Fact or Fiction? Scentblocking question
#21
I have to agree again. As a 100% still hunter all my life. I'm always pushing for guys to try it, and develop their woodsmanship skills, but that is always taken the wrong way on forums.
Some guys think i'm saying my way is the only way, and that's not what i'm saying at all. I just want them to give it a try to see if they like it. It never hurts to have more hunting skills.
I like to keep my hunting simple and basic. I use no optics, GPS, or any gadgets that help my hunt. I use nothing but open sights, and my own skills to beat the animals on their own turf with all their sense working 100%. On the ground face to face. I find it exciting and rewarding. I want others to have the same feeling, but of course that's hard to get across on forums.
I'm writing a book o Still Hunting, and i'm hoping that it's helpful. It's a dying skill today, and i'm doing my best to see that doesn't happen.
Some guys think i'm saying my way is the only way, and that's not what i'm saying at all. I just want them to give it a try to see if they like it. It never hurts to have more hunting skills.
I like to keep my hunting simple and basic. I use no optics, GPS, or any gadgets that help my hunt. I use nothing but open sights, and my own skills to beat the animals on their own turf with all their sense working 100%. On the ground face to face. I find it exciting and rewarding. I want others to have the same feeling, but of course that's hard to get across on forums.
I'm writing a book o Still Hunting, and i'm hoping that it's helpful. It's a dying skill today, and i'm doing my best to see that doesn't happen.
#22
I never said it would cover your scent. I said it would dilute your scent.
Personally, i've never used anything to cover my scent. As a still hunter of 60 years of hunting I know how to use the wind in my favor.
However, not all hunters are good at playing the wind. I have buddies that swear by the wafers, and have better success using them. He uses the ones that smell like dirt. Earth wafers I think they're called.
I was curious, and looked them up. I found hundreds of hunters who swear by them just as strong as you guys swear against them.
So, even though I don't find a need to use them. I at least have an open mind about them. I don't know if they work, but if you have a scent that's coming off you that's stronger than your human scent, and is a natural smell to animals. Who knows if they help? It seems better than having nothing but human stink coming off you.
Personally, i've never used anything to cover my scent. As a still hunter of 60 years of hunting I know how to use the wind in my favor.
However, not all hunters are good at playing the wind. I have buddies that swear by the wafers, and have better success using them. He uses the ones that smell like dirt. Earth wafers I think they're called.
I was curious, and looked them up. I found hundreds of hunters who swear by them just as strong as you guys swear against them.
So, even though I don't find a need to use them. I at least have an open mind about them. I don't know if they work, but if you have a scent that's coming off you that's stronger than your human scent, and is a natural smell to animals. Who knows if they help? It seems better than having nothing but human stink coming off you.
Anyway my point is if it worked it would be free. I mean I'm in a tree that is standing in dirt covered with stick, leaves, hundreds of different urine etc etc all for free supplied by mother nature. It doesn't work because deer pick odd smells out in a natural habitat.....that is what they do and a little extra natural smell pinned on your shirt aint about to stop them.
Confidence is a funny thing. Scent wafers probably do help people that believe they help in some ways. Another thing that probably helps is the fact that the smell of cover scent forces people to keep their hunting clothes separate and contained which is likely what actually makes the difference.
I don't care what people do I just personally think the concept of cover scent is silly and I think its a little distracting from learning methods that actually do work.
Lets face it pinning a dirt scented wafer on our hats doesn't change the smell of our bodies nor does it add anything to the environment that isn't already there in abundance. Its about equivalent to the difference in standing on a dirt pile VS standing on a dirt pile with dirt in your hand.....nothing.
Last edited by rockport; 09-08-2014 at 08:56 AM.
#23
Personally, I don't believe in camo either. I've been wearing red and black plaid wool since the 50's. I've never had a problem sneaking up on critters. Even when i'm in plain sight.
However, camo breaks up our outline, so it has some use. I just think it's a waste of money, and you look like Rambo. Waste of money like wafers.
Is that you in your avatar?
However, camo breaks up our outline, so it has some use. I just think it's a waste of money, and you look like Rambo. Waste of money like wafers.
Is that you in your avatar?
#24
Personally, I don't believe in camo either. I've been wearing red and black plaid wool since the 50's. I've never had a problem sneaking up on critters. Even when i'm in plain sight.
However, camo breaks up our outline, so it has some use. I just think it's a waste of money, and you look like Rambo. Waste of money like wafers.
Is that you in your avatar?
However, camo breaks up our outline, so it has some use. I just think it's a waste of money, and you look like Rambo. Waste of money like wafers.
Is that you in your avatar?
#25
As has been mentioned with the "food coloring in the moving stream" example: The WATER dilutes the food coloring, eventually diluting it below a detectable limit. The FLOW, on the other hand, moves the food coloring in a certain fashion. Regardless of the dilution factor or rate, there are certain areas that will NEVER make contact with the food coloring, specifically, the areas upstream of the source.
Many other industries rely upon this differentiation. For example, producing perfectly sealed and contamination free enclosures is very difficult in the biopharma or microbiology sectors. BUT, if you use a filtered air source fed into your enclosure and keep it at a positive pressure with positive airflow moving out of any openings, then no contaminating bacteria or particles can infiltrate the enclosure - ala the "laminar flow hood".
Lord knows I love arguing semantics, but in this case, it's particularly important and practically applicable, rather than simple theory.
Dilution: On a calm day, a deer 800yrds away can't smell you because your scent has been diluted below detectable limit by the time it ever reaches their position. BUT, if they get close to you from any direction, they'll pick up your scent.
Displacement: In any wind condition, a deer 10yrds upwind of you can't smell you because all of your scent is getting pulled downwind. BUT, if they move downwind, they'll pick you up.
Concealment via products is like the dog poop on the shoe vs. French fry on your shirt.
Elimination of emanation of scent, through any form of scent killer product, is impossible.
I say it every time this topic comes up: If there was a scent mitigation method that actually works to trick a deer's nose, then drug peddlers would be using it to trick K-9 Officers used for illicit drug detection. There simply isn't a PRODUCT that works.
The best way to hide something is to not have it somewhere it can be seen - or smelled, in this case. The wind does that.
#26
Like you said. It's semantics. At least you knew what I meant.
Explain this? My buddy said since using the wafers, and of course all the methods used to keep his scent down with them, that he's had deer approach him from downwind. Something he's never experienced without the wafers. He hunts different than me, and uses stands, so the deer have to approach him.
I've read this over and over from those using the wafers. Are they all lying? They continue to buy and use the wafers. Who does that on a product that doesn't work?
Explain this? My buddy said since using the wafers, and of course all the methods used to keep his scent down with them, that he's had deer approach him from downwind. Something he's never experienced without the wafers. He hunts different than me, and uses stands, so the deer have to approach him.
I've read this over and over from those using the wafers. Are they all lying? They continue to buy and use the wafers. Who does that on a product that doesn't work?
#29