- Joined
- Apr 1, 2014
- Messages
- 700
Part 1
My personal scent control regimen - John Eberhart
-Never allow smoking in my vehicle or use vehicle scent wicks.
-Just prior to season I quit eating pungent foods that may contain garlic, onions, hot peppers, strong spices, etc. that cause additional body odor and bad breath.
-During season I limit my body’s breeding grounds for bacteria by shaving every day including my armpit hair, and keeping my hair cut shorter than normal.
-On the day’s I hunt I cut out coffee because it causes; anxiety, increased perspiration and stimulates the need to use a bathroom.
-Some other things I do to aid with scent control is occasionally hand wash (non-scent detergent) any; fabric bands on releases, ropes, rattle bag covers and my hunting harness.
-Hard items like binoculars, calls, bleat cans, range finders, folding saws, and water bottles are occasionally wiped down with scent free wipes.
-Use scent free detergents for washing my non-carbon lined clothing.
-Use scent free shampoo, body wash, antiperspirant, and toothpaste.
-Wear anti-microbial undergarments against the skin to aid in reducing odor by killing bacteria and my go-to fabric for base garments is merino wool because it has insulating as well as cooling properties and it doesn’t itch like regular wool does.
-Many hunters use field sprays over the exterior of their activated carbon lined clothing and the base ingredient in most field sprays is sodium bicarbonate which is better known as baking soda. Sodium bicarbonate or baking soda has some adsorptive capacity and that’s why it’s commonly put in refrigerators to adsorb foul odors but it doesn’t have the adsorptive capacity to remotely adsorb enough human odor molecules to eliminate the need to hunt the wind.
-I never use and there is no need to ever use field sprays over your ScentLok exterior garments. Sodium bicarbonate and other ingredients in sprays are foreign odors to where I hunt and in heavily pressured areas any foreign odor can alter the mindset of a mature buck that may be coming into my location because of the destination merits I chose the location for in the first place. Foreign odors of any type are not conducive to success on mature bucks in heavily pressured areas. On the micro-managed properties TV and video hunters hunt, they can get away with major gaps in scent control and many other hunting practices, but I and likely you don’t have the luxury of hunting in such areas with lots of relatively easy to fool and kill mature bucks.
-Anti microbial field sprays or anti-microbial treated garments are relatively meaningless if they don’t come in direct contact with the bacteria on your skin. Wearing an exterior anti-microbial garment or spraying your exterior garments with an anti-microbial spray as seen on TV and in videos would be like spraying the outside of your house with an insecticide to kill insects inside your house. It simply doesn’t work that way.
-Anti-microbial sprays or garments must come in direct contact with the bacteria on your body to kill the bacteria. Even when an anti-microbial garment is correctly worn as a base garment and does kill bacteria, it still doesn’t do anything to adsorb or get rid of the odor from the dead bacteria or adsorb any of the hundreds of other odor molecules not related to bacteria that are constantly emitting from our bodies.
-Anti-microbial garments wore against the skin as base layers do help lower your overall body odor by killing bacteria which will keep it from multiplying. But if you use anti-microbial base garments as a scent control regimen, you better hunt the wind because they are not even close to being enough to disregard wind direction.
Caring for hunting garments and gear
-Air tight containers are always used to store all garments and packs.
-There are many commercial types of air tight containers in the form of bags and hard containers with rubber seals. ScentLok, Hunters Specialties, Tinks, HME, Coleman, and many other companies offer zippered or roll top air tight bags. ScentLok offers carbon lined bags and rubber sealed hard containers called ScentTotes. Some farm stores also offer similar totes with rubber seals at a much lower cost.
-When price is an issue, use plastic garbage bags and bread tie them off to make them air tight. Sterlite or Rubbermaid tubs are not air tight but can be used to store the plastic bags in so they don’t get punctured.
-In season I have 5 labeled containers in my mini-van for different categories of items. I use hard ScentTotes because they can be stacked and I can sit on them while changing clothes in the back of my mini-van as they will support 250 pounds.
ScenTote container categories and contents (all 5 totes are labeled on the outside as to what’s in them)
-Container 1 stores my ScentLok carbon lined jackets and pants ScentLok BaseLayer undergarments only. Nothing other than carbon lined clothing ever enters this Tote.
-Container 2 stores my loaded ScentLok carbon lined backpack, an air-tight bag with my extra ScentLok head covers with drop down facemasks and gloves, and my clean hunting harness. Nothing other than my loaded carbon lined backpack and carbon lined accessories ever enters this Tote.
-Container 3 stores my several weights of foul weather (all waterproof and windproof) garments for differing weather temperatures and conditions. These garments have been washed in scent free detergent, dried and immediately stored in this air tight Tote.
-Container 4 stores my many weights of insulated top and bottom layering garments (merino wool, fleece vests, military wool sweaters, Refrigiwear layer garments, etc.). These garments have been washed in scent free detergent, dried and immediately stored in this air-tight Tote.
-Container 5 stores my many weights of socks, briefs, silver lined T’s, and military fabric belts all of which have been washed in scent free detergent. An old ScentLok suit sealed in a zippered carbon bag is also stored in this container and used when in season scouting or recovering a deer.
Tubs 1 and 2 are for ScentLok carbon lined hunting items only and there is never any non-carbon lined anything that gets put in those tubs.
My personal scent control regimen - John Eberhart
-Never allow smoking in my vehicle or use vehicle scent wicks.
-Just prior to season I quit eating pungent foods that may contain garlic, onions, hot peppers, strong spices, etc. that cause additional body odor and bad breath.
-During season I limit my body’s breeding grounds for bacteria by shaving every day including my armpit hair, and keeping my hair cut shorter than normal.
-On the day’s I hunt I cut out coffee because it causes; anxiety, increased perspiration and stimulates the need to use a bathroom.
-Some other things I do to aid with scent control is occasionally hand wash (non-scent detergent) any; fabric bands on releases, ropes, rattle bag covers and my hunting harness.
-Hard items like binoculars, calls, bleat cans, range finders, folding saws, and water bottles are occasionally wiped down with scent free wipes.
-Use scent free detergents for washing my non-carbon lined clothing.
-Use scent free shampoo, body wash, antiperspirant, and toothpaste.
-Wear anti-microbial undergarments against the skin to aid in reducing odor by killing bacteria and my go-to fabric for base garments is merino wool because it has insulating as well as cooling properties and it doesn’t itch like regular wool does.
-Many hunters use field sprays over the exterior of their activated carbon lined clothing and the base ingredient in most field sprays is sodium bicarbonate which is better known as baking soda. Sodium bicarbonate or baking soda has some adsorptive capacity and that’s why it’s commonly put in refrigerators to adsorb foul odors but it doesn’t have the adsorptive capacity to remotely adsorb enough human odor molecules to eliminate the need to hunt the wind.
-I never use and there is no need to ever use field sprays over your ScentLok exterior garments. Sodium bicarbonate and other ingredients in sprays are foreign odors to where I hunt and in heavily pressured areas any foreign odor can alter the mindset of a mature buck that may be coming into my location because of the destination merits I chose the location for in the first place. Foreign odors of any type are not conducive to success on mature bucks in heavily pressured areas. On the micro-managed properties TV and video hunters hunt, they can get away with major gaps in scent control and many other hunting practices, but I and likely you don’t have the luxury of hunting in such areas with lots of relatively easy to fool and kill mature bucks.
-Anti microbial field sprays or anti-microbial treated garments are relatively meaningless if they don’t come in direct contact with the bacteria on your skin. Wearing an exterior anti-microbial garment or spraying your exterior garments with an anti-microbial spray as seen on TV and in videos would be like spraying the outside of your house with an insecticide to kill insects inside your house. It simply doesn’t work that way.
-Anti-microbial sprays or garments must come in direct contact with the bacteria on your body to kill the bacteria. Even when an anti-microbial garment is correctly worn as a base garment and does kill bacteria, it still doesn’t do anything to adsorb or get rid of the odor from the dead bacteria or adsorb any of the hundreds of other odor molecules not related to bacteria that are constantly emitting from our bodies.
-Anti-microbial garments wore against the skin as base layers do help lower your overall body odor by killing bacteria which will keep it from multiplying. But if you use anti-microbial base garments as a scent control regimen, you better hunt the wind because they are not even close to being enough to disregard wind direction.
Caring for hunting garments and gear
-Air tight containers are always used to store all garments and packs.
-There are many commercial types of air tight containers in the form of bags and hard containers with rubber seals. ScentLok, Hunters Specialties, Tinks, HME, Coleman, and many other companies offer zippered or roll top air tight bags. ScentLok offers carbon lined bags and rubber sealed hard containers called ScentTotes. Some farm stores also offer similar totes with rubber seals at a much lower cost.
-When price is an issue, use plastic garbage bags and bread tie them off to make them air tight. Sterlite or Rubbermaid tubs are not air tight but can be used to store the plastic bags in so they don’t get punctured.
-In season I have 5 labeled containers in my mini-van for different categories of items. I use hard ScentTotes because they can be stacked and I can sit on them while changing clothes in the back of my mini-van as they will support 250 pounds.
ScenTote container categories and contents (all 5 totes are labeled on the outside as to what’s in them)
-Container 1 stores my ScentLok carbon lined jackets and pants ScentLok BaseLayer undergarments only. Nothing other than carbon lined clothing ever enters this Tote.
-Container 2 stores my loaded ScentLok carbon lined backpack, an air-tight bag with my extra ScentLok head covers with drop down facemasks and gloves, and my clean hunting harness. Nothing other than my loaded carbon lined backpack and carbon lined accessories ever enters this Tote.
-Container 3 stores my several weights of foul weather (all waterproof and windproof) garments for differing weather temperatures and conditions. These garments have been washed in scent free detergent, dried and immediately stored in this air tight Tote.
-Container 4 stores my many weights of insulated top and bottom layering garments (merino wool, fleece vests, military wool sweaters, Refrigiwear layer garments, etc.). These garments have been washed in scent free detergent, dried and immediately stored in this air-tight Tote.
-Container 5 stores my many weights of socks, briefs, silver lined T’s, and military fabric belts all of which have been washed in scent free detergent. An old ScentLok suit sealed in a zippered carbon bag is also stored in this container and used when in season scouting or recovering a deer.
Tubs 1 and 2 are for ScentLok carbon lined hunting items only and there is never any non-carbon lined anything that gets put in those tubs.