"My son shot his first squirrel last year, he was so proud. We were up north and its a 3hr drive. We got home and he showed it to the family and the dog jumped at it. I said to my son, bring her out on the leash when you see me out the window. I hooked the squirrel on a drag, took it around the yard and rubbed it up a tree. He brought the dog out and she ran along that trail. Mind you she was 1yr old by this time, but still a puppy. She over ran the trail like young dogs do, but she would find it again and ALWAYS go the right direction. She got to the tree and was confused and I patted on the tree to get her to put her front feet up on it and she did. She could then see the squirrel 4ft above her now that she was looking up. She barked like crazy.
Lets think about it.
This is a dead squirrel, not giving off any fresh scent of a live animal, just residual scent. How did she follow that track so fast and IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?"
Ken I would imagine that even though we wouldn't be able to detect it but your beagle knew that the direction of travel because the scent starts to dissipate in minute quantities from the point you started to drag the squirrel to where you rubbed it on the tree. Enough for her to determine the direction of travel and as the scent intensified she knew her instinct was correct or she would have back tracked if the trail lessened at all. We wouldn't be able to tell but they can and will figure it out quickly. I don't have any experience with hounds but I have trained bird dogs and know many K9 trainers and while I agree that they are amazing animals, I think comparing a canine to a deer is apples and oranges in this situation. Their talents have developed in two totally separate ways and with distinctly different survival functions. Both have equally amazing olfactory functions but one is honed to track and capture prey and the other is to avoid and escape being killed. I think a more apt comparison would be the reaction of deer and say wild horses than a canine trained to track for scent.
While I personally feel the science is sound and that the technology works, I don't blame other people for feeling it is some sort of hype or quick fix because of the amount of advertising and marketing of hunting equipment theses days. I've said this many times on this site that confidence in ones equipment is one of the most underrated factors in hunting success and a confident hunter is a successful hunter in many cases. I also feel that John Eberhart feels that ScentLok clothing will improve hunters odds so therefore he wrote these articles to try and educate fellow hunters and give them information to improve their success in the field. Just as John has always promoted the saddle as the best way to hunt from a tree even though over the years many people have laughed and made fun of them with comments like tree diapers. Yet all of us are here because we feel to some degree that the saddle is an awesome way to hunt in and some cases feel it's the only way to hunt. To me the decision is easy try the product and if you feel it doesn't improve your hunting then sell it on Ebay. No matter what it's our personal experience that is the most important factor in our equipment choices not someone else's and if it works for you that's all that counts.
In my personal experience it has helped and some of the places I hunt I can't play the wind because I have only one stand location due to my states hunting regulations and can't relocate or move even if I wanted to. So in this case I try and reduce my scent footprint as much as possible and wearing ScentLok is one of the things that I do and so far I have experience positive results. The only way that anyone can decide for sure in my opinion if something is right for them is to try it and see if it works for them. I'm sure that I'm not the only one with that pile of hunting equipment that I thought was going to be the perfect thing but turned out to be total flop and now sits in a box in the basement. To me I can't think of anyway that wearing a carbon based garment could impede or hurt your hunt even if you play the wind or use some other method but in the end it's all about doing what works for you.
Good Hunting,
Roger
Lets think about it.
This is a dead squirrel, not giving off any fresh scent of a live animal, just residual scent. How did she follow that track so fast and IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?"
Ken I would imagine that even though we wouldn't be able to detect it but your beagle knew that the direction of travel because the scent starts to dissipate in minute quantities from the point you started to drag the squirrel to where you rubbed it on the tree. Enough for her to determine the direction of travel and as the scent intensified she knew her instinct was correct or she would have back tracked if the trail lessened at all. We wouldn't be able to tell but they can and will figure it out quickly. I don't have any experience with hounds but I have trained bird dogs and know many K9 trainers and while I agree that they are amazing animals, I think comparing a canine to a deer is apples and oranges in this situation. Their talents have developed in two totally separate ways and with distinctly different survival functions. Both have equally amazing olfactory functions but one is honed to track and capture prey and the other is to avoid and escape being killed. I think a more apt comparison would be the reaction of deer and say wild horses than a canine trained to track for scent.
While I personally feel the science is sound and that the technology works, I don't blame other people for feeling it is some sort of hype or quick fix because of the amount of advertising and marketing of hunting equipment theses days. I've said this many times on this site that confidence in ones equipment is one of the most underrated factors in hunting success and a confident hunter is a successful hunter in many cases. I also feel that John Eberhart feels that ScentLok clothing will improve hunters odds so therefore he wrote these articles to try and educate fellow hunters and give them information to improve their success in the field. Just as John has always promoted the saddle as the best way to hunt from a tree even though over the years many people have laughed and made fun of them with comments like tree diapers. Yet all of us are here because we feel to some degree that the saddle is an awesome way to hunt in and some cases feel it's the only way to hunt. To me the decision is easy try the product and if you feel it doesn't improve your hunting then sell it on Ebay. No matter what it's our personal experience that is the most important factor in our equipment choices not someone else's and if it works for you that's all that counts.
In my personal experience it has helped and some of the places I hunt I can't play the wind because I have only one stand location due to my states hunting regulations and can't relocate or move even if I wanted to. So in this case I try and reduce my scent footprint as much as possible and wearing ScentLok is one of the things that I do and so far I have experience positive results. The only way that anyone can decide for sure in my opinion if something is right for them is to try it and see if it works for them. I'm sure that I'm not the only one with that pile of hunting equipment that I thought was going to be the perfect thing but turned out to be total flop and now sits in a box in the basement. To me I can't think of anyway that wearing a carbon based garment could impede or hurt your hunt even if you play the wind or use some other method but in the end it's all about doing what works for you.
Good Hunting,
Roger
