My Scent Control "Strategy"

Scent control is a major portion of whitetail hunting. Hearing and scent are two powerful tools deer use to remain safe, especially during the time of year humans are flooding the woods with scary smells. Managing your scent risk by treating yourself and your gear, along with observing wind direction, can be the difference between getting close enough to harvest a target buck, or only hearing him snort and crash away through the woods.

Here is what I do to prevent getting winded.

Personal Hygiene

Since the scent coming from me is scarier than exhaust or gun oil, I like to make sure I have as many details covered as possible. I start with a shower using Scent-A-Way hair and body soap to block the odor from my "hot spots" and my hair. I also use Dead Down Wind's toothpaste because the taste isn't bad and it helps control that morning mouth funk. I'm pretty fond of the Scent Killer Gold deodorant to avoid too much odor generation. Also, to prevent cold morning winds from sapping all of the moisture from my face, I use the lotion from Nose Jammer. The lotion isn't a scent blocker or preventative. Instead, it uses natural scents to overwhelm senses to keep from spooking the animals.

Clothing

Not too long ago, most people would hang hunting clothing outside a few days or a week before heading out in order to rid the fabrics of unwelcome scents. But now there are a bunch of treatment products such as laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and field spray. I like the convenience of the laundry treatment, followed by storing with a scented wafer. There are other options such as carbon mats to absorb odors or the increasingly popular use of ozone treatment.

These methods don't take near as long and can be repeated after each outing to remove odors deposited from hiking and long sits. I also like to throw my towel in with the laundry so that I'm not using anything that fragrance has been in contact with.

Personally, I like Dead Down Wind's laundry detergent and odor-less dryer sheets. I then store them in a Hunters Specialties Scent-A-Way Scent-Safe Deluxe Travel Bag with a scent wafer. I will be looking into a small ozone generator for my storage bag instead of the scent wafers. I like "no scent" better than a cover scent for my gear to prevent my closet distinctly smelling of dirt or acorns.

Gear

Before I get all of my gear packed to go to the field, I get some scent control cloths and give everything a liberal wipe down. Anything that goes to the stand with me will get wiped down or sprayed with field spray.

In the field

Once I'm parked, and getting geared up I like to do a final spray down of everything. I especially concentrate on the soles of my boots. For this season, I have also invested in the Hunter's Kloak Electronic mist system. I will be using it for cover scent around my stand. The system also has food and estrous scents for attractants. Depending on the time of the year, I will either use earth scent or acorn scent for the system to pump downwind of my location.

I'm not gonna say that my strategy is foolproof, but it's worked for me in the past. I'm always looking to learn a bit more and invest in better equipment. The main goal is to stay off the nose radar as long as possible. Everyone who bow hunts should take some steps to mitigate how much scent you generate and leave behind, so maybe what I do can help you think of some ways to do that better.

Good luck this season!

Remember to pay attention, mind your manners, and go home safe.