Double Creek

I've become somewhat fascinated with scent control lately. Not so much about while on stand, but more along the lines of never letting the bucks know they're being hunted. Just playing the wind does little in the sense of making your entry and exit totally invisible.
I've had mature bucks hit my entry trail several hours later and they quickly turn and leave the area and I use rubber boots and always spray with scent killer.

I've often read about how indians would fast for days before a big hunt and would not eat red meat in particular. Has anyone ever altered their diet and what were the results.

At what point does scent control follow the laws of diminishing returns? By that I mean when is enough just enough? At what point have you done all that is possible?

Matt / PA

Well I would recommend staying away from spicy foods anyway..........oh and refried beans. []
There may be something to it, people say that they can smell alcohol "Oozing" from your pores....well not my pores but you get the idea.

Oral hygiene is probably way more important than actual diet. Flossing,brushing,mouthwash, and a fat juicy apple on the way to stand is a pretty good plan.

I also tend to like Non-threatening cover scents used lightly on clean boots.....racoon,or gray squirrel depending upon area I hunt. Rubber boots, don't touch a thing, scent free shower and stay off the trails. I have a few new locations I want to hang stands, and next week I am going to be hitting them with the pruners to make my own little sneaky scent free approach to my stands since I hunt some really thick areas it's all to easy to get lazy and use the deer trails for getting to stand.

We do what we can but I think we forget sometimes that we are dealing with a sense of smell that we really can't comprehend. You hear numbers like, "A deer has a sense of smell that is "X" times better than a human's" I don't think we probably realize what sort of ability that really translates to.

bigbulls

While I have never tried it myself cause I love meat too much and don't like vegetables enough. I have heard of folks going vegetarion for a month or so before and during hunting season. They claim that the prey animals do not spook at a vegetarians scent.

It sounds pretty reasonable to me. After all you are what you eat and deer don't eat meat.

Cougar Mag

I think you are right, the way we enter and exit is not emphazised enough. I have not altered my diet before hunts, although it might help. I haven't entered a teepee and done the big sweat thing either.[8D] Keeping clean and using the wind is what I try. I have watched coyotes stop dead in their tracks and change direction upon coming to where I have stepped, and I had worn rubber boots. I bet we might be surprised on the deer we don't see because of being scented.

Double Creek

Exactly Cougar, thats what scares me. I read some interesting stuff in TR's forum about dead skin cells. I'm wondering if diet would control the smell of these skin cells that mark our routes.

timberjack82

All this scent stuff is non-sense i think. I'll give you 2 examples. 1. My dad smokes. Well 2 years ago we had to put out a cigarette to shoot a nice 8 point buck that came by his stand, he shot it with the bow by the way. Anyway he shot that buck twice. After the 1st shot the buck only acted like he hiccupped my dad said so he shot him again just to make sure.
2. I chew. Always while hunting. I don't know how many deer I've killed while I have had a chew in. I don't use any of the scent things on the market and I still have good success. I don't know just my opinion, and you know what opinions are like

JimboHunter1

Timberjack, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that deer didn't/don't react to your dad's cigarette or your chew. Deer fear human skin scent, not unfamiliar scents like cigarette smoke or chewing tobacco, unless they learn to connect those smells with a dangerous encounter with a person. Are deer smart enough to make those connections? Maybe so if they're exposed to it enough.
I don't think that human urine spooks deer either. It's our body smell that they don't particularly care for! LOL They get one whiff of that and they'll head outta dodge for sure...

Now back to the question about abstaining from eating red meat for a period before hunting. That is an interesting concept. Could this be the reason that those veggie-eating PETA heads detest hunting? If PETA members are all vegetarians, the deer probably eat right out of their hands when they enter the woods, so those knuckleheads don't think there IS such a thing as a wild deer! [] Just a thought... LOL

Fieldmouse

I will leave it at this.

One of my buddies I hunt with is a vegitarian except for the fish. He has more monster bucks in front of him then me and our other freind we hunt with.

Call it what you want but it makes us think to change diets two months prior to the rut.

c903

Overkill! Just keep your body and clothes clean, and play the wind. You will drive yourself nuts trying to become scent-invisible to a deer. It cannot be done.

bigbulls

Question for those of you that say it is impossible.

Have you tried it?
If not, from where does your knowledge come from?

It would be very interesting if there could be an actual scientific test done concerning this.