Scent Control Debate?????

[John Eberhart]

Scent Control Debate????????

I'm struggling with the concept of debating over whether something works or not when I've unequivocally proven it to myself several thousand times that it works and have never had an instance when I knew I was doing everything right, that it didn't. To debate on the extent at which a hunter is willing to go or the work ethic in which a hunter is willing to put in to have a scent regiment that will fool a mature deer's nose, well that's not really a debate but rather a discussion over self-discipline. Honestly, a persons self-discipline can only be debated by that person themselves.

I, and I'm sure most of you learn your most valuable lessons in life by personal trial and error. When I was young I used to get speeding tickets and tickets for not coming to a complete stop at stop signs. I could visually see the cop give me a ticket, the money go from my checking account to the county court, and the increase in my insurance rates. These were things I could positively verify without the need to debate whether or not they happened.

For the first 35 of my 52 bow seasons I had learned by trial and error how to be as successful a bowhunter as I could be for the areas I was hunting in. By the end of that 35 year period I had bowhunting by strictly paying attention to wind direction down to as much a science as possible, but there were many visually verified times that I still got winded and other times when I heard deer downwind snorting at me from beyond sight.

You can strictly bowhunt the wind and still kill deer, that's been done for hundreds of years, but having to hunt the wind definitely lowers your odds of success because deer don't always accommodate us with their movement habits. Absolutely anyone that states they can just hunt the wind and never have it affect their success is a flat out liar. Depending on where they hunt they may always fill their tags, but to state they never have deer unexpectedly downwind of them is just a flat out lie.

Wind direction used to affect absolutely everything I did concerning; terrain features in which I wouldn't prepare locations due to the nature of swirling winds, which trees I prepared at small destination areas such as scrape areas and at mast and fruit trees, and most importantly when and sometimes if I got to hunt my best locations. Each of those concerns based solely on wind direction kept me from either; preparing sites at what would otherwise be great locations, preparing the tree that best suited the location, and capitalizing on current activity instead of having to wait for the proper wind. And these are just 3 of a multitude of things that having to hunt the wind affects.

For the past 17 years, in every aspect of; how I scout, choose locations, choose trees, and hunt, wind direction is irrelevant. I can't remember the last time I was winded and because I don't consider wind direction when doing anything, it's rare when during a hunt that I don't have deer downwind of me. To be as blunt as possible, there is absolutely no way that I could hunt as I do, or be as successful, if I had to pay attention to wind direction. I'm not trying to come off as an arrogant bastard, just telling it the way it is and there's absolutely no reason the same scent regiment program wouldn't work the same for anyone else.

Just as using a harness system has greatly impacted my hunting success since 1981 by offering many advantages over any conventional stands, so has the advent of properly using and caring for activated lined clothing, in conjunction with clean boots and backpack. There is no debate on whether it works, the scent control debate is on to what extent is the individual hunter willing to take advantage of the technology.

I've been asked to lay out my scent regiment including what's in my van and if Red allows it, the next few posts on this topic will lay it out. On a different post some of this was covered last year but I guess I need to have them all in order.

 

[John Eberhart]

Before there can be a conversation on Scent Control there has to be a reality check on to what extent a scent control regiment is required as in many areas a lax scent control regiment is sufficient whereas in heavily pressured areas it has to be as near perfect as possible.

"Reality of “Hunting Pressure”

Unless defined clearly, which it never is in hunting film or media, the commonly used term “hunting pressure” is vague, unclear and relatively meaningless.

Having exclusively hunted on knock on doors for free permission properties and public land in Michigan (the most heavily bowhunted state in the country) for 52 seasons and having bowhunted in lightly hunted states like Iowa, Illinois and Kansas during Michigan’s gun season each year since 1997, I speak from direct experience on the vast differences between the amount and type of hunting pressure from one area to another. Anyone saying there is no difference in mature deer behavior or what amount of human activity and odor they will tolerate no matter the area their hunting is either; extremely naïve, their ego doesn't allow them to admit it, or their totally out-of-touch with reality.

The amount and type of hunting pressure an area receives is so crucial to how it’s hunted and how strict a scent control regiment is required that in each of my 3 books there’s a complete chapter on each topic and are also addressed in each of my instructional bowhunting DVD’s.

While the killing of animals should never be considered sport, I’m going to use organized sports as an easily understood contrast to differing levels of; hunting properties, hunting pressure, and so-called hunting experts.

During school years everybody had the same opportunities to participate in sports. What organized sports has that hunting doesn’t is that whether at grade, middle, high school, college, or professional level, the most gifted or driven participants excelled and kept rising to the top of their sport using the same playing fields, courses, rinks, tracks, courts, and matts as their competitors. That is definitely not the case in deer hunting as there is absolutely no way of establishing any hunter as being more gifted or driven strictly based on their accomplishments, because the playing fields (hunting properties and amount and type of pressure) are miles apart from being equal.

The reality is the vast majority of high profile hunting personalities exclusively hunt on their own large micro-managed properties or leases, on
pay to hunt ranches for free in lieu of advertising, and some even kill within high fenced enclosures. While they may want you to believe it, those types of hunting areas in no manner whatsoever, replicate hunting conditions where the vast majority of hunters, hunt.

They may be descent hunters, but in the areas they hunt, they don’t have to be to kill monster bucks and given the opportunity to hunt the same properties as most TV, video, and media personalities, many of you would also be just as if not more successful as them.

So how is hunting pressure defined? The best way I know is to relate it to us. Most adults would feel comfortable walking through a small rural town after dark because history tells us it’s safe to do so. Now let’s throw in known history of danger. Few if any of those same adults would not walk after dark through an inner city neighborhood in Chicago or Detroit for instance because there’s a known history of consequential danger. Adults have learned which areas to avoid because the history of danger is high.

We do not have exclusivity on the desire to survive and just as the feeling of vulnerability affects our security precautions and movement habits, so does the amount and type of hunting pressure affect mature bucks; survival rates, daytime movement habits, reaction to hunter intrusions, reaction to hunter tactics, human odor acceptance, when and how they socially interact with other deer, and when and where they make or re-visit signposts during daylight hours.

For a Deer & Deer Hunting article I created the term “heavy consequential hunting pressure” to address the worst case scenario of hunting pressure and to save on article word count restrictions used the terms initials hchp when referring to it.

Hchp is defined as; an area with a minimum of 10 bowhunters per square mile and at least double that amount of gun hunters and where most hunters target any legal antlered buck. Hchp directly affects; how many bucks survive beyond their first set of antlers, the type of security cover they bed in, how much they move during season during daylight, the amount of transition or perimeter security cover required for daytime movements, how severely they react to human intrusions, and what traces of human odor they will tolerate before spooking.

In hchp areas bucks 3 ½ years and older have usually survived at least one consequential hunter encounter. Only one of the many 3 ½ year old or older bucks I’ve taken in Michigan did not have at least one old wound whereas none of the nineteen similar age class bucks I’ve taken in Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois had an old wound. Some other states in which many areas within them receiving hchp are Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, and W. Virginia to name a few.

Hchp areas should not be confused with areas where there are hunter engagement criteria’s or rules, that’s only hunter presence. No matter the amount of hunters, where there are no negative consequences from hunter encounters until bucks reach an age or antler size kill criteria (as in most TV shows and videos), once they reach it, they are much easier to kill because their vulnerable daytime movement habits while growing-up, remain somewhat intact.

A natural byproduct of kill criteria areas is the amount of bucks that reach maturity because they are allowed to grow-up before being targeted. Just watch about any TV show or video for confirmation that most bucks they let pass, are bigger than what many hunters in hchp areas will ever see in a lifetime of hunting.

Hchp overwhelmingly trumps all other factors influencing mature buck numbers, movements and behavior and unfortunately most hunters have no option but to deal with it.

Hunter expectations should be tightly bound to the area in which they hunt. In some hchp areas bucks scoring a hundred inches are less common than hundred-fifty inch bucks in lightly hunted and managed areas and the 100 inch bucks in hchp areas are typically much more difficult to pattern and kill.

Just as TV and video hunters get away with murder concerning their lack of a proper scent control regiment solely because of where they hunt, so can hunters that hunt on similar types of properties.

 

[John Eberhart]

Post 3

Bowhunting Statistics

In the previous post I laid out an extremely abbreviated description of the reality of hunting pressure and how it affects buck survival rates, mature deer habits and movements, reaction to fake tactics, and tolerance to human intrusions and odor. This factual statistics post will confirm that reality.

Below is a list of 38 whitetail states with 5 statistical categories for each that I calculated from 2012 data: 1. Archery license sales. 2. Pope & Young (P&Y) entries 3. Ratio of P&Y entries/ per licensed hunters (divided total P&Y entries into licensed hunters). 4. Absolute land mass of entire state in square miles 5. Average number of bowhunters per square mile (divided license sales into absolute land mass).
1 2 3 4 5
State Licensed hunters P&Y entries P&Y entry/licensed hunters Land mass Hunters/sq. mile
ND-----------15,553-------------70-----------------------1/222---------------------70,700----------0.21
KS------------45,637------------190----------------------1/240---------------------82,277----------0.55
NE-----------15,868--------------65----------------------1/244---------------------77,354----------0.20
IA------------60,657-------------184---------------------1/329---------------------56,272----------1.07
WI----------254,399-------------574---------------------1/443----------------------54,981----------4.62
IN------------94,000------------177----------------------1/531---------------------36,418----------2.58
SD------------26,200-------------49----------------------1/534---------------------77,116----------0.34
IL------------160,122------------285---------------------1/561---------------------57,914----------2.76
MN----------108,349------------110--------------------1/984-----------------------86,939----------1.24
AR------------30,000--------------30--------------------1/1,000--------------------53,179----------0.56
TX------------81,238--------------80--------------------1/1,015-------------------268,581----------0.30
DE-------------6,760----------------6--------------------1/1,126---------------------2,490----------2.71
KY-----------110,400--------------70-------------------1/1,577---------------------40,409----------2.73
MO-----------191,753-------------120------------------1/1,597--------------------69,704-----------2.75
MS-------------55,339---------------31------------------1/1,785--------------------48,430-----------1.14
CT-------------14,341---------------8-------------------1/1,792----------------------5,543-----------2.58
NJ-------------40,872--------------18-------------------1/2,270----------------------8,721-----------4.68
MA------------36,500---------------16------------------1/2,281---------------------10,555-----------3.45
MT------------41,766---------------18-------------------1/2,320--------------------147,042----------0.28
GA-------------83,464---------------35-------------------1/2,384---------------------59,425----------1.40
OK-------------82,635---------------34-------------------1/2,430---------------------69,898----------1.18
PA------------268,751--------------106-------------------1/2,535---------------------46,055----------5.83
WY------------16,094----------------6--------------------1/2,682---------------------97,814----------0.16
MD------------61,827----------------22-------------------1/2,810---------------------12,407----------4.98
LA-------------33,937---------------11-------------------1/3,085----------------------51,843---------0.65
VA-------------70,366---------------22-------------------1/3,198----------------------42,774--------1.64
NY------------194,663--------------55-------------------1/3,539----------------------54,556---------3.57
MI------------310,000--------------72-------------------1/4,305----------------------56,538---------5.48
RI----------------5,041---------------1-------------------1/5,041-----------------------1,214---------4.15
ME-------------12,093---------------2--------------------1/6,046---------------------35,385---------0.34
NC------------104,500-------------17-------------------1/6,147---------------------53,819----------1.94
NH-------------18,500--------------3--------------------1/6,166----------------------9,304-----------1.98
WV------------150,000------------23-------------------1/6,521---------------------24,230-----------6.19
SC---------------30,000------------3-------------------1/10,000--------------------32,020-----------0.93
TN--------------90,000-------------9------------------1/10,000---------------------42,143-----------2.13
AL---------------60,400-------------5-----------------1/12,080---------------------52,419-----------1.15
VT---------------19,173-------------1------------------1/19,173---------------------9,620-----------1.99
FL----------------73,642------------2-------------------1/36,821-------------------65,755------------1.12

Ohio-300,00 license sales and great state for big bucks but can’t calculate statistics because archery license sale numbers include crossbow licenses. The recent passing of full inclusion crossbow into archery in so many states will make these types of statistics impossible to calculate in the future.

*Some western state license sales include mule deer

*Source of license sales: Archery Business / Trade News

*Source of P&Y entries: Pope & Young Club 28th recording period statistical summary

*Absolute land mass source: US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census

Of the listed 38 states, the combined archery license sales of MI, PA, WI, OH, NY, MO, and VW (7 states) is higher than the other 31 states combined.

More important than overall license sales is hunters/square mile. The more hunters per area equates to; more bucks getting killed, fewer bucks surviving to maturity and lower chances of taking a P&Y buck. Also note that gun license sales in each state are at least double that of bow license sales making bucks in high hunter/square mile states that much less likely to survive to maturity.
Statistically in West Virginia for example, every legal antlered buck has to survive with 6+ bowhunters per square mile (640 acres) pursuing him whereas their counterparts in Nebraska only have 1 bowhunter in every 5 sections (3,200 acres) to elude.

There’s obviously a direct inverse relationship between hunters/square mile and amount of bucks that are entered into the record book (P&Y entries/ licensed hunters).

A statistic not included is that P&Y entries from several (KS., IA., IL., NE.) high-profile low hunters/square mile states averaged nearly 15 inches more antler score than average scores from states with high hunters/square mile states making it obvious that bucks scoring in the 125 to 140 inch range are relatively common and many that get taken, don’t get entered whereas any buck scoring over 125 inches from a high
hunters/square mile state are rarities and much more likely to get entered.

I’m very aware of the limitations of these statistics and not able to account for many variables within states such as high general populations, varying habitat quality, large exclusive hunting areas, fluctuations in hunter densities within states, and large land mass cities where hunting is not allowed.

High general population states have hunters/square mile statistics that are skewed well below what they actually are whereas the same statistics for most low hunter density Midwestern states with lower general populations where hunters can spread-out are very close to being accurate. In highly populated states it is extremely common to have twenty or more property owners per square mile in rural areas. In the one square mile section I used to bowhunt there were a minimum of 40 bowhunters in trees on opening day.

What these statistics confirm is that mature bucks that do not experience heavy hunting pressure are obviously much easier to hunt and kill. Mature bucks in lightly hunted areas behave in a more natural fashion that is usually easy to pattern, they move more during daylight hours, and a fact that is rarely mentioned is the buck to doe ratio is more balanced and encourages a more competitive rut among bucks, which in turn makes them more susceptible to tactics such as rattling, decoys, calling, mock scrapes, and scents, etc.

Hunting techniques used in lightly hunted areas like those presented in most hunting magazines and seen on TV and in video’s can lead to success in similar lightly-pressured areas, but will be far less, if not at all effective, on mature bucks in hchp areas.

 

[John Eberhart]

Post 4

Just Play the Wind??????

Before scent reducing and eliminating products and garments hit the market “just play the wind” was the only number in town. Even today countless hunters claim there is no other option, meaning they believe scent control doesn’t work or doesn’t work well enough to negate the wind. To put it bluntly, that is not true.

You can fool a deer’s nose and I do it dozens of times each season. Please allow me to step back in time to a typical year before implementing a strict scent control routine.

During my spring tree selection and preparation process I would occasionally ignore the best tree and set-up a secondary tree better suited for the prevailing Northwest fall winds. Secondary tree choices typically put some runways or signposts out of range, or didn’t offer as good of concealment cover.

Before each hunt I’d check the wind direction then select a location from a host of already prepared locations for that particular wind. During the hunt I’d remain hopeful the wind would remain constant and not change directions or swirl.

Swirling winds were a dilemma and always an unknown entity that could ruin the best-laid plans especially when hunting undulating terrain features such as saddles, hills, ridges, or edges and corners of timber such as along perimeters of crop fields. There were saddle and ridge locations that I quit hunting due to swirling winds.

Prior to losing their leaves, tree foliage acts in a similar manner as a brick wall. Whether along perimeters of openings in the woods or a field’s edge, a constant direct wind will not totally penetrate through tree-line foliage and the portion that doesn’t will deflect in differing directions or possibly swirl in several directions.

In tree-line corners the wind will deflect off one tree-line, hit the corner and deflect off the other tree-line creating a swirling wind in all directions similar to a whirlpool at a river bend. Many times I would hear snorting in the timber without a sighting.

Entry routes were another issue as I would try to take routes that didn’t cross any runways I expected deer to use during that hunt. Deer have a sense of smell hundreds of times more sensitive to ours and even though I’d trapped fox and knew to wear knee high rubber boots, my faint scent ribbon was enough to alert mature deer.

On occasion non-targeted deer would appear from upwind and pass downwind or cross my entry route and spook. A few times, a hot doe being pursued by a buck would spook and that hunt was abruptly over as well.

A thin blanket of human scent also went into the area downwind of my entry trail. Mature deer approaching from downwind of the scent line would, at very minimum, be on a higher alert level than normal, and am quite certain that many deer simply smelled me and never appeared.
Lastly, with Michigan’s November 15th gun season opener falling dead center of peak rut it was not uncommon that some bow locations saved strictly for the pre and early rut phases would never get hunted because the wind direction necessary for them never occurred during that short time frame, or on my days off work.

To state that wind direction dictated where I hunted more than deer activity did, would be an understatement.

Those are all realities of having to hunt the wind that unfortunately rarely get mentioned on TV and in videos because media hunters rarely hunt in heavily pressured areas where most 2 ½ year old and older bucks have been wounded or shot at before.

In heavy consequential hunting pressure areas survival instincts are immensely greater than those of their brethren in lightly hunted or micro-managed areas. When bucks are allowed to pass by hunters without consequence until they reach an age or antler criteria before being targeted, they have a much higher tolerance of human odor and activity. When there are no consequences during hunter encounters while growing to maturity, there’s little reason to fear future encounters.

Now please allow me to describe a typical year while implementing a strict scent control routine.

During post-season scouting and tree selection process I choose and prepare the best tree for that particular location with no concern of wind direction, bringing all runways and signposts into play.

Having a general seasonal plan already in place, prior to each hunt I decide which tree to hunt based solely on current sightings and signposts.
Whether hunting saddles, hills, ridges, tree line edges and corners, or any type of terrain feature, I pay no regard to wind direction and don’t care if during a hunt it changes or swirls.

Entry and exit routes are now dictated only by the likelihood of spooking deer during entries and exits due to being seen or heard.
I’m not concerned about non-targeted deer appearing from upwind and passing downwind or crossing my entry route and spooking due to human odor.


Lastly, during the all-important pre and early rut phases I can hunt my best locations without concern of wind direction or getting winded.

Current deer movements are the dictating factor for the locations I select and the wind direction has nothing to do with it. This may seem like a very bold statement, but the proof is in the pudding. After being winded many times each season for decades, I now have deer directly downwind almost every hunt without having them spook.

 

[John Eberhart]

Post 5

Activated carbon lined-Scent Lok suit test

Even during the stone-ages wind direction influenced how animals that relied on their sense of smell for survival were hunted by both humans and other predators and during the first 35 of my 52 bow seasons, the same basic stone-age principles of “hunting the wind” were it! Sure, there were some sprays and precautions that would help, but the thought that wind direction could be ignored was inconceivable.

Millions of deer have been bow killed while hunting the wind but make no mistake, wind direction and not current deer activity has dictated how, when, and where experienced bowhunters have hunted.

In a previous post I touched on how having to hunt the wind affects so many aspects of the hunt and in the next few posts will lay a factual foundation of technology and how utilizing that technology correctly can make having to play the wind become a practice of the past.

In the 90’s I heard about activated carbon lined suits but had serious doubts as to whether they worked as advertised. I knew what activated carbon was and how it was utilized in many worldwide industrial and military applications for adsorbing molecules. Always searching for every slight advantage that made sense, I saved up and purchased a Scent Lok jacket, pants, headcover and gloves and learned how to properly care for
them and what to use in conjunction with them to achieve a non-detectable, scent-free regiment.

At first I was a huge sceptic and after my first few early-season hunts without being winded, I still hadn’t had a specific visual instance where it was blatantly obvious that I could let my old “play the wind” guard down during the upcoming rut phases.

During the October lull on heavily pressured public land, in a secondary location where the chances seeing a mature buck were near zero, I purposely performed getting-winded tests to see to what extent the activated carbon lined suit worked.

There were two well-used east-to-west runways coming out of a cedar swamp that lead to a bordering alfalfa field. The tree was set-up south of the runways so that with a prevailing north wind direction I would be downwind, but for the test I waited for a south wind direction that would put me directly upwind of the 15 and 25 yard runways.

For the first hunt/test I wore my properly cared for Scent-Lok suit with headcover and gloves, clean knee high rubber boots, and my backpack which I’d washed in scent-free detergent that morning.

About an hour before dark a big doe with twin fawns stepped out of the swamp, browsed along the 25 yard runway on route to the field, passed directly downwind, and never even raised her nose to test the wind. I was stunned because there was absolutely no way that doe wouldn’t have winded me before. Another doe with a single fawn passed later down the closer runway with no reaction either.

The next evening I wore a Mossy Oak Apparel brand chamois cotton suit which had been washed the previous day in scent-free detergent with my backpack. The wind was still out of the south at a similar speed and the first doe and fawns came out at nearly the exact same time as the prior evening.

This time however when she was downwind of me she stopped, immediately turned her head in my direction, and began snorting. She spent the next five minutes snorting and stomping her hooves, letting every deer within hearing distance know this was not a safe place to be. She then turned and went back into the swamp and needless to say the second doe never showed. I’m also quite positive several other hunters on the public land heard her as well and wondered what was going on.

From that moment on I was absolutely convinced that activated carbon lined suits were extremely effective. Since PROPERLY using them, I see many more mature deer than in the past and because I don’t pay attention to wind direction anymore, at least half the deer I see are directly downwind at some point, and they don’t spook.

On rare occasions I’ve had deer test the air, but within seconds they’ve always continued on their way, evidently convinced there was no immediate danger.

Another over-the-top excellent visual example happened in 1999. While perched 18-feet up a white oak and wearing full Scent Lok (jacket, pants, headcover, gloves), I had three mature does and two fawns saunter in to feed on acorns. They came in from upwind and once near the tree the curious lead doe visually picked my body silhouette and made it known that something was out of place by stomping the ground and staring at me in the tree.

Immediately the other does became nervous and soon were also staring at me, trying to catch any slight movement. While staring me down and working their noses in overdrive mode, all three does cautiously made a wide circle around the tree to get downwind.

When directly downwind they moved about ever so slowly with necks stretched and noses straight up in the air trying to pick up any hint of human or foreign odor. After about ten minutes they gave up, wagged their tails as a sign everything was OK, and moved back under the tree with the fawns to feed.

They kept a close eye on me to the point that even if I wanted to take one, I doubt I’d have been able to move enough to get a shot, but as hard as they tried, they never winded me. I positively would have been busted in the past.

The October lull wind tests not only eliminated my doubts, they solidified my previous knowledge of the molecular adsorption capacity of activated carbon. There’s no question that activated carbon lined clothing works if cared for and stored properly and used in conjunction with clean knee high rubber or neoprene boots and an activated carbon lined or frequently washed in scent-free detergent pack.

Scent is something we can’t see, so it’s impossible to judge, however since implementing a proper scent-free regiment, over the past 17 seasons I’ve probably had several hundred visual confirmations of deer being directly downwind without any indication of me being there.

 

[essdub]

Man, you're really passionate about this stuff. I will defer to your experience and expertise add I haven't used scent lok stuff for very long. You certainly have a lot more info than I have studied. I use the scent control gear and I will still try to use wind to my advantage as much as I can. There is no doubt in my mind that scent control gear works and there are a number of things you can do to decrease your scent
South Carolina also includes crossbow in with archery stuff and I don't even know the way my state counts the deer harvested because we aren't required to check in anything, unless you're on WMA land and even then I'm not positive. The only time I'm aware of anyone I know checking in a deer is when they thought it might be a record deer.
Also, I hate to admit it, but I know far more people who are out killing deer who don't have a hunting license than I know who do have one. I don't like that fact, but it's a fact (in my life) .
The good news is that the state is considering implementing different tag and check in requirements and more antler restrictions. I spend a lot of time and money trying to get the biggest buck I can on my little farm. I follow all the rules and requirements and I'm very selective (except which deer for meat) about which bucks I will kill. I hope my state does implement their new requirements .I want bigger deer.
I only mentioned the crossbow/poaching/and check in stuff because I have wondered for a long time how each state accounts for these things in the published numbers. I am very aware that, in all likelihood , every state has these same problems.maybe this is a question for another thread, but I'd love to hear your input.
Thanks ,
Shaun

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[John Eberhart]

Post 6

Why activated carbon?

I was fortunate to already have some basic knowledge of what activated carbon was and how it functioned before purchasing a Scent Lok suit, but most hunters that don’t own one, definitely are not. So please allow me to shed some factual light on activated carbon technology.

To assume hunting personalities, myself included, and hunting related companies always tell the truth when endorsing or advertising product technologies is extremely naïve and scent elimination rhetoric gets the grand prize as the most deceptive. Because odor is something hunters can’t see or touch, it’s easy for manufacturers to baffle us with false rhetoric and the downside is there are no federal agencies policing their legitimacy.

Scientific technologies worth their weight were researched and developed by large industries, pharmaceutical companies, and worldwide governmental bodies. For example, the average cost for a pharmaceutical company to bring one new drug to market is about $2,000,000,000. R&D laboratories and scientists are expensive and hunting companies are way too small to afford either and therefore take advantage of existing technologies.

Technology information on hunting company websites is oftentimes relatively meaningless because they have a monetary reason to stretch the truth or flat-out falsify their information. To confirm to what extent a scent reducing or adsorption technology works, it can easily be done by Googling the technology or Googling Wikipedia and then the technology.

When Googled, here are a few of the hundreds of adsorption applications activated carbon is used for outside the hunting marketplace:
Gas purification, decaffeination, gold purification, metal extraction, drinking water purification, refrigerant gas adsorption, sewage treatment, every countries chemical warfare suits, by NASA in primary life support systems better known as space suits, gas masks, water softeners, paint respirators, filters in compressed air, volatile organic compound capture, dry cleaning processes, automobile filtration systems, gasoline dispensing operations, groundwater remediation, to adsorb radon for testing air quality, for oral ingestion in hospitals worldwide to treat overdose patients, in intensive care units to filter harmful drugs from the bloodstream of poisoned patients, to adsorb mercury emissions from coal power stations and medical incinerators, to filter vodka and whiskey of organic impurities, and being researched by the US Dept. of Energy to store natural and hydrogen gas.

In 2007, West-Flanders University in Belgium researched water treatment after festivals. An activated carbon installation was built at the Dranouter music festival in 2008, with plans to utilize the technology to treat water at this festival for 20 years.

During WW I thousands of soldiers and in 2013 thousands of civilians and fighters was killed in Syria by chemical warfare. Chemical warfare suits and gas masks worldwide use activated carbon technology to adsorb these dangerous and oftentimes fatal chemical molecules. When soldiers went into Bagdad during the Iraq war, they wore activated carbon lined chemical warfare suits for protection.

Activated carbon is used in EMT units and hospitals to treat poisonings and overdoses following oral ingestion. In cases of taking oral poison, medical personnel administer activated carbon on the scene or at a hospital's emergency room.

Activated carbon is used in Intensive Care to filter harmful drugs from the blood stream of poisoned patients. Activated carbon tablets are used as an over-the-counter-drug to treat diarrhea, indigestion, and flatulence.

Both American College and Webster’s dictionaries define the word ADSORB as: “to gather a gas, liquid, or dissolved substance, on a surface in a condensed layer, as when charcoal adsorbs or sucks in gases”.

Microscopic evaluations show that if all the surface areas of the primary, secondary, tertiary pores, and exterior surface of each particle of activated carbon were flattened and laid on a surface:

-A single gram of activated carbon particles has a surface area equal to 2.17 tennis courts.

-A tablespoon of activated coconut carbon particles has a surface area of over 3 ½ football fields.

-One pound of activated carbon particles (a small butter tub) has a surface area equal to that of approximately 100 acres (more than a half mile in length and a quarter mile in width).

The amount of adsorptive surface area of activated carbon is why it’s the most adsorptive substance known to man.

A few years ago Scent Lok was sued by several hunters for false advertising and in an independent lab at Rutgers University it was proven for a
United States District Court that Scent Lok garments worked as advertised and was able to be re-generated, or what many incorrectly refer to as re-activated.

The next two paragraphs were taken from the Court’s stipulation dismissal ruling.

“Expert scientific testing found that, using highly elevated odor concentrations that were likely ten thousand fold greater than a human body could produce in the course of 24 hours, Scent Lok carbon lined clothing blocked or adsorbed 96 to 99 plus percent of odor compounds, and essentially 100% of surrogate body odor compounds”.

“Expert testing also found that after drying, or washing and drying, Scent Lok carbon fabrics continue to be highly effective at blocking odor permeation”.

Just as NASA, the U. S. auto industry, U. S. Dept. of Energy, hospitals worldwide, and every Dept. of Defense in the world didn’t pull activated carbon out of a hat and say, hey let’s use this stuff, neither did Scent Lok when they applied for and received the U. S. patent to use it in hunting garments.

It’s very simple, if a hunting garment doesn’t have a Scent Lok hangtag, it doesn’t contain activated carbon. US patent law doesn’t allow it.

Activated carbon technology has been around since the 1800’s and to me its implementation by Scent Lok into hunting garments in the early 1990’s has been the most significant development to bowhunting since the compound bow.

 

[John Eberhart]

essub

I have no stake in Scent Lok, I just want hunters to have the absolute most effective hunts possible and properly using and caring for this stuff works. Most hunters I know in Michigan don't have great places to hunt and they need every advantage possible and it just grinds me to see people downplay something they've either never used properly and or know nothing about. Some also hunt in areas like the TV and video guys where deer tolerate a higher level of human odor and therefore scent control isn't as critical to success.

 

[John Eberhart]

Post 7

Activated carbon technology

That activated carbon is the most widely used substance in the world for the adsorption of molecules of differing structures and sizes is a fact. And as mentioned in the previous post I know of no hunting companies that have research and development labs staffed by full-time scientists, they’re simply too expensive. Hunting companies simply piggybacked on technologies researched and developed by and for large worldwide industries and governmental bodies.

Also listed on the previous post were several of the hundreds if not thousands of industrial, governmental, pharmaceutical, military, and medical applications that activated carbon technology is used for. Many activated carbon technology applications also had to be approved by worldwide governmental policing agencies such as our FDA before they could be used for anything to do with human health.

So were not discussing activated carbon technology as though its functionality requires further endorsement rhetoric from our little hunting market. That activated carbon technology is the worldwide leader at molecular adsorption has been firmly established no matter what any hunting company that falsely advertises to the contrary may say.

There is however much confusion concerning what activated carbon is, what is the process to create it, exactly how porous is it, how and to what extent it adsorbs molecules, and how and to what extent it can be de-adsorbed for further hunting purposes?

-Activated carbon is produced from carbonaceous materials like nutshells, wood and coal.

-Differing carbonaceous materials have differing pore sizes and structures.

-The general activation process of carbonaceous materials involves heating them to 1450 degree Fahrenheit while under pressure.

Side note: Scent Lok chose activated carbon derived from coconut shells because its variations of pore structures and sizes are best suited for human odor molecules

-Concerning the porosity of activated carbon derived from coconut shells. If you took the exterior surface area and the surface areas of the primary, secondary, and tertiary pores from just one tablespoon of activated coconut shell carbon particles and laid the surfaces out flat and touching each other, it would cover 3 ½ football fields. This calculation is common knowledge in the scientific world and was originally performed using a scanning electron microscope.

-Through the heating procedure the surface area of activated carbon becomes charged, meaning it has electrons that readily interact with surrounding molecules in the immediate environment.

-There are literally hundreds of different volatile molecules that can emanate from the human body.

-As our odor molecules and other molecules in the immediate environment near the charged activated carbon particles in an activated carbon lined garment they are drawn into the carbon pores or onto their surface and held with a weak Van der Waals bond named after the man that discovered the process. This bond lightly holds the molecules and for hunting garment purposes, keeps them from passing through the garment and into the outside environment.

-Activated carbon adsorption of human odor molecules is a physical process, in that there is a weak bond with the carbon which allows for partial desorption under low temperatures.

-The commonly used term reactivation has been wrongly used in the hunting marketplace. Reactivation would require saturated activated carbon (like what the carbon in a used suit would have) to go through the 1450 degree activation heat process again while under pressure, which would bring the saturated carbon back to its original pristine (no bonded molecules) state. Obviously for fabric garments, that isn’t happening.

-For activated carbon lined garments, the terms partial regeneration or partial thermal de-adsorption are more accurate. To serve hunter’s needs 100% industrial reactivation is not required for continued use.

-When activated carbon clothing is heated at household dryer temperatures (120 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit), the weakly bonded human odor molecules as well as the carbon become more energetic. The more rapid (energetic) movement of the carbon causes expansion or enlargement of its surfaces allowing a portion of the previously bonded and now more energetic odor molecules to break free of the light Van der Waals bond and eventually be sucked out the dryer vent.

The easiest way to describe how the heat/energy, expansion/enlargement processes work is with commonly known and seen visual examples. Concrete highways, expansion bridges, and tall steel structure buildings, to name a few examples, either have expansion joints or take molecular expansion into consideration during construction, otherwise on warm or sunny days molecular expansion would cause the concrete to buckle and the steel to bend, causing their eventual if not immediate destruction.

The low dryer heat/energy/expansion/enlargement process of both the carbon and bonded molecules is what causes partial de-adsorption. It’s partial because not all bonded molecules are removed and for continued hunting purposes, they don’t need to be.

The activated coconut carbon liner exclusively used in Scent Lok (patented) hunting garments becomes a filter that adsorbs human odor and other molecules from escaping beyond it. Like any filter, it will saturate to some extent, but can periodically be partially de-adsorbed to extend its purposeful life for hunting purposes.

It’s not an all-or-none situation! The question for hunting is whether enough de-adsorption has occurred to adsorb your human odor molecules during the next few hunts.

 

[John Eberhart]

Post 8

Thermal de-adsorption or regeneration of Scent Lok branded Carbon Alloy® lined garments.

In the previous post; what is activated carbon, what the process to create it is, how it interacts with and adsorbs molecules, its porosity, and how it can be thermally de-adsorbed, was factually laid out and verified.

In an even earlier post it was shown that Scent Lok, through a United States patent, owns the exclusive rights to use activated carbon in hunting garments. No other manufacturer can use activated carbon in hunting garments without a licensing agreement approved by Scent Lok.

In 2012 Scent Lok added two other adsorptive ingredients into their activated carbon liner and trademarked the name Carbon Alloy® to symbolize all 3 ingredient technologies. Scent Lok did not reduce the amount of activated coconut carbon used, however added an additional 30% of treated carbon particles and 5% of zeolite to the activated carbon to create Carbon Alloy®.

My question was, why alter what already works to near perfection? After all, in an independent laboratory at Rutgers University, expert scientific testing found for a United States District Court, that Scent Lok carbon lined (activated carbon only) clothing fabrics blocked 96 to 99% of the odor compounds, and essentially 100% of the surrogate body odor compounds tested. And the testing was done using highly elevated test odor concentrations that were “likely ten thousand fold greater than a human body could produce in the course of 24 hours”.

So why add more adsorptive ingredients? To put it simply, Scent Lok wanted to close the adsorption gap even more than their already 96 to 99% plus adsorption rate!

There is literally hundreds of differing gaseous and liquid type molecules that can emanate from the human body and while activated coconut carbon is perfectly suited for adsorbing the vast majority of them, treated carbon and zeolite were added because they can adsorb some very specific sized molecules at a higher rate than activated carbon.

Treated carbon: Through a proprietary process activated carbon becomes treated carbon, greatly increasing the carbons surface properties. The capacity and kinetics of treated carbon is better suited for adsorbing oxidized chemicals like chlorine, chloramines and hydrogen sulfide than activated coconut carbon. Treated carbon therefore has a greater adsorptive capacity for hydrogen sulfide gas which is one of the primary gaseous molecules we exhale as bad breath odor.

Zeolite: Zeolites occur naturally and form where volcanic rocks and ash layers react with alkaline groundwater. Zeolites have very specific, narrow pore size ranges and are best suited for very small odor molecules and when used with a primary adsorbent like activated carbon, zeolite has benefits even though they are very limited due to their small pore size properties.

Zeolites should not be expected to provide any adsorption of human odor molecules larger than its pore sizes, which makes it a less that satisfactory performer when used as a stand-alone technology for adsorbing the many differing sizes of odor related molecules that emanate from the human body.

So there you have it, Scent Lok added treated carbon and zeolite to their already 96 to 99% rate of adsorption from their activated coconut carbon liner to create Carbon Alloy® for the sole purpose of adsorbing a bit larger spectrum of specific odor molecules to bring the adsorption rate of human related odor molecules closer to 100%.

For hunting purposes regeneration is not an all-or-none situation and the 3 adsorptive ingredients that make-up Carbon Alloy® have such huge surface areas that de-adsorption of only a tiny fraction of it is necessary to allow for further adsorption of human emitted molecules for several more hunts.

The ability of animals to smell is dependent on the concentration of the substance, and the distance the substance is from the animal. No matter the amount of odor, the farther it gets from the source, the more it diminishes by convection and diffusion into the environment.

I reside about a mile from a small plant that produces wood pellets and uses a wood burning furnace for the process. When the wind is from the northeast the residents residing within a quarter mile southwest of the plant complain about the odor emitting from the stack. I reside about a mile southwest of the plant and never smell it because by the time it gets to me the odor has diminished by diffusion into a larger area of the environment to levels my neighbors and I can’t detect.

Alarming deer with human odor is similar in that it is a threshold event. Other than my annual one-week Midwestern out of state hunt, all of my hunting is done in heavy consequential hunting pressure areas. In every square mile section (640 acres) it’s very rare not to have at least 20 to 40, two to ten acre homesteads and a couple small 40 to 80 acre farms interspersed throughout. In these areas there is some form of diffused human odor floating around 100% of the time and the local whitetails have no option but to accept trace amounts of human odor without being alarmed, if not, they would never move.

In the “Reality of hunting pressure” and “Bowhunting statistics” posts several weeks ago, the differing factors that dictate what threshold level of human presence and or odor is tolerable before a whitetail is alarmed was factually laid out leaving no doubt that a tolerable amount of human odor for daytime movements in one area, may differ greatly from that of another area.

No matter the area, when wearing a complete and properly cared for Scent Lok Carbon Alloy® suit, the 1 to 3% of body odor that may pass through would rapidly diffuse into the environment to the point of non-detection or an alarming level to a whitetail.

The next post will be on the process to properly thermally de-adsorb Carbon Alloy® lined Scent Lok garments as well as care and storage instructions after regeneration.

 

[John Eberhart]

Last post 9

Thermal de-adsorption, care and storage of Carbon Alloy® lined garments

The bond of human emitted molecules to activated coconut carbon, treated carbon and zeolites (3 substances making up Scent Lok’s Carbon Alloy® liner) is a weak bond that permits thermal de-adsorption using low temperatures. A clean household or commercial dryer is recommended for the thermal de-adsorption of Carbon Alloy® lined garments to free-up pore and exterior surface space for further adsorption and use.

General Electric and most other brand name manufacturers of household dryers use these standardized dryer cycle temperatures:

Low Heat setting (delicate/gentle) – 125 degrees Fahrenheit

Medium Heat setting (permanent press) – 135 degrees Fahrenheit

High Heat setting (normal/cottons) – 140 degrees Fahrenheit

Commercial and professional grade dryers that are used in large households, uniform cleaning services, and laundromats reach temperatures as high as 175 degrees Fahrenheit on the high heat setting.

The amount of time a Carbon Alloy® lined garment is in a dryer along with the temperature of the cycle directly influence to what extent the garment is de-adsorbed.

The higher the dryer temperature the more energetic the carbon and adsorbed molecules become and the faster the molecules come off and the carbon is de-adsorbed. The lower the dryer temperature the less energetic, resulting in requiring additional dryer time for a similar de-adsorption result.

Example: Suppose you have a pan of water and it takes 2 hours of boiling to completely evaporate it. If you took that same pan of water and left it at room temperature, it would still evaporate, but would take much longer. If the pan of water were put on simmer, it would take less time to evaporate than at room temperature, but longer than if boiling. The exact same temperature and time effects that drive the evaporation rate of the water also drive the release of molecules, or de-adsorption rate from the carbon.

Simply put, the higher the dryer temperature, the faster and more efficient the release of molecules from the Carbon Alloy® liner. And keep in mind that activated coconut carbon, treated carbon, and zeolites (Carbon Alloy®) can’t differentiate whether you’re hunting or not and when exposed in the environment they are always adsorbing molecules of whatever is in the immediate area.

De-adsorption process, care instructions, and what to use in conjunction with your Carbon Alloy® suit to maximize your scent free regiment.
1. Because Scent Lok Carbon Alloy® lined garments are exposed in store environments prior to being sold, they have adsorbed molecules from the store environment and require thermal de-adsorption and proper storage prior to being used in the field.

2. Thermal de-adsorption is achieved by placing garments in a clean household or commercial dryer for 30 to 40 minutes on the highest heat setting available. Heat causes the carbon and weakly bonded molecules to energize and expand, resulting in a portion of the molecules to break free causing de-adsorption.

3. Once the dryer cycle stops remove the garments and put them in an air-tight storage container such as a tied off clean garbage bag, air-tight carbon lined bag, commercial air-tight bag, or my preference, a Scent Tote. Those $5 to $10 Rubbermaid and Sterlite tubs found at mass merchant stores are not air-tight. Never put scent wafers, pine boughs, scents of any kind, other garments, or anything other than Carbon Alloy® garments in the container as doing so will prematurely load the carbon with odor molecules from whatever you placed in the container requiring more frequent de-adsorption cycles as well as shortening the garments saturation life expectancy.

4. The thermal de-adsorption process (step 2) of a Carbon Alloy® suit should be repeated every 4 to 6 hunts. The term “Carbon Alloy® suit” refers to an exterior jacket, pants, head cover with drop down facemask (covering your mouth, face, beard, neck, and all your hair), and gloves. Any missing part of the suit will compromise your scent control regiment.

5. Unless in the field pre-or in-season scouting or hunting all Carbon Alloy® garments should always be stored in an air-tight container so as not to contaminate them. Do not wear Carbon Alloy® garments in the house, vehicle, getting gas, around the campfire, in restaurants, etc., just during pre-and in-season scouting and when hunting. When finished scouting or hunting all Carbon Alloy® garments immediately go back into their air-tight container prior to getting back into vehicle or entering the house.

6. Washing Carbon Alloy® garments is not done for thermal de-adsorption and is not recommended as a standard practice. Carbon Alloy® garments can be washed periodically if they have physical dirt or blood on them (once or twice per season). Wash on gentle cycle using a small amount of Scent Lok’s carbon detergent, put garments in dryer on air-only cycle and once dry, refer to step 2 for thermal de-adsorption.

7. It’s advised to wash all non-Carbon Alloy® undergarments and layering garments in a scent-free detergent and store them in a similar air-tight manner as your Carbon Alloy® garments, but is separate air-tight containers. This is only a preventative recommendation that adds longevity to your exterior Carbon Alloy® garments.

8. If you use a pack frequently wash it in scent-free detergent, reload it and keep your loaded pack in its own air-tight container when not in use. Hunters typically reload or reorganize their packs using bare hands before and or after each hunt, yet never wash their packs. Having a contaminated pack is like having a large human scent wick with you at all times and will compromise a scent-free regiment. My preference is a Carbon Alloy® lined backpack that can be de-adsorbed like the garments.

9. It is imperative to wear clean knee high rubber or neoprene boots and drape your pant legs outside them instead of tucking them in. Every time you take a step air is displaced out the throat of your boot and the carbon in the pant legs will adsorb the odor.

10. It is advised, but not mandatory, to shower and shampoo with scent-free soap and apply scent free anti-perspirant prior to hunting. If you get off work, stink and don’t have time to shower, the Carbon Alloy® suit will do its job and adsorb your odors. Showering simply decreases the amount of strong odor molecules the Carbon Alloy® has to adsorb, lessening the length between de-adsorptions.

*Important note: If you wear face paint to look cool like many of the TV and video personalities do, wear a non- Carbon Alloy® lined logo cap to promote a sponsor like many of the TV and video personalities do, don’t keep your pack scent-free, don’t wear clean rubber or neoprene boots, don’t use carbon lined gloves when ascending trees, and you get winded, blame it on yourself, not the Carbon Alloy® lined suit.

I can’t quite grasp why so many TV, video, and hunting media personalities endorse, preach, and advertise “scent control”, yet when filming hunts, they hunt the wind. The definition for scent is “odor” and for control is “to have power over”, so if they have power over their odor, why
do they play the wind?

Some common TV and video visuals are; wearing logo ball caps with exposed hair hanging out the back, having exposed beards and neck, having exposed faces covered in face paint, spritzing with sprays as a total scent control regiment, and wearing breathable Cordura or leather boots both of which allow foot odor to pass through due to their permeability. Any one of these lapses throws a serious scent control regiment totally out the window.

TV and video hunters can get away with these lapses because most of them hunt in managed areas where bucks are allowed to pass by hunters without consequence until they reach a specific antler or age kill criteria. In areas where bucks encounter hunters while growing up yet don’t get targeted until maturity they naturally have a higher tolerance of human odor before being alarmed and spooking. Their vulnerable daytime movement habits while growing to maturity also remain somewhat intact, making them very vulnerable and relatively easy to kill.

More than likely most hunters reading this post are somewhat on the same page as me and don’t have the luxury of hunting such pristine areas. You have to pay attention to detail and work hard for what you kill and I guarantee that if you follow a serious scent control regiment that your odds of seeing more mature deer and taking them will go up tremendously.

 

[John Eberhart]

Forgot van storage

What’s in your vehicle?

Just as being detail oriented when scouting, preparing locations, and laying out seasonal and daily hunting plans is critical to success in hchp areas, so is it when preparing to go into the field hunting.

For hunters like myself that have to travel somewhere to hunt, I’ve put together a list of what I keep packed in my vehicle during season.
While trucks look cool, I’ve always been on the side of using what’s most effective for the chore at hand and for that reason my hunting vehicle of choice is a Toyota mini-van. Yes, I’ve heard the soccer-mom mini-van thing many times and just as I don’t care about the cosmetics of my fleece pants having stick-tights on them, neither do I care about the cosmetics of driving a soccer-mom mini-van.

The first thing I do when I get a new mini-van is take out all the rear seats making it into a mini-hotel room. I slide between the front seats into the back and no-matter the weather outside, stay warm and dry while taking my time changing into my hunting clothing and you can’t do that with a truck.

My list is rather extensive as I hate to need something and not have it.

While I use air-tight hard ScenTotes ($79.99) for storage of all my differing garments and gear, as well as to sit on while changing in the van, they are expensive and any air-tight containers or bags will work.

Each of my 4 ScenTotes is labeled and loaded with the following:

ScenTote #1 is labeled: Scent Lok garments - and contains my properly cared for Scent Lok suits for different weather conditions. While it’s not necessary, as an added precaution I keep each suit within the Tote in its own air-tight bag.

A pair each of Scent Lok’s lightweight and heavyweight BaseLayers are also in Tote #1 and each is in a sealed 1 ½ quart Zip-Lok bag. No matter the brand, performance base garments are expensive and Scent Lok’s BaseLayer’s, with their Carbon Alloy® liner and anti-microbial treatment not only give added molecular adsorption protection, they add longevity to the exterior Scent Lok suits adsorptive lifespan. Nothing other than carbon lined garments are put into Tote #1.

ScenTote #2 is labeled: Backpack and Scent Lok accessories - and contains a single air-tight bag loaded with my extra Scent Lok head covers, beanies, gloves, washed in scent-free detergent hand warmer muff and military belts, and an extra Scent Lok backpack for swapping out if I feel the one I’ve been using needs regenerated.

Tote #2 also contains my ready-to-hunt loaded Scent Lok backpack which contains the following items: an inhale and an exhale grunt call, rattle bag, doe bleat call, folding saw, water bottle. pee bottle, tissue, 35 foot rope, a dim single AAA battery flashlight for entries and exits, a three AA battery flashlight for trailing, extra batteries, extra key to vehicle, knife, laser rangefinder, 8X32 binoculars, gutting gloves (don’t laugh until you’ve tried them), compass, reflective tacks for marking recovered deer so easily found on return trip to get it out after dark, gallon Zip Lok to put sweaty bottom layers in after long entries if needed, Grabber hand (2) and adhesive body warmers (4) all of which have been opened and sealed in a quart Zip-Lok freezer bag (bags they come in are too noisy to open on stand), wrist watch strapped to D-ring on outside of pack for easy time recognition, whatever layer garments I need for the next hunt and my hybrid sling/saddle hunting harness.

In a small fanny-pack kept within the backpack are 5 screw-in bow holders, screw-in quiver adaptor, antihistamine pills (for when I’m stuffed up), cough drops in a Zip-Lok bag, 2 release aids, armguard, Spando-flage facemask, Scent Lok head cover and gloves.

ScenTote #3 is labeled: Undergarments – and contains light to heavily insulated undergarments such as army surplus wool sweaters, merino wool undergarments, fleece vests, heavy Refrigiwear insulated layering garments, and lightweight Rivers West windproof jackets used as my underlayer just beneath my Full Season jacket during moderate temperatures.

ScenTote #4 is labeled Waterproof garments - and contains three Rivers West suits for differing rainy weather conditions. I use the Pioneer ($150 per suit) suit for 50 degrees and above, the Frontier ($200 per suit) for 30 to 50 degrees, and the Ambush ($350 per suit) for severe weather. I’m quite sure that Scent Lok’s new Covert windproof suit will be replacing my Rivers West Ambush for severe weather conditions from minus whatever degrees up to 30 degrees as it would be snowing, not raining

Tub #5 is a shallow plastic tub loaded with differing weights of socks, underwear, and T-shirts to wear as bottom layers on long walks in during warm weather that will be replaced once on stand.

Every garment in tubs 3, 4, and 5 has been washed in scent-free detergent and once used, is not put back into its tub. If I’m going to wear the garment again, it will go in an air-tight bag and be kept outside the Tote. Most frequently they get re-washed in scent-free detergent and put back in their appropriate Tote.

Used Scent Lok and BaseLayer suits are put back in their air-tight bags and back into their labeled ScenTote. Once a suit has been used on 4 hunts or I feel it needs regenerated sooner due to sweating a lot, it will be regenerated.

Other items in Van: A homemade ramp, an Otter sled sitting on top of it, and a Versa Cart is upside down within the sled. These items are used for getting deer out of the field and into the van.

There are always at least 6 pairs of clean rubber or neoprene boots for differing weather conditions and they are scattered within the sled along with a 50 foot 4 pulley block & tackle, a loaded freelance pack, a small tub loaded with extra hand and adhesive body warmers, a small plastic tub loaded with miscellaneous extra junk, Slim-Fast used as a quick breakfast, and a Rivers West weather beater ultra-light packable rain suit for recovering deer in the rain.

My extra bow (set-up identical to main bow) is against a side panel and my cased bow and quiver lies on a 3 foot by 3 foot rubber matt on the floor just behind the front seats. That matt is also what I change on.

To date I can’t think of a time when I needed something I didn’t have other than help getting a deer out which I typically have to do myself.

 

[John Eberhart]

Yesterday evening I got a call from a bowhunter in New Hampshire. The purpose of the call was to ask saddle questions but after we covered that topic he mentioned having concerns about his scent control regiment having glitches, and of course I asked why he thought so? He stated that on 2 different occasions he had mature does hit his entry route and sniff around and eventually follow his footprints to his tree. Once under the tree they smelled around some more and then moved back on about their business.

Wow, I was impressed and told him he is doing everything perfect because that is as good a scent control regiment testimonial as he could ever want. I told him deer are naturally curious and when they hit his trail they smelled a difference in the ground due to his disturbing the ground with every step he took. I've had mature deer follow my every step ground disturbance to the tree as well but they never spooked from human odor, which if there were some, they would have. Deer can smell where something with weight has walked through simply because the ground disturbance of broken grasses, weeds, and altered earth under each step leaves a stronger odor than the surrounding ground. They follow it trying to smell what the culprit is but after a while will give up and go on about there business.

A couple years ago I went to a forum and answered a scent control question with factual activated carbon technology information that could not be disputed. Within a short period 2 posts were made about a tracking dog following someone through a field that supposedly had a perfect scent control regiment using Scent Lok and other stuff.

Tracking dogs can follow ground disturbance as well so dog tests where a man walks away and a tracking dog is put on his tracks a bit later and finds him are relatively meaningless to me. Most any animal with a strong nose can follow something leaving no odor other than each steps ground disturbance.

If it were possible to have a 150 pound odorless ghost walk through any field and hide from sight, any tracking dog that is trained to follow a scent trail could easily find him.

Remember those dew covered mornings? I would bet that after daybreak my 8 year old granddaughter could follow the path of a hunter to his tree through a grass, weed, of green field covered in dew. Just as humans can easily follow a visual path of disturbance through a field otherwise covered in dew, a dog can easily follow a ground disruption trail with their trained nose even with a total absence of human odor.

My son Chris owned two trained Bavarian Bloodhounds and they could follow anything that was drug across the ground even if the object had no odor and weighed less than a pound.

 

[BassBoysLLP]

Good stuff John. I'm a firm believer in carbon technology and routinely design adsorption systems that use activated carbon (chemical engineer by trade). I admit I was skeptical at first. I actually had to abandon the routine for a season to prove to myself that it was actually working.

Quick question: Are you utilizing any electrostatic garments to address skin rafts?

 

[kenn1320]

Good stuff John. I'm a firm believer in carbon technology and routinely design adsorption systems that use activated carbon (chemical engineer by trade).

Quick question: Are you utilizing any electrostatic garments to address skin rafts?

Oh you might be a good guy to ask this. So the heating cycle in the dryer excites the molecules and expands the carbon? If the carbon expands, doesnt that increase its surface area temporarily? Why doesnt the incoming contaminated air going into the dryer not contaminate the carbon? No molecules will bond to carbon at 140deg or whatever the magical minimum temp is?

 

[BassBoysLLP]

Surface area of the carbon doesn't change appreciably. You might see to loss due to mechanical attrition, but the vast majority of the surface area losses occur when you WASH the garments and lose carbon to the wastewater.

The only thing happening in the dryer is thermal desorption with the exact level of cleanliness predicted by influent air quality and the respective carbon adsorption isotherms. Some volatile compounds will be removed to a very high degree. Other semi-volatiles will only be partially removed from the garment. One of the primary markers of body odor in humans, a methylated hexenoic acid, is an example of one that is only partially removed. And yes, some of these semi-volatiles can be introduced into the influent air stream of your dryer. The garments are very much like a sponge that soaks up less volume with each squeeze. At some point majority of the binding sites on the garment consumed and can't be adequately regenerated using a home dryer. This is why these garments need to cared for well....or work with virgin coconut based PAC

 

[imphedup]

Surface area of the carbon doesn't change appreciably. You might see to loss due to mechanical attrition, but the vast majority of the surface area losses occur when you WASH the garments and lose carbon to the wastewater.

The only thing happening in the dryer is thermal desorption with the exact level of cleanliness predicted by influent air quality and the respective carbon adsorption isotherms. Some volatile compounds will be removed to a very high degree. Other semi-volatiles will only be partially removed from the garment. One of the primary markers of body odor in humans, a methylated hexenoic acid, is an example of one that is only partially removed. And yes, some of these semi-volatiles can be introduced into the influent air stream of your dryer. The garments are very much like a sponge that soaks up less volume with each squeeze. At some point majority of the binding sites on the garment consumed and can't be adequately regenerated using a home dryer. This is why these garments need to cared for well....or work with virgin coconut based PAC

Wow! That read just hurt my brain! Lol

 

[g2outdoors]

John just won the Internet.

 

[essdub]

Re: RE: Re: Scent Control Debate?????

John just won the Internet.

Al made the internet. But John definitely owns it. Lol

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[loosanarrow]

Scent Control Debate????????

I'm struggling with the concept of debating over whether something works or not when I've unequivocally proven it to myself several thousand times that it works and have never had an instance when I knew I was doing everything right, that it didn't. To debate on the extent at which a hunter is willing to go or the work ethic in which a hunter is willing to put in to have a scent regiment that will fool a mature deer's nose, well that's not really a debate but rather a discussion over self-discipline. Honestly, a persons self-discipline can only be debated by that person themselves.

Thanks John. My contributions to the "debate" were intended to let people know that after over over thirty years of being winded almost daily while deer hunting, I went a whole season only being winded once, and on that evening I wore street clothes and did not even shower.

My purpose was to just give my testimony that it works... like a charm, in fact. It really never occurred to me when I posted that anyone would try to explain it away as my error or misperception. In fact, I was stunned by the posts intended to call into question what was blatantly obvious to me - posts that were complete with explanations of what possible factors might be deceiving me... or something like that. And posts that cited articles about what a dog could do - well done studies, no doubt, but nothing can trump deer not smelling me for an entire season. That is, after all, the goal. I was honestly a bit offended that someone would question my conclusions, but I had to remind myself that we often do not know each other beyond this forum, and it isn't worth getting worked up just because someone who has never done something doesn't believe that I or others have done it and are doing it regularly. I can only imagine what stories you might have of people who are sure you are a liar or that you are not competent to even know if you are being winded... In the end though, I just smile and remind myself that fewer people using this tool means more deer, and especially more mature antlers, for me... I have done what I can and been true the spirit of honesty and full disclosure of what I think is the most valuable (and advantage multiplying) of any deer hunting tool or technology - after the factor of having a serviceable weapon of course. In fact, with the level of scent control I am at, I almost daily have deer directly under me that never do alert, so I could easily kill them with a spear as my "serviceable weapon".

And I also want to take a moment to publicly thank you for turning me on to the possibilities of scent control in your writings. I did know it was a "thing", but until I read through your and others' testimony, I just thought it was about "lessening" the amount or distance of deer alarming from human smell. To hear you say you have not been winded in years, that got my attention, as it should get the attention of anyone who can foresee what a enhancement that can be to the whole experience of hunting deer. And I am sooooo glad I did it. I now consider it the most significant tool in the shed.