Scent Control seems to be a hot bed of discussion these days. With all the marketing going on surrounding this, I was wondering how folks here treat their own personal scent control? How important is it to you? What measures do you go to to be scent free? How big of a role do you feel it plays in your level of success? ...or do you even care?

I personally am not a scent control " freak" as some would claim to be. However, I do try my best to keep my scent to a minimum. I use the laundry detergents, the body soaps, etc. I also try and keep my clothes in containers with baking soda to cut down on the scents they pick up around the house. The other thing I do is when possible, I like to hang my clothes outside and let them air out, and if anything absorb the outside smells. I also love SCENT KILLER....I think that stuff works great, and always have it with me!

When out in the field...I usually wear my rubber boots, and try and hunt stands when the wind is right...or at least mostly right. One big problem I have where I hunt is the mountians(or knobs, as we call them) jut up pretty tall, and the wind can be very different when you get up high, compared to down low. Another thing common to where I hunt is the wind seems to change often. I don' t know exactly why, but it' s a pain it the rear sometimes. Last year I was set up along a bedding area where we had seen a decent buck...the wind was perfect for that stand (out of the west). Within an hour after daylight, it did a 180 and came out of the east...right into the beds [:' (] I' m not sure why it does that, but it seems to happen alot.[:@] Maybe it' s the terrain??? Who knows, but it' s something we have to deal with. Sometimes it will change 2 or more times during one sit. I usually try and hunt high (20' +) to help keep my scent up off the ground as best possible. Does this happen to anyone else?

The other problem I run into alot is sweating after the long walk in. I usually wear as little as possible on the walk in, carry my clothes in and put them on when I get there. I hate sweating, but there' s hardly any way around it many of the places where I hunt. Like I said...I use alot of Scent Killer.

As far as scent control clothing...I don' t have any. Although I will admit, over the last few years with all the hype, I' ve been curious about it. After researching it(and reading alot of info posted here), I don' t see any reason for me to spend the money on it. One thing I will say....I can' t tell you how many deer have been directly downwind from me and never busted me(without scent control clothing). Yes I have been busted...no doubt, but I' ve killed my fair share of deer that have been directly downwind. Did they smell me and not care? Did they not smell me? Who knows for sure. I will admit though, the majority of these were not mature bucks. I' m not so sure how much immature deer worry about or fear human scent.

I try my best to hunt with the wind in my favor, and stay as scent free as possible...but it doesn' t always happen.

What do you do as far as scent control? Do you have any hard and fast do' s or don' ts that you go by? Any tips or pointers?

And a question for those of you that hunt for mature bucks only....what can be done to put the advantge in the hunters favor? (other than what I stated above)

Thanks in advance