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Breath Cleansing?

This might sound a bit crazy and extreme, but it's not as bad as it first seems... I chew on white pine bark. Break a thumb-sized live branch off a tree and peel off some of the young bark and chew on it. It actually doesn't taste that bad, lasts a long time, is full of vitamin C and is a natural cough suppressant.
Oh and it's free and usually easy to find while walking in to my tree... Don't knock it til you try it.
 
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I do scent control but the breath thing doesn't make much sense to me. You would literally have to eliminate all bacteria in your mouth, which would probably affect your health in other adverse ways, to stop your mouth from producing scent. I brush my teeth with minty stuff sometimes before a hunt or not brush at all. Honestly don't believe I have ever been winded as a result of not trying to mask my mouth scent.

A scent routine can help but can definitely be taken too far.
 
I do scent control but the breath thing doesn't make much sense to me. You would literally have to eliminate all bacteria in your mouth, which would probably affect your health in other adverse ways, to stop your mouth from producing scent. I brush my teeth with minty stuff sometimes before a hunt or not brush at all. Honestly don't believe I have ever been winded as a result of not trying to mask my mouth scent.

A scent routine can help but can definitely be taken too far.

Not to mention your breath comes from your lungs. Human lungs!
 
Eat an apple, natural breath cleanser.
Brush thoroughly of course, then rinse with peroxide, then floss, the clean below gum line with rubber tip gum gizmo, then rinse with Smart Mouth 12 hour mouthwash.
Lastly, carry apples to eat throughout the hunt. Apple is a great deodorizer.
Mouth cleansing is just another part of odor reduction. We will never totally eliminate our odor but we can reduce it. Odor reduction pays dividends when deer are on the fringes of our scent cone when they may or may not spook. It's those times when deer seem to get a little nervous from a slight whiff of us. A clean hunter will be busted to a lesser degree than a dirty hunter.
 
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I will chew on sasaphras twigs. Never thought of using it for breath/scent control.

I just wear a mask for scent control.

I agree with good hygiene in your hunting habits.

I read on Saddle Hunter how some guys stop eating red meat before and during the season. My father god test his sole was a Ranger & a Captain in Korea. He kept his interpreter (South Korean) with him at all times. The intreprator could smell a North Korean and Chinese because of the difference in foods. I remember very heightened olfactory senses when I was on active duty and in the field for any length of time. So I can only imagine what a deer can smell.
 
My routine is: brush really good (teeth, gums and, especially the tongue), next rinse really well with peroxide, and last, use a carbon mask the entire hunt, like the ones below (I also line my head net with carbon powder for another layer too)

http://www.thebreath-taker.com/store.php
 
I will start off by saying I think it is best to always play the wind regardless of the products you use. With that said I think a Scentlok head cover can help but will NOT eliminate all of your mouth scent. I hesitate to list my profession but I will say I have plenty of experience working in peoples mouths and the best product I've heard of/found for helping with bad breath is called SmartMouth. Furthermore, keeping your mouth clean by flossing daily and brushing 2x/day will also help. Make sure you brush your tongue in addition to the teeth. The amount of bacteria on people's tongues alone can make for some real raunchy smells. The last thing is to make sure you get your teeth cleaned professionally. The buildup on teeth can lead to periodontal disease which is advanced gingivitis. Essentially it means you are losing the bone supporting the teeth due to inflammation but this also causes a terrible smell that can be smelled from several feet away. Also for those using straight baking soda and DDW toothpaste they do not contain any fluoride in them so they do nothing to help prevent cavities however they can help keep the mouth clean which is important. Ultimately I think you could use any fluoride toothpaste and rinse with SmartMouth and you will see improvement (as long as you don't have perio disease and you're brushing your tongue). If all else fails go with flinginairos doe pee advice especially during the rut.
 
I eat lot’s of apples......only because I like them. LOL

Honestly trying to cover your breath is a waste of time in my opinion. If a deer gets downwind you will have much worse human smells to worry about. Only 100% effective way to beat their nose is to stay downwind of where you expect them to come from.

I messed around with all the gimmicks for years and nothing is more effective than playing the wind and understanding thermals. My sightings and close encounters have actually increased since doing away with my scent reduction routine and hunting is so much more enjoyable.


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I eat lot’s of apples......only because I like them. LOL

Honestly trying to cover your breath is a waste of time in my opinion. If a deer gets downwind you will have much worse human smells to worry about. Only 100% effective way to beat their nose is to stay downwind of where you expect them to come from.

I messed around with all the gimmicks for years and nothing is more effective than playing the wind and understanding thermals. My sightings and close encounters have actually increased since doing away with my scent reduction routine and hunting is so much more enjoyable.


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1st, define "down wind". Our odor disperses in a cone shape with more intense odor in the center of the cone and less intense odor on the fringes.
Distance, wind switching, humidity, and an individual deer's tolerance for human odor are part of the equation of whether we get busted, and how severe that bust may be. Some busts are full blown deer panic under the worst conditions, and some busts are no more than a deer pausing, with other busts being somewhere in between the extremes. I choose to take every precaution that I can.

Some of us don't have access to large properties. We often have only a few productive stands we can hunt. Add to that, tricky winds and very few low impact access routes and odor reduction has to be an important part of our scheme.

Time is also a factor. How long our residual odor remains is partly a product of how intense our odor production is.
And I contend that residual odor is every bit as damaging as the odor we produce while in the presence of deer. When deer encounter our odor hours, days, or weeks after we've hunted the stand, that location will become less productive...stand burn-out.
Reduce every odor for every hunt.

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