IndianaBBD

Ok guys. Here is my take as of late. I am a gear nut, and have been a sucker for alot of gimmicks as well. I have spent a ton of money over the years and have tried most everything that has ever been available. When it comes to scent control and the likes, I take a shower with a anti-microbial bacteria killing soap and hair products. I wash my hunting clothes before every trip in sports wash. Sometimes I get busted, sometimes I don't. It seems to me to depend more on thermals and wind direction then the fact that I am using brand x scent elimination product.
I have experimented with not using any type of scent control products and had the same results. As a confidence booster and just habit, I can't get away from the "Scent Eliminating shower" or washing my clothes in sports wash.
I have seen you guys hunting while sweat is dripping off your faces, so I am definitely interested in your take. Thanks in advance for your input and expertise.

stikbow26

Indi.
Steve and I do the same as you we wash our cloths often scent elimanator and shower daily in scent control. I feel the showering daily is the number one biggest advantage and then when the showering is done HUNT the WIND NOT your HEART!!!There is no way to be totally scent free while filming and hunting not carrying all the stuff that we do, man you have to be spraying down your cameras and the stuff that goes with it you couldn't do it every hunt.. Walt

sdeland

Yea, you can't get away from using the wind when hunting a mature whitetail. But showering and washing your clothes can only help. Especially when the wind is playing games. Its an extra edge. On top of shower with Silver Xp, I use a Scent Smoker. It is basically a behive smoker with hickory chips in it. I have a cloth rubbermaid closet that I hang all of my hunting clothes in and then smoke them from a hole I put in back of the closet. It really makes them smell good.. lol.. Then I take the smoker to with me when I hunt, light it with a torch and resmoke my whole body. I really do believe it works!! I got about 5 people last year to start using it and they all couldn't believe the results!!!

Stan

IndianaBBD

That is an amazing coincidence about smoking your clothes. Two years ago I had heard about that, and how ol timers at deer camps would do that for a cover scent. That year I hung my clothes in the garage and burned leaves from the yard in a portable fire pit and smothered them to create a dense smoke. Honest to goodness two days later when I removed my clothes from the scent away bag it would almost gag you, but wore them anyway. Had a doe and a yearling walk dead down wind of me and never bat an eye. However it was a one time test, because I just couldn't hardly stand the smell and washed my clothes that night.....lol. Perhaps I will buckle up and give it another try and see what happens on multiple outings and keep a diary of results. I have however always hunted the wind.
Smoking your clothes is better then the extremes I used to go to. I used to wear the carbon suits (waste of cash in my humble opinion) wash all my clothes every day,Wash my hands in scent free soap before I would even take them out of the drier, spray down and rinse the washer and drier before uses, keep them in multiple scent safe bags, strip down to my underwear in the freezing cold, in the dark, many yards away from the truck, spray down with each layer. I am not the kind of guy who wants the cure all no worries about the wind solution. In fact it is all the little details that make hunting and especially success seem all the sweeter. I just know there is a point of ridiculous as well, and I crossed that line and was sucking the fun right out of the sport and lots of cash out of my wallet. During the rut I will sit on stand 12+ hours a day then come home and go through all the hoopla to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep at best and do it again the next day. Anyone who has hunted all day like that knows that it is exhausting without making things more difficult.
So as odd as it sounds, last year....I tried not washing my clothes everyday, but every other hunt (unless I really worked up a sweat) and just hunted the wind. In true statistics, I found that my sightings were just as successful with the wind in my face. But you are right, swirling winds and bad thermals, and smart bucks circling your stand will kill the moment in a hearbeat. I will take all the precautions neccesary, just trying to figure out what neccessary is. Thanks for the posts guys. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and respond to my posts.

WKP Todd

I will post a full explanation of my opinions on scent control and the detection capabilities of a whitetail here in a few days - but in a nut shell - it is IMPOSSIBLE to reduce the amount of human scent you normally emit to the level benieth the level that a whitetail is capable of detecting. Weather all the work and products existing reduce it enough to make any real difference will be the age old arguement that will never be solved.

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine at the Illinois deer classic this weekend. This guy is a trapper, and has probably been trapping longer than I've been alive. His opinion matched mine, with a bloodhound caliber sense of smell, the concept of "elimination" or even "reduction" is just a marketing and advertising campaign.

IndianaBBD

Todd, Hey man I am not impatient in waiting for your reply, but am looking forward to reading it. However...I am interested in what you do personally. Look forward to reading you findings.

WKP Todd

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. I’ll do my best to give you my opinion of the following topics that are related to scent elimination – reduction. Again, this is just my opinion based on my experiences in the field and through other hunters who I consider to be “experts” when it comes to whitetails. This is all based on actual success (on the wall) versus marketing or advertising theory.

First, I will talk about the idea of “cover scents” or products that are supposed to “cover” human odor. I personally believe the whole concept of covering up human scent with another scent is absolutely hog-wash! The scent detection abilities of a whitetail are close to or have been said to be even more powerful than that of a bloodhound tracking dog or other canines. I believe a whitetails sense of smell is that of a bloodhound. I’ve heard different opinions on this – but the overall opinion varies depending on who you talk to. I’ve talked to several doctors on this topic and from what I understand; we really don’t know what a whitetail is capable of smelling because it is impossible to test it. All we know is that it is somewhere in the range of a canine – so that is what I consider to be a baseline for my opinions.

Consider what drug smugglers do to try to hide drugs from being detected by drug dogs. They have placed drugs in food, coffee, gasoline tanks, and a variety of other substances to try to disguise the smell – cover the scent of the drugs. The drug dogs are able to smell drugs though everything! Imagine if a drug dog can smell a drug through all these scents – that are about as strong as anything on earth. Now – the concept of hiding human scent with something like a scent wafer or the smell of a pine tree??? Yeah – you see the point I’m trying to make. The only scent that I believe may possibly mask human odor is the smell of smoke. Many native Americans believed this – and I’ve actually had a chance to test this by accident one time when I arrowed my first good buck. My clothes stank like smoke so bad (from a fire-happy hunter we shared camp with), that it literally gave me a head-ache while wearing them. If it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t stand the smell of smoke on my clothes, I think it actually may work to some degree – but I’m not about to add scent to my clothes EVER!

You spray your boots with fox urine, skunk, doe in heat, buck in-rut, and the deer will smell both human and the cover scent. They can easily distinguish multiple scents at the same time. As humans, we believe much of this “cover scent” theory based on what we are able to smell, or not smell. It all sounds good – but in-reality, I personally believe cover scents do nothing to help a hunter in the field. I personally think adding any scent of any-kind is a bad thing. I want to leave as little trace in any-way-shape or form.

In-regard to scent elimination. I’ve watched many videos and read many articles with so many different opinions it’s very difficult to know what to believe. I have done more research on this stuff than most, and from what I have discovered, there is very little data available to prove or disprove any of the claims these companies make in-regard to eliminating or containing human odor. In my opinion, there isn’t a product or a series of products on the market that can eliminate enough human scent to actually prevent a whitetail from smelling you. Here is my opinion, I personally don’t believe that they can eliminate enough scent to even make a slight difference. Not with a whitetail anyway – you are talking about an animal that can smell in the low parts per million. This is the difficult area of proving of disproving any of the products on the market because conditions in the field are so inconsistent – nothing is ever the same. I’ve been sitting in stand with the wind in my face and have been winded – straight up-wind from where I believed my scent would be traveling. We’ve documented this on video as well – sometimes it just makes no sense.

Other times, I’ve had whitetails straight down-wind, and they haven’t had a clue I was there (with a cameraman in the tree = 2x the normal scent). Again, the point I’m trying to make is that when you take barometric pressure, thermals, temperatures, time of day, topography, and wind currents – you never really know what your scent is doing. I’ve gotten winded so many times in so many weird situations – I’ve basically given up on the idea of scent reduction. Combine that with my body chemistry – I sweat like a pig. I can’t do a thing about it.

I’ve spent hundreds of dollars over the years purchasing products that claim to eliminate scent. I’ve used Sprays, clothing washes, carbon clothing, body washes, and a ton of other items over the years. I’ve used them all with the same result, if a whitetail crosses my trail – it will detect human odor. If a whitetail is down-wind, it will detect human odor. I’ve said it to 1000 people over the years – I have nothing against any of these companies who believe their products work. If a guy buys a product, believes he has had good results – then who am I to say “that is a waste of money”? If it works for you – or you think it works for you – and allows you to consistently kill deer – then you must be doing something right! Keep doing it!

Much of hunting is confidence. My confidence comes from working my butt off year around on some aspect of bowhunting whitetails. I personally believe 99% of my results are based on hunting hard on the right properties. Of the 9 bucks on my wall – and the literal hundreds of other bucks I’ve passed along the way, not a single one of them was due to dumb luck. I may have had a little help along the way from the good lord above, but in all cases I was hunting in areas that I knew these deer lived. In many cases I was hunting particular bucks, many times never killing them – but a few times I’ve gotten lucky and happened to pick the right tree on the right day. If I had to give away all my gear and use a stick and string bow I made in my garage – I will put my money on hunting a better piece of property than on the guy with all the latest high-tech gear on a piece of property that has been pounded by other hunters for years. I’ve just taken the energy, time, and money and put it into the right properties versus the right products. A combination of the best products, on the best properties, with the hard work backing it all is what I have built a level of consistency in killing big deer on. There are no short-cuts – PERIOD!!!!

One aspect of all this talk about scent elimination that is more important than anything in my opinion is the age class of whitetail. I learned how to hunt on the public lands of Michigan which are some of the highest pressured areas of the country. I now hunt in SE Iowa where we are lucky enough to hunt some areas that have very little to no pressure – and we actually have an age range from 1-1/2 to 6-1/2, 7-1/2, and even some mature whitetails that reach 8 years of age. In my opinion, when a whitetail buck reaches 4-1/2 and 5-1/2 years of age, they are truly a different animal. We consider 1-1/2, 2-1/2, 3-1/2, and even some 4-1/2 year old bucks to be some-what “stupid” in-regard to their reactions to our scent. This past year, I passed two different 4-1/2 year old bucks on the same evening hunt that ended up going straight down-wind of our location (with a cameraman in a tree with me). Both of these bucks caught our wind, looked in our direction, and within a few seconds literally lost interest in the human scent and continued on their path to the doe bedding area we were hunting near-by. Now, this is just an example of a situation that would lend itself very nicely to a product plug or endorsement of a scent elimination product. How easily would it have been for me to promote a product from those encounters? The fact of the mater is that the only reason those mature bucks didn’t freak is because it was the first time a human had hunted that area in many-many years, maybe ever. These bucks didn’t believe the human scent caused a threat – or they were so horny with it being October 28th, that their drive to breed outweighed the threat of human scent. It was probably a combination of the two that caused the reaction - or lack of reaction to our scent on that particular hunt.

I’ve been lucky enough over the years to hunt a few farms that had never allowed hunting before. I have had countless encounters with big mature does that would smell our scent – straight down-wind, and follow the scent straight to the bottom of our tree because they were far more curious than anything. Remember, whitetails are products of their environment. If a whitetail deer has only had encounters with farmers and never been threatened in sensitive areas – often times they don’t see human scent as much of a threat. Again, this is 100% dependent on pressure and the individual whitetail itself. Just like humans, every deer is different, and will react different.

With the above being said, it is my opinion that all the products in the world aren’t going to reduce human scent to the point where you can fool the nose of a mature whitetail. Some people claim that they can – but I’ve never seen any significant proof that it’s possible. I have never-ever met a whitetail hunter that I consider to be an “expert” ever make a claim saying that they could eliminate enough scent to ignore winds. I’ve talked to many-many guys that are sponsored by many of these “scent-elimination” companies – and if they really have been hunting mature whitetails for some time – they admit they get winded. If you don’t – you don’t hunt enough in my opinion.

So, what is the big secret? There isn’t any. I personally wash in scent-eliminator wash, wash my clothing in scent elimination detergent (baking soda if you want to reduce the costs of the stuff), and pretty much that is the end of my “scent” elimination process. I basically consider myself and my cameraman “stinking” when we go into the field. I avoid walking ANYWHERE I possibly can that I believe a whitetail will walk during a hunt. This is IMPOSSIBLE to control 100% of the time. So, when I walk into an area to hunt, I try to create as many “first time in” opportunities I can in a season. I very rarely hunt the same stand twice, and when I finish a season, I will have only hunted a fraction of the set-up’s that I’ve planned on hunting. Other areas can be hunted over and over again because they are typical “rut” or “cruising” sets. Meaning, these bucks can be coming from anywhere at anytime, and I’m not necessarily hunting a particular buck.

What I’ve found to be a HUGE part of my consistent success my best stands alone until the time and wind is right. I will have 10 bedding areas (minimum) identified and have stands set for various winds in July/August timeframe. I will literally not step foot in those areas again until I’m going in to hunt them when the date, temperatures, weather fronts, and winds are PERFECT. If you know a big mature whitetail is living in a particular area, I pretty much leave that area alone until I know conditions are going to be the best to put that buck on his feet. When a buck is on his feet – he is killable. This usually will happen when a cold front hits in late October – Early November. If I don’t see that buck when I hunt that particular set-up, I will vacate the area and only return when I believe the conditions are perfect. Sometimes my best stands never get hunted because I’m either tagged out, or the winds don’t present themselves when the time is right. You just have to know when and how to hunt these spots and not to ruin it before the big deer are on their feet. They just don’t move much – you only have a couple days in most seasons to really have a good crack at killing the big mature bucks that are the ones we all want to kill.

On-top of these different stands I have set-up early, I run and gun set-ups on my secondary properties – or other areas of my primary properties throughout the season based on movement and sign. Most of these areas I will walk during shed season, make a mental note of where I believe would be a good place to hunt, and move in, set-up, and hunt in those areas the first time in. This is the ONLY way I know to truly have the element of surprise on big deer. That is the best tactic in my arsenal. Surprise attack has meant the death of many of my best deer over the years.

I have got to get back to work – but I want to leave you with one last thought in-regard to scent. When you walk through an area, consider that you are leaving a human scent trail everywhere you go. Depending on conditions, your scent will remain detectable by a whitetail for days. So, you walk into a sweet spot to hunt, you leave, and a buck comes along after dark and smells that you have been there – for days in many cases. This is aspect of hunting that most guys don’t consider enough. I pretty much try to move around on properties to the point where I only hunt an area once or twice before considering that area blown out. You may get multiple cracks at the same buck, but I’m hear to tell you – if he’s smelled you from the stand, or your scent on the ground in that area, the chances of you killing that buck in that area during daylight hours is pretty slim. He won’t leave the area, he’ll just avoid that area during daylight hours. If you hunt different areas constantly – the deer can’t pattern the hunter, and that is the closest thing to a secret to killing big deer that I know.

Also, one closing thought. A wise hunter once told me, if you know you have a hot doe in a particular area – throw everything you know out the window. A hot doe changes everything. If you have a hot doe, hunt the hell out of that area for a day or two straight. She will do all the work for you – bringing every seeking buck into that area for miles. Our set called “Bananas” was a perfect example of that. We hunted a single stand location for 48 straight hours, and I passed 37 bucks in those 48 hours. As soon as I knew we had seen every buck in that area – we left and I tagged out on a different property the very next day. I knew it was time to move-on, and a giant 8-pointer was the result of the move.

Good luck, and hopefully you will take something from this long message!

Todd

stikbow26

Kyle just as Todd said a great example of this is my kill on the video, If watch Steve and I had gotten lazy with so much negative going on and we walked straight into our stand set and you watch my buck slam on the brakes and his back legs almost lift of the ground. I believe the only reason I killed that buck was because we walked in to that stand 6 hours earlier and even though he smelt human he didn't smell strong enough human to make him bolt the second he smelt it like so many deer do.. Walt

ranger6

I wash my stuff in scent-elim. to ! But I strongly believe that scent lok and scent blocker and so on is a marketing sceme . for being in the service I know that most of these companies got the idea from the military's coal lined N(nuclear) B(biological) C(chemical) protective suits. NBC for short. I have talked with some friends that deal with that part of army and asked them if it really works. They said it could. but when you wash it is no good. it breaks downthe integrity of the lining.coal lining is not intended to be washed and recharged in the dryer.just thrown away.
Myself I think you have to play the wind(A big must), careful not to contaminate the area by walking all over where are setting a stand and so on. Deer are very smart. they seem to know when a leaf is out of place in a tree. one thing is for sure that I have learned is not to be over dressed walking out to the stand. otherwise you sweat like a pig. and you might as well start doing the jig in your stand so everybody can see you.
I've also heard of people smoking in there stand and they see deer. But deer do get curious to.

IndianaBBD

Hey thanks a ton to everyone. Well, It sounds like I am on par with everyone else in here, and am not just a naysayer. I too have spent thousands of dollars over the years and hundreds of hours in research not counting field experience. I have come to the same conclusions, but sometimes you want to know you're not alone. Great article Todd.....We'll keep the wind in our faces, and hunt like there is no tomorrow!