I think the scent free stuff is all BS.

That being said, I do wear camo coveralls, but nothing fancy and I do have a bottle of Scent Away detergent I bought a few years ago I use. I also sometimes shower and use the soap if I'm going to take a shower before going to the stand, but I don't worry about it otherwise. I sometimes use the spray before walking into the stand and sometimes not.

That said, when I run out I doubt I will by more of this stuff as I simply don't think it works. The only reason I use it at all is I have some of it that I bought years ago and still am using it.

I have a friend who's Dad is into all of this stuff because he see's it on TV. He will see the latest scent free product and have to buy it, the latest camo, etc. He has to have it all to get that advantage. He pretty much lives to hunt and watches hunting shows and talks about it all year, until the season comes in. In fact, he buys this stuff rather than pay his bills quite often.

For example this year, he saw the new Mossy Oak Infinity camo on TV. I assume it's new as he told me it was, but I have no idea. He had to rush out and buy this stuff despite the fact that he probably has 20 other pairs of camo. He also bought 2 huge bottles of Scent Away and has several of some other stuff that comes in a orange bottle.

We all laugh at him because he has been hunting since he was a kid so probably 35-40 years, and he has never killed what most of us would consider a big buck even though he spends ridiculous amounts of money on this stuff and tells us what we are doing wrong. We really shouldn't laugh as it's not funny, but more so sad. So he spends all of this money, and it clearly isn't doing him any good. The only thing he has killed of any size was a mule deer and it was small for a mule deer, but would be about the size of a decent white tail.


That said, I have another friend that I hunt with that also bought all of this stuff we me several years ago and he also quickly formed the opinion that it was BS. He used it the first year and rarely saw anything. Since then he has quit using it, showers as normal, washes his camo as normal, wears normal camo, etc, and has killed more deer the last two years than he has in the rest of his life combined, so it's clearly just luck, not what you smell or look like. Infact, he was talking on his phone the first day of black powder season this year and a pretty nice 7 point buck walked out into the field as he was talking and never paid much attention to him. He shot that one, then a few days later shot a huge 13 pointer. He agreed with me that stuff is mostly a marketing scam. We don't think it hurts to use it, but it doesn't seem to help either.

I also had a similar experience last year. I had been helping someone hang plywood in their shop while wearing my hunting cloths before heading to the stand. I smelled of the fresh cut plywood and who knows what else. They told me I'd never see a deer smelling like that as the deer knew that smell didn't belong. Well, that evening I killed the biggest buck that any of us know of that's been killed in that area. They only one that's come close is the 13 pointer my buddy got this year about 500 yards from where I killed this deer last year. That's the point I realized this stuff doesn't matter.