I have often wondered about these scent free products and deer. Granted some of them may be scent free, but I often wonder about the chemicals, think about it, a buck will actually analyze the stage of estreus a doe is in with special glands and not smell, I wonder if they may not be able to detect chemicals that are not " right" ? Anyone have any thoughts/opinions on this? I personally avoid every chemical I can and stick with only natural products if I use cover scents or attractants.

I don' t know about the commercial brands, but I was well doused with the home brew " ghost juice" this weekend and had several deer downwind of me within 10-20 yards and never once got busted...

I just got into ' serious' hunting the last two years, but like I do with everything, I have read, analyzed and over analyzed everything I can get my hands on. The more I read and experiment with out in the woods (I hunt 5 minutes from my back door, so experimenting is easy), the more I am leaning towards going the all natural route also. I' ll still use scent free laundry detergent, simply because eventually the clothes need to be washed and its definitely better than Tide. Maybe I' ll continue to use one or two other commercial things also, but otherwise I' m leaning towards eliminating as much of the junk and scents as possible from my hunts. I have the same concern as you do about deer smelling and detecting chemicals. I swore by Hawg' s scents last year, but this year I got busted by two different does when I used the BF Gland scent on my pants legs as I walked into my stand. All else was typical, the gland scent was the only ' new' experiment I did that day.

I look at it this way- I can detect a strange scent in my home rather easily. I know if it was one of our cats that wizzed on the floor, or the dog. I can pick out whether or not my wife altered the recipe of my favorite dish by smell alone. Do I have confidence that deer, especially the big bucks, can' t tell the difference between H.S. Scents ' Autumn Ground' and the smell of their natural autumn floor that they lie on every day and have their noses to every hour? Heck, I bought some of it the other day and I can tell the difference. I think scent free is the best way, and doing it as naturally as possible, with just a little help from chemicals here and there.

Taz,

I use Scent Shield 2-in-1. It is really great. My wife teases me because she says I smell like a " cross between wet leaves, and a compose pile" ! Great stuff.... [:-]

Butch

Yea I have tons of them - but the buying public doesn' t want to hear it

Scent is the MOST understood concept in bowhunting - being scent free or even close to scent free is 100% impossible. I analyze my scent free habits more and more every year. It is the biggest weakness we as hunters have in the woods - and it makes us easy prey for all the crap that is on the shelves these days.

We have beaten the Carbon suite thing to death so I won' t hammer that nail again

I also have a BIG problem with the crazy popular scent away sprays that it seems everyone soaks themselves in before every hunt. I stopped using them years ago. That stuff smells to me - is made of many compounds that are not natural to the woods and we cover ourselves in it. No one can even come close to prove that those sprays do anything to stop scent. What they do is smell nice to us - to our weak incapable noses it works.

99% of the scent products sold today and used by millions IMO are a complete Joke. They are designed to catch bowhunters not deer - and probably hurt more than do good.

I just hope and prey these companies don' t get into fishing tackle
It is going to be real tough catching bass on plastic T-Bone steaks and Plastic boobs