Scent Control

Wash hunting clothes seperate after running a cleaning wash of just water and baking soda through the washer.
Air dry clothes and put in scent-free containers until getting to hunting woods. Dress at truck, change into rubber boots only when leaving truck for the woods.
Don't touch anything (shrubbery, limbs, trees on way to stand. Your oil on your hands leaves some of the strongest scent in the human body ( to a deer)
Hunt reasonably high for the situation. Will sometimes bring a small rake with me and drag it behind me the last 20-30 yds to the stand to mix any residual boot scent in with dirt/leaves.
Try not to touch the tree you climb with bare hands while setting up climber. Kick loose dirt around bottom of tree to help control any sweat, boot odor at base of tree. If cutting limbs on way up tree make sure they don't fall to ground. Stick them in climber and use as additional camo/break-up.
I wear a head covering to minimize my breath , but that will only work for a few hours until saturated. Luckily by then the thermals are usually pulling your scent up higher but occasionally I swap to a second mask and put the first in a zip-loc I bring along to minimize that smell.
Human breath is probably the one odor that gives away your position to 80 % of the deer that come from downwind....unless your a stinky bastage. Then they can smell you from up to 800 yds.... that's over a 1/3rd of a mile FWIW.

You'll never totally be scent-free, no matter what anyone says. The plan is to minimize it so that it is not enough to cause nearby deer to be overly alert and allow them to get within bow range before having any idea that you are there.

As for cover scents and such I once read hat the only difference to a deer's nose is that instead of smelling like a human you smell like a human with fox piss on your boots.
(edit...if hunting on a farm near cows/horses I will on occasion step through some cowpies or droppings to help cover my boot odor a bit, but thats a rarity.

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still kill more deer than the scent control freaks?

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Yeah...your probably right...what the hell would I know about it...

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You're an EXPERT now.

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Not at all chief.

But I have 4 Pope and Young's on my wall.
So I figure I might do something right every now and then.

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Wash hunting clothes seperate after running a cleaning wash of just water and baking soda through the washer.
Air dry clothes and put in scent-free containers until getting to hunting woods. Dress at truck, change into rubber boots only when leaving truck for the woods.
Don't touch anything (shrubbery, limbs, trees on way to stand. Your oil on your hands leaves some of the strongest scent in the human body ( to a deer)
Hunt reasonably high for the situation. Will sometimes bring a small rake with me and drag it behind me the last 20-30 yds to the stand to mix any residual boot scent in with dirt/leaves.
Try not to touch the tree you climb with bare hands while setting up climber. Kick loose dirt around bottom of tree to help control any sweat, boot odor at base of tree. If cutting limbs on way up tree make sure they don't fall to ground. Stick them in climber and use as additional camo/break-up.
I wear a head covering to minimize my breath , but that will only work for a few hours until saturated. Luckily by then the thermals are usually pulling your scent up higher but occasionally I swap to a second mask and put the first in a zip-loc I bring along to minimize that smell.
Human breath is probably the one odor that gives away your position to 80 % of the deer that come from downwind....unless your a stinky bastage. Then they can smell you from up to 800 yds.... that's over a 1/3rd of a mile FWIW.

You'll never totally be scent-free, no matter what anyone says. The plan is to minimize it so that it is not enough to cause nearby deer to be overly alert and allow them to get within bow range before having any idea that you are there.

As for cover scents and such I once read hat the only difference to a deer's nose is that instead of smelling like a human you smell like a human with fox piss on your boots.
(edit...if hunting on a farm near cows/horses I will on occasion step through some cowpies or droppings to help cover my boot odor a bit, but thats a rarity.

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What in the frick

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2. Smoke all hunt. How many people here have paw paws that do that and still kill more deer than the scent control freaks?

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As a kid i remember a dude in our hunting club who smoked like a train. If you hunted a stand after him, days after, there was a pile of butts under the stand. Dude always killed as much, if not more deer than anyone else. I quit buying the scent stuff after scent blocker stuff got busted and just hunt the wind. I used to spray down, leave clothes wrapped in plastic, get dressed outside etc and since I quit that and hunt the wind I havent noticed any change.

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My first post was giving him some hints to help his bowhunting experience. Not trying to come across as a know-it-all or a braggart.

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You really nailed it then.

Posting pics of deer at the base of your tree only highlights that you are just here to measure dicks and don’t actually understand what you’re lecturing about. Your scent is drifting over their heads in all but the most extreme thermals.

There is nothing you can do that will reliably beat a deer’s nose except hunt the wind. Anyone who says otherwise is selling or been sold something.

Play the wind, shoot from a long distance (rifle). I don’t do any of tha scent killer shite. Maximizing your time in the woods helps the most.

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I concur with respectful opinions on the OB. It's what makes it a great place to visit, read and many times learn a thing or two. Lord knows I learn something new every time I log on.

Anyhow, I wish the best of luck to you and your stinky arse this season...hope you kill a big-un.

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I'll agree with this and hope to have more positive discussions if we inevitably cross paths in another Thread. If my response came across wrong, I assure you it wasn't meant that way. Written text is often a poor substitute for in person conversation.

Good luck to you as well.



As far as scent goes, I have come to believe that it doesn't matter WHAT the animal smells but how it interprets it, and if they perceive it as a THREAT.

Whether it be smoke, human odor, etc. etc....it's only an issue if they have connected that with humans. I think we can all agree smoke is a strong odor, but you'd be free to chimney it up if they don't think "human, run" when it hits their nostrils.

In fact, deer in my experience are curious creatures, and a foreign smell could bring them in to investigate.

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Written text is often a poor substitute for in person conversation.

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Absolutely agree with this and everything you said in your last post.

I guess with respect to my earlier posts I failed to mention that my extreme approach is necessary on the little tract of land I hunt here in SC. It’s less than 10 acres of wooded oak flat that I have basically only one way in and out of due to leases on the other three sides. So through the years I have worked hard to minimize my education of the resident deer population. Having to skirt an overgrown cow pasture on my way in where I KNOW many deer are bedded has me walking in the dark without using a light and minimizing any and all strange noises to try and ensure a clean and quiet entry into the woods. Yet they still know they are being hunted after roughly 3 visits max. But it is what it is.

I’ve no doubt we’ll confer in other threads in the future and gladly look forward to your wisdom.

And if ever in the Greenville SC area first beers on me ;)