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Activated Carbon Information

My last comment on this thread!! What proof do you guys have that John forgets the wind and hunts? Just that he tells you that he does? If you believe he has killed all those bucks in the last 20 years without hunting the wind, you are sadly mistaken!! I admit I don't have proof he doesn't forget the wind and just hunts, but common sense and millions of folks as well as many independent studies show that carbon clothing reaches a point wher eits odor adsorbing abilty is weak and we cannot possibly re-activate it to even close to its original state!! Shawn
 
My last comment on this thread!! What proof do you guys have that John forgets the wind and hunts? Just that he tells you that he does? If you believe he has killed all those bucks in the last 20 years without hunting the wind, you are sadly mistaken!! I admit I don't have proof he doesn't forget the wind and just hunts, but common sense and millions of folks as well as many independent studies show that carbon clothing reaches a point wher eits odor adsorbing abilty is weak and we cannot possibly re-activate it to even close to its original state!! Shawn
There you go making assumptions again. Who said the goal is to kill older age class bucks? Yes I know most people want the monster buck.And the way I see it, you are just spending money on traveling to states where it is easier to kill a big buck and there is a lot more of them. Good for you if that's your goal. Bears are a good example. I have baited bears off and on in Maine for 35 to 40 years. It took me several years to even see a bear at my baits. We used to have a spring and fall season and everybody was hunting them hard then. Most baits got hit after dark and a lot of times you knew a bear was close by but they would just wait till the hunter left before hitting the bait. Now if you went to Manitoba or Saskatchewan you would most likely be pushing bears off the bait in order to get in your stand. Most of those bears have probably never seen or smelled a human. I have killed plenty of deer in my 43 years of bow hunting in my home state where until recently it was one and done no matter if you shot a buck or doe with any weapon. Here you don't pass a nice 8 point to give him "another year". It just isn't done. After a deer is 1.5 years old you can't get away with much. Even the does are more wary than some of the big bucks in other states and don't often move much before dark. Also, I have been using my "scent control routine" including Scent lok for a long time and can't even remember the last time I had a deer blow at me. Whether John hunts the wind is not quite as relevant anyway imo because he hunts so damn high I think that helps him to get away with a lot more than most. I myself don't like to hunt that high because of the shot angle. I don't see how anyone can argue with less scent not being better than more scent. You notice I didn't say no scent. One last thing here. Just because we disagree on a subject about a sport we both obviously love I hope there are no hurt feelings here. As far as I am concerned we are just having a friendly disagreement about scent control and I would still happily have you in my deer camp anytime.
 
I will pull a John here and tell you that I have bow killed over 200 deer and I did the entire scent thing. I mean to extremes that John does not even go too. Did it for 20 years. I than realized after seeing and watching a demonstration involving a bloodhoound. It made no difference what the person did that was trying to evade the dog. The dog found them either through groun scent or just circling down wind!! I no dount agree you can reduce your scent signature, but sorry not enough to fool older age class whitetails. Actually you are better off trying to disguise your odor than being scentfree. Guys are using misting techniques with pretty good success. Keep spending your hard earned money and doing what you are doing and I will save that money and hunt in a few good whitetail states each year and keep killing quality bucks year after year. Face it, if we as hunters could hunt every day of the season in areas that produce good bucks a lot of us would kill a good one each year. I have learned that very well the last 5 or 6 years. 7 bucks over 130"s in the last 5 years, why cause I hunt the wind and have had the time to hunt where big bucks live, not because of scent-lok, and sprays and oznics!! Shawn

When does bloodhound hunting season open in your state? We aren't allowed to shoot bloodhounds in my state. Seriously though, trying to say scent control is useless because a bloodhound could follow your ground scent is like comparing an apple to a bowl of spighetti.
 
I really don't much care what John's, or anyone else's practices or opinions are on this subject, but I know what I know and I firmly believe there's value to minimizing each and every aspect of my odor as much as I can.

I'm 62 and just finished my 50th season. I've done just about everything (and nothing) towards reducing my odor during those 50 seasons. My 1st 8 or so years I had no clue about odor, I just blundered my way thru the woods and odor busts were a regular occurrence. In my early 20s I started learning a few things about odor and wind, but I still was pretty naive about both subjects. I hunted that way until my 30s and I stepped up my game slightly. I started using milkweed religiously and started being a little more careful about odor reduction but in hindsight, I was no where near where I am today. Ground odor and residual odor was something that I thought was beyond controlling, even with rubber boots. If a deer cut my trail, the game was over. If a deer ended up at the base of my tree, it would bust out in a panic. I was doing some things right toward odor reduction, but there were still a lot of loose ends in my system.

But in the last 10-15 years, I've been a lot more careful and meticulous with my odor regimen and there's absolutely zero, none, nada, no doubt in my mind that I now get away with things that I did not get away with 20 years ago.
I don't give a rip about comparisons to dog studies, product reviews, magazine articles or the opinions of famous hunters. I know what I know, and I know that I simply do not get busted like I used to. This is not a matter of me believing in something just because I want to, or because it makes me feel more confident.
I believe in my system because the deer themselves have proven to me, before my very eyes, that what I'm doing has improved my hunting immeasurably.
So you non-believers can continue to poo-poo the concept and keep a closed mind, but I'm gonna continue doing what I'm doing.

I still pay strict attention to the wind, but the wind is not dependable in hilly country, and it certainly has no effect on whether deer will cross my entrance routes. I cannot control where a deer will walk or stop them from investigating residual odor hours after I've left my stand, but I can reduce (almost completely eliminate) leaving residual odor. That's where an odor regimen has it's greatest value. Too few hunters stop and think about keeping stands fresh. They over hunt them, they pollute the area with residual odor, and then they wonder why they see fewer deer each time they hunt the spot.
The worst thing a hunter can do is educate deer to the fact they are being hunte. The more you stink, the faster you give your herd a PhD in avoiding humans.
 
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I hunted the same stand most of this season. That’s a long story, so I’ll just get to the point.

I hunted more than I have in 20 years, though often just during the morning. I had deer in range every hunt, in fact I can’t think of a hunt where I didn’t have a buck within 30yds. That is, until another hunter started hunting that stand and it turned into a ghost town soon thereafter.

It could be that the deer changed food sources, or moved due to some other factor. IDK. What I do know is I enjoyed that stand for a month and a half with lots of action and it went completely cold within a couple days of the other hunter occupying that stand; I was pretty careful with scent reduction, the other hunter less so. I hunted all winds.

20 years ago I was able to hunt a spot very nearby, almost daily for most of a month, with all day sits, and later into the season than was productive this year. It was my first year attempting scent reduction, and I had good action the entire time.

So many factors come to play during any hunt, it’s hard to know what means what. I’ll never know why that location suddenly stopped producing this year, but I have to think my efforts to minimize scent helped keep it active so long.

This other hunter is a good hunter, btw. Just doesn’t scent control quite as carefully.
 
I am not reading all this to know if this was already said, but I am tired of the dog argument. Just because a trained dog, whose nose is as good or better than a deer's, went looking for something his handler knew was there and found it does NOT make a case against scent control. A deer is not a dog. A hog is not a dog. A bear... well a bear is close, lol. A dog trained to find something will find the thing it is trained for. That does not equate at all to how a deer operates. They have totally different brains. A deer is not is not trained to seek out people for a reward. A deer reads his surroundings in order to know they are safe for his intended activities. That is it. Deer don't run for the hills just because human, bear, or coyote scent is present in the most miniscule amount. They would stay stressed out and die if that were the case.

Think of it like this. We all have smelled a skunk. Now imagine all skunks smell to high heaven at all times and they are supreme people murderers. Would you run frantically every time you caught a faint whiff of one? NO. Why? Because you know based on the strength of the smell how far away the skunk might be or perhaps you may think the it has left the area some time ago and is not an immediate threat. Deer operate the same way. If a deer thinks I am further away than I really am or that I have been out of the area for quite some time it will remain calm and do its thing. Scent control gives you the ability to fool the deer in that regard. They either can't smell you, think you are gone, or think you are very far away. This all has been studied as well.

I am in Louisiana. I bet we rival Michigan in hunters per forested acre. The few deer we have are extremely wild and smart. I wear scentlok head to toe, wear rubber boots, take scent showers, use ozone, and spray items with odor eliminating spray. This has increased my success by a huge margin. I truly don't remember ever being blown at since I started doing this, and I don't hunt the wind because that is next to impossible here. To say that scentlok has nothing to do with my success is a bunch of baloney. I killed an 8 year old 10 point in a over pressured club that was sniffing my tracks 20 minutes after I had got into my stand. He sniffed, looked around, and started eating. Then two more bucks came hang out with him. I killed a mature 10pt on public land that came from down wind in a steady breeze. I watched him walk working his nose to try and smell danger or perhaps does. I was only about 18' up. That would not have happened in years past. In total, I have killed 3 mature bucks in this state, 2 on public, and one private. I killed zero before scentlok. I only saw 1 from stand before scentlok.
 
I am not reading all this to know if this was already said, but I am tired of the dog argument. Just because a trained dog, whose nose is as good or better than a deer's, went looking for something his handler knew was there and found it does NOT make a case against scent control. A deer is not a dog. A hog is not a dog. A bear... well a bear is close, lol. A dog trained to find something will find the thing it is trained for. That does not equate at all to how a deer operates. They have totally different brains. A deer is not is not trained to seek out people for a reward. A deer reads his surroundings in order to know they are safe for his intended activities. That is it. Deer don't run for the hills just because human, bear, or coyote scent is present in the most miniscule amount. They would stay stressed out and die if that were the case.

Think of it like this. We all have smelled a skunk. Now imagine all skunks smell to high heaven at all times and they are supreme people murderers. Would you run frantically every time you caught a faint whiff of one? NO. Why? Because you know based on the strength of the smell how far away the skunk might be or perhaps you may think the it has left the area some time ago and is not an immediate threat. Deer operate the same way. If a deer thinks I am further away than I really am or that I have been out of the area for quite some time it will remain calm and do its thing. Scent control gives you the ability to fool the deer in that regard. They either can't smell you, think you are gone, or think you are very far away. This all has been studied as well.

I am in Louisiana. I bet we rival Michigan in hunters per forested acre. The few deer we have are extremely wild and smart. I wear scentlok head to toe, wear rubber boots, take scent showers, use ozone, and spray items with odor eliminating spray. This has increased my success by a huge margin. I truly don't remember ever being blown at since I started doing this, and I don't hunt the wind because that is next to impossible here. To say that scentlok has nothing to do with my success is a bunch of baloney. I killed an 8 year old 10 point in a over pressured club that was sniffing my tracks 20 minutes after I had got into my stand. He sniffed, looked around, and started eating. Then two more bucks came hang out with him. I killed a mature 10pt on public land that came from down wind in a steady breeze. I watched him walk working his nose to try and smell danger or perhaps does. I was only about 18' up. That would not have happened in years past. In total, I have killed 3 mature bucks in this state, 2 on public, and one private. I killed zero before scentlok. I only saw 1 from stand before scentlok.
Agreed! Carbon works! But so does woodsmanship! Some people like me don't want to take the time to fool with it and worry about all the preparation for hunting. It's not fun for me man. I get winded...but I love matching wits with them and trying to beat them like guys I grew up reading and watching kill'em with just woodsmanship! It's learning how to figure out how to kill'em or maybe just see them and not get winded cause I was close but just off enough that a bow won't get it done.....fun! Some of us want fun for hunting and knowing how to read sign, read terrain, and understand the wind.....I love the learning. You wear your carbon....I'll use my old ways. I'm successful if I had fun doing it the old way and you know what?........I occasionally kill a nice deer too. Old ways guys are after all of it.....some are better than others....I work with a guy that uses zero carbon and no spray. Booner on his wall.....uses a recurve. I love picking his brain. I cannot get the satisfaction of hunting using carbon or stuff like that. Just me though. Ozone works....carbon works...spray helps. But woodsmanship trumps them in satisfaction if you make a plans and it works consistently because you LEARNED. Just my take...not a judgemental attitude. Everyone needs to have fun!
 
Agreed! Carbon works! But so does woodsmanship! Some people like me don't want to take the time to fool with it and worry about all the preparation for hunting. It's not fun for me man. I get winded...but I love matching wits with them and trying to beat them like guys I grew up reading and watching kill'em with just woodsmanship! It's learning how to figure out how to kill'em or maybe just see them and not get winded cause I was close but just off enough that a bow won't get it done.....fun! Some of us want fun for hunting and knowing how to read sign, read terrain, and understand the wind.....I love the learning. You wear your carbon....I'll use my old ways. I'm successful if I had fun doing it the old way and you know what?........I occasionally kill a nice deer too. Old ways guys are after all of it.....some are better than others....I work with a guy that uses zero carbon and no spray. Booner on his wall.....uses a recurve. I love picking his brain. I cannot get the satisfaction of hunting using carbon or stuff like that. Just me though. Ozone works....carbon works...spray helps. But woodsmanship trumps them in satisfaction if you make a plans and it works consistently because you LEARNED. Just my take...not a judgemental attitude. Everyone needs to have fun!
So what your saying is that if someone uses Scentlok they have no woodsmanship skills. Scentlok is just a tool just like my bow, my game cameras and all the other equipment I use. It takes a lot of woodsmanship and skill to figure out where the deer are and getting close enough for an ethical shot regardless of whether your wearing Scentlok. Take an average Joe with no woodsmanship skills and put him in 3 layers of Scentlok and he still ain't killin no deers. Besides, Scentlok is a system and just like any other tool if it isn't used correctly it's not gonna help much.
 
Agreed! Carbon works! But so does woodsmanship! Some people like me don't want to take the time to fool with it and worry about all the preparation for hunting. It's not fun for me man. I get winded...but I love matching wits with them and trying to beat them like guys I grew up reading and watching kill'em with just woodsmanship! It's learning how to figure out how to kill'em or maybe just see them and not get winded cause I was close but just off enough that a bow won't get it done.....fun! Some of us want fun for hunting and knowing how to read sign, read terrain, and understand the wind.....I love the learning. You wear your carbon....I'll use my old ways. I'm successful if I had fun doing it the old way and you know what?........I occasionally kill a nice deer too. Old ways guys are after all of it.....some are better than others....I work with a guy that uses zero carbon and no spray. Booner on his wall.....uses a recurve. I love picking his brain. I cannot get the satisfaction of hunting using carbon or stuff like that. Just me though. Ozone works....carbon works...spray helps. But woodsmanship trumps them in satisfaction if you make a plans and it works consistently because you LEARNED. Just my take...not a judgemental attitude. Everyone needs to have fun!

Absolutely! One without the other is not going to be successful and wordsmanship is key. I would never tell anyone they have to wear carbon. I wear it because I get a very limited amount of hunting time, and I want everting I can get in my favor. My bro-in-law doesn't do squat and has a wall full of mature bucks. He smells like he is going on a date when he heads out hunting, but he deer hunts in a good club that is not filled with idiots like the ones I have been on. He is also an all around expert outdoorsman, one of those catch bass in the toilet and shoot a limit of ducks or squirrels out the window guys. He has permanent stands setup properly and only hunts them when the wind and everything is right. If everything is not perfect he doesn't step foot in the woods. His job allows him to be able to do that. He doesn't have to weekend warrior it a few weekends a year on public like me. If everything sets up perfect during the week, he takes off and hunts. Guys like him that have the time could benefit from scentlok, but don't need it.

As for satisfaction, it is so damn hard to kill a deer let alone a nice buck on the public we have a camp on it makes hunting everywhere else too easy. Wearing scentlok is not like dawning some magic cloak that makes killing deer too easy. I wish it was, LOL. I go to Texas and Oaklahoma with friends every year. Now that is too easy. I don't get much that much out of it besides having a good time with friends. The struggle on poorly managed public land makes the reward so much better.
 
......I am tired of the dog argument........
Me too.
Common sense says that dogs, deer, and everything else on the planet have limitations on how well they can detect an odor at various distances and under a variety of conditions...humidity, temps, wind speed, etc all have an effect on how well a critter with superior olfactory abilities can detect an odor. The point is that thete is some invisible line out there where the animal can no longer detect the odor.
Moisture conditions are also a factor. Watch a beagle work on a wet day versus a dry day. Huge difference. There ARE limits to what dogs or deer can detect.
And there are things we can do to reduce the intensity of our odor. The less we stink, the closer the distance that we are undetectable and the sooner residual odors will dissipate.
 
So what your saying is that if someone uses Scentlok they have no woodsmanship skills. Scentlok is just a tool just like my bow, my game cameras and all the other equipment I use. It takes a lot of woodsmanship and skill to figure out where the deer are and getting close enough for an ethical shot regardless of whether your wearing Scentlok. Take an average Joe with no woodsmanship skills and put him in 3 layers of Scentlok and he still ain't killin no deers. Besides, Scentlok is a system and just like any other tool if it isn't used correctly it's not gonna help much.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.....!!!! No that isn't what I meant at all! I'm saying some guys....prefer.... not to even give carbon or ozone a second thought...... My preference is for me.....I was saying it works but some people are still old school. I've been hunting 50 yrs.
 
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