There has been lots of talk about scent and camo lately. Its all good and helps us choose whats best for our hunting, debate always makes for better hunters.

I have knocked camo and scent “inhibitors” before so let me explain a bit why.

I believe STAND PLACEMENT is 85% of the Battle to kill good deer.

I will give scent 10%, and camo and all the other junk you can think of the other 5%.

Modern day Bowhunting industry lives off guys who have a 30% stand – trying to make up the other 55% with “products”. I am not saying you can’t do “Both” – plenty of guys in the world and on this sight that have 85% stands and suck up the entire 15% of scent and camo goodies that can be effective – to give them the “best edge they can have”.

But IMO all this stuff and all this money is just trying to knock a few % points your way.

If YOU are still standing in a poor stand location – It won’t make a hill of beans.

But you won’t hear this much from today’s industry……..

They haven’t yet found a way to package killer trees……

It’s amazing how simple it can be when you are just standing where they are coming,
And how complicated it can get when your not.

Rack are you saying I can't buy any scent lok from you?

I agree with your statement. Very careful consideration should be made before placeing your stand. Scent control is important imo but not worth 200$ for a scentlok suit.

You sure can - that stuff is the BOMB

For once I agree with the man.

I was hunting out west last year. There were owners of a scent suit company that were hunting with us. Every mourning the guide would tell them to walk this way because of the wind, of course they didn't have to play the wind, the were scent "free". After 10 days of the animals running out the other side of the valley, which was actually comical, they complained to the guide about not seeing anything. The FIRST day they played the wind properly they both killed P & Y muleys. I think scent control is a joke, your missing animal sightings if you are not playing the wind. The only way this is not the case is if you have a gas mask on to filter your breath nad take 50 tablets of beano to filter last nights chili.

That would be a hard one to debate dude!

Really I would've gave stand placement 90% I don't use scent. And camo.....[:-]? In my youth days I killed deer in hand-me-down army drab green clothing. It's a nice luxury and I'd give it 5% I would go deaper in saying the ability to know how and when to use calls would clean up the other 5%.

I believe that scent killers and suits work but are not full proof. They don't give you the luxury or going after an animal from any direction. But I do think that they help to a certain degree. But they are no replacement for hunting the wind and setting up in a good location with good entry and exit routes.

Scent “inhibitors”

Ok I thought you were talking about attractants. This changes everything!!!!!

Except wasting money on scent-lok suits, I think doing everything we can about scent control is very very important. Being in the right tree on the right hour is nice but unfortunately it doesn’t happen every day. What we have are day after day of hunting in different locations. If you’re lucky this will include different properties or several hundred acres. If you’re not conscious of scent control you are burning up your chances at a mature buck faster than the guy that strictly manages his scent control. What I’m saying is, every second you spend in the woods your laying down you scent. You can go weeks on property and not hit the magic moment in the “best stand location.” What better way to really burn the property than to spend two weeks working different stands and spooking deer to the point they decide not to move until nightfall manly because you did absolutely nothing to control your scent. I’m having a hard time typing my point here.[&:]

All of my stands are in the best locations; otherwise I wouldn’t have put them in the tree! More than not I score on the first sitting of a stand but not always. It may take a few sittings in a two-week period and a couple of short moves before I connect. When this happens I point my reason for success heavily on the fact that scent control was utilized threw out the weeks.


You gave three factors in your post, Scent, Camo, and Stand Location. Everyone on the forum can think back on successful hunts and point out key factors that made the hunt successful. Every hunt will be different. Most will more than likely side with the fact that stand placement was vital to connecting but you can dig real deep into the hunt and all the way to the events leading up to and compile loads of reasons for individual success. Let me take for instance the eight point I killed last November. While doing some in season scouting I came upon a flat with a fresh scrape. Normally I don’t hunt scrapes but this was a hot looking spot, pre-rut and this thing had a big ol’ hoof print in the middle of the thing. I spent at least a half hour walking around (wearing rubber boots and not touching a thing) picking out a tree. I hung the stand, took a compass reading and picked a tree for an opposite wind. The following day I had the right wind and decided to hunt it. Before climbing I had two small saplings that needed to be trimmed. I was supper careful not to touch the ground with my hands while cutting and only touching the upper half of the trees witch I dragged downwind from my treestand. I then freshened up the mock scrape I made the day before. (next to the real deal (the one I pi$$ed in.)) An hour in the tree I hear a deer walking the side hill above the flat just out of sight. I immediately grunted not knowing its direction of travel. Suddenly he appears walking in my direction. Enters the flat and walks to within 20yds into the lane I cut a mere hour ago sniffing the ground around the area I was just standing upon. He then lifts his head and takes the two steps I was hoping for and THUD He’s on his last run. He didn’t seem a bit alarmed, just curious as he inspected the ground. Had I not taken my normal precautions towards scent control on that hunt I think things would’ve turned out VERY differently and my stand placement wouldn’t have been worth beans. That half hour picking out the right tree was well spent indeed. It allowed me to pick the tree with the best chances at a shot without cutting many saplings and gave me the edge concerning the wind. On this hunt, camo didn’t mean squat. He never looked to my direction.

Other factors that did or could have made this hunt successful was my ability to preplan hunts from home regarding wind direction, taking a leak in the mock scrape the day before and or freshening it the day of, grunting at first sound of his presence, edging my way into the core aria throughout the season, I could go on…..but you get the point. There is always more than one factor in a succesful hunt. Two hunts are seldomly the same so we stay prepared for whatever gets dished to us.

I'm pretty much opposite. I give scent elimination 90% effort and stand placement 10%. I have limited hunting land with limited time to hunt it. If I placed my stands based solely on wind direction I'm limiting my hunting time even more. As for camo? If it looks perty and doesn't make my butt look big I'll buy it!

I tend to like this way of thinking as it would tend to explain why my success varies so greatly during any given season. However, Bowfanatic also made a very good point. Perfect stand placement is not always possible for a variety of reasons such as hunting pressure, location, limited time, etc...

I would have to say that 90% is geting to the treestand, because if you bump the deer befor you even get to the treestand it doesn't matter what scent, camo or tree, it is not going to help. play the wind, make sure you have a good enter and exit and don't over hunt the same place if at all possible.