Showering before hunting

4wanderingeyes

5 year old buck +
What soaps do you all use to shower before hunting?
What deodorant?
 
Not the answer your looking for, but I was about ready to quit bow hunting over the scent control bs. Hated the process, did it all.

One year said F it, not doing it anymore. Killed my biggest 2 in the following years. Clean access, play the wind and thermals. Will never look back.

Never understood how after showering then a half mile walk in your not gunna stink. Or how your bow or release or breath is not stinking up the place.

The absolute nail in the coffin. Standing outside the truck in my skippies in 15 degree weather putting on "clean" clothes from a tote. Thinking to myself, what am I doing.
 
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Went through several brands, finally settled on the Code Blue stuff. Seems effective enough..
 
I don't think it's so much to make yourself unscented, but rather to just keep from having fragrant coconut and lavender shampoos on your hair and body. If it doesn't help a lot, maybe it helps a little. I have Dead Down Wind body soap in my shower now. I usually buy what's on sale. They all smell the same to me, and I like the smell... nostalgia. Sweating while going in is my biggest issue. Seems the harder I try to go slow and cautious, the more I sweat. I think it's hard work going slow, lol.
 
What soaps do you all use to shower before hunting?
What deodorant?
I just use a non-scented soap. I think it has been hunter specialties brand lately. I don't use any deodorant. I still use a carbon suite. I'm less anal after archery season is over.
 
I use Scent Killer. For me it's not about reducing my scent to 0%. That's impossible. It's about lowering my total scent load as much as I can. I take a shower, brush my teeth, clean my ears. I keep myself in very good shape throughout the year so I don't sweat going in. I go very slow and carry most of my clothes on the approach. I rub moss and dirt on my clothes just before entering my stand. I hunt the wind religiously.

Then again, I take a leak off my stand that probably undoes all of that.
 
I use Scent Killer. For me it's not about reducing my scent to 0%. That's impossible. It's about lowering my total scent load as much as I can.

:emoji_ok_hand:
 
I have Scent Killer Gold deodorant currently.

What are the "safest" foods as far as scent to take on all-day sits? I've always enjoyed taking coffee and deli meat sandwiches covered in stinky cheeses, mustards and horse radishes, but it can't be helping me. Would a straight peanut butter sandwich be the best bet? Just plain bread and avoid meat altogether including jerky?
 
I don't have the luxury of showering before hunting. I do practice a little bit of scent strategies. One thing I have found , I ABSOLUTELY SWEAR BY.

I bought some plastic bins and I store my gear in there.
I wash it in scent free soap at the beginning of season.
I have some carbon outwear.
I also have some ozone generators - those I fire off small ones in the bins after I feel that they need to be "cleaned".

I, like many others, have started taking the wind into consideration in choosing my hunting location for the time that I will be out. I try to "guess" (I hunt big woods) where the deer have bedded and where they may be traveling to and from. Then I setup accordingly. There are some ridges that I can't hunt in the PM that are great in the AM based on prevailing winds.

Lastly - the ONE thing that I have found that is a scent that actually works - it's the Conquest Scent - Evercalm - Deer Herd in a Stick. I use that on my boots to cover my ground scent when walking in. I put a little on some branches in the area that I hunt (usually like a triangle about 20 yards from my tree). I have had deer walk through my ground scent and never flag, blow or get worked up. It does seem to keep them calm.

(I've tried doe urine buck scents, etc. and never had a reaction)
 
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I use any of the scent free soaps as well. Wash my clothes in scent free detergent too. I’m not fanatical but try to Lee my scent down. Usually take a toothbrush and toothpaste with me too - I do like my coffee on the way out to the property in the morning so I brush my teeth after I get there - and then the coffee makes me pee out of the stand anyway. I still harvest see and harvest enough deer. I just Leave the perfume stuff out of my clothes and off my body. I do know fanatical guys and for them that’s part of the process. I don’t use scents of kind though either.
 
Scent free soap, scent & fragrance free detergent to wash towels, underwear, socks, etc.. Brush my teeth.

Store my hunting cloths in rubbermaid tubs with white cedar boughs & leaves. Will hang outside for a while after I hunt.

I keep scent disks in my bow case.

You really cannot eliminate your scent completely, and still need to be conscious of the wind, but you can reduce odors to help minimize your scent.
 
Gave up on it all again every few years I'll go back and try it just have much better luck playing the wind and trying to have Clean access I will use the deer herd in a stick and rubber boots and that seems pretty effective as far as if they cut my track

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I use scent killer bar soap and wash all my clothes in scent free detergent. After clothes are clean, they never go into the house or car unless packed in airtight containers. I hang everything in an old drafty outbuilding at our farm. You'll never eliminate all your human smell, but I've watched many deer at close range, downwind, sniffing like mad because they catch a whiff, but then calm down. I believe that they think I'm much farther away than I really am.
 
I have been using scent killer for years, and spray my boots with the scent killer spray, as well, does it work? Cant hurt right?
I wash my hunting close at the end of the season and put them in air tight/ish totes, then hang them up a couple weeks prior to season. I tell you the fresh air scent from hanging out side is very noticeable when I put it on before each hunt.

I have just started to focus more heavily on wind, more so for bow hunting then gun hunting, since I mostly sit in a heated shack with closed windows, and is insulated. I just try not to keep windows open on 2 sides at the same time, so wind dont blow through the shack. I still gun hunt from other non heated stands, but if it is windy, snowing, raining, cold, I tend to bunker down in my shack. Call me a wus, but comfort is nice when you are 50+.
 
I use hunter specialties soap, dress on site, and don't sweat unless it is Hot. I don't hunt when it is Hot so...
 
I think the main thing is to just be clean. Any good unscented soap will work but then don’t go drying off in a fabric softener laden towel. LOL. I think it’s most important to scrub, you know like a surgeon. That gets dead skin cells off and they won’t be falling and dispersing all over the place. Of course this only lasts so long but at least it gives you some amount of time
 
I probably do some stupid things but my take is if buys me an extra second or extra yard maybe that’s all I need. I always store my clothes in something sealed, wash after every weekend, air dry outside away from everything, change outside regardless of temp (this sucks in the cold mornings!), never walk inside with my boots or clothes, wipe cedar boughs on me real quick up and down my legs for the walk in and lastly shower before every single hunt. I literally have no idea if it works but as someone who bow hunts only I need all the help I can get! I rarely get busted by deer that I see. Think once this year on some falling thermals over a hundred plus sighting easily. I cannot speak for ones I don’t see obviously.
 
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Green stuff in the clear bottle. Clothes in Ozone. Nothing removes all scent so we play the wind the best we can.

We get a little sloppy about it come rifle season but still try to play the wind.
 
i shower when I can, but honestly, are you gonna be completely scent free? Not a chance. Maybe there are levels to it and a threshhold that wont spook deer, but if you stink 20% as much, that doe downwind is still gonna smell you.

Hunt the wind or climb into an airtight blind.

Washing your clothes in the same washer and dryer that your wife just ran Tide and Downy thru will negate anything on the clothes, and you're not gonna get all the smell off your body,. Your breath probably stinks bad enough for them to bust you if they're downwind.
 
Like many of you guys, my work truck can get fairly dirty. Often has diesel, oil, grease smells in it or on steering wheel. I take scent spray "field wipes" and wipe down my seat, steering, handles and everything else I think I'll touch. I've seen those ozone units that plug into your cig lighter, but I don't know enough about it to know if it would remove diesel from my steering wheel. I think not?
 
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