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do you guys feel scent control gets less critical as season goes on?

martian

Active Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2019
Messages
111
as the season starts, I wash everything down with a brush water and baking soda, ( stands ,ladders, anything that goes out. then spray and outside to dry) and of course clothes, scent free soap , and line dry with at least a rain or two. a shower, and then out, and try to dress at the hunt sight and I have been busted early season, far too many times. As the season goes on, I get lazy, and scent control suffers, and I swear I get busted less, and I drive to the sight with clothes on because it is cold.and have deer closer then early season. Two days ago, a beautiful 8-10 came in after my decoys, ( buck and doe), he circled around, stood behind my ladder so close, that now and then, I could hear him shift his feet and if I looked straight down, I could see leaf movement. Now maybe rut plays a big part of this. and I was also on different property, and mayby on my familiar hunt grounds, they finally get used to the scent intrusion. By the way the buck circled came in in the dekes, I pulled back to shoot , and my release let the arrow fly and land at his feet at half draw, and he walked
 
I don't know of specific deer/animal studies, but sense of smell as well as volatility of odor molecules is reduced by cold and dry environments.
 
I'm in the camp of hunters who think scent control is a total waste of time.

The science shows you will NEVER trick a deer's nose. Arguably maybe you could confuse it for a few seconds and MAYBE those few seconds will help you.

I always work the wind (get some milk weed or cat tails so you can really see where your scent is going) and I am careful where I step or touch on the way in.

Deer hunting is hard enough for me I don't need to add another layer of complexity.
 
Ok buddy.

Well let me rephrase that. I do practice common sense scent CONTROL but trying to eliminate it is an exercise in futility. I don't wash my hunting clothes in fragrant soaps for example.

They have run experiments with dogs (which cannot smell at the level a deer does) where they have multiple boxes set up. A person would get in a different box each time while trying a different method to trick the dog's nose. They did every method you can imagine from cover scents to full body "scent lock" outfits. The dog found the person EVERY TIME IMMEDIATELY. The only thing that seemed to delay the dog by a few SECONDS was cover scent.
 
Yes. I now sometimes hunt before taking a shower and washing my clothes first.
 
some of my buddies were using these products, doe in estrus,acorn scent, ever calm, then use nose jammer, and they told me they can't smell anything then, which to me, if that were true , all the other products they were using are null and void
 
I feel it gets more important if the deer population feels any hunting pressure. Of course I agree that temp and humidity matter as well.
 
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