Originally Posted by AMM0

Hopefully, I'm not resurrecting a dying thread... but as a newcomer to the sport of hunting, it's a pretty humbling experience when you're gathering items for your very first hunt. Maybe I can offer a different perspective...?

I went to a local Gander Mountain last weekend and you could spend several, several hundred dollars just buying all things for scent elimination and/or scent control. Does it honestly mean that I don't have a chance in heck of shooting my very first deer if I don't buy into all of this...? I can't afford to spend a few hundred dollars on clothing that supposedly no longer makes me smell human (huh?) and I can't afford to spend several hundred dollars on gadgets and gizmos and spray bottles of magical potions and liquids either.

Maybe this has been brought up before and maybe not... but how did our forefathers and ancestors (or heck my own grandpa!) shoot trophy deer back in the day? They didn't have super-duper scent eliminator zero human spray back then. No fancy scent wafer chips to snap onto your hat, right? I swear, I've gone through hundreds of old hunting photographs online last weekend and I can't find one! And I'm pretty sure a lot of deer were harvested, weren't there? Because I've found a lot of old photographs from the 50's and 60's and 70's online with some gentlemen who shot and killed from pretty nice looking animals. Somehow I'm doubting the fact that they sprayed down liberally with a weird overpriced concoction before heading out for dinner that evening.

$250.00 for super duper scent eliminator pants (courtesy of Cabelas) and another $229.00 for the super duper scent eliminator jacket, plus WI State Sales Tax AND shipping/handling... means I'm spending upwards and over $500.00 for just two items: some pants and a jacket. Does the trophy deer come with this clothing or is that separate?

My point to all of this rambling is the fact that on one hand we all say we need to keep the younger generations hunting and keep them outdoors and off the couch and away from the video games. We need to teach the younger generations about hunting conservation and wildlife and deer hunting and what an amazing experience it is. And then we have the audacity on the other hand to sort of brainwash (for lack of better word?) that in order to get started in the sport, you need ALL THIS STUFF! It seems to me that it would be a sure way to really turn someone off... rather than turn them on to the hobby. I gotta say... adding up all of the "stuff" that I needed for my first hunting outing was a pretty daunting experience. I easily got caught up in the fancy flyers and advertisements on The Outdoor Channel and aisles and aisles of scent elimination. Then I took a step back... and realized, this is sort of ridiculous. I shouldn't have to go into debt to enjoy a sport that our grandfathers did every weekend each Fall for absolutely nothing. A few bullets in their coat pocket is a far cry from a $500.00 super duper human scent be gone outfit.

Am I completely out of the norm and way off base? I'd love to be able to go on my first deer hunt this season, but I can't afford to spend thousands of dollars so that I no longer smell human.