• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Weird question about scent and showering

I use the brimless one. I like the way I can expose my ears when needed.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
I'm a firm believer that we cannot become odorless. If deer get a full nose of us, they will bust us. But there are nuances to the odor bust scenario. A few examples are "diluted odor" on the fringes of our scent cone, ground odor on access trails, and residual odor which remains during and after our presence. These odors can be reduced to the point that busts become far less intense or even non existent.
I'm going to assume a deer that's within close distance, centered in my scent cone is gonna wind me regardless of what I do. But I also realize that my regimen has practically eliminated my ground odor to the point that I no longer worry about crossing deer trails near my stand. My ground odor busts are almost nonexistent for me.

I insist on showering in the morning before a hunt. I've even showered a second time during a lunch break, but I rarely leave the woods for lunch so it's not very often that I shower twice during a hunt.

HOW you shower is something seldom discussed. Usually, guys just mention the soap but how you shower is even more important.
Think about how a surgeon scrubs before an operation. They soap up and SCRUB for miutes in order to kill bacteria. Bacteria is the main cause of odor.

I wet down, turn the water off, soap up, and scrub with something like a luffa sponge. I use a dish rag with a nylon netting type material on it. The idea is to exfoliate AND allow time for the soap to kill bacteria.
Scrub every nook and cranny. Corners of the nose, around the eyes, ears, pits, crotch and crack and of course feet and in between each toe. Don't rinse until you've been thorough.

Quality deodorant antiperspirant goes on select areas, not just the pits.

Boot care is critical.
I run ozone inside each boot while in a tub before every hunt. Boots are getting O3 inside and out.
Boot bottoms are never touched with bare hands and I never use a bare foot or stocking foot to push off the 2nd boot. Use a boot jack if you need to.

Make every effort to avoid touching or brushing up against weeds or brush during the final approach to the stand. Carry hand pruners and clip anything that you otherwise cannot avoid contact with.
I often use my pruners to steady and balance myself as I pass trees. It allows me to sneak much more quietly.
I also use the pruners almost like pliars. I'll use them to pick up debris along my final approach to preset stands. I constantly maintain and groom my entrance trails which reduces noise and odor. The longer that I use pruners more more uses I'm finding for them.

I'm in my 2nd season of experimenting with a bee smoker. Deer do show reaction to the smoke but it isnt a reaction of alarm. It's more of curiosity or confusion which is better that a true odor bust. The jury is still out for me as to whether or not smoke adds to the effectiveness of an odor regimen.
Click to expand...

what body soaps, clothes detergents, and antiperspirants do you prefer?

i have been using dead down wind products, but have been using ewo's carbon soap for the body/hair this year (the dead down wind shower gel doesn't cut oils, it seems) and the dead down wind antiperspirant is garbage. i smell like a hobo by afternoon. i am now using the scent free arm and hammer stick, which actually keeps me odor free mostly. i was using almay gel scent free antiperspirant on my feet and crotch, because it spreads easily, but it is a pain and i'm worried about covering a huge amount of my body with a chemical all the time.

when i wash my clothes, i'm using warm and then a gentle cycle, i use gentle because i wash my hunting clothes so much that i don't want to be hard on them. any thoughts on that as well? to dry, i put in a dryer with a dead down wind fabric sheet, but it is a general use dryer, so it probably has residual smells and it has to pull in air from the basement somehow (since hot air leaves the house) so that is also infusing house air.

for boots, i assume you are wearing rubber boots? i wish i could but my feet can't tolerate them. i do spray my leather boots with dead down wind field spray, but i also treat the leather, so i'm sure the deer smell something. i had a nice buck react hard to my ground scent this year and it cost me an easy shot.
 
raisins said:
what body soaps, clothes detergents, and antiperspirants do you prefer?

i have been using dead down wind products, but have been using ewo's carbon soap for the body/hair this year (the dead down wind shower gel doesn't cut oils, it seems) and the dead down wind antiperspirant is garbage. i smell like a hobo by afternoon. i am now using the scent free arm and hammer stick, which actually keeps me odor free mostly. i was using almay gel scent free antiperspirant on my feet and crotch, because it spreads easily, but it is a pain and i'm worried about covering a huge amount of my body with a chemical all the time.

when i wash my clothes, i'm using warm and then a gentle cycle, i use gentle because i wash my hunting clothes so much that i don't want to be hard on them. any thoughts on that as well? to dry, i put in a dryer with a dead down wind fabric sheet, but it is a general use dryer, so it probably has residual smells and it has to pull in air from the basement somehow (since hot air leaves the house) so that is also infusing house air.

for boots, i assume you are wearing rubber boots? i wish i could but my feet can't tolerate them. i do spray my leather boots with dead down wind field spray, but i also treat the leather, so i'm sure the deer smell something. i had a nice buck react hard to my ground scent this year and it cost me an easy shot.
Click to expand...

I had very bad luck with Dead Down Wind.
 
Well I’m weird and bouchée. I use scent free shampoo and conditioner. I use scent free dove soap and scent free beard oil. I use it every shower during hunting season.

edit. I also hang fresh earth scent wafers in my truck all season
 
Last edited:
raisins said:
How so?
Click to expand...

I picked up a few Dead Down Wind items idk, maybe 5 years ago, when what I used then was not in stock. I started getting busted like crazy. Went back to what I had been using, and stopped getting busted.

I had the deodorant, spray, & clothing wash. I don't know if it was one, two, or all of these products...but it was plain obvious that deer could smell and did not tolerate some Dead Down Wind stuff.
 
Plebe said:
I picked up a few Dead Down Wind items idk, maybe 5 years ago, when what I used then was not in stock. I started getting busted like crazy. Went back to what I had been using, and stopped getting busted.

I had the deodorant, spray, & clothing wash. I don't know if it was one, two, or all of these products...but it was plain obvious that deer could smell and did not tolerate some Dead Down Wind stuff.
Click to expand...

What do you like better?
 
raisins said:
What do you like better?
Click to expand...

I'm using Scent Killer. What I have right now is the "Gold" laundry detergent as well as the body wash & shampoo.

I do not use the deodorant. I use unscented Crystal deodorant after showering. I can't do antiperspirant. I won't say the Crystal deodorant is the ultimate, but its where I've landed for now.

I am wearing Sitka base layer tops with polygiene next to skin and having good results. I wore the old 1st lite wool baselayers for a long time, but the Sitka seem to keep my scent down better. I have the og green ScentLok liner top and bottom and feel it's the best at scent containment, but it's another layer to contend with so I don't frequently wear them.

I don't use a spray, but, my brother does use the Scent Killer spray and it'll take the stink of a chicken finger sub off your hands.
 
Last edited:
raisins said:
what body soaps, clothes detergents, and antiperspirants do you prefer?

i have been using dead down wind products, but have been using ewo's carbon soap for the body/hair this year (the dead down wind shower gel doesn't cut oils, it seems) and the dead down wind antiperspirant is garbage. i smell like a hobo by afternoon. i am now using the scent free arm and hammer stick, which actually keeps me odor free mostly. i was using almay gel scent free antiperspirant on my feet and crotch, because it spreads easily, but it is a pain and i'm worried about covering a huge amount of my body with a chemical all the time.

when i wash my clothes, i'm using warm and then a gentle cycle, i use gentle because i wash my hunting clothes so much that i don't want to be hard on them. any thoughts on that as well? to dry, i put in a dryer with a dead down wind fabric sheet, but it is a general use dryer, so it probably has residual smells and it has to pull in air from the basement somehow (since hot air leaves the house) so that is also infusing house air.

for boots, i assume you are wearing rubber boots? i wish i could but my feet can't tolerate them. i do spray my leather boots with dead down wind field spray, but i also treat the leather, so i'm sure the deer smell something. i had a nice buck react hard to my ground scent this year and it cost me an easy shot.
Click to expand...
Clothes...all synthetic no cotton. Some Scentlock but not always, depends on the situation. I guess that I try to preserve it...too cheap to to buy as much as I probably should have lol.

Laundry soap...
I will use any scent free soap on base layers but I always use a "hunting detergent" on my outers. Not sure if deer detect UV brighteners so why take the chance? Everything gets washed in cold, gentle or hand wash cycle.
Nothing goes into the drier except Scentlok. Our home has never had perfumed products. Not sure if it would alarm deer or not but scented products make me want to puke so we don't use them. Drier heat is hard on clothes which is another reason I don't put much in the drier.
Clothes get hung in the laundry room with a fan and ozone. When dry, they go in tubs. Clothing for each day gets an O3 treatment, boots, saddle, pack, etc all get O3 each morning.

Bath soap... I've used Hunter Specialties bar soap for years but I honestly don't think it's any better than plain old unscented Dove.
I do think that the water hardness has a lot to do with bathing and laundry. Our well is very soft so I feel soaps are less effective with hard water.

Deodorant...
Firm lover of Almay...zero smell what so ever, it spreads great and works well. I also use crystal in select areas, pits crack crotch.
Oral...ALWAYS FLOSS, and use Butler gum massager along with basic toothpaste, hydrogen peroxide and Smartmouth rinse.

I don't use any type of scent killer spray. Ive had horrible results with DDW. the company told me it has a shelf life and is basically useless when expired. I've had even new stuff not kill food odors on my hands. I believe that scent eliminators are a gimmick.

I do use smoke but I don't always take the time to do it. I've had excellent results without it but I am open to the concept.
1,000% believer in ozone for gear. I don't use ozone in the tree.
And yep, under the worst case scenarios I still get busted but not nearly as bad as I did years ago.
Had a 2 year old buck cut my entrance trail this morning. He showed zero reaction. Being able to cross or walk deer trails is a huge benefit from an odor regimen . I'm positive that my residual odor disapates sooner too.
 
All during deer season the only thing I really do nowadays is shower in scent free soap and shampoo. I also wash my clothes in scent free All or Tide or whatever. The Free & Clear stuff. I also like Atsko's detergent but sometimes I can't find it and don't want to deal with paying shipping for it. For great scent free bar soap I tried CGM's charcoal/scent free soap bar. I like it! The most important aspect is playing the wind but I have had several close encounters this year with deer right under my setup and they never winded me. I don't have any special scent lock clothes or anything just wash my stuff in scent free detergent and hang it out to dry on the clothesline outside and shower in scent free bar soap and "fee and clear" shampoo. My biggest concern is access and wind direction and thermal flow. Sometimes it changes and if it consistently changes from what was predicted to what my milkweed are telling me, I move. If not, if it is occasionally blowing bad but mostly blowing OK, I stick it out.
 
woodsdog2 said:
All during deer season the only thing I really do nowadays is shower in scent free soap and shampoo. I also wash my clothes in scent free All or Tide or whatever. The Free & Clear stuff. I also like Atsko's detergent but sometimes I can't find it and don't want to deal with paying shipping for it. For great scent free bar soap I tried CGM's charcoal/scent free soap bar. I like it! The most important aspect is playing the wind but I have had several close encounters this year with deer right under my setup and they never winded me. I don't have any special scent lock clothes or anything just wash my stuff in scent free detergent and hang it out to dry on the clothesline outside and shower in scent free bar soap and "fee and clear" shampoo. My biggest concern is access and wind direction and thermal flow. Sometimes it changes and if it consistently changes from what was predicted to what my milkweed are telling me, I move. If not, if it is occasionally blowing bad but mostly blowing OK, I stick it out.
Click to expand...

I really like line drying hunting clothes when rural. I'll often hang mine to dry in the woods behind my house.

Come season, the weather doesn't always give me that chance. And when my gear gets wet on a hunt, tossing them into an airtight bin/bag afterward isn't good policy. In those cases I've been using the dryer and tossing in a clearance ScentLok garment. Does it help? idk.
 
I agree @Allegheny Tom That's one thing I forgot to mention. I am a flosser by nature anyway once a day and I use hydrogen peroxide - baking soda toothpaste. I feel the arm & hammer tooth paste is probably the best. I often gargle with hydrogen peroxide as well during deer season. I mean 30 or more seconds then spit and rinse. I used to spend way more time obsessing about scent control but it completely took the fun out of hunting. I do these things out of habit and just as an extra measure but I know guys who still smoke just before they go into the woods and just after they get out.... I don't get that at all but if you're hunting the wind it probably doesn't matter that much.
 
I take a shower after the hunt when I need it the most. Play the wind while hunting and that’s it.

No way I possibly could stay “scent free” walking in for a hunt especially early in the season. I rarely have easy access in marshes and swamps so being covered in sweat is the norm. No way to fight that. It’s a losing battle every single time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top