Murdy

Me too. And does the "fresh earth" we buy at the store even smell like real fresh earth to a deer?

jfarleyx

All of the scent killer/cover products are nothing more than a successful marketing campaign and they make a lot of money from it. A deer has a nose far to powerful for any of those products to work. I've tried them and if I wasn't downwind, I still got busted.

Plus, if they really did work, you would hear of drug cartels buying it by the 50 gal drum to cover scent when smuggling drugs. Then, over zealous politicians would quickly have it banned.

Save your money to buy good camo or a nicer gun and hunt the wind. Hunting the wind has proven to be more reliable for thousands of years.

Big10Hunter

I never believe that the scent elimination clothing worked, although I never forked over the cash to try it first hand. I agree the only surefire way to keep a deer from busting you by scent is to play the wind and/or get up high enough so your scent column is above his nose.

But I think cover scents can help trick him and maybe buy you some time. Using a cover scent should help to mask the human scent and make it less obvious to the deer. If he has to smell "through the layers" to pick up your scent then he will need to get closer or hang around longer to detect you.

FS ran the following test with coverscents with a dog, and while they could not trick the dog, while using coverscents it took longer for the dog to find the person:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/articl...reducing-produ

I've actually talked to a guy who had a bottle of skunk musk break in his hunting bag during a hunting trip, and when he was traveling back to the US after the hunt at the boarder the drug/bomb dog started acting weird so the agents ask what he was transporting he said just his hunting gear, but informed the agents of how the skunk musk bottle broke and spilled all over his stuff. The agents searched his truck just in case...so I guess the smugglers have thought of this too.

checkerfred

The Mythbusters tested this too with bloodhounds.... http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/my...-a-hyneman.htm

If that's not as scent proof as possible I don't know what is. The blood hounds still found him. This makes me wonder how we even kill deer! They will smell where you walked in...how do you even get into the woods and have a chance?

I still wonder about smoke and cover scents...I know they won't hide your scent completely but I wonder if they will help confuse the deer to make it appear like you're further away or you came thru that area at a way earlier time than you did?

jfarleyx

While I now believe it's a lot of marketing, I'll admit that over the years I've spent a lot of money trying many of the different scent elimination and covering products. Let's face it, if it worked that would give hunters a BIG advantage.

I still wash my clothes in unscented detergent and I keep them stored in an air tight container with an acorn scented wafer in it. The way I look at it now is that I won't help the deer by walking into the woods smelling like "April Fresh" Tide detergent (though, if I hunt the wind it really doesn't matter). That's the extent of my odor eliminating efforts. I gave up on sprays and I haven't been convinced by the electronic products like Ozonics (I'll admit I've never used one).

I think it's possible that it could cause the animal to pause and think about the scent a little longer. Unfortunately, that pause hasn't been long enough to help me.

I decided to keep my focus on picking better hunting locations, hunting the wind, and learning more about deer behavior. If someone feels these products help, then by all means use them. I certainly don't judge. Good hunting!

Murdy

I got sucked in on some carbon scent control clothing at an after season sale. 60% off, but still too expensive. I would not recommend it.
I believe (don't know) that cover scents may work a bit on heavily used public land. The whole area probably smells a little like human and all your trying to do is not smell like fresh human.

MZS

Cover scent, unless 100% natural (like dirt and cedar from the area), will draw their attention, something you don't want.

flyinlowe

I always wash my hunting cloths in the washer with no detergent. Then dry them. I don't do anything else except clip one of those fresh earth scent wafers on my hat. I have deer and coyotes both walk right under my stand usig the same trail I walked in on. The guy I hunt with smokes so there is always at least one cigarette smoked during the 30 minute ride to our hunting spot. Not saying that deer can't smell but sometime I wander if we make too much of it. We each have one stand we hunt on the property so the wind doesn't affect where we go. We both see plenty of deer.

rockport

To me its not really as black and white as works or doesn't. Scent reduction works.

I say just stick with the facts.

Carbon does reduce scent that is a fact.

Storing gear in an airtight container will reduce scent

Using scent free soap allows you to clean yourself without adding scent

Less scent is good.

Cover scent..I always wonder why we believe some of this stuff. If the smell of the woods covered human scent wouldn't simply hunting in the woods work?

5000 trees surrounding us and we think some acorn scent is going to throw the deers nose off.

Part of the problem with marketing is its not just flat lies as much as exaggeration causing too high of expectations. This is proven by the mention of testing with dogs. Of course it doesn't work for that. Don't let deer sniff you because they will smell you and don't expect to go undetected at 20 yards down wind. Expect it to work realistically and you might be more pleased with the results.

The key word is reduction. Hunt the wind and expect scent reduction to give you a little edge. There is a distance where a bloodhound or a deer won't smell you and the less smell you have the closer that distance would be.

Hunting the wind should be a given.....nothing replaces that. Its not a matter of hunting the wing VS scent reduction. Scent reduction is plan B not plan A. Like when the deer don't do what they are supposed to.

Maybe a nice buck is 100 yards down wind and he doesn't smell you because you have reduced your scent. Then maybe later he makes it around to the upwind side. Maybe because your scent didn't spook him on Tuesday at 100 yards he show up Friday on the upwind side and you get a shot or for that matter maybe that doe that smell you at 100 yards away won't blow for an hour and scare off all the deer in the area.

Maybe because you wore rubber boots you reduced the scent you laid down and when that buck comes through 2 hours after you left maybe he doesn't get spooked and you get him tomorrow

NEhomer

To what degree does simply getting up in a stand off the ground help with scent? Will I get winded anyway?

Seems like the intensity of the scent should matter. For instance, if you stepped out on your porch in the summertime and smelled a faint skunk smell, you probably wouldn't be too alarmed. However, if you got a real strong blast of skunk smell, you' d be far more cautious stepping around the corner of the house, no?

I would imagine a deer too, may be more or less alarmed by the intensity and freshness of the human scent.