Showering before hunting

[Buckly]

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?

I don’t think deer react or care about “other smells”. Like grease and oil. It’s the human scent that needs attention in my opinion.

 

[Buckly]

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.

As far as your breath, it’s bacteria in your mouth that causes a lot of breath issues. I have very good results with a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and water mix to gargle. It kills a lot of that bacteria for a couple hours anyways

 

[Booner21]

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 obviously.

This is my thought also I know I can’t eliminate it but I firmly believe I can reduce to levels not every deer in the country is alerted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've used Scent-Killer products for years. Unscented soap & use it to wash hair too. I always hang my camo outside on hooks under a cabin porch roof to air them out. High rubber boots also outside on the porch. I change my diet during archery season - at least the day when I'm going hard into it. I make home-made granola that I carry in heavy zip-lock bags in my fanny-pack, and carry bottled water to drink. I always carry apples to eat as I'm in the stand - breath cover-scent beyond brushing teeth. I also chew teaberry gum while on stand - a natural scent found on the forest floor in red wintergreen berries. Before walking to my stand, I spray my camo with "Fall-Scent" Scent-Killer spray, and then rub broken pine limb tips on my knit hat and pants. Real pine sap helps, IMO.

I may not be 100% "nose-proof", but I feel a bit more confident. I've had bucks within 10 feet of my ladder stands ............. FWIW.

 

[roymunson]

As far as your breath, it’s bacteria in your mouth that causes a lot of breath issues. I have very good results with a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and water mix to gargle. It kills a lot of that bacteria for a couple hours anyways

That's interesting to know. Good info.

I usually just play the wind and eat all the Little Debbies my belly can handle. may screw up the hunt, but at least I've got my Swiss Cake Rolls

 

[Native Hunter]

The green stuff in the clear bottle like Bill said.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I don’t think deer react or care about “other smells”. Like grease and oil. It’s the human scent that needs attention in my opinion.

I think it might be relative to the situation. IMO any scent that deer are not used to will arouse them. They may not flee, but the presence of a foreign odor in their living room is bound to put them on alert, as it would you. And alert and skittish deer make for tough hunting.

On the other hand, how many of us have observed deer calmly entering our logging areas literally just 10 or 15 minutes after we leave...the area smelling of chainsaw oil, gas, 2 stroke exhaust, sweat, etc.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I think it might be relative to the situation. IMO any scent that deer are not used to will arouse them. They may not flee, but the presence of a foreign odor in their living room is bound to put them on alert, as it would you. And alert and skittish deer make for tough hunting.

On the other hand, how many of us have observed deer calmly entering our logging areas literally just 10 or 15 minutes after we leave...the area smelling of chainsaw oil, gas, 2 stroke exhaust, sweat, etc.

More times then not when I am done with the chainsaw, deer are walking in within minutes to check it out.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

More times then not when I am done with the chainsaw, deer are walking in within minutes to check it out.

Yes, exactly. It always amazes me to peek back through the woods and see them coming before I am even out of sight.

 

[Native Hunter]

Not a great pic but this is one of our 3 year old 10 points shifting positions after a hard rain lightened up. I think he laid down under one of those cedars.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Native, that picture brings me back to my early years of hunting, meadow grass, thick cedars, then just add a corn/bean field around it. Best hunting of my life.

 

[Native Hunter]

Sorry, I meant to post in the live from the stand thread. I’m going to blame it on old age.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sorry, I meant to post in the live from the stand thread. I’m going to blame it on old age.

I don't think we can forgive you .............................

 

[Buckly]

I think it might be relative to the situation. IMO any scent that deer are not used to will arouse them. They may not flee, but the presence of a foreign odor in their living room is bound to put them on alert, as it would you. And alert and skittish deer make for tough hunting.

On the other hand, how many of us have observed deer calmly entering our logging areas literally just 10 or 15 minutes after we leave...the area smelling of chainsaw oil, gas, 2 stroke exhaust, sweat, etc.

Deer just seem to know when you’re there and when you’re not. And they are very much a curious creature. They also have this ability to know when they’re being hunted as opposed to just being watched. Instincts of being a prey species I assume .

 

[BrushyPines]

First and foremost, you'll never ''trick'' a deer's nose. Something they rely on heavily to survive makes it damn near impossible to trick. Hunting the wind and thermals trumps any type of scent control IMO.

I do wash my clothes and shower to limit my scent though (and for reassurance). I wash my clothes every week and let them air dry outside. I have been using, for the past 2 seasons, Scent Killer gold detergent. For showering, I have always used Scent a way shampoo. My only complaint with it is how dry and itchy it makes your skin. Does anyone have this problem with another brand shampoo?

 

[Mortenson]

Not sure about that, but I use dead down wind body lotion. Sparingly. Maybe thatll help ya

 

[yoderjac]

First and foremost, you'll never ''trick'' a deer's nose. Something they rely on heavily to survive makes it damn near impossible to trick. Hunting the wind and thermals trumps any type of scent control IMO.

I do wash my clothes and shower to limit my scent though (and for reassurance). I wash my clothes every week and let them air dry outside. I have been using, for the past 2 seasons, Scent Killer gold detergent. For showering, I have always used Scent a way shampoo. My only complaint with it is how dry and itchy it makes your skin. Does anyone have this problem with another brand shampoo?

When I lived in PA and we hunted in the mountains, I found playing the wind possible. Thermals were pretty reliable. I'm now in rolling country of central VA. I find it almost impossible to be successful playing the wind. That is why I find scent control so important for bow hunting. Deer don't have the same distinct patterns I found in the mounts of PA. Deer trails up there looked like cattle paths. Here deer tend to meander. They change there bedding based on prevailing wind direction as well as their routes to food. Slight changes in wind direction can cause swirling and eddies in the wind.

Now, I'm not saying it is impossible to play the wind in my situation. Consistently doing it successfully is just well above my pay grade. I do make my best attempt to use wind in my favor, but a very large percentage of the time deer are better than I am at it and they come in from a direction with the wind in their favor. I find scent control to be the key.

Having said that, deer are not the same everywhere. I spent a lot of years hunting deer in the suburbs. They are so inundated with human related scents, it seems to have much less impact on them. That doesn't mean they don't use it, it just means they use it differently. In my current situation, if I get winded, deer blow and I'm done. In the suburbs, I've watch deer alert on human scent, Identify the source as kids playing basketball in the driveway, and go back to feeding calmly.

Fantastic creatures deer are...

Thanks,

Jack

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Playing the wind is hard where I am as well. My land is in the middle of a woods, and deer travel all over. So my scent is always blowing to a trail, or to where they come from. Sure I have main trails, and I try to use the wind to hunt them, but deer always seem to come from the down wind side. I also have small rolling hills throughout my property, while it makes for great deer travel, but the winds always swirl, unless I can get a consistent 10 mph + wind. Also, stand access is a little hard as well, being it is all woods, all the way around me, in order for me to hunt anything off the road, I need to walk through the woods, and leave my scent trail.

I too try to be leave the least amount of scent as possible, but deer are hard to fool.

 

[Hideaway Acres]

I don't shower the morning of a hunt, but do take a thorough one the night before with a shampoo called Free and Clear. I use Dove fragrance free bar soap. I wash clothes in Arm and Hammer fragrance free detergent. I don't use plastic bins, bags or anything like that. The closest thing I'm fanatical about is my boots. I only use rubber soled boots and they never see the inside of my truck. They stay in the truck bed beside the cooler. I keep them clean without going overboard, just hose them off after a hunt and air them out outdoors. I do try to walk in to my stand location without rubbing against brush, trees, etc. Hunting the wind is still as important now as when the American Indian did it without modern equipment. The last two archery kills I had were at 18 and 21 yards. Wind in my favor both times. The second buck walked down the same access trail I used 2 hours earlier and never smelled my scent.

 

[TenPoint]

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.

I do that until it gets cold then I dress most of the way at home. Still end up shooting deer when I do that. Wind is less of a factor during the rut, imo. Early in the season I had a few issues (pushing it with the wrong wind). Not during the rut though.