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Anyone use John Eberharts scent control methods?

IIRC the guy I referenced earlier, Tom Brownley, said that scent molecules are denser in cold air and fall to the ground more rapidly in cold air; but the warmer the air, the more moisture the air can hold, and scent molecules stick to moisture, making scent linger longer. that applies to dew/wet conditions, too.

also interesting: wind carries your scent 10' per mph of wind, and on hills, your scent falls 14' per degree of declination of the hill (all things being equal, obviously a stiff wind opposite the declination will move scent)
NMSbowhunter said:
One related idea that really hit me this season was the realization of how many deer I am probably educating by simply climbing. I had several occasions this past season where deer were inside of 25 yards of me within 5 minutes or less of being at the spot. 2 caught me playing on the phone since I thought I had more time to get settled. Any climb, any method and I would have been seen. If I had just sat down and been still immediately, I feel pretty confident a few more deer would have taken a ride in the truck.
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this is interesting because you do 2TC which is uber-quiet, right?

I am more and more convinced that our local deer heavily rely on their ears to detect danger. whether that's crunching leaves, anything out of the ordinary. that was a big challenge this past season with the drought and the crunching leaves - some final approaches, 300-500yards, would take like 30-45min. not on topic but sharing here. I think that also partially has to do with the sheer thickness of the understory much of the season.
 
A seasoned, well bred hound can take a track on bare ground or snow, over 24 hours old, and tell the correct said direction of travel of game being chased in 10’ or less, these dogs aren’t looking at the track with their eyes, like us humans, it’s all nose, on bare ground there’s no track to see anyways.. so if a hound can tell the right way to follow an animal, the direction it traveled last, in ten feet or less, by simply using it’s nose to gauge the strength of the scent in less than 10’, ask yourself what chance you have against a deer. I’ve been watching this my whole life and to this day I’m still amazed by it. I would bet most folks that have never hunted over hounds can easily grasp the concept of a dog following a scent trail to it’s game, sure.. I would ask them same folks to think about how a hound knows he’s taking that track/scent trail the right direction, because believe me when they don’t you have a long day ahead of you hunting over a hound going backwards, it’s not much fun or productive. How long does it take a bobcat, coyote, rabbit, bear, or mountain lion… to walk ten feet, what 2 seconds… but yet a hound striking out of the back of a moving truck going 20 mph down the road when it smells something, then turned loose, can go down that scent trail (in 10’ or less) and determine which way is fresher to pursue it’s game the right direction by scent strength alone. So I’ll ask again, what chance does a 200 lb ++ human have fresh off eating a bag of Doritos, against beating the nose of a deer, you have no chance. I’m not poking at the folks practicing scent control, because for all I know some of it mite work and reducing the amount your giving off may have some degree of increased success, that I have no idea on, what I can guarantee anyone is there is not one chance in heck you can 100% eliminate all scent and forget about hunting the wind using any product, I don’t buy it for one second.
 
mschultz373 said:
IIRC the guy I referenced earlier, Tom Brownley, said that scent molecules are denser in cold air and fall to the ground more rapidly in cold air; but the warmer the air, the more moisture the air can hold, and scent molecules stick to moisture, making scent linger longer. that applies to dew/wet conditions, too.

also interesting: wind carries your scent 10' per mph of wind, and on hills, your scent falls 14' per degree of declination of the hill (all things being equal, obviously a stiff wind opposite the declination will move scent)

this is interesting because you do 2TC which is uber-quiet, right?

I am more and more convinced that our local deer heavily rely on their ears to detect danger. whether that's crunching leaves, anything out of the ordinary. that was a big challenge this past season with the drought and the crunching leaves - some final approaches, 300-500yards, would take like 30-45min. not on topic but sharing here. I think that also partially has to do with the sheer thickness of the understory much of the season.
Click to expand...
It's not about quiet, it's about them actually laying eyes on me. It's also not about fast and quiet related to climbing. 2TC is very quiet since there is very little metal. It is also very fast since I'm not having to quietly unpack and manage sticks, etc. The problem I had was that the deer were back within 25 yards of me within 5 minutes at most. I need to be set up within a couple of minutes on a soft bump.

I like this soft bump tactic and it seems to be working. We have low deer density and there are a lot of places they can be that are equally good. If I set up on a hot oak that's all well and good but there will likely be 50 more trees like it in a one square mile area. My chances they will be back to that particular tree are low. If I walk until I bump a deer from its bed, which may be several miles, I at least know for a fact that a deer was just there and will likely remain nearby. That is assuming a soft bump.

Also, if I find a hot tree and climb near it, I stand a pretty fair chance of the deer bedded down nearby the tree seeing or hearing me climb. They are usually within 75 yards of a feed tree around here, if they are actively on it. The does will usually pick a downwind location from the tree with good sight lines to it to bed and sleep and chew their cud. Slipping in and staying low and being able to set up within just 2 or three minutes can make the difference.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Absolutely. It is hot and humid early season, heck half the season sometimes and I have been in shorts on Christmas day. When it is hot, I wear the lightest weight scentlok pants I can and rubber boots on the bottom and just a regular dark brown or black polo on top or a brown or green Tee shirt. I carry the lightest weight scentlok jacket in with me in my pack. Once I am at height and get cooled off, I put on the jacket and drop-down face mask and gloves. If it is a morning hunt and I get sweaty I will change out of the Tee shirt and shirt back at the truck and put them in a bag and put on a fresh shirt.

If I am mid-day scouting I change into scouting clothes. When I get back before the evening hunt, I will usually just do a quick wash down with baking soda and water (heard about this from Mr. Womack) and then dress for the evening hunt.

Early season I have also started leaning more heavily on the Packseat and my ground game. A good way not to get sweated up climbing a tree in 100 degree heat and 98% humidity is to not climb the tree.
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anybody got a link to the womack field wash thing?
 

My Style of Hunting By Mr. Warren Womack

For all you folks new to mobile climbing methods, or those of us that have tinkered with our system enough to be dangerous.... "Not only is it good practice but it's also a good conditioning program for climbing. I try to shoot every day and climb up to shoot and down to retrieve arrows, about...
saddlehunter.com

If memory serves, he discusses it in here.
 
To save you some searching. Make sure you read the whole thing. There is a wealth of information in there.

"I sometime, return to my truck during the late morning to early afternoon for a break. While I'm there I'll eat a bite then shoot some practice arrows and clean up. I have a small bowl that I half fill with water and add baking soda. I'll strip down and soak a wash cloth with the solution and do a sponge bath. Without rinsing I'll powder down with more baking soda, then suit up in some clean camo."
 
www.louisianasportsman.com

Controlling your scent to hunt whitetail deer

There’s virtually no lengths a hunter won’t go to in order to fool a whitetail’s incredible nose. I’ve heard of guys dousing themselves with deer urine or rolling around in the dirt before a hunt — rituals they swear by, with big bucks hanging on the wall to back it up.
www.louisianasportsman.com www.louisianasportsman.com

more on Womacks baking soda
 
Topdog said:
A seasoned, well bred hound can take a track on bare ground or snow, over 24 hours old, and tell the correct said direction of travel of game being chased in 10’ or less, these dogs aren’t looking at the track with their eyes, like us humans, it’s all nose, on bare ground there’s no track to see anyways.. so if a hound can tell the right way to follow an animal, the direction it traveled last, in ten feet or less, by simply using it’s nose to gauge the strength of the scent in less than 10’, ask yourself what chance you have against a deer. I’ve been watching this my whole life and to this day I’m still amazed by it. I would bet most folks that have never hunted over hounds can easily grasp the concept of a dog following a scent trail to it’s game, sure.. I would ask them same folks to think about how a hound knows he’s taking that track/scent trail the right direction, because believe me when they don’t you have a long day ahead of you hunting over a hound going backwards, it’s not much fun or productive. How long does it take a bobcat, coyote, rabbit, bear, or mountain lion… to walk ten feet, what 2 seconds… but yet a hound striking out of the back of a moving truck going 20 mph down the road when it smells something, then turned loose, can go down that scent trail (in 10’ or less) and determine which way is fresher to pursue it’s game the right direction by scent strength alone. So I’ll ask again, what chance does a 200 lb ++ human have fresh off eating a bag of Doritos, against beating the nose of a deer, you have no chance. I’m not poking at the folks practicing scent control, because for all I know some of it mite work and reducing the amount your giving off may have some degree of increased success, that I have no idea on, what I can guarantee anyone is there is not one chance in heck you can 100% eliminate all scent and forget about hunting the wind using any product, I don’t buy it for one second.
Click to expand...
Well, I don't eat Doritos before I go hunting. :)
 
NMSbowhunter said:
To save you some searching. Make sure you read the whole thing. There is a wealth of information in there.

"I sometime, return to my truck during the late morning to early afternoon for a break. While I'm there I'll eat a bite then shoot some practice arrows and clean up. I have a small bowl that I half fill with water and add baking soda. I'll strip down and soak a wash cloth with the solution and do a sponge bath. Without rinsing I'll powder down with more baking soda, then suit up in some clean camo."
Click to expand...
Just don't expose your optics to said baking soda. Scratch the heck out of em.
 
I thought it was good point of view. I picked up a few good pointers.

john the only thing I would add is before I put anything in dryer I wipe it down and use spray of some sort commercial scent eliminator and always a dryer sheet dead down wind. I too wash my towels first with underwear socks then after that I think my wife’s fancy smelling detergent is gone for base layers and outer garments. I’ve been hanging all my stuff last few years (outer garments scentlock, scenbloker, Sitka, firstlite and Kuiu garments. outter garments do not go in dryer. I’ve also gotten away from my scentlock hats with face mask. The mask just seems to get in the way with my thumb release. Even if I pull it down.

to each their own.

thanks John for the info great job!
 
I’ve used scent look like him but not as hard core as him always with the wind in my face and killed a nice buck coming in from down wind. Could have killed several does that came in from down wind. You need to cover your face up to your eyes with it and hands and rest of body for it to work but it does help just not the end all be all. It helps when the wind switches on you like it does a lot around me.
 
I’ve known John since 2012 and adopted his strategies quickly after that. Before knowing John I tried Scentlok but was getting winded and realized after reading his books and watching his DVD’s I was doing it wrong. Here’s my 12 years of experience. First of all “you can’t be scentfree” just like you can’t always “play the wind”. In my 30 plus years of archery hunting I never had a consistent wind direction no matter what the weather said. Being successful was difficult back then. What I have done now is reduce my scent enough that it is not alarming to deer so that I can hunt any spot and not worry about ruining a hunt. I can walk over trials, through high grass to get to my tree without the worry of spooking deer. If anything deer get inquisitive when they cross my trail and follow it trying to figure out what just went by. I didn’t start using a saddle until 2018 so I also got picked in trees a lot. Before using John’s regimen a deer would catch my movement circle down wind and blow out of there ruining my hunt. After listening to John and using properly cared for Scentlok when this would happen I started to see the deer react differently. They would spot me in the tree get down wind stop and sniff the air for several minutes then move off or lose interest and continue on their way. I could tell they saw something in the tree but my scent wasn’t strong enough for them to tear out of there and ruin my hunt. Now that I have been using a saddle and “always” a ring of steps I can hide behind the tree and not get spotted. Using Scentlok and a saddle has greatly increased my success rates and it really isn’t as hard to do as you may think. Good luck this season!
 
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