Rangeball

Now that you've effectively poo pooed carbon clothing for me, for which I'm forever grateful as it keeps money in my pocket , how 'bout some of the other options out there?

Such as-

1- Ab-scent, scent absorbing crystals.
2- Silver impregnated material to nip odor at the source, preventing bacteria from producing, such as the X-scent line.
3- Deoderant impregnated material, such as the Contain line.
4- Chemical impregnated material, such as the No-Trace line.

I firmly believe in starting with a squeaky clean and scent free body and all clothing to be worn into the field, but the X-scent stuff has me intrigued. Makes sense, start clean, prevent further bacterial growth plus the material they use is designed to be worn next to skin and is moisture wicking. Plus, it's cheap!

I keep waiting for the No-Trace stuff to take off so there will be more out about it, but so far, not much. Supposedly the chemical they treat the fabric with absorbs odors as effectively as activated carbon, but can be regenerated by washing, no high heat required. I'm dissapointed they don't offer a set of moisture wicking/body temp controlling "long johns" as an option. Makes the most sense to me.

Rack-attack

What up Range

I am truly anti - scent eleminating industry[:'(].

I do believe we are being scamed 90% of the time with this stuff.

I like the idea of Bacterial elemination......but again - how long will the clothing be able to do this after repeated washings and usage????

I refuse to use those scent away sprays[:'(] - There is absolutely no proof they work. I know I know, great hunters everwhere swear by them.....................

The reason this market hass us by the B[:-]lls with this scent stuff is.................well........We cant freaking Smell anything[][>:]. Our ability to smell is like 1/ 1,000 of a deers abiltiy. We are blind with our noses............and IMO we are paying for it.

Dress a blind man in purple and pink leasure wear - tell him he looks good and.......if he trusts you he HAS to believe you.

Absorbing crystals - Sure they MAY have the ability to "absorb some scent but...........how many thousands of thos "crystals" are you dropping on your way in and out of the stand????....like leaving a trail of popcorn if you ask me

You asked my advise ........well here it is (and as a shop owner I know this is bad business)but.....Forget it all.....all of it. Forget the carbon clothes, the crystals, the spray the black carbon spray, the powder........the whole lot of it

Lets get back to some common sense, scent fundamentals. Lets look the devil in the eye, grab the mirror too while your at it and admit a few things.

1 - We Stink[:-] - no way about it....like a skunk to a deer. Sparay some of that magic potion on a skunk.....and tell me you don't smell it.
2 - The proper wind or luck - is the ONLY way to keep a deer from smelling us when on stand!!!..period
3 - We know nothing about scent....I mean it nothing. Its like UV lighting..Its there but damn if I can tell.
4 - You have been busted, You will get busted........just deal with it
4 - In trying not to "kill" a stand....focus on wind and what smell you are leaving behind going in and out......example........

I met a fellow hunter I knew casually in the woods a couple years ago. We where both leaving our stands and met up in some thick scrub oak. He had on the works...Carbon suit...black carbon stains...a wafer on his head..and lord knows what else. As he was working his way towards me in the thick stuff along his tackline, he was grabbing and pushing small branches out of his way with his BARE HANDS. Upon meeting, he told me he saw 10 deer on stand the first day (not one winded him), 3 deer the next time (none winded him) and none today..........Duhh[]. He noticed I was wearing rubber gloves on my hand....and commented on how I must be more of a scent freak then him........LOL.
All I had was clean clothes, rubber boots and the gloves.......far from a freak......well....atleast to me. This guy just didn't get it.

Put as many stands as you can in the BEST areas you can find. Hunt the wind to the best of your ability. Use simple common sense when it comes to your scent, and take your lumps as they come.

Sorry no magic answers here

No offense to those who use these products......JMO

benhuntin

I agree with Rack. Clean clothes and body, rubber boots and rubber gloves, (unless you can walk through the woods and climb into your stand without touching anything with your hands. (Gloves come off when in the stand.) I no longer use scent eliminators and scent lok suits. (Yes I was suckered into buying one). I do use a homemade pine coverscent. I believe it helps.

I did notice they are now selling carbon underwear. Only $100 a pair.[][:'(]
Easy enough to test out on TACO night.[&:][X(]

WV Hunter

Great points Rack. I agree, common sense is a neccesity. Forget the wind...Just hunt! LOL, yeah right.

The only thing I ever use is Scent Killer. To a deer, I don't know how well it works, but to a humans nose ... it works pretty well. I can sweat all day long working.... and once I spray my stinky, sweat soaked hat...the smell is gone completely. Now, can the deer still smell me??? Probably... but to me it's a cheap vote of confidence...and I figure even if they still can smell me, it can't be near as bad. I still play the wind, regardless.

Rangeball

I'm a little center of left from you on this, I think and my personal anecdotal evidence suggests some of this stuff has value. Especially the spray which I whip up as a home brew for $4 per gallon

I've gotten away with stuff I never did in the past, enough to give me some confidence in it.

I guess the allure of having scent absorption is the icing on the cake. I agree that apparently bacteria can't reproduce in the presence of silver, but even if what the manufacturers state is true, that it's good "for the life of the garment", logic suggest the stuff would have to be in constant contact with your skin, where the little nasties live. Hard to do in the pits, crotch and under a full head of hair .

As for the ab-scent, it's been around for years, doesn't seem to have caught on, either bad marketing or it doesn't work.

The no-trace sounds intriguing, and again is reported to outlast the garment, but they want just a hair under what carbon goes for, basically for soaking some camo clothes in a vat of the stuff

If it was a liner type system made of a wicking material and went for around $20 per pant and shirt and headnet, I'd try it. Apparently though, the company has allusions of granduer. Perhaps they wanna make a killing before people like you catch on and wise the rest of us up...

Rack-attack

The jury is still out as to weather I wisen up or stupify "the rest of us".................LOL

CBM SC

I have agreed with you on this before and do so again Rack !!

bearklr

I save a bundle on scent elimination. I just bath in febreeze and hang a glade plug-in aroung my neck. Just teasin, I have to agree with you to an extent rack. Most if not all of these things do eventually wear off but I still like the scent elimination spray. I know it doest kill all the scent and the deer can still smell me but I think it cuts down on the odor and makes it a little tougher on the deer, but I always play the wind regardless. No matter how many gimmicks they come out with, nothing beats time and hard effort.

Antler Eater

I used to train a couple of dogs for competitions where they had so many minutes to find x number of birds. The olfactory senses on these animals are mind boggling.

I would guess the whitetail to be at least or near equal to that of a dog. There are many documented cases where a dog followed a missing person's trail days after it was made only to find the individual. Look at the drug smugglers. They hide their wares in everything from coffee grounds to fish. Talk about cover scent! Yet a trained dog will have no problem distinguishing the presence of a drug. I would not at all be surprised if they wrapped the "goods" in scentlok clothing. Now that would be an interesting study wouldn't it.

I saw an add recently for 'Elimitrax' stating that two trained Bloodhounds could trail a rubber booted person but they could not trail a person wearing their product. Now we know nothing of the controls set up on this "independent" experiment. Atmospheric conditions can play a huge role in ground scent. Do I believe the results of their experiment? Sorry, I am a doubting Thomas. When it comes to making money off of a product that can't be quantified I get skeptical in a hurry. Is it better than rubber boots? I don't doubt that. But even then ground scent is only part of the equation.

We are stone blind when it comes to the olfactory universe. We smell just good enough with our nose to get ourselves in trouble. We add "reason" to our olfactory knowledge and believe we are thinking like a deer! That cracks me up. The deers sense of smell is not a sense that operates alone, independent of the other four. Though not strictly correct that is the world WE live in. A deer's olfactory unit is intricately woven into all five of their senses at a level we have trouble grasping.

Imagine yourself as being deaf. You are about to walk across a train track when look up and notice a train is coming. As the train goes barreling past you can't hear it. You can feel the wind and vibration it is causing and see the effects of its momentum. But until you identified it by sight, you had no clue to it's presence. Now add being blind to the same scenario and see how it further complicates the issue. Now you don't even know the train track is there. (As we all know a deer doesn't need to hear or see you to know your there). That gives you and idea of the handicap we deal with when it comes to a deer's nose.

Of course our ace in the hole is our brain. Half of the time I wonder if mine is working, especially on those rare days when I hear one snort that turns into a multitude of snorts and I know I have just been had. [:@]

Rangeball

That's what my wife keeps telling me...