John Eberharts Scent Control

[Treehopper2]

What I’m saying is this wear what ever you want, spray what ever you want on yourself,ozone your house your car and all your equipment and you will not fool a deer nose. That fact is this if your scent reaches their nose it’s over. Your not fooling every deer from every direction with your store bought products. If you think you didn’t hear a deer blow and run off that your scent control didn’t effect anything down wind that’s silly. If a deer is 50 yards down wind and he doesn’t wind you thank the thermals at that moment.

 

[ricky racer]

Any good hunter worth his salt pays attention to the wind. You can wear the best camouflage and walk into the woods thinking you're invisible or wear the latest scent eliminating clothes or spray your clothes and think you will give off no scent but as soon as you start hunting like you really believe that, your success will go down hill because we all know it's not true.

Going to extended lengths to reduce your scent is not a bad thing. Reducing your scent footprint no doubt will improve your risk of detection to a degree. What degree no body really knows. If you have one rose in a room, you will likely smell the faint smell of the rose when you enter the room. If there is a bouquet of roses you'll likely smell a stronger smell of roses when you walk into the room.

That being said, I don't believe any of us really understand the extraordinary ability of a deer's sense of smell. Look at the extents drug smugglers have gone to hide smuggled drugs that get sniffed out by drug dogs. Humans tend to think in realms they are familiar with and we try to relate our sense of smell to those of a deer. But that's not possible.

If you think wearing activated carbon clothes improves your chances of success, then wear it. Just don't hunt like you are scent free. If you play the wind and wear your activated carbon clothes maybe your chances will increase, again to what degree we'll never know. We do know with 100% certainty that if the wind is carrying your scent in a direction away from a deer, that deer will not scent you. I have all the respect in the world for John Eberhart but don't equate his success on wearing activated carbon clothing. He was killing big bucks before Scent Lok ever came about and will be killing big bucks if Scent Lok ceases to exist. He puts in the work and understands deer better than most of us ever will. Hunting 30 feet in the tree doesn't hurt keeping his scent from deer either.

 

[jlh42581]

I've never really gotten that argument. If the deer at 20 yards or 50 yards aren't scenting someone, why are the deer that are further and out of sight? Ultimately it is something no one can prove or disprove, but I don't follow the logic.

Thats based on the thought that your scent acts like a cone dispersing wider the further it gets from you.

 

[flinginairos]

Even if you believe your scent control regimen works and have 100% faith in it, you still should be paying attention to what the wind is doing. Deer live and die by their nose. They bed based on the wind, they check doe travel routes and feeding areas based on the wind. Once I started paying attention to this and keeping it in mind when selecting areas to hunt and trees to use, my success went through the roof. I think if guys would start learning that stuff along with good scent control practices they would for sure see more success.

 

[Bowtech12]

Any good hunter worth his salt pays attention to the wind. You can wear the best camouflage and walk into the woods thinking you're invisible or wear the latest scent eliminating clothes or spray your clothes and think you will give off no scent but as soon as you start hunting like you really believe that, your success will go down hill because we all know it's not true.

Going to extended lengths to reduce your scent is not a bad thing. Reducing your scent footprint no doubt will improve your risk of detection to a degree. What degree no body really knows. If you have one rose in a room, you will likely smell the faint smell of the rose when you enter the room. If there is a bouquet of roses you'll likely smell a stronger smell of roses when you walk into the room.

That being said, I don't believe any of us really understand the extraordinary ability of a deer's sense of smell. Look at the extents drug smugglers have gone to hide smuggled drugs that get sniffed out by drug dogs. Humans tend to think in realms they are familiar with and we try to relate our sense of smell to those of a deer. But that's not possible.

If you think wearing activated carbon clothes improves your chances of success, then wear it. Just don't hunt like you are scent free. If you play the wind and wear your activated carbon clothes maybe your chances will increase, again to what degree we'll never know. We do know with 100% certainty that if the wind is carrying your scent in a direction away from a deer, that deer will not scent you. I have all the respect in the world for John Eberhart but don't equate his success on wearing activated carbon clothing. He was killing big bucks before Scent Lok ever came about and will be killing big bucks if Scent Lok ceases to exist. He puts in the work and understands deer better than most of us ever will. Hunting 30 feet in the tree doesn't hurt keeping his scent from deer either.

I think this is one of the best responses yet
Lots of good points

Don’t overlook John puts a ton of spring scouting and prep in
I think if you want to get in the game more often start with his spring scouting advice

Like he said, he was killing a ton of big bucks long before.....

I’ve read 2 of his books and his videos and if you’re looking to be a better hunter, start there

 

[Smith34]

This is a very complex discussion here. Yes, I go to extremes to minimize my scent levels. Dedicated room for my gear that is ozone treated, with washer and dryer for hunting cloths only. Anything that touches my skin will get washed after the hunt. Using carbon and zeolite powders, etc. Can you eliminate your scent, absolutely not! Can you minimize it to a point where they think the danger is a lot further away than it really is? Absolutely! Yes, since going OCD on scent control, I find myself getting busted once in a while, but not a holy cow and deer blow out bust, but a nose in the air, a slight tail up, then lower and just on a slight edge. They know I am up wind and think I am quite a ways up, not 10 yards away from them. I am now seeing the deer that used to bust me and just simply avoid me and I never knew they were even there before! Scent control will get you closer to deer, even if they still bust you.
Scent control is NOT just buying scent-lok or compareable clothing and going hunting. How you care for your cloths will make more difference than anything. If you plan to wear your cloths in the vehicle, or anywhere, other than; to, at, and back from the stand...don’t even bother buying scent reducing clothing, because it’s not going to work for you.
Do you still need to be conscious of the wind? Absolutely, but.....there are different thinkings on this and I have played with some with success (and failure)...one being threading the needle with the wind, where the deer are coming from and how the terrain carries your scent. Let’s say the deer are coming from the east, use that west/south-west wind and blow almost right where they are coming, but just ever so slightly off of their course.
Another method I use with high scent control is to blow directly at the planned area of deer approaching when I have a neighboring house close, directly up wind of the stand. With my reduction, what they smell of me is faint enough that it seems to them that it is coming from the house that the deer live around every day, very effective.
For the guy that they smelt his tracks....they may not be smelling you, but the ground that you disturbed instead. I had this a year back where a doe was following my tracks in, but suddenly lost the trail when I got to my stepping stones that lead to my stand (I cut logs down to 3” thick and lay them out as a trail to my stand for a silent approach as the leaves do not stay setting on the tops of them) When the ground was no longer disturbed, she had nothing to follow.
As for John, he understands that just because there may be a west wind at his truck, his stand may have an east wind drawing his scent, depending on trees, terrain, water currents, etc. He also knows the heights he hunts affect scent dispersal, so take the “ignore the wind” remark with a grain of salt as he has more thought in it than just that.
Scent control is not for everyone, nor is it as important in areas of lower pressure, but if you put in the effort, it does help.

 

[Treehopper2]

Nothings wrong with trying to control you scent . I myself wash my clothing in scent free soap and keep in a sealed container. Any little thing you can do helps especially in bow hunting which is a game of inches to close the deal.
The “forget the wind just hunt” saying has many people fooled I think. True it’s hard to control wind movements but that’s the game we play trying to solve that puzzle.
.
I think like said earlier this topic really has no end . If it works for you that’s all that matters.

 

[kenn1320]

So scent control minimizes the amount of scent the deer smell? Does that mean smaller people have a natural advantage?

I broke off a stick one time and tried to throw it in a big hole about 12yds from my tree. It landed on the edge, not in the hole. Minutes later a buck comes in and everything is going fine as he walks towards the pinch that hole created. He gets within feet of that stick and wheels out like he was kicked in the rump. He didnt smell 6'2" human, he smelled a little bit of human on a 10" stick. Hmmm wonder why he didn't think I was further away?

 

[Robert]

I agree. I think there is more to scent awareness in animals than we currently understand. When I do scent control all the way, I definitely see results. When I don't, I get winded in the wrong situation. I can't explain it, but anecdotally, I think there's something to it.

I agree, there is more to animal's understanding of scent than we give them credit for. I own an indoor pot belly pig, and she can smell/sense your mood it seems some times, no joke.

 

[g2outdoors]

Even if you believe your scent control regimen works and have 100% faith in it, you still should be paying attention to what the wind is doing. Deer live and die by their nose. They bed based on the wind, they check doe travel routes and feeding areas based on the wind. Once I started paying attention to this and keeping it in mind when selecting areas to hunt and trees to use, my success went through the roof. I think if guys would start learning that stuff along with good scent control practices they would for sure see more success.

100% truth. This is the only point in which I disagree with Eberhart. He pays zero attention to wind by his own admission. I think a better method is to use the wind as a tactic, as a tool in your tool kit.

None of us truly know how much effect our scent control does, or does not, help or hurt us. We have anecdotal evidence from our hunting experiences, and we have some science that tells us activated charcoal certainly captures odor. We also know ozone kills odor. To what extent the activated carbon and ozone producing products are an asset in a hunting scenario is truly an educated guess.

Until scientists figure out a way to know what a deer is thinking, all this scent control talk is fun, but not very productive. No one really knows.

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[g2outdoors]

And to the "just play the wind" guys...

Where I hunt in the south Georgia swamps, the wind is about as fickle as a pregnant ladies appetite. It switches, swirls, and turns every which way. Every once in awhile I'll get a consistent wind direction, but 8/10 hunts it's very dicey. Why not use every single tactic to tip the scales in my favor?

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[ImThere]

And to the "just play the wind" guys...

Where I hunt in the south Georgia swamps, the wind is about as fickle as a pregnant ladies appetite. It switches, swirls, and turns every which way. Every once in awhile I'll get a consistent wind direction, but 8/10 hunts it's very dicey. Why not use every single tactic to tip the scales in my favor?

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

I agree with this. Here hunting in TN, try hunting the same tree all day. Send floaters every 15-30 min and watch where they go. YOU WILL BE AMAZED! Be sure you document it because at the end of the day you won’t believe your own results


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BCHunter]

There are so many factors to success. Somebody may say that once they switched to scent control they started seeing 3 times as many deer... Well just so happens that they started scouting in February/March, switched to a saddle from ladder stands, actually pay attention to entrance routes, put way more time in the woods, etc....
How about we give these guys some credit that they won't, they are working their A$$3$ off and seeing the results. Correlation is not Causation.
Does scent control work? I have no idea, but I'm getting results without having to deal with it. So for now I will stick to milk weed.

 

[g2outdoors]

There are so many factors to success. Somebody may say that once they switched to scent control they started seeing 3 times as many deer... Well just so happens that they started scouting in February/March, switched to a saddle from ladder stands, actually pay attention to entrance routes, put way more time in the woods, etc....
How about we give these guys some credit that they won't, they are working their A$$3$ off and seeing the results. Correlation is not Causation.
Does scent control work? I have no idea, but I'm getting results without having to deal with it. So for now I will stick to milk weed.

Agree. It's impossible to narrow down success to any one thing. I happen to think Eberhart could hunt in jeans with cologne on and he'd still kill big bucks.

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[SkylineReaper]

My opinion is John's I pay zero attention to to the wind modo simply means this John has 100% confidence in his hunting regiment I believe sent control is a big part of his regiment and he has mastered that along with most all other aspects of the hunt I feel what he's trying to say is if he drives to southern Michigan from his home and it's two hours away he don't care what the wind direction is when he's going there to hunt a specific deer at a specific time in a specific place that's all he cares about because he has overall confidence in his complete hunting regiment and I think we all know his success rate

 

[Nick Grider]

My opinion is John's I pay zero attention to to the wind modo simply means this John has 100% confidence in his hunting regiment I believe sent control is a big part of his regiment and he has mastered that along with most all other aspects of the hunt I feel what he's trying to say is if he drives to southern Michigan from his home and it's two hours away he don't care what the wind direction is when he's going there to hunt a specific deer at a specific time in a specific place that's all he cares about because he has overall confidence in his complete hunting regiment and I think we all know his success rate

Certainly. If you’ve read his books he says he kills a lot of the deer on very small pieces of private property (2-4 acres). This tell me that he hunts a lot of suburb type situations. And those bucks get absolutely huge.

 

[g2outdoors]

Certainly. If you’ve read his books he says he kills a lot of the deer on very small pieces of private property (2-4 acres). This tell me that he hunts a lot of suburb type situations. And those bucks get absolutely huge.

He doesn't hunt the suburbs. He hunts in rural Michigan on small homesteads and public land. He hunts big farms too but generally shares those with other hunters.

 

[g2outdoors]

Any good hunter worth his salt pays attention to the wind.

John pays zero attention to the wind. Would he not be classified as a "good hunter worth his salt"? He certainly is in my book.

I know lots of hunters that pay zero attention to the wind and are very successful. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[Treehopper2]

I would like to hunt with John E. And see how it works for him I’m sure I could learn a thing or to from him.
In my early years of hunting I to was into scent control heavy. Maybe not to the extreme but I payed very close attention to my scent control.
Does the extra effort help yes but you can not forget the wind. Because a man kills big deer and wears a carbon suit means nothing.what he touches on the ground in his stand location and path in means much more.
A guy in a carbon suit is getting winded plain and simple from time to time like the rest of us if it reaches there nose.
Thinking a carbon suit makes your scent un-detectable to a deer is like thinking you camo makes you invisible to deer.

 

[SkylineReaper]

I personally follow a pretty strict sent control system but when possible I do try to play the wind
I will say this if you are waiting for that perfect wind to hunt a particular spot just seems to me you're going to spend a lot of time sitting at home when you could be hunting up here in the thumb trying to plan and forecast wind conditions is just as reliable as any other of the weather going on it just ain't happening