to a cold beer and another shower. In that case I can control my scent much better anyway. Like you said, good products definitely help, but only to a point. IMO.

 

[Smokepoler63]

I began tree stand hunting for archery elk, over wallows or seeps, 3 years ago. I do everything I can to control scent and odors. My stands are 1.5 to 1.7 miles in from the trail head, and I do get sweated up on the hike in. I have come up with a system that has worked pretty well for me. I carry rubbing alcohol, baking powder, scent control wet wipes, scent elimination spray, and a complete set of underwear, socks, Scentlok shirt, jacket, pants, head cover, and gloves washed in scent elimination detergent and stored in a scent proof bag in my pack. 300 to 500 yards away from my stand, I strip down buck naked on the hill side. I wipe down my entire body with 90% + rubbing alcohol with a wash cloth. Then I powder my body with the baking powder. Then I re-dress completely in clean, Scentlok clothing head to toe. Then I spray down my boots, bow, and body with scent eliminating spray. I place all of my sweated up clothing into a large clothing ZipLok bag and stash it somewhere off the trail. I leave my main pack pack behind with my clothing and take a small scent free day pack with my tree stand essentials the final 300-500 yards to the tree stand.

After sitting in the tree stand all day, 12 to 14 hours, I return to my gear stash, change out of my Scentlok back into my sweaty clothing, and hike back out to the trail head. I have a Zodi propane fired camp shower, and I shower every night. I have two sets of ScentLok clothing and this routine will get me through 3 to 5 days of hunting. In the off season I wash my packs in scent elimination detergent, then store them in scent control bags with pine bows and sage brush branches. I also put pine bows/needles and sage brush leaves/branches in an athletic sock, tie it off and throw it in with my packs and clothing in the clothes dryer. My wife harasses me about not knowing how to do laundry, but becoming a washer and dryer Zen master when I'm preparing for a hunt.

I have killed two mature bulls in the last three years and passed on multiple shots on the one year I didn't fill my tag, so I feel that my 'System' helps. Is it fool proof, no, I still get busted by shifting wind, but I think my efforts give me more shot opportunities. With this routine I have to get up super early and I get back to camp quite late. This method makes for some short nights of sleep, but September is only 30 days, and only comes once a year, so I'm willing to give up a little sleep for the success I'm having.

My nephew and I started hunting a new wallow last year (2016) that had a lot of elk activity. The trail cameras showed elk on the wallow every day for 5 straight days before the opener. My nephew sat that stand, using the same routine I do for 4 straight days, and not a single elk came in. He helped me pack my bull out on the morning of the 5th day. When he went to hike into the stand that afternoon, a 7 X 7 bull was in the wallow. We determined that scent was the problem. We really studied the area and the trail camera photos. We determined that most of the elk approached from the south-west, directly down wind from the stand for the prevailing wind direction. We still have to figure this stand out. We're thinking a ground blind across the draw with an Ozonics unit might be the ticket.

I don't think there is anything that is foolproof when it comes to scent control. You still have to use wind direction to your advantage. My routine takes extra time and effort and many sportsman may feel it isn't worth the trouble. I hunt an over the counter tag on public land in a unit that averages 15-20% success rate on any elk. I think my results speak for themselves.

 

[Gunner46]

If they catch your scent stream, you're BUSTED. End of discussion. I haven't had any commercial product get me past that fact, so I just quit buying them.

 

[duckhunt]

If scent control worked, there would be no drug or bomb sniffing dogs.

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