Primitive scent control?

[Onojutta]

In the last couple years I got sucked into the modern scent control approach to hunting. My jury is still out as to whether the carbon-lined suit, hat, and boots actually make a difference, or if they're simply testaments to my better judgment yielding to clever marketing in the face of hunting desperation.

Anyway, I'm no historian but I bet they're weren't many carbon-lined hunting outfits or rubber boots on the frontier.

I often wonder how the Indians and early Americans who had to actually hunt to survive controlled their scent, especially considering that these folks didn't bath or change clothing on a daily basis. While lacking the understanding of the chemistry of scents, odors, and gases, surely they had to realize that their stench played an important role in their ability to put food on the table.

So I'm curious... Does anyone who hunts in the traditional fashion give any consideration to scent control with regard to your attire and equipment? If not, do you allow scent and wind to be a factor in where you hunt, how you hunt, and your strategies and tactics? Or, is it the case that to even mention of consider scent is a modern sacrilege to traditional hunting?

If you are like me and your early season hunting is done in accordance with modern "advantage", how do you transition back to the primitive season?

 

[hawk]

i still hunt into the wind ...that general works good enough for me ,i don't pay much attention to my sent and use very litle movement and will take an hour to move 100yards, alot of studying the woods and looking for movement ...hopefully i see them before they notice me.

 

[roundball]

Just hunt with the breeze in your face and take what's in front of you...rest assured the settlers didn't have such modern foolery...IMO, I think hunting equipment manufacturers laugh all the way to the bank.

And you don't even have to still hunt if you don't want to...scout to locate where they bed, find where they travel for food, note the prevailing wind direction in that locale, find a good ambush point along their travel corridor, pull together some natural limbs & logs around a big tree 35-40 yards downwind from their trail they travel on, and let them come to you.

A good place to start scouting on property you're going to hunt is to get down low...find a bottom or ravine which is bound to have either a natural creek down in it or at least a drainage ditch that's eroded from rain runoff.

Walk that ditch and sooner or later you'll see where deer have found the easiest place to cross and there will be a heavily used trail crossing...a good ambush site for a natural blind.

 

[Black Hand]

Pay attention to the wind and you won't need any modern scent control. Smoking your clothes sure doesn't hurt either....

 

[J.D.]

Pay attention to the wind and you won't need any modern scent control. Smoking your clothes sure doesn't hurt either....

Yep learned to stand in the smoke of a smoky fire to cover scent. Works pretty good.

God bless

 

[bucktales]

I like crushing some hemlock needles and rubbing them on my woolies.

 

[Dave K]

I shower with scent control soaps and all my hunting clothes stay outside. They are washed in baking soda. I do keep several hats and neck gaiters in rotation as if you lose about 70+% of your heat through your head/neck, you are just spewing scent from those areas. So I always have some of those getting washed. Other than that I really pay attention to the wind. That is probably the very most important thing you can do. But, if you really like to spend allot of time in the woods, hunt with the wind to your back, you can hunt longer that way. :wink:

 

[JayDee Flohr]

As others have said....keep the wind in your face. Carbon based clothing has caught more hunters than game. Even if it did work, can you hold your breath for hours while hunting? Game will certainly smell it.
Play the wind for success.

 

[bigbore442001]

One thing to keep in mind is that today's scent control clothing and cover up products are geared for treestand hunting. If you think about it many people who hunt do so out of treestands or in a fixed location. You may or may not be able to move your location because the property you have permission to hunt on is small or you may be with a guide where you have no choice but to hunt in such a posted location. In the past there was much more room to still hunt and play the wind.

 

[shootemup]

The wind for sure, just like everyone else has said. You can also minimize your body odor by limiting garlic and other strong odor-producing foods a day or two before your hunt. This is traditional - some of the injuns did this as part of a purification ritual. Of course, some of those guys were also driving animals toward choke points where they could be ambushed. :haha:

Deer often dig around for salt and other minerals, and squirrels bury and dig up nuts. Armadillos, possums, skunks, etc. - something is always digging around in the woods. So fresh dirt is a common smell anywhere out there. For this reason, I like to root around a little bit myself and make sure I get a little bit dirty. Best natural cover scent I know of, especially in these little hollows where I hunt and the wind swirls around all over the place.

:hatsoff:
Spot

 

[larry wv]

If the wind blows to a Deer you are done. I don't care what I smell like I just check the wind often. BUT my back trail I do pay attention too. I step on and grind up all the Deer poo I find. Hunting the same area again is easier if you cover your tracks. They will still smell where you have been but your tracks will air out a lot sooner. Been doing this for years works with a bit of time in between. Expect the indians did this also. Larry Wv

 

[rabjr]

In the last couple years I got sucked into the modern scent control approach to hunting. My jury is still out as to whether the carbon-lined suit, hat, and boots actually make a difference, or if they're simply testaments to my better judgment yielding to clever marketing in the face of hunting desperation.

Anyway, I'm no historian but I bet they're weren't many carbon-lined hunting outfits or rubber boots on the frontier.

I often wonder how the Indians and early Americans who had to actually hunt to survive controlled their scent, especially considering that these folks didn't bath or change clothing on a daily basis. While lacking the understanding of the chemistry of scents, odors, and gases, surely they had to realize that their stench played an important role in their ability to put food on the table.

So I'm curious... Does anyone who hunts in the traditional fashion give any consideration to scent control with regard to your attire and equipment? If not, do you allow scent and wind to be a factor in where you hunt, how you hunt, and your strategies and tactics? Or, is it the case that to even mention of consider scent is a modern sacrilege to traditional hunting?

If you are like me and your early season hunting is done in accordance with modern "advantage", how do you transition back to the primitive season?

I don't do or wear anything special. I'm usually on top of my "Swamp Rat", smells like grease, gas, rubber and blood from the last deer... I just pay attention to the wind. And I seen a lot of deer from it. Shot more than few too. I ain't into gimmicks.

 

[jbg]

My grandfather was the most successful hunter I have ever met. He wore wool and rubber boots, and didn't worry at all about his scent. He taught me to hunt into the wind, to walk very slowly, and pay attention to my surroundings. At these, he was somewhat succesful. He could sit for hours at at time, and be almost motionless the whole time. He tried to teach me that, and was a total failure.

I learned a long tme ago that if you pay attention to the wind; wait, look and listen far more than you move, you will see deer. 4 years running now I have had does walk to within feet of me and not realize I was there.

 

[jbg]

My grandfather was the most successful hunter I have ever met. He wore wool and rubber boots, and didn't worry at all about his scent. He taught me to hunt into the wind, to walk very slowly, and pay attention to my surroundings. At these, he was somewhat succesful. He could sit for hours at at time, and be almost motionless the whole time. He tried to teach me that, and was a total failure.

I learned a long tme ago that if you pay attention to the wind; wait, look and listen far more than you move, you will see deer. 4 years running now I have had does walk to within feet of me and not realize I was there. If you don't move and they don't smell you, you are just a strange looking tree to a deer.

 

[scobrien]

But, if you really like to spend allot of time in the woods, hunt with the wind to your back, you can hunt longer that way. :wink: [/quote]

Thats funny! Another way to extend the season is to avoid squeezing the trigger!

I had a co-worker that used to saturate his cloths with commercial doe urine. I would tease him that he smelled like a human that had been peed on by a deer. It was all in good fun.

My outer linen shirt has gotten rather foul over the years. The wife has voiced various complaints about the strong oder that it emits whenever I return home from one of my outings. It is to the point now that I wonder if and when a critter gets a wiff of it, they are momentarily dazed and they forget to run off :haha: Come to think of it, the last few critters I encountered have had a strange look in their eyes!

Agreed, using the wind to your benefit is a sound tactic as well as relying on slow movements and continuous scanning with your eyes, regardless of what you smell like.

Steve

 

[Black Hand]

My outer linen shirt has gotten rather foul over the years. The wife has voiced various complaints about the strong oder that it emits whenever I return home from one of my outings.
Steve

Hey there Steve!
You been taking lessons from Marvin?
Albert

 

[Idaho Ron]

If the wind blows to a Deer you are done. I don't care what I smell like I just check the wind often.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I agree 100% I am also a dog trainer. I have to laugh when people talk about covering scent. When a person smells a pot of stew they smell??? Stew! When a dog smells stew he smells?? A carrot, a potato, and piece of meat. Deer also have that kind of olfactory system too. It is useless to try to fool a dog, an elk, or a deer's nose. Just don't let them wind you and you are fine. Ron

 

[Dave K]

So true. Go to a pizza place. Allow yourself to enjoy the smell of good pizza and when someone walks past with perfume on, what do you smell? Pizza and perfume and you will look up! I am sure you can help with the smell allot, but it is going to be done IMHO with trying to elliminate all smell and of course be down wind of where you expect game to be. I used to smoke. I quit about 6yrs. ago and now I have a pretty sensitive nose. I can be on the interstate and if there is a car in front of me with smokers in it, I can smell it and my nose is not near like the animals. When I think on how hard I used to try to hunt smart and yet I smelled of tobacco, I could kick myself. Same as going into a resturant or service station. There is no way you can elliminate all smells, but you can make it better than what it is.

 

[scobrien]

You been taking lessons from Marvin?
Albert
[/quote]
:haha: :haha: :haha:

Hey Albert! Yes I have and he is a grand one to take lessons from.

Steve

 

[RJL]

I started hunting in the same clothes i wear to rendezvous two years ago. just wanted to go to the next step of reenacting. :idunno: dont really wash them until they can stand up by themselves. :barf: made meat both years hunting off the ground. this year i had a small doe walk straight to me within 10 feet trying to figure out what that weird smelling lump was! no trophy bucks yet but, i'm not in the market for a coat rack.