I don' t know if this is common knowledge or not but I was talking with the owner of my archery store while he was working on a bow. I noticed it was completely apart and wondered what was wrong. He called me over and told me to smell the limb pockets. The smell was VERY strong. I guess the greese they use when assembling their limbs has a VERY strong chemical smell to it. The owner told me he offers to regreese any bows if people want with an industrial no smell greese.

He called Mathews and was told that scent control is not a priority for them.

I wonder how many guys out there go through a million scent free rituals and then carry a strong smelling chemical greese in the woods with them??

FWIW Bowtech greese smells too.........just not as bad. Don' t want people to think I am just bashing Mathews.


Why would companies that know their bows are used for hunting put smelly chemicals in the limb pockets??

Anyone else ever get to smell this stuff??

That' s interesting and actually funny you mentioned it cause a couple years back I thought of that while standing in my favorite stand. I' ve put hundreds of hours in bow shops over the years working on bows and one day in my stand I was thinking....I have time to do that in a stand , I started sniffing all the components on my bow inclulding the limb pockets....it was fine, no smells and I have in the past and continue to spray down my bows and equipment I take in the field with me. Think about it, you handle them all summer and carry them into the woods with all that human odor on them....[]

You brought up a good point for everyone out there to check these not so obvious things for unnatural odors....Good point Atlasman.

You two have got to be kidding me?!?[&o]

Nope.........not kidding. The stench was unreal. I really don' t understand why bow companies would use grease that smells so bad when they know the bows will be used for hunting whitetails.

What' s even worse is some of the responses this guy has gotten when he asked bow companies about it. One guy told him that 99% of hunters will never take their limbs off so they will never know [:@]


When I was shown this 2 things came to mind......#1 I never thought of it and wondered if my scent precautions were just a waste of time if I was carrying this strong chemical smell in my hands every trip in the woods.

#2 How many other guys out there practically go insane trying to be absolutely sure no foreign scents are brought into their stands.........when in fact the very weapon they are hunting with is emitting the strongest of foreign odors imaginable.


Deer can smell MUCH better then I can and I pulled my head away because the smell was so strong.............just something to ponder.

[]...think I' ll go wiff the ol' Razor Tec right now.

haha, yeah may have to check out the Hoyt tonight

atlas it could simply be a matter of cost, they are in it to make money and if the stinky stuff cost less they will use it. I will be smelling my browing tonight![]

It could be a cost issue as Taz stated but it also be an issue of using the best material regardless of scent. If such and such a company feels that their grease does a better job of lubricating the bow' s components then they may not care about the scent issue.

Doesn' t somebody make a bow scent containment suit yet?

I was going to say, " So Mathews really does stink," but it would be too obvious and too easy.

Most people only worry about the scent they put off themselves and don' t ever think about how much unnatural odor their equipment puts off. Plastics and synthetic rubber have volitile compounds in them that keep them pliable. Those compounds evaporate over the life of the product and are a constant source of odor. Ever stuck your nose inside a freshly opened bag of plastic vanes?

Very Interesting... I usually spray my equipment down, but I will have to check that out this evening... But no Time to fix it, I' m going in the woods either way... I have been waiting for 8 months now... Just use some extra spray for tonight...