Scent Free Body Wash

Many years ago I hunted pheasants in South Dakota. The guides had GSP and they were awesome dogs. Anyhow, one day one of them got sprayed in the face by a skunk. That dog continued to find pheasants as easily as before. I knew right then and there that cover scents won't help. That was kinda at the start of the craze, with the coal/carbon lined jackets and earth scent sprays.
 
i use the HS scent products including the body wash. I also have the wet wipes and use those alot too.
I spray my legs and boots and off I go.
Last year in my stand some deer came thru beside the stand about 40 feet away without sensing me but when they hit the trail I used to come in on..... stopped in thier tracks and stood there for a long while smelling the air and working their ears. Then they turned and went out of sight choosing a different route down the mountain.
I don't know how much faith I put in all the scent free products after watching that play out.
 
Any drug store carries scent free body wash. I think the stuff I use is aveeno. I play the wind and don't worry about scent control while hunting. I just don't really like strong smelling soaps.
 
The deer reaction you describe is exactly what I have witnessed many times. I had always wondered how far away a deer might smell human scent. Until I was bowhunting one time about 14yrs ago. I was sitting out on a wooded point watching a small field. wind was moderate but kind of bouncing between north and northwest to due west. I knew I was kinda threading the needle with the wind on this day but I wanted to hunt as it was near the end of October and the rut was ramping up. I wasn’t sitting in my stand long when I spotted a small 6 pt buck stick his head out of the treeline on the opposite side of the field. He carefully scanned the field then decided the coast was clear and broke cover, he was heading straight for me on a quick trot. I stood up and started to get myself situated for either a shot at some freezer meat or at least draw on the little fella so I could tell my wife “ coulda shot one”.
Well about half way on his journey across this field the little buck jams on the brakes and freezes right in the middle of the field and stares straight in my direction. . I’m like WTF he must have seen a flash or a coyote is close by and I can’t see it. So this little buck Is frozen in the middle of this field and I’m racking my brain to figure out why he locked up. I reach down and grabbed my range finder, it has some magnification, I range the buck. He is at about 200yrds. As I’m standing there and I can feel the wind hitting the back of my neck but still thinking no way this little deer is smelling my wind at 200yards it should be just on the edge of my scent plume ?? About then the little buck stomps 3 times switches his heads direction for his butts direction blows a snort. Then sneakily races out of the field on the path he just came from. I was like well SOB that little bugger smelled me at 200yrds and he wasn’t even directly down wind of me.
That was the day I concluded that deer can certainly smell me from a lot further away then I ever suspected. Then I thought back to all the times I had sat in a stand with a marginal wind and said “ah by the time they smell me it will be too late for them.” I was way wrong.
Over the years since that day so many times have I witnessed deer lock up and bound off after hitting my ground scent or wind. Young does will, occasionally stick around and sniff me out in my tree stand. Older does have a habit of looking totally disgusted bounding of and snorting their displeasure while their fawns stand stupidly wondering WTH is going on but then eventually follow ma off to parts unknown.
The bucks well, the older ones react a few different ways. The most mature bucks usually lock up for a second then slink off in hopes they have not been seen. Others almost come unglued and bound of terrified. Then others will bound off blowing their way to a new zip code. It is very rare that a buck ever smells me and tries to find me in a Stand like the does seem too. Now if they haven’t smelled me and come in to a grunt call or rattling and they are not completely fooled they always circle down wind to search out the source. These experiences have happened no matter what scent free product I have used on any of those hunting trips. I still use no scent products in hopes that maybe I can confuse the deer enough for a second or 2 that I need to loose my arrow into one’s vitals. But I feel I am wise enough to know all the no scent crap on the planet would never be enough to have me not completely consider the affect the wind will have on my deer hunting success.
 
I think it depends a lot on what you're hunting as well. Some animals are just plain more skittish in a bit of a wind, even if it does cover scent better. Bears don't have amazing eyesight or hearing but their sniffers are extremely sensitive and they are very uneasy in a breeze. Masking works very well. Deer have outstanding eyesight but probably weaker olfactory senses than bear, I still find that a tree stand works best to get out of their line of sight and off the ground.

I just use fragrance-free when prepping for hunting. Whatever they have at Shoppers. No need for overpriced Gucci stuff when you're 18' off the ground. Same with clothing prep, I always have a small bottle of Tide unscented for cleaning that. All good.
 
what I plan to do in the future is what a very successful elk bow hunter that I know does.
He has a large sack that he throws some dirt , grasses and pine cones from his hunting area in the bottom of along with some short sections of pine branch and bark from various trees.
All his hunting clothing , boots and day pack get stored in that bag when not being worn. He does wash all his gear in scent free with no UV blockers after his hunts but before and during, when that gear comes off it goes straight into that sack. Keeps all that gear smelling like the natural stuff from his hunting area. He smokes a bull with his bow everytime he chases them so he is doing something right.
 
45ACPKING said:
what I plan to do in the future is what a very successful elk bow hunter that I know does.
He has a large sack that he throws some dirt , grasses and pine cones from his hunting area in the bottom of along with some short sections of pine branch and bark from various trees.
All his hunting clothing , boots and day pack get stored in that bag when not being worn. He does wash all his gear in scent free with no UV blockers after his hunts but before and during, when that gear comes off it goes straight into that sack. Keeps all that gear smelling like the natural stuff from his hunting area. He smokes a bull with his bow everytime he chases them so he is doing something right.
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I used to do that just got tired of pine needles in my undies.
 
Some lessons learned from my bow hunting days. Ymmv. Any unscented soap will do for a start. Wash your hunting clothes in baking soda and keep them in a garbage bag til you put them on once you are at your hunting spot. Make a cold tea from native to your hunting area plants and put it in a spray bottle. Mist yourself and equipment before you hunt. The one thing most folks forget is their breath. If the wind isn't right that double double you had on the way out can get you busted. Lemon drops work good.
There is no such thing as scent free imo. The best hope is to eliminate as much as possible and cover what you can't. Dogs roll in stink so they don't smell like dogs. If you don't have any hunting instincts of your own, learn from those who do...dogs do!
 
45ACPKING said:
He smokes a bull with his bow everytime he chases them so he is doing something right.
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It's like the purification rituals that some tribes go through before starting a hunt. In Africa, it's not unheard of to have your rifles blessed by a witch doctor.

If you believe in it, following the ritual gives you confidence when you go out, so you're more likely to be successful. Hunting is a mental game. You can just as easily defeat yourself by getting into a negative frame of mind.
 
I always use the dead down wind laundry soap, hang my gear out on the line for a week to dry and further descent, then garbage bag them. I mostly gave up using the scent killer spray, as I find it has a certain scent, but I'll use a little bit of it to spray my gloves and hat when I get to the stand.
For the walk in I always take one of the EverCalm Scent Stick's, apply it to all the rubber on my boots, including the bottom, and a little on my pants from the knee down. Even for opening day bow, I figure the rut's not on, but better to have the doe scent on my trail in, then to have my scent left behind.
 
I throw some cedar branches in my outerwear box in the suv. Outside of that I wash with whatever my wife bought on sale, I dry with our stanky downy scented towels, I fart in my stand and I piss off the side of it. I do however not sit in them if the wind is bad for the direction I expect the deer to come from. I still somehow have managed to have deer come within bow range, including mature bucks. Movement, that’s a killer though, it screwed me big last year on a nice buck at 10-12 yards. No matter, I’m out for meat not horns and was able to kill a fat doe at 18 yards, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t scent free. Matter of fact I think I had a leak off the side of the stand about 10 minutes before!
 
I tried one of the little plastic bottles of ultra-fine powder that you squirt up in the air to see wind direction this year. Once I figured that you squirt it in the air and not on yourself it worked great!
 
If you think that you can't cover your scent to some extent then that's cool. You're wrong. But it's your right to be wrong.

It doesn't matter if you can't fully 100% cover your scent. In certain situations 10 or 20% can be enough to confuse your prey.

I've been at enough gun shows in the fall to know why so many "good ol' boys" fail to get a deer.
 
stuckon308 said:
If you think that you can't cover your scent to some extent then that's cool. You're wrong. But it's your right to be wrong.

It doesn't matter if you can't fully 100% cover your scent. In certain situations 10 or 20% can be enough to confuse your prey.

I've been at enough gun shows in the fall to know why so many "good ol' boys" fail to get a deer.
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The number of deer I have stalked to 15 yards or less using nothing but cedar or pine boughs in my camo storage bag for cover scent suggests a full scent elimination system is pointless. Learning your prey, playing the wind, and moving like snail are 100x more beneficial than any scent covering product.

Its comical listening to some hunters brag about how they put in so much time and money "eliminating" their scent to shoot a deer when a guy showing up smelling like body odor, cigarette smoke, doritos, 2 stroke exhaust, and unidentifiable smells shoots a bigger one....
 
Roger that! Especially “moving like a snail” makes a huge difference.

Still hunting for moose up here, if you cover more than 500 yards in an hour you’re moving much too fast.

Ted
 
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Why not? said:
Roger that! Especially “moving like a snail” makes a huge difference.

Still hunting for moose up here, if you cover more than 500 yards in an hour you’re moving much too fast.

Ted
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For deer it's more like 100 yards per hour. So slow that other small animals don't even notice anything so its normal to have squirrels, rabbits, grouse within a few feet.
 
fingers284 said:
After watching hundreds of deer for 12 yrs in my yard , I don't put any credibility to this "scent thing" anymore. Im not saying they don't smell us....the scent just doesn't mater to them.
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That's what I'm thinking... Don't hunt moose nor deer, but I sure do like chasing grouse through the bush.
- I'm dressed in blaze-orange, been using various scent of Dove men's body wash... every fall, I'll end up creeping up (or stumbling across) moose and deer.

So they either don't care about my camouflage/scent... or they "know" I'm not hunting them so they don't threaten :p
 
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