Normally the day of the hunt I won't shower before I head out, only the day before and it's with mild soap and none of that heavy Old Spice stuff. All my clothes and gear is not washed unless it needs to be, and right now i'm not using anything else like that bottled animal scent you find at any outdoors shop. What do you do to stay unnoticed before and while you're out there? Trying to gather some more tips and tricks.
How do you hide your scent while hunting?
- Thread starter metalslug
- Start date
scent hiding is kind of a waste of time. After 3 or 4 days in the bush you're getting pretty ripe in your own right, which animals can smell just as much as anything else.
I honestly don't use anything. Like you said a plain shower no smelly stuff before I go but I mostly watch wind direction and try to keep my scent from blowing towards an animal if I'm stalking/tracking, also I rarely wash my hunting clothes, only if their bloody and in that case I've already got my animal. I keep it simple and inexpensive when I hunt, not many frills really.
Garlic, onions, and cabbage. Trying to hide your scent is more difficult that just stinking so badly that everything assumes you're half skunk.
Seriously though, I think just showering with regular water is the best you can do. Maybe rub some pine sap or somesuch on your boots if applicable.
Seriously though, I think just showering with regular water is the best you can do. Maybe rub some pine sap or somesuch on your boots if applicable.
- Location
- Prince Albert, Sk
If I"m bowhunting, I've kept my hunting clothes in a bag with a spruce branch or other strong scented vegetation, use unscented soap, don't smoke, take chlorophyll tablets, use a scent masker on a rag wired to my boots, and try to stay downwind of the animal I'm hunting.
I've actually had whitetails walk down wind of me at less than 20 yards when using all of the above and NOT scent me.
For rifle hunting I don't worry about it as much!
I've actually had whitetails walk down wind of me at less than 20 yards when using all of the above and NOT scent me.
For rifle hunting I don't worry about it as much!
arcticcathonda
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Alberta
There have been many tests to dis prove all this scent elimination spray junk. Police dogs hiding a man in a wooden crate with all sorts of different tricks. Ozonics helped reduce times till discovery. That was it. Use the wind and save your hard earned money. Maybe go buy a lucky rabbits foot instead!
Hunt the wind. My dog cud find a gram of cocaine in 100 lbs of coffee and a deer's nose is better than a K9's.
Sometimes a deer won't be alarmed by your scent and sometimes a buck will be too horny to notice but if u think u can actually fool them you are the fool.
Sometimes a deer won't be alarmed by your scent and sometimes a buck will be too horny to notice but if u think u can actually fool them you are the fool.
Wash my hunting cloths in baking soda, shower with baking soda, brush my teeth with baking soda and leave my close in a large tote so the dogs in my house dont stink it up. When I get out of the truck I use some sent away spray, some concentrated doe estrus on my boot and when in my stand, a little cover spray of fox piss or whatever I have in my bag. This is all for bow hunting, and I've never shot a deer farther than 15 yards away. In fact I stood face to face with a buck about 7 yards away for a good 6 or 7 minutes watching it eat my apples while I tried to put my release on, rest an arrow and draw on it. After 6 or 7 minutes he finally saw something he didnt like and he took off. That 6 or 7 minutes felt like hours with me trying to move and open a ziper to get release our of bag, etc etc.
Maybe so, but any bit of help in hiding or covering your scent cant hurt things.
- Location
- Prince Albert, Sk
Ok, in all seriousness this is what works for me...
I collect deer fecal material and put into a black garbage bag with whatever hunting clothes I am going to use for that season, I add fresh droppings about every week during season and keep the bag closed tightly but always in above freezing temperatures to ensure it festers properly.The bedding I sleep in is always stored with whatever natural vegetation is in the area I will hunt in and even even include spruce bows for added comfort.
For shampoo and soap I usually collect the sap from the local spruce and pine trees and use that as my all purpose cleaner and soap, typically I wash in slough water to avoid the smell of harsh contaminates associated with our water treatment processes.The sap never seems to rinse out fully but leaves a pleasant odor.
When It comes to diet I typically start a week before deer season eating only what deer eat from that area I plan to hunt , the local grains typically and some extra alfalfa in a salad type dish for roughage.This ensures your droppings are very similar to the deer.
There is no need for cover scents and lures , nature has provided all you need for a successful hunt.
I collect deer fecal material and put into a black garbage bag with whatever hunting clothes I am going to use for that season, I add fresh droppings about every week during season and keep the bag closed tightly but always in above freezing temperatures to ensure it festers properly.The bedding I sleep in is always stored with whatever natural vegetation is in the area I will hunt in and even even include spruce bows for added comfort.
For shampoo and soap I usually collect the sap from the local spruce and pine trees and use that as my all purpose cleaner and soap, typically I wash in slough water to avoid the smell of harsh contaminates associated with our water treatment processes.The sap never seems to rinse out fully but leaves a pleasant odor.
When It comes to diet I typically start a week before deer season eating only what deer eat from that area I plan to hunt , the local grains typically and some extra alfalfa in a salad type dish for roughage.This ensures your droppings are very similar to the deer.
There is no need for cover scents and lures , nature has provided all you need for a successful hunt.
Whatever happened to those fancy activated charcoal lined outfits from a few years back? But anyway, I make a few efforts like showering with white (but nonracist), unscented Ivory soap and using the relatively scent free Breakfree CLP lubricant on my firearms. I believe those things prevent me from walking around like the smell-based equivalent of a police car siren going off. But the main thing in hunting scent wary game is to observe the wind direction and watch and move upwind at all times. In my bowhunting and recreational deerstalking days, I used to fasten a very light (ie, half the usual weight) strand of thread to the bottom of my bow or walking staff or left arm, and by watching that I could be close to as aware of air movements, constant and random, as a wary deer would be.
Some of the things people think up/pay for for "scent control" make me laugh. Hunt the wind and even then you may have a horny buck come in from downwind. All I do is hunt according to the wind and pay attention to natural barriers (cliffs, rivers etc)
