Every Year my wife forces me to evaluate the cost of hunting a deer verses the gain of meat in the freezer. I am a full season hunter, that is to say in East Texas we have Archery, Gun, and Black Powder and I take advantage of all three.
Hunting in close is a very challenging art that even for the best of hunters gets them busted.
I have mentioned before that I wished I had listened to my great grandmother more, a Native American she tried to teach us kids about the outdoors and our heritage and while I am ashamed to say I did not learn near what I should have she did teach me some great hunting techniques that never fail.
Scent Control
For those of you that has ever used any of the so called scent elimination sprays..... Let me ask you this can you smell it? if so then guess what it does not work, it might have worked when it first came out for the period of time that it took the deer to begin recognizing and associating its scent with human scent but after that its pretty much a gimmick when it comes to older more experienced deer and game.
The only true way of hiding your scent is by finding something stronger than yours to mask your scent and I am going to tell you the one and only sure fire scent control that will never fail. …………….. Smoke
Native Americans not only used Smoke for hunting but it was actually a bathing practice as it kills the bacteria present in sweat and is a great way to deal with athletes feet and yes Jock-itch ( just don't get to close to the fire
) More importantly for our purpose it is a natural scent that deer doesn't recognize as a danger scent, in fact the opposite is true since many time fresh new growth will be present.
When I go out and get my feeders ready I like to collect fire tender from the area grass, hay, cedar, hardwoods, pine … whatever is in the area and I will use this to not only smoke my hunting gear but will also take a smoke bath in. I have a bee keepers smoker that I will load up and use on myself and a big beach towel that I smoke and put on my truck seat to keep from having scents from my day to day life transfer back over to me on my trip to the hunting area. My one and only store bought scent control is a bale of alfalfa hay from tractor supply, These come in a plastic wrapped bale and are vibrant with the new cut hay smell when damp. I like to spread it around on the floor of my blind for not only the scent but also as a sound buffer.
Camo
This one I am going to get a lot of flak but the fact is Camo is more for the hunters ego than utility. I will admit is does have some utility but if you are hunting out of a blind it does nothing as far as hide you, in fact it can expose you more than wearing simple black or very dark clothing. The one thing that most more expensive hutting clothing has that everyday clothing does not have is U.V block coating and some form of scent control. Many of the higher end Hunting and outdoor wear has silver tech or other chemical additives to keep bacteria at bay during the day reducing your scent profile. The fact is you can be wearing the most expensive camo in the world if you move at the wrong time and that deer is going to see you. Deer actually have poor daytime vision when compared to a human but better nighttime vision. They also do not have a UV filter in their eye like a human. Deer do see the color blue better than any other color so avoid those bluejeans
When stalking or hunting outside of a blind then camo can help but it is not near as essential as many believe. I have found that a simple 12 dollar camo netting from Walmart that has been treated in my smoke bath works just as well as any $300 set of hunting clothes. Even better in East Texas because it also acts as an antibug net. I simply have it draped over my shoulders go to my stump sit down and drape it over me to break up my shape.
Speaking of Camo have you ever seen the pro's Set up a $200 or $300 cammo blind, …. they go out and cut branches to hide it and break up its pattern. , Actually this works better than worrying about what camo pattern is on the blind. What ever the case one of the things that many fail to account for is once again scent control and when it comes to the pop up blinds this is even more important.
Most of the pop up blinds are made of some form of tent material that is water proof or water resistant the result is no matter how clean you are you are going to load the inside of that blind with human scent from simply being alive and breathing, If you have ever hunted out of one of these things in a good cold morning you will know what I am talking about. the inside of that thing will almost start dripping with moisture built up from nothing more than your breath. This is where that bee keepers smoke can comes in handy along with the hay I mentioned earlier. a small sauce pan or any metal can will work. I regularly smoke the inside of my blinds to kill and cover any scents on the walls of my blinds
Hunting in close is a very challenging art that even for the best of hunters gets them busted.
I have mentioned before that I wished I had listened to my great grandmother more, a Native American she tried to teach us kids about the outdoors and our heritage and while I am ashamed to say I did not learn near what I should have she did teach me some great hunting techniques that never fail.
Scent Control
For those of you that has ever used any of the so called scent elimination sprays..... Let me ask you this can you smell it? if so then guess what it does not work, it might have worked when it first came out for the period of time that it took the deer to begin recognizing and associating its scent with human scent but after that its pretty much a gimmick when it comes to older more experienced deer and game.
The only true way of hiding your scent is by finding something stronger than yours to mask your scent and I am going to tell you the one and only sure fire scent control that will never fail. …………….. Smoke
Native Americans not only used Smoke for hunting but it was actually a bathing practice as it kills the bacteria present in sweat and is a great way to deal with athletes feet and yes Jock-itch ( just don't get to close to the fire
) More importantly for our purpose it is a natural scent that deer doesn't recognize as a danger scent, in fact the opposite is true since many time fresh new growth will be present.When I go out and get my feeders ready I like to collect fire tender from the area grass, hay, cedar, hardwoods, pine … whatever is in the area and I will use this to not only smoke my hunting gear but will also take a smoke bath in. I have a bee keepers smoker that I will load up and use on myself and a big beach towel that I smoke and put on my truck seat to keep from having scents from my day to day life transfer back over to me on my trip to the hunting area. My one and only store bought scent control is a bale of alfalfa hay from tractor supply, These come in a plastic wrapped bale and are vibrant with the new cut hay smell when damp. I like to spread it around on the floor of my blind for not only the scent but also as a sound buffer.
Camo
This one I am going to get a lot of flak but the fact is Camo is more for the hunters ego than utility. I will admit is does have some utility but if you are hunting out of a blind it does nothing as far as hide you, in fact it can expose you more than wearing simple black or very dark clothing. The one thing that most more expensive hutting clothing has that everyday clothing does not have is U.V block coating and some form of scent control. Many of the higher end Hunting and outdoor wear has silver tech or other chemical additives to keep bacteria at bay during the day reducing your scent profile. The fact is you can be wearing the most expensive camo in the world if you move at the wrong time and that deer is going to see you. Deer actually have poor daytime vision when compared to a human but better nighttime vision. They also do not have a UV filter in their eye like a human. Deer do see the color blue better than any other color so avoid those bluejeans
When stalking or hunting outside of a blind then camo can help but it is not near as essential as many believe. I have found that a simple 12 dollar camo netting from Walmart that has been treated in my smoke bath works just as well as any $300 set of hunting clothes. Even better in East Texas because it also acts as an antibug net. I simply have it draped over my shoulders go to my stump sit down and drape it over me to break up my shape.
Speaking of Camo have you ever seen the pro's Set up a $200 or $300 cammo blind, …. they go out and cut branches to hide it and break up its pattern. , Actually this works better than worrying about what camo pattern is on the blind. What ever the case one of the things that many fail to account for is once again scent control and when it comes to the pop up blinds this is even more important.
Most of the pop up blinds are made of some form of tent material that is water proof or water resistant the result is no matter how clean you are you are going to load the inside of that blind with human scent from simply being alive and breathing, If you have ever hunted out of one of these things in a good cold morning you will know what I am talking about. the inside of that thing will almost start dripping with moisture built up from nothing more than your breath. This is where that bee keepers smoke can comes in handy along with the hay I mentioned earlier. a small sauce pan or any metal can will work. I regularly smoke the inside of my blinds to kill and cover any scents on the walls of my blinds
