# Scent Management



## Billy Mumphrey (Sep 5, 2012)

As I think more and more about reducing scent while out hunting I'm curious what everybody else brings as far as food/snacks while out on the mountain.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

I like garlic bread sandwiches with Lebanese salami and blue cheese chunks smothered in Roquefort dressing and horseradish sauce. Yummy! 

I try to keep it simple with jerkey, peanuts, crackers, and candy bars/granola bars.


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## glock31 (Dec 28, 2007)

I try to add a whole bunch of salt to my diet and then deposit several natural salt licks where I am hunting


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## glock31 (Dec 28, 2007)

since you brought it up. 
The Scent management thing seems to be the issue that runs from one end of the spectrum to the other. Obviously we all want to work from down wind and would like to be as clean as possible while hunting. A few years ago I found myself buying one of the many scent elimination sprays and soaps, as I approached the cashier I kinda felt like a 16 year old kid buying a box of condoms, almost to the point I wanted to look and see who was watching. I guess in my core I have little faith that they do anything, so this year I looked at the unopened bottles on my shelf and thought to myself I should try that stuff sometime. It Seems like people will try all sorts of stuff from changing their diet to wallowing in urine to try to cover up. Don't get me wrong I do think that there are practices that help, I try not to wash my clothes in scented soaps, and maybe package my clothes with some brush of some sort, and do my best to control what I can sweat and stink wise. But I know some that go all out to try to cover up. So what do you do to address the 5 Bs, being Body, Boots, Breath, Bunger, and [email protected]


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## klbzdad (Apr 3, 2012)

Where's Tex?


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## Califbowmen (Jul 1, 2008)

There was a recent test of scent elimination products done utilizing my favorite tool, a narcotics dog! Each person was given their choice of product, showered, sprayed, :smile:sprayed the boxes that the dog would search and then hid in one. In no test did it take the dog more than 50 seconds to locate them! This included the Ozonics scent eliminator. These products and I use them, only allow you to get a tad closer. You still play the wind, their hearing and sight.


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## hoghunter011583 (Jul 21, 2008)

Her is my 2 cents. I've done a lot of study on the scent issue and the scent control products do one thing and one thing only, make money for companies that sell scent control products.
Like califbowmen noted, animals can smell you through whatever you use.
The more you smell the easier it is for them to smell you. 
Scent is caused from the glads, breath and dead skin which is constantley falling off of your body. Your mattress gains about 20 lbs. in 10 years from dead skin. You can't do anything about it, skin is always falling off and blowing in the wind! So unless you hunt in a hazmate suit you are contaminating your area!!

My method went from kiling myself to mask, wash off my odor to being a student of the wind. Get some milk weed seed pods and study the wind, it isn't nearly as simple as 1 direction, learn about thermals, hot and cold pockets, prevailing wind directions, etc.
I control my scent by excepting that I stink and I have to know where my stink is going. The fact is if you observe the wind you can really get closer than you think, and at the same time if the wind is wrong for you, they can smell you way more than you would ever think!!


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## goonsquad (Sep 15, 2010)

Califbowmen said:


> There was a recent test of scent elimination products done utilizing my favorite tool, a narcotics dog! Each person was given their choice of product, showered, sprayed, :smile:sprayed the boxes that the dog would search and then hid in one. In no test did it take the dog more than 50 seconds to locate them! This included the Ozonics scent eliminator. These products and I use them, only allow you to get a tad closer. You still play the wind, their hearing and sight.


Next time I'm hiding in a box I hope an elk doesn't come around to smell the boxes...

Now to put this in full context, the dog is trained to zero in on a certain scent, and with out the cover up, it took him 19 seconds to do this. Now compare that to an elk that can smell just as well but isn't being commanded to find that one smell, doesn't know there is something there, and for the most part isn't looking for a human scent, that extra 30 seconds is huge.


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## MarkM (Sep 7, 2007)

Califbowmen said:


> There was a recent test of scent elimination products done utilizing my favorite tool, a narcotics dog! Each person was given their choice of product, showered, sprayed, :smile:sprayed the boxes that the dog would search and then hid in one. In no test did it take the dog more than 50 seconds to locate them! This included the Ozonics scent eliminator. These products and I use them, only allow you to get a tad closer. You still play the wind, their hearing and sight.


I did something similar a few years a go with my lab. I took two retrieving dummies and one I sprayed down with one of the scent killer spray products the other I just left alone. There was no difference in the amount of time it took her to find either of them. In some cases she would find the one with scent killer before the regular dummy.

I believe the best sent killer is some sort of wind direction detection device (feather, powder, seed pod) and learn to constantly watch the wind and do your best to keep it in your favor.

Mark


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## hoghunter011583 (Jul 21, 2008)

I also think it is wise to invest in a poo pipe!


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## Renegade (Sep 11, 2007)

Since you asked about food scents-I don't worry about the food scent. We take up the sealed tuna packets & some sealed crackers or bread and make a sandwich, also carry jerky & trail mix.

As for the scent control products: I use the detergents, soaps, deodorant & lotions. Stuff that I would be using anyway, it just makes sense to use non-scented products. I also have a lot of Scent Lok camo, not because I thikn it kills my scent, mostly because they have great products that last, and I pluck them out of the bargain cave at Cabelas a lot. I wouldn't recommend going out & buying a bunch of scent lok because you think it will mask your scent. It might help some, but the wind will help the most.


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## WasatchOutdoors (Sep 26, 2007)

*scent control*

I think that scent control absolutely works. I also think that people have a lot of misperceptions about scent control and that companies that advertise it put a lot of misinformation out there.

First, scent control is not a cure all for poor hunting practices. It does not actually eliminate scent, it reduces it. Secondly, the biological principles behind the way most of it works, requires a little know how.

So for starters, know that no matter what, you're not going to hunt upwind and be able to ignore the scent issue. Secondly, because it's designed to reduce the amount of stink you excrete, it might buy you an extra second or two to get off a shot, but it's not going to fool them for long. It's a way to dodge a bullet when that wind makes a single swirl as the bull closes the 50 yard mark. At 20 yards, you're probably screwed. All you're doing is reducing the amount of odor so it's not an instant red flag to the animal, but instead it might pause for a moment confused about how close that smell is and whether it constitutes a threat.

Secondly, the biology of scent elimination soaps, silver ion fabric etc. - these are designed to reduce the amount of normal bacterial flora growing on your skin. The smell of your skin isn't what alerts an animal to your presence, your particular scent is created by the bacteria that grows, lives and feeds on you. Think of the soap as an antibiotic for your skin.

When the doctor gives you an antibiotic, how long does he tell you to take it? hint:10 days minimum. And if you stop taking it early without finishing your dose, what you do is actually create an antibiotic resistant bacteria. You may have given your body enough head start that the white blood cells can finish off the disease, but you haven't killed it all. The same principle is true of these scent elimination soaps. They kill the bacteria on your skin that makes you smell like you. But nothing kills all of it. The longer you use these soaps, the better they work, because you reduce the overall number on your skin. Reduce, not eliminate...key concept here. But bacteria reproduce at an exponential rapid rate. You can use the product for ten days, and the morning of your hunt you have a significantly reduced amount of odor. By days end, you stink. 2 days later you've completely regrown the population and stink to high hell from a deer or elks perspective.

Silver ion material - it does the same thing as the soap. It reduces the amount of bacteria producing stink on your skin. But it certainly doesn't eliminate it.

Scent lock - this is functional through the use of adsorption. Basically meaning that the activated carbon material has a huge amount of surface area on which your funk gets trapped. But it doesn't capture it all, no matter what you do, some of your scent is going to work it's way out. Secondly, at some point it's going to get saturated and not adsorb any more particles. The other issue is that the "recharge" process is by exposing it to the heat in your dryer. Your dryer is hot enough to full recharge the material and over time it loses it effectiveness. Anyway, the point is, it reduces scent but won't ever completely eliminate it. If you don't believe me, fart in one while in the truck with your buddies. It might not reach full potency, but it's not going to go unnoticed.

Lastly, sprays. These are usually laden with a cover scent, and an antibiotic or enzymatic spray. These are a good way to reduce the stink from the spot of coffee you spilled in the truck, a reduction of the odor on your hands and face, etc. But just like the soaps, the effect is very temporary. By days end, you're going to stink, and there's not much you can do about it.

as an afterthought - no amount of spray, soap, and clothing is going to eliminate your scent completely, and bad practices can render it useless. Spending money on scent reducing clothing and then smoking, pumping gas or other contaminants is complete waste. You'd be better off buying camo for comfort than scent control. Failure to prep for at least a week before and eating spicy food, garlic etc, completely undoes any benefit. Poor care of the clothes undoes any possible benefit. And your body really is a cesspool of bacteria and stink, and the whole point is to maybe reduce 3/4 of the stink floating around in it. Good scent control is a tool, to quite possibly buy you just enough time to close the deal and take the shot. It is by no means a primary strategy, and there are plenty of other skills you should lean on to complete your hunt. This is just a back up plan if the wind changes at the last moment, and its a personal choice on whether or not the amount of money, time, and attention it takes is worth 5 extra seconds before the animal catches on.


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