Scent Free in the Vehicle
- Thread starter striker89
- Start date
Thank you! This is what I was looking for. I need an airtight rubbermaid. Its hard to keep 'play the wind' in my truck. The two totes I've used until now were too open.
Do you really think smelling like a guy who has been hiding in a rubbermaid container is better than smelling like you just got out of a truck?
All attempts to defeat a deer's nose, other than just controlling where your scent goes, are a waste of time and effort (and sometimes money).
I think it'll be like a pair of rubber boots. Smelly at first, but over time they lose their scent, and then become just about the best things you can wear into the woods for managing your scent.
I don't think I can fool a deers nose completely. But I also don't think I can tell you exactly where the deer will come from every time. If I pick a stand location, and a deer comes from the wrong direction, I'd rather have tried to mitigate my scent, rather than just throwing my hands up in the air and saying 'Welp, too bad I can't fool that deers nose'.
I'm not trying to sit downwind and have a deer not able to smell me, I'm trying to improve my odds just a little bit, if it gets me an extra 10 seconds where the deer is trying to figure things out, maybe thats enough.
don't let the "hunt the wind, you can't fool a deers nose" guys deter you.
There is certainly no 100% solutions, but lowering the amount of scent you put out will not hurt, and may just help when you get a swirling wind. I don't know where the "hunt the wind guys" hunt, but anywhere I've hunted has thermals, swirling winds at times. You can't prevent it. So I'll try to minimize my scent
It's not an all or nothing situation. Like standing in line behind the old guy that hasn't had a shower in a week. You can smell him much more than the other 10 people in line. I'm sure its the same for deer. If they wind me and think I'm 100 yards away, when I'm only 20, I'll take that advantage.
A sealed bin that you have cleaned, and aired out well is your best bet. Leave it out in the sun for a while. Store some boxes of baking soda in it with your clothes, or cedar/pine branches. Just watch you don't seal it up when there is moisture present. Everything must be dry.
Until we can stop breathing, we will give off scent, but I believe there is a difference between those who take some scent control precautions. Not sure why people think its an all or nothing issue and try to convince others to stop trying since you can't get to 100%.
Been too hot here... no signs of them and I didnt have time to set bait. Even the upland birds are scarce where I hunt. Spent a couple hours out with the dogs and nothing.
Then the dogs just laid out in the trail, tired, I opened the gun, slung it over my shoulder, shells still in it ,
Suddenly my female Dal jumps up and tears into the brush... scares up a grouse, by the time I got the gun shouldered I lost it in the trees...lol. literally 40 seconds after this pic was taken.
You can't and won't fool the deers nose. If it comes at you from downwind it has smelled you. It may be curious, careless, stupid or suicidal, but it smelled you.
Of course it's smelled you. But if I can lessen the scent, and the deer thinks I was there 2 hours ago, that seems like an advantage I'd want. I'm no biologist, I don't know the inner workings of a deers nose. What it can and can't smell, how it effects them, what they think when they smell a scent thats 2 days old vs 20 minutes old. But if I can put their mind at ease a little bit, I will.
You admit you don't understand what a deer's nose can do, or what it thinks, but you're working on putting its mind at ease?
It is impossible for a human to imagine the scent world that animals like deer, bears, dogs, etc. inhabit. Because you can't smell something doesn't mean it isn't stinking up the country for animals with their sense of smell. Dogs can smell cancer, impending epileptic seizures, drugs inside sacks of coffee, people who passed by many hours ago. Deer are assumed to be very similar by biologists who study them. Cover scents can't cover anything. You cannot stop a deer from detecting you with its nose,, if it is paying attention to its nose. If you think that because you can't smell something it doesn't smell to a deer you're just wrong. They live, love, and play in a world of scent that you can't even perceive, but which is as vibrant to them as your sense of sight is to you (and I assume deer can't begin to imagine the visual world humans live in).
You will be much better served by thinking about where your scent is going than thinking about how to not make any scent. Actually, in modern hunting I think scent is far less important than many who want to sell you stuff want you to believe. I expect modern deer, except for a very few who live in true wilderness that is seldom hunted, smell humans many times every day, and have come to believe human scent is almost "background noise" in their environment. (If you're thinking about how you smell after getting out of a truck, you're not hunting wilderness.) That's why so many hunters can tell stories about deer behaving as if they couldn't smell the hunter. Deer ignore a lot of human scent and the scent of human stuff like trucks in their daily activities, but they always detect it.
You can certainly, if you wish, spend lots of time, energy, and even (as some do) money in an effort to trick their sense of smell, but it won't actually work. Lots of superstitions survive because people keep thinking that "it can't hurt to do it". So carry on.
Thanks for your input. I see lots of generalities, but no actual facts on how a deer's nose works. I'm very familiar with watching where my scent goes, planning entry routes, paying attention to shifting winds, constantly wind checking to see what it's doing at that point in time. It's not my first hunt. But that's not what I asked for advice about.
I also think it's foolish to just throw out 'you can't fool a deer's nose' as a blanket statement, and disregard any and all scent control. You say they live in a world of scent that is as vibrant to them as my sense of sight is to me. Well with minimal effort, my eyes can absolutely be fooled, so I'm not willing to say with 100% certainty that a deer's nose cannot be fooled. The problem is that anyone that's doing research on what a deer's nose is capable of, is doing so because they have a product to sell us. So until I see a comprehensive study that presents facts on what a deer's nose can and cannot do, I'll play the odds that it is a fallible part of a fallible animal, and can make mistakes.
But I digress. Please carry on.
canadaman30
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Far from the City
Smoke weed, deer don't mind skunk....
well, I will wade in on this with what I do to minimalize my scent.
First though, the type of hunting I do when I worry about scent is important to mention.
I hike well worn deer trails up into sub alpine and sit on the ground on the same slope every year without a ground blind. There is not a ton of cover and when the deer come , if you are in thier field of vision, any movement , even the slightest twitch, and you stand out in the environment as possible danger. Then that deer's nose, ears and eyes are searching and yer done.
I shoot most of those deer at 30 feet from my rifle barrel , some have been point blank as they are nearly walking right into me.
I use the scent wash in my laundry, not so much for the product's scent claims, but because the soap is made without scent and also no UV brighteners. So all my hunting clothing gets washed in that "hunting" laundry soap.
I admit I am one that does use cover scent spray simply because it can't hurt and does kill surface odors. However, by the time I hike up the mountain to my rock..... there is no way on god's green earth that the scent cover is removing my human scent from the environment. Breathing alone puts your scent into the environment, never mind what you are wearing.
Wind is key.
If you hunt from an ambush location, ground blind, no ground blind, treestand ect , know the wind patterns if the area has them. Where I hunt there is an updraft at predictable times of the day and in this location the migrating deer are always heading downhill leaving the mountains before heavy winter sets in. I time my ambush hunts for the times of the day with predictable down drafts and I don't think scent even matters until the deer is right on top of me. Heck I used cigarettes as wind indicators when I was still a smoker ...... and I lost track of how many deer I shot with a players light kingsize hanging on my lip LOL
The deer though, if they are travelling with the wind they are now using thier eyes and ears and can only smell on the cross wind or from behind, so if you are hunting the wind...... know what senses you are dealing with and hunt/ dress/ cover yourself accordingly.
play the wind, cover your face and hands and don't worry too much about cover scent. Washing your clothing in scent killing products without the UV brighteners is probably the better idea.
If you wash your hunting clothes and base layers in any other kind of soap , as most have UV brighteners, you will literally GLOW in the eyes of a deer, even in daytime.
First though, the type of hunting I do when I worry about scent is important to mention.
I hike well worn deer trails up into sub alpine and sit on the ground on the same slope every year without a ground blind. There is not a ton of cover and when the deer come , if you are in thier field of vision, any movement , even the slightest twitch, and you stand out in the environment as possible danger. Then that deer's nose, ears and eyes are searching and yer done.
I shoot most of those deer at 30 feet from my rifle barrel , some have been point blank as they are nearly walking right into me.
I use the scent wash in my laundry, not so much for the product's scent claims, but because the soap is made without scent and also no UV brighteners. So all my hunting clothing gets washed in that "hunting" laundry soap.
I admit I am one that does use cover scent spray simply because it can't hurt and does kill surface odors. However, by the time I hike up the mountain to my rock..... there is no way on god's green earth that the scent cover is removing my human scent from the environment. Breathing alone puts your scent into the environment, never mind what you are wearing.
Wind is key.
If you hunt from an ambush location, ground blind, no ground blind, treestand ect , know the wind patterns if the area has them. Where I hunt there is an updraft at predictable times of the day and in this location the migrating deer are always heading downhill leaving the mountains before heavy winter sets in. I time my ambush hunts for the times of the day with predictable down drafts and I don't think scent even matters until the deer is right on top of me. Heck I used cigarettes as wind indicators when I was still a smoker ...... and I lost track of how many deer I shot with a players light kingsize hanging on my lip LOL
The deer though, if they are travelling with the wind they are now using thier eyes and ears and can only smell on the cross wind or from behind, so if you are hunting the wind...... know what senses you are dealing with and hunt/ dress/ cover yourself accordingly.
play the wind, cover your face and hands and don't worry too much about cover scent. Washing your clothing in scent killing products without the UV brighteners is probably the better idea.
If you wash your hunting clothes and base layers in any other kind of soap , as most have UV brighteners, you will literally GLOW in the eyes of a deer, even in daytime.
Sidearm Sambo
Regular
Well lets see,
Using all the scent free laundry type stuff helps, however i have been doing a bit of reading over the years. The old timers that walked this land used to smoke themselves and this was a way to both cleanse their bodies while masking their scent. I have seen deer walk right up to a group as they sat around a lunch time camp fire.
Also wind direction is so important.
A combination of many things will reduce your scent, however never will it be eliminated. I wish you well as you try out what works best for you
Using all the scent free laundry type stuff helps, however i have been doing a bit of reading over the years. The old timers that walked this land used to smoke themselves and this was a way to both cleanse their bodies while masking their scent. I have seen deer walk right up to a group as they sat around a lunch time camp fire.
Also wind direction is so important.
A combination of many things will reduce your scent, however never will it be eliminated. I wish you well as you try out what works best for you
canadian hunter312
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Brant County
Pretty much. If the wind is right you can get within spitting distance of deer and it's hilarious when you're 10-20 yards from a deer and the wind shifts and blows your scent right to them. Some of them nearly turn inside out trying to go the opposite way so quickly.
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
It’s always fun when they walk right in before they get a wiff of you, had a doe and fawn do that last season about 10-15yds to my left. The reaction was funny when they finally figured out I was there, when the wind is in your favour and you are sitting still the real magic can happen sometimes.
buzzmagoo
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- sprucewood Hallows Eastern Townships
Surplus gas suits have charcoal lined liners . Have had good results with my surplus British two piece . Also have a American Desert camouflage that I haven't used yet but it is also has a charcoal liner in it .
I had a doe come right up behind me while sitting in ambush and didn't know she was there untill i actually heard her nose sniffing my shoulder. Not knowing what was smelling me I just rolled forward and spun around..... spooking probably 6 to 10 deer into mayhem trying to get away
I don't know who was freaked out more, me or them , but I didn't manage a buck that weekend LOL
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Hahaha, that would’ve been fun to witness.
I plug one of these scent crushers in the power port on my truck for a false piece of mind
Mine has been working fine for two years but I read reviews from others that it quit working for them after a couple months.
I only plug mine in on the way to where I'm going hunting, I don't use it all the time.
I keep my hunting clothes in a thick lawn garbage bag with a separate cloth bag in it that I put short pieces of pine boughs in.
I smash up the pine needle boughs with a hammer, that really pushes the scent out of them, and put them in the separate cloth bag so the needles don't get all over everything. Put new boughs in when they start to dry out.
There's no way your going to fool a deer's nose with anything but it can't hurt to try and lower your reeking human scent cloud
Mine has been working fine for two years but I read reviews from others that it quit working for them after a couple months.
I only plug mine in on the way to where I'm going hunting, I don't use it all the time.
I keep my hunting clothes in a thick lawn garbage bag with a separate cloth bag in it that I put short pieces of pine boughs in.
I smash up the pine needle boughs with a hammer, that really pushes the scent out of them, and put them in the separate cloth bag so the needles don't get all over everything. Put new boughs in when they start to dry out.
There's no way your going to fool a deer's nose with anything but it can't hurt to try and lower your reeking human scent cloud
