Primitive scent control?

[crazybear22]

:grin: as everyone is saying watch the wind and stalk but i have tried an old trick from the old days to cover my scent and it works that is lay you cloths on or in a manure pile over nightand this will cover your scent very well but the wife wont let you in the house.

 

[Ron LaClair]

Here's a story that happened not too many years ago. I took part in a hunt for an Outdoor show. I was hunting with a traditional longbow and wood arrows. The other hunter participating in the hunt was hunting with a modern compound bow. We were staying in a primitive log cabin along with the folks from the show. Each day the other bowhunter and I went our separate ways accompanied by a cameraman.

On the first evening in camp I was relaxing after supper, smoking my pipe by the stove. The "modern" hunter ask me if the clothes I was wearing was the same ones I was going to hunt in the next day. I told him yes. He then ask if I wasn't afraid I would contaminate my clothes with my pipe smoke and the other smells in the cabin. (his hunting clothes were hanging outside in a tree)

I told him that I planned to hunt with the wind in my face.

The next evening when we hunted, his cameraman filmed him being winded TWICE by deer. I found a spot just 8 yards downwind from a well used runway. A natural depression behind a small evergreen tree and a stump. My backside was totally open and the slight evening breeze was in my face. My cameraman was set up 35yd's behind in a small pop up blind. When A nice big doe stopped in front of me to stare at the blind up on the side of the hill, I buried an arrow to the feathers behind her shoulder.

A little bourbon that evening along with my pipe capped off the story telling. No more was said about contaminating hunting clothes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdXQK-Z1JvA

 

[Celt5494]

Good topic with some great sagely advice as to wind direction and people who have no clue as to what nature gives everyone, man and beast alike. After reading your great post I started thinking, which normally lends itself to me smelling smoke next.... I wonder if there have been any studies as to how sensitive a deer's nose as to compared to say a dog's? I know that many breeds can say smell a cake and distinguish the different scents like flour, eggs, sugar, yeast etc. that goes into that cake. I've had deer walk to within 5' of me while sitting still under an apple tree in the winter on a calm or misty day and not balk until I moved. Once they got close I saw them lock up and they were processing something wasn't right which was obvious due to their body posture but just couldn't quite figure out what was going on.
It seems that their eyes and ears are highly sensitive but I'd like to see just how sensitive their noses are. I'm sure someone in here with about a million more miles of experience than I can shed some light onto this.

 

[rabjr]

Thats right, there's so many company's out there trying to sell you a gimmick, that's all they are. If you know how to hunt, you do not need gimmicks. I sometimes wonder how we were able to hunt and bring home meat in the 70's, long before Cabela's was full of non-scent stuff. :wink:

 

[longcruise]

Thats right, there's so many company's out there trying to sell you a gimmick, that's all they are. If you know how to hunt, you do not need gimmicks

Yeah, and how do lions, wolves, yotes, etc., manage to feed themselves.

Wind in your face, sun at your back!

 

Try this on a deer if you have any feeding near by,my Dad this when we were just real young kids and I haven't forgoten it.
Take an apple. Cut the core out of it. Place hot pepper seeds inside it. Cut the ends of the core off and plug the hole it made.
Place it for the deer to eat with other apples not laced with hot pepper.
They will eat the ones not laced and won't touch the one that has the hot pepper seeds inside it.
Proved to me they can smell like a dog.

 

[Protrucker]

My backside was totally open and the slight evening breeze was in my face. My cameraman was set up 35yd's behind in a small pop up blind.

Didn't you get cold? Sounds kind of drafty! I don't think I'd of wanted a cameraman filming from behind me with "my backside was totally open" either! :shocked2: :blah:

Sorry Ron, I couldn't help myself. :v

 

My backside was totally open and the slight evening breeze was in my face. My cameraman was set up 35yd's behind in a small pop up blind.

Didn't you get cold? Sounds kind of drafty! I don't think I'd of wanted a cameraman filming from behind me with "my backside was totally open" either! :shocked2: :blah:

Sorry Ron, I couldn't help myself. :v

Me either espically when my back side covers 2 zip codes...... What ? You said you had the camera on ZOOM! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[hanshi]

I don't know for sure but (though it appears to have merit) have read this ore than once, that a deer needs two stimuli to provoke a flight response. In other words if a deer winds you (all bets are out with old, mature bucks) it needs to see or hear something suspicious in order to take flight. I know I've been winded before and still got the shot. I've also been seen many times but since I didn't move or make any noise and the wind was right, the deer didn't run. I've had does stand within feet of me stomping the ground with a front foot trying to elicit movement. Any one stimulus will put them on guard but they don't seem to raise their flag & run until they get confirmation. Makes sense but it's not my idea. I'll just go as far as saying that IMHO there's something to it.

 

[larry wv]

Have noticed the same thing. And agree it just takes one(a small one) for an older buck. Larry Wv

 

[oletymepreacher]

Try this: hang all hunting clothes outside for a week or so before hunting. Then, please forgive me, go vegetarian for about two weeks before the hunt. Seems to cut down on human odors. Letting the campfire smoke drift over you can hide your smell, as well as rubbing yourself all along a sweating horse. Or do like I do and pay attention to the wind. If the wind is in your face, everything in front of you won't smell you, no matter how many brats you had for breakfast.

 

[longcruise]

Hanshi, I have noticed the same thing. There does seem to be an "experience" level among deer with the younger ones being too curious for their own good and the older smarter ones fleeing on the first sense.

I think it also depends on how close the animals live to humans. Some deer probably have daily and maybe even constant human scent incidents making it a less alarming event. I do think that they can judge the proximity of the human scent though.

Elk that live away from the hiking granola set and don't have much contact with humans seem to flee immediately upon scenting a human. Often I have called elk into close proximity and had them circling to try to find the cow that has been talking to them. When they get downwind of me, they are gone, even though they may have looked right at me while poking around looking for the "cow".

OTOH, I have had elk spot me while still hunting where they have seen my movement without catching scent. They have generally not fled immediately and even in a few cases took a few steps closer trying to get a better look.

 

[Supercracker]

Try this on a deer if you have any feeding near by,my Dad this when we were just real young kids and I haven't forgoten it.
Take an apple. Cut the core out of it. Place hot pepper seeds inside it. Cut the ends of the core off and plug the hole it made.
Place it for the deer to eat with other apples not laced with hot pepper.
They will eat the ones not laced and won't touch the one that has the hot pepper seeds inside it.
Proved to me they can smell like a dog.

I read once about bear getting into someones hunting cabin tearing open the cans to get the food inside. But had left all the cans of beans of a certain brand. Apparently they had cinnamon in them and he could smell it inside the unopened can!

Let me add another vote for just watching the wind. I hunt in Florida year round. 90% of the time it's just too hot for there to be anything resembling scent control here. That said, I still make it a point to step in every pile of cow or pig poop I can find on the way in. If it is cold enough to be able to hunt without sweating like a pig I will take the time to wash my hunting clothes in a pond or stream, use baking soda and keep them outside. I have also been known to rub the cow poop on myself. I've been told a lot that it won't matter because now the pigs just smell poop scented human. But the way I figure, if wolves and coyotes think it's worth doing then who am I to argue.

I've put arrows into pigs doing it both ways.

 

[Ron LaClair]

I guess a fella's gotta be careful how he chooses his words don't he?... :redface: .... :haha:

The cameraman was using one of those big cameras that they have to put on a tripod. It had a big viewing screen so when you played it back it was like a small TV screen. That evening in the cabin everyone watched the playback and we all were excited about getting such great footage. From the cameras vantage point it showed both me and the deer which was very close to me, in the frame, You could see me draw and shoot and the arrow flash out for a perfect hit behind the shoulder. The Editor said that it would be a great sequence to show in slow motion.

The other hunter and I packed and left for home as they had another group coming into camp and were going to film a grouse hunt for the TV show.

A few days later I got a call and was informed of the bad news that another cameraman had taped the grouse hunt over the footage of my hunt. :idunno: ...The producer said we could go to a deer farm and film a kill of a tame deer to replace the lost footage. I declined the offer. :shake: . They made the half hour segment and aired the show without the kill footage.

You win some you lose some... :idunno:

 

[Supercracker]

Another thing that, while not even close to PC/HC, probably bears mentioning in the conversation is clorophyll pills. They're given to people with colostomy bags to help with odor control.

If you take them regularly and then a couple of days before your hunt OD on them, 3 or 4 times the recommended dosage, it appears to drastically reduce your scent.

There's no real scientific tests to back this up, by my own "experiments" have shown it to have some effect.

 

[Celt5494]

Now that's about the best scientific study I've read in a long time. Nothing like field experience!

 

[Pork Chop]

I have also been known to rub the cow poop on myself.

Mental note to self: don't hunt downwind of Supercracker...

 

[KyFlintlock]

Like everyone else I play the wind. With that said I do try to keep the clothing as clean as possible, including the boots (don't walk around at the gas station in your hunting boots, etc).

The last 28 years of chasing whitetails has proven to me over and over that their sense of smell is simply amazing. Once I climbed over a fence and put my hand on the post. Went about 30 yards and got up in a tree. About an hour later this old doe comes melting into view...then lifts her head and goes straight to that fence post. SHe whipped her head to the left, then to the right and was GONE! From then on, I tried to at least be wearing jerseys and avoid touching as much as possible.

Sometimes the wind swirls and it is just TOUGH to hunt the wind. Those are the times it pays to watch the scent control!

Also, the amount of hunting pressure really elevates their senses too! I have one farm that gets hunted very hard and if you don't watch every little thing you will hear them blowing long before they even come into sight.

Good luck!
wESS

 

[longcruise]

Sometimes the wind swirls and it is just TOUGH to hunt the wind.

That's especially tough on the ground. The mountains here in the west seem to create swirls even when there is a constant directional prevailing wind.

Couple years ago I was still hunting elk working a sidehill on a small mountain. The cover was mainly mature lodgepoles so visibility was better than usual. I could see a good 80 yards. Anyway, I spotted movement ahead and uphill. Stopped right there and waited. Shortly a five point and a four point bull could be clearly seen at about 60 yards. A pretty good wind of about 10 or 15 mph was blowing from my side at 90 degrees and pretty was perfect as far as keeping my scent out of their noses. It had been a rainy season and they were hunting mushrooms. They were being sort of competitive about it and that was keeping their attention one each other. Could have taken either one with a round ball, but I was hunting with a recurve. :shocked2: Still, if they kept coming my way they would soon present a 20 yard or less shot. Then the wind swirled! It switched so fast and hard that it almost felt like someone had slapped me on the back. My scent went straight at them and they did not even look my way! Just bolted full speed up the mountain. They certainly believed their noses! :haha:

 

[tg]

A spicy bowl of Chilli the night before the hunt generally does the job.