My Scent Control Thread Ozone, Carbon, Smoker, or ???

[Belo]

Sorry man but ozone is not "gimmicky crap".
It been used in industry for decades . Its science.
It must be nice to hunt where the wind is always 100% stable and never screws you at just the wrong time.
O3 for gear...Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

I work in an industry where it's been used for a long, long time and has nothing to do with hunters. It's science just like carbon is. What I've long said to skeptics is to find a stinky gym bag or sock or whatever and put it in a tote with ozone for a bit and let me know if it still stinks.

 

[Tap]

My theories and beliefs on odors, odor reduction, and how individual deer may react have evolved quite a bit over my last 53 deer seasons.
There are countless variables involved, too many to test and prove or disprove. But there are some undeniable realities regarding the topic.
One reality is we humans each have our individual odors, specific to only us just like a fingerprint. Within each human are many dozen odor producers that have their own specific aroma...feet don't smell like armpits, don't smell like earwax, don't smell like breath. Even our eyelids have multiple glands which serve different purposes. I contend all of our various individual odors are different in volatility and strength which dissipate at different rates. We can never begin to compare our olfactory abilities to that of a deer, but we can analyze our odors in relativity. We prove to ourselves (and those around us!) that we can indeed reduce our odors. Taking a shower and brushing our teeth makes us less objectionable to those in NEARBY PROXIMITY to us.
That same reality certainly applies to our odor intensity to a deer at various distances and a variety of environmental conditions. I don't care how clean you are, how much scentlok, scent killer, or ozone we use, we ARE gonna get busted in certain situations...light wind, humid conditions, mature deer at very close range, directly in the core of our scent cone is going to smell us. But at what distance or other environmental condition does that deer either completely NOT smell us, or does but doesn't really react on a given day?
We simply cannot quantify those "gray areas", but it's definitely provable that we can reduce our odor "signature".

That brings me to the 2nd reality. Every deer is an individual, individual personality, and different levels of tolerance of disturbance. We just can't always predict what a particular deer will do on a particular day when they encounter disturbance.
I'm of the belief that I have nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain by reducing or eliminating odors wherever I can...what can it hurt?
I will also say thet I'm coming to believe that odor busts are usually the result of true HUMAN ODOR (predator odor) and not so much chemical odors, at least in a majority of whitetail habitats where chemical odors are an everyday occurrence.
Deer encounter logging operations, farm chemicals, lawn mowers, household odors, etc etc almost continuously and they don't panic. In some cases like tree cutting, deer are actually attracted to the operation. The sound and smell of chainsaws is amost like a dinnerbell.
Think about this...
If deer react negatively to chemical odors the why do they still cross busy highways? Those roads contain pretty much every odor on the planet. Heck, we often see deer bedded and feeding along the busiest interstates.
Not to say that I don't try to eliminate all chemical odors in hunting scenarios, but I really think it's our human, predator odor that screws us. I realize that I cannot become odorless but I can reduce it...because I just don't know how a deer will react under various circumstances.
One last point...We hear the phrase often, "You'll never fool a deer's nose". But then those same hunters will go out a make mock scrapes. I thought you couldn't fool them?

 

[Angus 1895]

I had luck being very clean with baking soda, keeping my head shaved, wearing clothes only once, leaving them out side. Years ago.

I read some one descented a human and put the human in a box. A police dog found which box had the human was in Every time.

 

[bueller]

You all have to remember that police dogs are highly trained by humans and don't just just pop out as puppies with all that skill. Without the training they can smell great but don't know what the heck to do about it. Comparing wild deer to a highly trained dog is laughable to me.

 

[SwampCat]

Store your hunting clothes in a corn bag and hunt upwind of the deer

 

[Catscratch]

Dogs get a treat for smelling a human, deer get to live for smelling one... so there's that.

I'm joking (sort of). I think dogs being able to do it is sort of a proof of concept thing. I've actually drawn up plans for a scent proof blind. If I build it I intend to do some serious real life testing.

 

[Angus 1895]

I was able to fool them with scent control.

But I prefer to fool them with my brain.

Often with my brain I fail.

But being that strict about scent control made hunting less entertaining.

I am excited about building a permanent stand with a nu wave stove….I have heard good things on this forum.

 

[Spike_Horn_Shooter]

Suprised no one has mentioned “activated carbon masks”. You can buy them on Amazon for 20 cents a piece. Your mouth is the biggest and most constant source of scent. Once you stop sweating and throw on your clean coat / bibs, there is not a lot of air transactions between your body and the environment.

Your mouth has consistent interactions with the environment the whole time your out there.

 

[Mortenson]

If you eat a can of corn before the hunt you should be good to go on that front too.

I just have to use the wind the best I can. I have a small house with 6 humans and a stinky mutt. Even after my scent free showers I'm getting loaded with bad scents instantly. There's strawberry ass aerosol sprayed all over the bathroom I take my scent free showers in. Sat tonight in the rain. Leaving my clothes to hopefully dry in the garage overnight. Is that approved? Haha

 

[Brian662]

Dogs get a treat for smelling a human, deer get to live for smelling one... so there's that.

I'm joking (sort of). I think dogs being able to do it is sort of a proof of concept thing. I've actually drawn up plans for a scent proof blind. If I build it I intend to do some serious real life testing.

If you did something for your job and something because your life depended on it, how differently would you do it?
I don't know if either animal is smart enough to understand the difference but if I were a deer, I think running at the first sense of danger makes a lot of sense. Some run, some blow, some stomp around, some get shot.

 

[bueller]

If you did something for your job and something because your life depended on it, how differently would you do it?
I don't know if either animal is smart enough to understand the difference but if I were a deer, I think running at the first sense of danger makes a lot of sense. Some run, some blow, some stomp around, some get shot.

But there is a constant "scent" of danger in their world. Always smelling humans, coyotes, bobcats, wolves, bears, cars, farm equipment, etc. There is not a single deer that can bolt at every sniff of danger or they would never have a second to chill. Yotes, bobcats, and deer run the same trails by me, many times within a few minutes of each other. Now add a sight or sound indicator to the scent and they will for sure bolt.

 

[Bill]

Add to it what's on their mind at the time. I have never been busted by a 3.5 or older buck during the rut. Never.
Even after being looked over very hard by a nanny doe that caught a whiff of something.

Which is why my crazy rituals get severely reduced with a gun during the rut.

 

[hillrunner]

Add to it what's on their mind at the time. I have never been busted by a 3.5 or older buck during the rut. Never.
Even after being looked over very hard by a nanny doe that caught a whiff of something.

Which is why my crazy rituals get severely reduced with a gun during the rut.

Seriously, never? In the timber in a stand? I can think of many times being busted by mature bucks during the rut over the years. I can remember 1 time in particular where the doe ran straight through my scent stream but the old 10 pt chasing her locked up on a dime when he hit it, blew, and ran the other way.

 

[Bill]

Seriously, never? In the timber in a stand? I can think of many times being busted by mature bucks during the rut over the years. I can remember 1 time in particular where the doe ran straight through my scent stream but the old 10 pt chasing her locked up on a dime when he hit it, blew, and ran the other way.

Not that I can remember. In that early bump a doe phase, sure. But once it's obvious some does are in heat I don't recall ever being busted by a mature buck. I very rarely hunt deep in the timber though. Maybe that makes a big difference.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I think a lot of it is scent that is out of its normal. On the edge of my yard I have a large-ish area of brush and downed trees, I would say about 100 feet by 200 feet. When I had my yard cleared in 2019 they dozed a lot of it into a pile, then later I had a big wind storm, and a bunch of more trees fell in that area. Anyhow deer bed in there all the time, and even will lay on top of my septic which is right next to it. They watch me do my daily stuff, walk out to my wood boiler, drive cars in and out of the garage, walk out to the mail box, and they arent bothered at all, even my old dog doesnt bother them. But the minute I walk into the woods, they are gone. I have 3 apple trees right next to this area, they will walk out to the apple trees, grab a snack or 2, and walk back in the brush while I am outside.

Now put me out in the woods, over looking a food plot, and an apple orchard, those same deer that decide to leave the brush pile for greener pastures, will take off running as soon as they are down wind of me at all. They know their danger zones!

In the winters when the deer gather up, especially last winter with record snow, and 3+ feet of snow on the ground the entire winter, the does and fawns gathered in my plowed roads, and yard pretty much all winter. I had a plowed path going to my wood boiler, and wood yard, the deer were like cattle, and would be feet away from my on the tractor, and if they did jump off the plowed path, they would only go about 20 feet and stop and watch me then come right back as soon as I drove past them. It isnt really the scent, it is something different that doesnt belong that they are afraid of.

Usually about every other year I get a couple old does that bust me, and they will watch for me in the tree stands every time I go out, then sit back about 50 yards and blow at me. Some years those same does end up in my freezer, some years I move to other stands.

 

[Angus 1895]

I think a lot of it is scent that is out of its normal. On the edge of my yard I have a large-ish area of brush and downed trees, I would say about 100 feet by 200 feet. When I had my yard cleared in 2019 they dozed a lot of it into a pile, then later I had a big wind storm, and a bunch of more trees fell in that area. Anyhow deer bed in there all the time, and even will lay on top of my septic which is right next to it. They watch me do my daily stuff, walk out to my wood boiler, drive cars in and out of the garage, walk out to the mail box, and they arent bothered at all, even my old dog doesnt bother them. But the minute I walk into the woods, they are gone. I have 3 apple trees right next to this area, they will walk out to the apple trees, grab a snack or 2, and walk back in the brush while I am outside.

Now put me out in the woods, over looking a food plot, and an apple orchard, those same deer that decide to leave the brush pile for greener pastures, will take off running as soon as they are down wind of me at all. They know their danger zones!

In the winters when the deer gather up, especially last winter with record snow, and 3+ feet of snow on the ground the entire winter, the does and fawns gathered in my plowed roads, and yard pretty much all winter. I had a plowed path going to my wood boiler, and wood yard, the deer were like cattle, and would be feet away from my on the tractor, and if they did jump off the plowed path, they would only go about 20 feet and stop and watch me then come right back as soon as I drove past them. It isnt really the scent, it is something different that doesnt belong that they are afraid of.

Usually about every other year I get a couple old does that bust me, and they will watch for me in the tree stands every time I go out, then sit back about 50 yards and blow at me. Some years those same does end up in my freezer, some years I move to other stands.

Nuthin beats town crier cube steak!

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Nuthin beats town crier cube steak!

They taste extra good!

 

[Bill Loser]

Usually about every other year I get a couple old does that bust me, and they will watch for me in the tree stands every time I go out, then sit back about 50 yards and blow at me. Some years those same does end up in my freezer, some years I move to other stands.

I have an old doe like that. She busted me in a stand 2 or 3 years ago, now Everytime she gets close to that tree she's looking on it, never comes overly close to it. Been wanting to take her out because im convinced that she teaches fawns about it but haven't had the opportunity to do it yet .
I do believe with deer especially, it's not what they smell but where they smell it. My west property line is lined with homes, 3 of them. The deer in those areas are used to smelling people and people things so I can get away with a little bad wind, but go to the other side where there less houses and people and it's a different story

 

[rogersb]

First year I used turpentine as a cover scent. Very few to almost no deer hated it. Many hung up a little and tested the wind awhile, but most then just did their thing. I won't be out archery hunting without it. I hunt almost exclusively heavily pressured public land.

 

[swat1018]

Add to it what's on their mind at the time. I have never been busted by a 3.5 or older buck during the rut. Never.
Even after being looked over very hard by a nanny doe that caught a whiff of something.

Which is why my crazy rituals get severely reduced with a gun during the rut.

Same here. Bucks are the most careless creature in the woods during the rut.