Food & Scent Control
 

I am a relatively new hunter located in central Texas. I've studied as much as I can about scent control and believe I've put a real solid plan together to reduce my scent while hunting. However, I have not come across anything that speaks specifically to having food in the blind/stand and what effect that has regarding scent control. I assume foods can be a negative if trying to remain as neutral smelling as possible, but being in a stand all day requires some sustenance.

I've searched videos and articles and nothing I've come across talks about the impact to scent in the field as it applies to the food you bring. I do not bring a thermos of hot soup, or pack PB&J sandwiches! But I do pack things like protein bars and jerky... What are your thoughts on this and what do you do?

Thanks!

You are way over thinking this! I drink hot coffee in my stand and I have killed many a deer while drinking coffee. I eat what I want, if I want hot soup I take a thermos of hot soup with me, I used to smoke for 50 years, during that time, 9 out of 10 deer I killed were killed while I was smoking a cigarette. Do not get so involved with the TV experts that you leave common sense at the door of your house. Remember, if you breathe, you are putting scent into the air, you cannot be scent free and deer being curious many times will go towards a smell they are not familiar with. Deer are not born with a fear of human scent, the scent that scares them is scent that they have had a bad experience with. Remember, hunting is supposed to be a fun recreational sport, not a punishment!

I have given up on scent control. I use a tall stand (20') and play the wind instead. Stay down wind of where you think they will be coming and your good to go. I eat in my stand, drink in my stand, and kill deer out of my stand. The only thing I do is wash my clothes in scent control soap and use the scent control dryer sheets. That's it. At deer camp there is no shower so after day one your stinky anyway.

One guy I hunted with smoked a lot. I hunted his stand one day. It smelled like a used cigarette butt. When I turned around and actually looked at the tree he had stuffed cigarette butts in ever nook and cranny of the tree. That stand had the most bucks taken from it than any other stand we had out.

for the average deer and hunter, its way easy to over thing hunting deer
they market and sell items bases on the fact hunters are always trying to find a short cut to a easy way to kill a BIG BUCK

but unless your hunting extremely sensitive deer to human scent, most all deer are rather used to it, younger deer pay less attention to it too IMO but when you start to hunt OLDER bucks, that have learned to live long by avoiding humans bets they can, , ANYTHING that helps can ONLY help

but again, MOST folks don't own enough land to prevent deer from smelling humans often
so many times again, deer don't react like marketing folks want us to believe
come rifle season on any land with presure and all natural things chnage in deer and how they move, and well end up killed

so IMO< how scent concerned you need to be, comes down to age class and pressure on the deer your hunting!
they don't get old being dumb, and well, even smart deer make mistakes
tips on food, you can try and take foods that are more natural, say apples.nuts for snacks, , and well keep most other things in sealed bags till your ready to eat
is what I have done and killed a LOT of deer
but I also do NOT bring any food at all for 10-11 hour sits t most times too! doesn;t bother me to go that long without eating though!

I leave my outer clothes hanging on the porch, and my inner ones go in a tote in the camp. I wash most of my stuff before the season. Sure you can't eliminate everything, but why not do what you can?

If you look at it from a math stand point, do you want to put out 10% of your odor or 100? Obviosly people shoot deer being as lazy as they want, and I am ok with that. But not like it takes all that much effort from me.

I also use the scent killer deoderant, it does work. Cost me $2 a year. Some spray and laundry soap cost a few bucks more. I can afford it.

I do drink coffee and bring food. Obviously it is not normal smell in the woods, but my guess is it is not the same as human body odor or sweat. You care going to hunt longer if you are comfortable and fed. Can't shoot deer back at camp.

I do switch spots based on wind. But deer don't always follow the arrows.

I kind of tailor my hunting depending on which area I'm hunting. I hunt three different leases. one lease has a lot of human traffic, everything from dog walkers to mountain bikers. The Deer will hide but rarely spook and/or move out of the area. Another has occasional foot traffic, the Deer only seem to mind when they get into a strong scent cone. The third gets little human traffic, other than farmers and forestry, seems most new scents drive the Deer into the thick woods or thickets. The Hogs are a whole other matter, if they see headlights they are out of here.

The oddity is the third lease gets a lot of Hog traffic and I sometimes use scents to draw the Hogs off their normal routes, the neighboring lease. I shot a trophy Buck that was sniffing one of my Hog baits, basically rotten fish.

I've used cover scents, one of my favorites is Lovage. Lovage smells kind of like super celery and has a really strong odor. Hogs love the stuff, Deer seem to accept it as a natural occurrence. I've also used Spruce.

IMO it is hard t say what is going to spook Deer, I guess it depends on whether they associate the odor with danger or not. I've given up trying to make any sense of it. On my lease the Doe with fawn will usually bark alarm and move out of the area quick when the Hogs show up. I watched one Doe with a fawn feeding within fifteen feet of a giant sow. Side note; when I say giant I mean huge.