Fact or Fiction? Scentblocking question
 

Here's my opinion, what's yours? Feel free to attack, but let's play nice.

Scent is merely the olfactory detection of airborne particulate. I don't believe spraying on "scent blockers" can in any way, reduce the parts-per-million airborne particles released by the body, breath, sweat, etc. I agree with using scent free soaps for the body and clothing, but I'm thinking all the other stuff is a con.

Also, if you master hunting the wind, I don't see how a deer could smell you, regardless of how bad your stink is. If you put a drop of food coloring in a moving stream, it's impossible for the color to swim upstream. I find the same to be true with any scent in the wind. How else did our granparents go out in the woods without camo, without scentblock, and smoking cigars/pipes and sipping cheap whiskey?

I think it's easy for us hunters to be taken advantage of by B.S. marketing because we're extremely passionate about what we do and strive to become more effective at our craft. We want to believe.
And we love our toys (it's just fun).

If you had a competition between a highly skilled hunter with only his bow/gun and nothing else, and an average hunter with every and anything sold at Bass Pro/Cabela's... I'd bet a huge sum of money that the skills would trump the "technology" any day of the week.

All true. You can't cover up the scent . Just reduce it. No matter what you are going to have a smell. Hunt the wind

The only time I buy scent blocking products is when items that I want happen to be scent blocking - in other words, I'd never seek it out as a characteristic, but I don't avoid buying something just because it has a BS line about scent blocking capability.

Antimicrobial materials are a different story, as in exercise clothing.

I hunt the wind.

In the grand scheme of things, wind hunters likely spend more on hunting than people that are fooled by advertising. I might have 3 stands overlooking the same kill zone (ambush position), so I have the investment in multiple stands. Someone that buys the line that their clothing conceals their scent will only have one stand. I'm more apt to get a shot at a deer, but they spent less on stands than I did.

What do you do when the wind is swirling?

Adding another scent like in the wafers will help dilute your stink. It might give you a few more seconds to make the shot.

If all the smells in the woods don't cover your scent a little wafer certainly won't either.

Just think about how unrealistic the concept really is.

In the woods you are completely surrounded by natural smells. That is what a whitetail does is detect/pick out alarming smells in a natural environment. Hanging a little natural scent wafer on your shirt won't fool a whitetail for even a second. It simply doesn't work.

Its about like stepping in dog poo on your way in Mcdonalds and thinking people won't smell it if you pin a french fry on your hat.

Unless you can hold your breath and not perspire for hours at a time, you are not even going to be close to scentless. I do watch the wind when I hunt deer, however, deer are curious, and unless they can relate a smell to danger, based on experience, they are as likely to investigate as to run away from a new smell. I hunt only 10 feet off the ground and I have killed as many deer downwind as upwind and most inside 50 yards and some as close as 10 yards.

scent
 

Good friend of mine is a biologist. He told me he read or participated in ( I don't remember which) a study that concluded that deer can smell and distinguish up to 5 different scents at once.

I don't buy any of the stuff like I use to.
I wash at night with ivory soap, wash my hair with my head n shoulders and go to sleep.
I don't wash my hunting clothes in scented detergent or mix them with my regular clothes.

My uncle has killed several big bucks farting and spitting grizzly. If its meant to happen, it happens.
His biggest is 166 B&C

Maybe that stuff helps with the bow hunters? i dont know, but I wont be buying a $300 ozone contraption that they show on the tv. Thats ridiculous.

What I mean is I use to buy that scent killer stuff by the case it seemed. Didn't seem to help or hurt my hunting. I'll save that money and buy a extra box of bullets to put up.

What about ozonics? Even if it does work I would never pay the ridiculous price they want for it but was wandering what everyones thoughts are on it?

That stuff is like fishing lures, it catches more hunters than game.

I wear the stuff and use the spray, but I'm always way more concerned about wind direction than whether or not my clothing is going to eliminate my scent because even if it does remove scent it's not going to be anywhere near 100%. I just figure even if it is just marginally effective why not get as much of an advantage as you can?

^ exactly my opinion. hunters aren't trying to reinvent the wheel in most cases and as far as i'm concerned, if the game isn't upwind from the hunter the scent blockers are probably only buying you seconds before detection.

The farm I hunt has two stands, one at the north end and one at the south end. Two of us hunt it. I killed 3 deer there last year. We can't hunt the wind, my buddy smokes on the way to the woods in the truck and smokes while he hunts. I used to smoke and have killed deer with a cigarette in my hands.
I keep my bibs in a large plastic storage bag and sometimes use a sent wafer but that is it. I see more then my fair share of deer coming from all directions.
I had a guy tell me once that deer will ALWAYS come in from downwind, every time. I told him if that was the case they would all be standing on the beaches of the east coast, they can't all be downwind of everyone.

I found this article a few months ago and thought it an interesting read. Shows that you really can't get rid of all your scent but you may just confuse the deer long enough to get a shot off. It was more testing of the new Ozonics equipment but they do run a test with your standard scent block.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/articl...g-sniffing-dog

I never said it would cover your scent. I said it would dilute your scent.

Personally, i've never used anything to cover my scent. As a still hunter of 60 years of hunting I know how to use the wind in my favor.

However, not all hunters are good at playing the wind. I have buddies that swear by the wafers, and have better success using them. He uses the ones that smell like dirt. Earth wafers I think they're called.

I was curious, and looked them up. I found hundreds of hunters who swear by them just as strong as you guys swear against them.

So, even though I don't find a need to use them. I at least have an open mind about them. I don't know if they work, but if you have a scent that's coming off you that's stronger than your human scent, and is a natural smell to animals. Who knows if they help? It seems better than having nothing but human stink coming off you.

I was going to point to this same article.

Bottom line, if you follow the basic skill set of hunt the wind, sit still, and don't make noise, you will be successful. Mountain lions, coyotes, great cats, etc. have no scent blockers and do just fine by doing these things.

Hence, I don't spend much money on scent controls, camo, and all that.

Ever see a cat get busted during a stalk? I have.

Sure. Many times.

That's just it: for me, the essence of hunting is the predator's skill at remaining undetected vs. the prey's skill at detection. That's what makes it a sport for me.

I agree completely, but not everybody is dedicated enough to hone those skills. For them a little help in the scent department won't hurt.

I agree, although I prefer people do it in a way that in some way reflects their own skill and ingenuity rather than industrial technology. There's a point in there where the fair chase issue pops up.

I have to agree again. As a 100% still hunter all my life. I'm always pushing for guys to try it, and develop their woodsmanship skills, but that is always taken the wrong way on forums.

Some guys think i'm saying my way is the only way, and that's not what i'm saying at all. I just want them to give it a try to see if they like it. It never hurts to have more hunting skills.

I like to keep my hunting simple and basic. I use no optics, GPS, or any gadgets that help my hunt. I use nothing but open sights, and my own skills to beat the animals on their own turf with all their sense working 100%. On the ground face to face. I find it exciting and rewarding. I want others to have the same feeling, but of course that's hard to get across on forums.

I'm writing a book o Still Hunting, and i'm hoping that it's helpful. It's a dying skill today, and i'm doing my best to see that doesn't happen.

Dilute , cover...whatever you want to call it. I would call diluting your scent by adding another scent cover scent.

Anyway my point is if it worked it would be free. I mean I'm in a tree that is standing in dirt covered with stick, leaves, hundreds of different urine etc etc all for free supplied by mother nature. It doesn't work because deer pick odd smells out in a natural habitat.....that is what they do and a little extra natural smell pinned on your shirt aint about to stop them.

Confidence is a funny thing. Scent wafers probably do help people that believe they help in some ways. Another thing that probably helps is the fact that the smell of cover scent forces people to keep their hunting clothes separate and contained which is likely what actually makes the difference.

I don't care what people do I just personally think the concept of cover scent is silly and I think its a little distracting from learning methods that actually do work.

Lets face it pinning a dirt scented wafer on our hats doesn't change the smell of our bodies nor does it add anything to the environment that isn't already there in abundance. Its about equivalent to the difference in standing on a dirt pile VS standing on a dirt pile with dirt in your hand.....nothing.

Personally, I don't believe in camo either. I've been wearing red and black plaid wool since the 50's. I've never had a problem sneaking up on critters. Even when i'm in plain sight.

However, camo breaks up our outline, so it has some use. I just think it's a waste of money, and you look like Rambo. Waste of money like wafers.

Is that you in your avatar?

Yeah that is me.

Technically, the wind does not dilute your scent, it displaces your scent, which is far more effective than dilution. The AIR dilutes your scent, meaning it gets mixed in with the air molecules and the concentration gets weaker and weaker. The wind, the movement of the air particles, offers a directional flow of the scent (it does encourage dilution via mass transfer aka mixing).

As has been mentioned with the "food coloring in the moving stream" example: The WATER dilutes the food coloring, eventually diluting it below a detectable limit. The FLOW, on the other hand, moves the food coloring in a certain fashion. Regardless of the dilution factor or rate, there are certain areas that will NEVER make contact with the food coloring, specifically, the areas upstream of the source.

Many other industries rely upon this differentiation. For example, producing perfectly sealed and contamination free enclosures is very difficult in the biopharma or microbiology sectors. BUT, if you use a filtered air source fed into your enclosure and keep it at a positive pressure with positive airflow moving out of any openings, then no contaminating bacteria or particles can infiltrate the enclosure - ala the "laminar flow hood".

Lord knows I love arguing semantics, but in this case, it's particularly important and practically applicable, rather than simple theory.

Dilution: On a calm day, a deer 800yrds away can't smell you because your scent has been diluted below detectable limit by the time it ever reaches their position. BUT, if they get close to you from any direction, they'll pick up your scent.

Displacement: In any wind condition, a deer 10yrds upwind of you can't smell you because all of your scent is getting pulled downwind. BUT, if they move downwind, they'll pick you up.

Concealment via products is like the dog poop on the shoe vs. French fry on your shirt.

Elimination of emanation of scent, through any form of scent killer product, is impossible.

I say it every time this topic comes up: If there was a scent mitigation method that actually works to trick a deer's nose, then drug peddlers would be using it to trick K-9 Officers used for illicit drug detection. There simply isn't a PRODUCT that works.

The best way to hide something is to not have it somewhere it can be seen - or smelled, in this case. The wind does that.

Like you said. It's semantics. At least you knew what I meant.

Explain this? My buddy said since using the wafers, and of course all the methods used to keep his scent down with them, that he's had deer approach him from downwind. Something he's never experienced without the wafers. He hunts different than me, and uses stands, so the deer have to approach him.

I've read this over and over from those using the wafers. Are they all lying? They continue to buy and use the wafers. Who does that on a product that doesn't work?

People have been buying/using products that don't work and thinking they do as long as man kind has been around.

Like your camo? :p

no, When I killed the deer in the picture I actually had blaze orange over the camo but I use the same clothes (my hunting clothes) when I hunt animals that camo makes a huge difference.

How did we ever kill anything before camo showed up?

Man, we were good. ;)

I still kill plenty of animals including deer without a stitch of camo on but I guess I'm confused as to why were lumping something that does work in with something that doesn't now?

Just your assumption. Not mine.

"Its about like stepping in dog poo on your way in Mcdonalds and thinking people won't smell it if you pin a french fry on your hat."

I love the way you put that. It's can be touchy when we disagree with the effectiveness of something that others swear by. It's kinda like being in grade school and arguing with the kids that still believe in Santa. I'm not saying he doesn't exist, I just personally don't believe in him :-)

That or maybe I have put the time and effort into learning how stuff works and what helps and what doesn't.

Maybe, but you did admit you kill deer without camo. So, is it necessary?

I'm not saying camo doesn't work. Anything that breaks up your outline will help. I wear plaid wool, but I have to cover it with a big solid blaze orange vest and wear a hat too. Not exactly camo. It has never handicapped me from getting close. As long as you don't move when they're looking at you. You could be wearing a clown suit.

I'm not in a blind. I'm standing right out in the open sometimes, and can still fool them. They're looking for movement. It's not like they can't see you if you wear camo.

Camo was invented for the military to fool other humans. It works well for that.

Don't get scented, and don't move when they're looking at you. That will get you all the critters you want, and you don't need to try and look invisible.

As for the wafers. I really don't know if they work. It might be nice if there was an independent test to see if they do, or any of the other scent products.

if your in a deers core area, even in camo, out of camo, moving or not, if you weren't there yesterday it will attract their attention. bucks not so much, does will bust you a lot.
RR

The problem is as I see it, is that the industries that have grown up around hunting has convinced some hunters, many of them, that they can't be successful without some kind of gimmick. Gadgets, gizmos and gimmick is replacing skills, and that is a sad commentary for hunting! Outdoor skills are going the way of the passenger pigeon and the Dodo.

Camo is absolutely not necessary but it does work as to where cover scent is not necessary nor does it work. That is the difference.

Its crazy the things people can be convinced to believe. Actual real woods,dirt,trees,leaves,acorns etc won't cover your scent but oh boy if you pin a little black wafer that smells like dirt on your shirt your good to go. I mean just take a second to actually think about that concept .

The unfortunate part is people will never learn the things that really matter because they are to busy being distracted by stuff that doesn't work. Then half of the time once they finally figure it out it goes from there to all you can do is hunt the wind which is about just as crazy.

I try and play the wind whenever I pick a Spot/Stand to hunt BUT! Most of the time the wind never stays in the same direction. Just Hunt Baby!

Hatchet Jack

I thought the bar kilt you?