Every Year Hunters spend Millions of dollars for products that help eliminate, mask, or change the scent of our bodies and clothing.
As someone who hunts deer with ranges as close as 20 or 30 yards, scent control is essential for a successful hunt.
I am going to do something that no one who has a revenue source like mine should and tell you a little secret that I promise if you use it will work better than any scent hiding product on the market.
While using this technique I have had deer walk up to me and sniff my feet while I was sitting on a stump, and another walk out of the woods, right behind me on a trail.
Before I tell my deep top secret almost 100% bulletproof method to hiding human scent I want to first touch on why all these hi tech methods only work part of the time.
Mind you this is not a scientifically proven reasoning but instead one of observation.
When you consider the fact that nothing is truly completely scent free and add in the theory of olfactory memory all this will make sense. Simply put olfactory memory is nothing more than a scent that triggers a memory, or in reverse, when something happens if a scent is present it will lock itself in with the event and act as a trigger later to bring that event up. A good example, someone burning brush off may make you remember your last camping trip, while someone burning off old wood and stuff from a torn down house may pop up a memory of a house fire.
All these scent control soaps, and sprays are mass produced in large vats this means they all smell the same. Now add in the fact that you have all these hunters using those same products and the fact that there is no telling how many times a deer has seen and smelled those hunters walking around,... The deer soon learn to associate those scents with danger and avoid them.
Yes there are sprays that lowers the amount of scent that is being given off but again nothing is completely scent free.
So what then is the secret? Its one that the indians used, and its simple Smoke.
Smoke has some very unique properties.
1. It kills bacteria, the smell of smoke is nothing more than carbon molecules that have stuck to the item in question, I am sure you have heard of carbon filters Indians have used smoke for bathing in the deserts and plains. Do a search
2. Fire is a natural event in the woods and most of the time after a fire has went through it leaves the area open for new growth deer and other grazing animals tend to associate the smell with a fresh source of food.
3. It almost completely masks all other scents because in essence you are covering yourself in a fine film of carbon.
At the beginning of every season I will take my clothes and my blind along with a coffee can filled with twigs and leaves from my hunting area open up my blind and hang my clothes inside the blind then burn the twigs and leaves inside closing up the blind. As long as the fire is small it does not get hot enough to damage anything but the smoke will permeate into all the clothes and inside the blind. Most blinds are made waterproof material the problem with that is when we breath we emit water vapors that will stick to the inside of the material and through time it will cause the blind itself to smell of human. I have on many occasions actually changed my clothes inside the blind at home and while down to my skivvies start the fire up and take a smoke bath before dressing in my hunting clothes... Don't laugh it works Make sure to smoke a beach towel that you can spread out on the drivers seat to reduce scent transfer.
So instead of spending a few hundred dollars in scent control sprays this year give smoking your equipment a try.... And when you get that big buck that kept avoiding you the last few seasons, remember who tipped you off
Happy Hunting
Willie
As someone who hunts deer with ranges as close as 20 or 30 yards, scent control is essential for a successful hunt.
I am going to do something that no one who has a revenue source like mine should and tell you a little secret that I promise if you use it will work better than any scent hiding product on the market.
While using this technique I have had deer walk up to me and sniff my feet while I was sitting on a stump, and another walk out of the woods, right behind me on a trail.
Before I tell my deep top secret almost 100% bulletproof method to hiding human scent I want to first touch on why all these hi tech methods only work part of the time.
Mind you this is not a scientifically proven reasoning but instead one of observation.
When you consider the fact that nothing is truly completely scent free and add in the theory of olfactory memory all this will make sense. Simply put olfactory memory is nothing more than a scent that triggers a memory, or in reverse, when something happens if a scent is present it will lock itself in with the event and act as a trigger later to bring that event up. A good example, someone burning brush off may make you remember your last camping trip, while someone burning off old wood and stuff from a torn down house may pop up a memory of a house fire.
All these scent control soaps, and sprays are mass produced in large vats this means they all smell the same. Now add in the fact that you have all these hunters using those same products and the fact that there is no telling how many times a deer has seen and smelled those hunters walking around,... The deer soon learn to associate those scents with danger and avoid them.
Yes there are sprays that lowers the amount of scent that is being given off but again nothing is completely scent free.
So what then is the secret? Its one that the indians used, and its simple Smoke.
Smoke has some very unique properties.
1. It kills bacteria, the smell of smoke is nothing more than carbon molecules that have stuck to the item in question, I am sure you have heard of carbon filters Indians have used smoke for bathing in the deserts and plains. Do a search
2. Fire is a natural event in the woods and most of the time after a fire has went through it leaves the area open for new growth deer and other grazing animals tend to associate the smell with a fresh source of food.
3. It almost completely masks all other scents because in essence you are covering yourself in a fine film of carbon.
At the beginning of every season I will take my clothes and my blind along with a coffee can filled with twigs and leaves from my hunting area open up my blind and hang my clothes inside the blind then burn the twigs and leaves inside closing up the blind. As long as the fire is small it does not get hot enough to damage anything but the smoke will permeate into all the clothes and inside the blind. Most blinds are made waterproof material the problem with that is when we breath we emit water vapors that will stick to the inside of the material and through time it will cause the blind itself to smell of human. I have on many occasions actually changed my clothes inside the blind at home and while down to my skivvies start the fire up and take a smoke bath before dressing in my hunting clothes... Don't laugh it works Make sure to smoke a beach towel that you can spread out on the drivers seat to reduce scent transfer.
So instead of spending a few hundred dollars in scent control sprays this year give smoking your equipment a try.... And when you get that big buck that kept avoiding you the last few seasons, remember who tipped you off
Happy Hunting
Willie
