This afternoon I decided to hunt one of my spots seeing that I had the day off. To get to my stand, I have to walk through a horse pasture with the usual land mines, cross about 20 yards of standing water, and cross two small streams. I always tuck my coverall legs into my boots before all the water crossings. Anyway, I get into my stand and about 10 minutes go by and a doe walks up to about 24 yards, steps into the trail I walked in on and sticks her nose to the ground and darn near turns inside out. She didn't totally spook, but she definitely knew something wasn't right. I never wear my muck boots or hunting clothes in my truck, and try to keep them as scent free as possible, and even spray down with scent killer. How are you guys dealing with external boot odors? Thanks, Mike
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Boot scent
- Thread starter Mike K
- Start date
d_rek
Well-Known Member
Non-breathable rubber boots stink. I'm willing to bet that your coveralls picked up your foot funk stench after you tucked them into your boot. Next time maybe just try rolling them up over your boot, rather than tucking them in.
It's also quite possible that she picked up some horse scent in a place where she doesn't normally smell it. Having grown up in and around farmland I can say that you rarely see deer co-habitating with livestock. But you would think that would have all washed away crossing the water + streams.
There is also the possibility that it was not your boots, but another part of your hunting outift that is dropping scent on your trail. It could be almost any piece of gear you own, but gloves, facemasks, and hats would probably be the first/biggest offenders.
And then, if that that wasn't enough, she very well could have sensed a disturbance in a familiar habitat - crushed grass, disturbed leaves, broken branches.
Here's my extreme scent-control regimen. I've yet to have a deer visibly scent-bust me.
- All hunting clothes stored in IRIS weathertight storage bins (same damn thing as scentlok scentote, but $30 cheaper).
- Never wear hunting clothes in vehicle or in home (except socks and or extreme cold baselayers).
- Always change at location, outside vehicle
- Only wear rubber boots. WIpe or spray down before going afield
- Wipe bow and other gear that has had skin contact down with scent free wipes (wildlife research field wipes)
- Spray pack down with scent-reducing spray
- Keep scent-lok baseslayers in seperate scentlok airtight bag
- Allow legs of pants to go over my rubber boots. If i have to cross standing water I just hike or roll them up (if not zippered).
- Scentlok garments regenerated every 30-40 hours in dryer on high-heat of use. Only use scentlok brand reactivation detergent.
- Non-scentlok garments are washed using arm+hammer perfume + dye free detergent. Either air dried outside or in the dryer without the use of a dryer sheet. If, like I do, you live in a household where someone must use perfumed detergent + dryer sheets then I will run a full load of towels with scent-free detergent in the wash machine first, then into the dryer without sheets. Time consuming, but worth it.
d_rek, thanks for your reply. I never wear my boots or coveralls in my vehicle or at home. I always dress at my vehicle before heading to my stand. You might be right about the horse smell where it isn't supposed to be, and I thought about that, but figured crossing so much water would take care of that. I must admit, my scent control measures aren't quite up to yours. I need to work on that. Thanks for all your advice, Mike
d_rek
Well-Known Member
Mike K said:
It might seem like a lot of work but after a while it's just routine. My own experience has shown me that it's worth the effort. I have had more deer dead downwind and not spook than I could shoot in a lifetime lol
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Mike K said:
Mike, besides tightening up your scent control routine as d_rek mentioned, I would say this is a big no no. If you are pulling your coveralls out of your boots after the water crossing you have foot scent over your coveralls now and are pulling it out. If you aren't pulling them out, you have a puff of air coming up out of your boots with each step after they have been tucked in.
Redsquirrel, I leave my coverall legs tucked in until I'm at my stand, it's only about 50 yards from the last crossing. Either way I do need to step it up on scent control. It's very easy to get lazy and not do what I should be doing.
d_rek
Well-Known Member
Mike K said:
Thankfully that's an easy fix. Just hike them up or roll them up rather than tuck them in.
I practice more extreme scent control (although if you read Eberharts books you will understand just how extreme a hunter can take their scent control regimen) because most of the properties I hunt are small by most hunting standards: two 10 acre parcels, one 17 acre, and one 80 acre parcel (just opened up to me this season). Sure there is state land to hunt but it's hard for me to get up there when all of the other properties are so close and can produce quality hunts... IF I am diligent about scent control!
I no doubt would not be able to hunt these smaller properties repeatedly without an extreme scent control regimen. I would be at the whim of the fickle wind and I would have burned out my stands after a few sits.
rr79
Active Member
10 min isnt long after walking in. Rubber boots or not, best scent control practices or not. You still leave human scent. I dnt think it was the horse poo. Those deer probly go in that same horse poo and track it all in the woods. Jmo.
rr79, your right, 10 minutes isn't very long but with all the water I have to go through I was amazed she scented me at all. The deer at this spot do feed out in the pasture with the horses and it's not fenced on the woods side. While setting up my spot this year the horses actually followed me into the woods. It was a little unnerving but they eventually left.rr79 said:
I helped Mike put that stand up and he is right there is a lot of water between his entrance to the hunting area and the stand I would have to agree it makes more sense that it came from the tucked in coveralls than the boot itself but who knows with some of these hyper alert does. From what I know about dog training the noses on animals are amazing and even long after we think scent should be disapated or diluted they can still detect certain odors. With hunting pressure what it is in our state some of these deer get PHD's in detecting our presences, some sneak away without a sound and we never even know they were there, while others like the doe Mike encounter alert every deer in the area that something is a miss. In a couple of places I've had does that busted me in a tree stand come in snorting and blowing looking up at the stand even though I was in another location upwind of them but she still chased the other deer out of the area.
Roger
Roger