ORIGINAL: Proff

Well I was gonna stay out of this one, but Kevin jumped in here and told what he knows so I will pass along what was told to me about 3 months ago. Now before I start, let me state that I myself have 3 scent suits. 1 Scentblocker Ultra Lite, 1 Scentblocker Feather Lite, and a Scent Lok Poly Cotton suit. I also have a pair of Scent Lok gloves for each suit and a few pairs of Scent Lok socks. I have always been a scent control freak, long before the carbon suit craze started. Beleive me, I take every step possible to try and remain as scent free as I can, and always have. When the activated carbon craze began, I decided to wait a year or so before dropping big bucks on it, just to see if it was a fad or a legitimate scent control tool. Well, needless to say, I bought into it..... 3 times!!
Late Nov. last season brought really bitter cold weather to NW Ohio for a few weeks. I broke out the old Predator bibs and winter jacket and used them instead of my scent suits. Well, I killed a doe at 4 yards from my stand.
I had strted seeing the threads on here by a few guys really questioning the validity of the carbon suits. Their effectiveness, life span, reactivation capabilities etc. I read more and more , and started to question it myself. I am sure alot of you guys remember these threads and posts by the one guy who worked with activated carbon, and in a nutshell, he was saying that hunters are basically getting taken for a ride and are paying alot of hard earned cash for something that isn't as great as it seems ( or as they are being told).
The more and more I thought about it, the more I really started to question if it was really worth the money, because I don't have to tell you guys, the stuff ain't cheap, and Scott Shultz from robinson Labs and the owner of Scent Lok are making some pretty serious sales volumes on the stuff. If they weren't , there wouldn't be so many more different styles and types of suits to fulfill every seasonal change and so many different accessories. Supply and demand at its finest example.!!
I finally came to the conclusion that I was just fine without the carbon stuff, and just continuing what I was presently doing and wearing all my great Predator stuff ( and I have ALOT of it) that just sat in the storage bags in the Rubbermaid containers for the past few years. Honestly, I can't say that the carbon products have made me anymore successful. I have always gotten spitting close to so many deer and have been successful every year and have never had a problem with deer winding me. So to me, all I was doing was spending alot of money on something that I could spend a third of the money on. I was really considering retiring the scent suits ( as I am sure that they are all used up as much as I hunt) and getting all the Predator ready for this season. I just needed a little shove to get me over the decision line. Well, that confirmation shove came from our Environmental, Health and Saftey Coordinator where I work.
This guy is one of those guys that is truly brilliant. He really knows his stuff. One day I was at my desk and he was going over some stuff with me and he saw a few of my magazines laying there. One of them had the heading of a story on the cover about carbon suits. He asked me what it was about. So I told him about the suits and showed him some in the Cabelas catalog, told him about how you take care of them, how you reactivate them etc. He read the article real quick, and then gave me some info. He works with activated carbon all the time for the water and air purification systems for our plant, and actually takes care of it forall 4 of our product line plants for our company. He started of by saying, Please tell me you didn't get suckered into paying that much money for these things!! Well, I told I did, and then he letme have it!!
He said that the companies are not really lying to us, because the suits will do what they say.... for about 10-15 hours of use, then they become a regular hunting jacket. He said that once the fill up with the scent molecules, there isn't a clothes dryer made that could come close to being hot enough to reactivate the carbon. He said that it mayreactivate a few of the pockets on the very outside layer, but they would clog back up almost right away. He said that carbon would also braek down in different areas, leaving spots that would let the scent right through, like a screen. He echoed something that always bothered me.I have always comehome from a hunt and rewashed my clothes to remove my scent from them ( when you have as many suits as I have, you can alternate suits alot). With the carbon stuff, you wear it all day, handle it later, etc, then stuff it in your storage containerto basically soak in the scent that you got on it. That has bothered me forever since I started using them. There is now way, no matter how hard you try, that after walking to stands, hunting all day, etc, that you aren't gonna put some scent on your clothes somehow. Like I said, throw them in the bag 5 or 6 days straight,those babies have to be full of your scent on the outside.
After all the stuff he told me, I made the decision to go back to my old way. And I guarentee you that I will get close to as many deer as before.
If you love your scent suits and have all the confidindencein them, that is great. I am not like some that are on a crusade against Scent Lok and Scent Shield. If people love them and want to use them I think that is great. I felt that way for a few years. I just know that FOR ME, I don't feel that the cost is worth the rewards, because I was already getting the rewars before. I will stick to myproven scent control routine, throw on my beloved Predator, climb a tree have alot more money left over to spend on other things!!!!
This is just one man's opinion!