Scent proof?

[David Petersen]

#4235

Check this out — http://vimeo.com/42487261 — at about time marker 7:30, part 2. One of the Myth Busters showers in scent-killing soap, dresses head to toe in a “scent proof” suit including rubber gloves, then douses with every sort of “scent killer” product available. Yet the bloodhound follows him on a run, never misses a beat, and goes straight to him. I don’t doubt this outcome and have never bought into the “scent proof” myths. However, what I don’t understand in this video is how the guy runs a long way down a paved walkway before getting off into the woods, and other people coming and going on that walkway, yet the dog follows him without trouble. I am left to wonder about the shoes he was wearing. Over and over and over I have proven to myself that LL Bean type welded rubber-bottom boots, if kept clean (boot laces are veritable sponges for hand odor), consistently defeat the noses of deer, elk, coyotes and black bears. As recently as last evening a doe followed the same game trail I had used two hours earlier and came close enough I could have touched her. So I’m left to wonder if the Myth Buster guy had worn the right boots if the dog would have had such an easy time following him. Decide for yourself and keep the wind in your face.

[Roger Norris]

#28571

I reject all “scent proof” stuff, on the grounds that the wind is the wind. The bloodhound doesn’t suprise me at all. I can’t imagine it working in a clean room enviroment, let alone getting dressed alonside my truck.

I’m with you on the boots Dave. I wear Bean or Schnee boots almost always. I plan my routes so that I can walk through a creek here and there, or some black muck. I rarely have a deer spook from my trail.

I had an interesting exception to that 2 seasons ago. Early October, and 3 good bucks were traveling together. All 3 bedded in the goldenrod in front of my stand, about 40 yards out. Any one of them would have been worthy of a shoulder mount..They hung out most of the morning, and then the smallest of the 3 got up to browse. He browsed back and forth across my trail, with no alarm, until he hit the spot where I had paused for a few minutes to make sure my safety harness was in place. 4 hours earlier I had stood at this spot for maybe 30 seconds. His nose hit the spot, his tail went up, and all 3 disapeared.

I took that as a lesson;If I am on my way to a specific stand site, I only pause in spots that I don’t mind comprimising. And I do my best not to touch any brush with my hands. A whitetails nose is amazing.

[Etter1]

#28610

It’s all bull excrement. Aside from rubber boots, just hunt

[skifrk]

#28642

Dave, my understanding is for any animal it is not just the oils in our skin but the dead skin we drop off while moving that they can sniff out for the runner, he leaves more of his scent from these 2 things. I have not tried the rubber boot theory, after all i doubt if it would work on a trailing dog since the track training we do for dogs. sometimes we use rubber boots and they track with no problem. So deer and dogs might be different in that regard.

[paleoman]

#28692

I’ve worn the Bean type boots for years also and while I’m considerate of scent issues, I don’t get OCD about it. You do have to care for those leather uppers though and I’ve always used sno seal. I let them cure outside for a few days before wearing them. The stuff does smell, at least when you apply it. What else is good and less smelly on leather?

[David Petersen]

#28938

Paleo — Montana Pitch Blend is bees wax, pine oil and mink oil, works far better than Sno Seal or anything else for waterproofing and preserving leather, and the animals don’t seem the least offended by it. But the laces will give you away unless you tuck them in so they’re not exposed or spray with deer or elk pee for them what uses it.

[lyagooshka]

#29568

Dave,

I am thinking the shoes were only part of the problem. The scent killer has a scent of its own, so the bloodhound could have just followed that. We may not be able to smell it, but… I would be interested to see how that electric gizmo from the other post fares. Be well.

Alex

😀

[LocDoc]

#32579

To answer the question about just how this particular dog ONLY followed his scent and not the scent of the other people in the video. This animal is trained as a “Scent Specific Tracker” We use such animals to track escaped cons in populated areas. Most other hounds are ‘pack dogs’ and follow the track their put on. Obviously, this particular dog had his scent long before he laid his track. And NOTHING covered it up.

[David Coulter]

#32635

I recently read a short piece in Boys Life that a Lab can detect one part per trillion and they’re using it to find scat of endangered species. That’s pretty dang sensitive. And I can barely smell a dead mouse in a trap…. dwc

[Stumpkiller]

#32640

I always assume the deer will smell me, so I use the wind to remove my scent rather than try and mask or eliminate it.

Keep your nose to the wind and your tail to yourself. 😉

[horserod]

#32814

I’m with ya Stump……It’s worked for me for many years! Bullseye

[Ripforce]

#33070

Best Scent killer is “down wind’ from any animal especially deer!

[Mudd foot]

#33240

My rhetorical comment to the scent-proof crowd upon declining the sprays and the stares at my old-school-outdated-woolens is always “uh, does the spray cover your breath, or do you just unzip your scent-free jacket and breathe into your sleeve…?”

Just my 2 cents,

Mudd foot

[Ralph]

#33384

I have this little gadget I plug into the cigarette lighter in my truck that warms scent oils up and spreads the odor around. I like the smell of sage so I use sage oil. I figure that when I get to where I’m going the deer think I’m a human that smells like sage so I just hunt into the wind smelling like sagebrush fooling no one. I like it though!:D

There were a couple of articles in F&S mag a few months ago dealing with scent control. They tried all kinds of scent eliminators and cover ups and never totally fooled their dogs. Skunk screen was somewhat effective, but to each his own with that stuff.

[David Petersen]

#33456

R2 — I wonder how patchoulli oil would work for deer? I still have this “stuck in the ’70s” thing about hippie chicks. 😆

[Ralph]

#33485

I’m fond of using it during special doe only seasons. 🙄

[Fallguy]

#34346

My thoughts on the scent killing sprays and suits has been that our scent has not been totally eliminated but reduced to a level that would equate to 1 or 2 day old track. You have to remember that tracking dogs are trained to follow the scent trails they are put on. We are only trying not to alarm our quarry. With that said I worry more about to wind than the laundry soap.

[sinawalli]

#35806

David Petersen wrote: Paleo — Montana Pitch Blend is bees wax, pine oil and mink oil, works far better than Sno Seal or anything else for waterproofing and preserving leather, and the animals don’t seem the least offended by it. But the laces will give you away unless you tuck them in so they’re not exposed or spray with deer or elk pee for them what uses it.

Ever try Obenauf’s? Works very well.

I was out setting up camp many years ago on a Sunday ( Sunday hunting was illegal back then), was coming back to camp with a load of firewood, when I decided to check out this cut block. I was sitting on a log,looking, when I heard a twig snap. I saw 2 does walking towards me. I just sat still, and they walked right up to me. One actually sniffed my knee (I felt her nose touch my knee). She backed off about 2 feet, and started eating with her friend. They eventually wandered off. I wasn’t wearing anything “scent proof”, a pair of Carhartt work pants, and a sweat shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a pair of old work boots.

[Alexandre Bugnon]

#36858

Mountain lions, wolves and bears don’t take showers or wear LL Beans… 😀

[strait-aero]

#36924

I’ve always used a spritz of red fox urine along the edge of the sole of my boot. It seems to help as the deer cutting my trail are not alarmed…Also, take a shower or wash off with Ivory bar soap.

[Fallguy]

#41925

Strait-Aero wrote: I’ve always used a spritz of red fox urine along the edge of the sole of my boot. It seems to help as the deer cutting my trail are not alarmed…Also, take a shower or wash off with Ivory bar soap.

About 15 years ago I was hunting central Minnesota the weekend after the gun season had finished. I was in my stand and watched a red fox cut my track he stopped and sniffed then went on his way. Ten minutes later a group of does and fawns came through they cut my track and did not even stop but when they hit the fox track they scattered 40 yards in all directions. My only explanation is that the previous 2 weeks of gun hunters trying to cover there tracks with fox scent had conditioned them to go on high alert when they smelled that scent.

[William Warren]

#44331

Um, I doubt the does scattered at the fox scent. It was more likely their reaction to your scent. The fox was not worried about you but they were obviously very concerned about your presence.

[kingwouldbe]

#45484

I have done decades of vary scientific experiments in an extremely controlled environment feild testing………..my conclusions are………. animals CAN-NOT smell you if your down wind.

Some lures catch fish…… others catch fisherman.

[BuckyT]

#45618

I personally believe there is no way to defeat a whitetail’s nose.

I’ve only hunted whitetails, so that’s why I only listed that species.

Hunting down wind of the deer is most important. But… We can’t control mother nature, and in the places I hunt; I can only try my best to hunt the wind correctly. It’s never fully blowing from a constant direction, and shifts directions through out the day..

I wash my clothes in non scented detergent. Most major brands of detergent make a scent free version for the folks out there who are allergic to the scented versions.

I don’t dry my clothes in the dryer. I hang them up to dry.

I store them in plastic bags. Actually space bags, and suck the air out of the bag.

That’s it for the clothing. It’s not going to keep an up wind deer from smelling me if my scent lingers around its nose, but I think it knocks some scent down.. If anything, I’ve found the way I take care of my hunting clothes, makes my garments last for years and years. I get my $$ worth out of my clothing.

I wear rubber boots and do my best to keep my boots to “in the field use only” I don’t wear them to the gas station etc..

I will use some scent spray too from time to time. It does work to an extent.. At least it does to my nose, and it makes me feel better using it.:D

I mostly use scent killing spray during our early bow season here in Ga. Early September can be down right humid, buggy, hot, and a hunter will sweat his you know what off hunting that time of the year.

[vajd]

#46985

I think that sometimes the deer we see on our backtracks are just curious, or low IQ deer. I have never seen a nice buck do the stupid things that the spikes and fork horns do.

[David Petersen]

#47003

King — Come on now, level with us … you smoke scentless cigars, right? 😛

[kingwouldbe]

#47045

vajd wrote: I think that sometimes the deer we see on our backtracks are just curious, or low IQ deer. I have never seen a nice buck do the stupid things that the spikes and fork horns do.

I know what you mean, it’s always just the little one’s…..:D

You can see the cigar in my left hand.

[kingwouldbe]

#47068

For me it’s about not getting smelled, sure you can try and reduce your odor….. but I don’t think you can eliminate it.

It’s easier just to hunt into the wind, if all you do is tree-stand hunt, that’s another story, as you keep going to the same spot and there is a high probability they are going to smell you.

[kingwouldbe]

#47080

Stinky hogs don’t know any better, there nose barely works…….. 😯

[kingwouldbe]

#47083

Back in the day, I would use this stuff called skunk scent, I thought it worked, but it stayed with you for a week or so….:shock:

[kingwouldbe]

#47101

Coyote’s can’t smell ether……. lol

[Brennan Herr]

#47300

King those cigars look like great wind indicators…I would use them as well but I gave up nicotine. Nice work!

[Raymond Coffman]

#48770

King –

Great Pics – which of the 6 subspecies of CA Mule Deer do you have there ?

Scout

[kingwouldbe]

#48946

cyberscout wrote: King –

Great Pics – which of the 6 subspecies of CA Mule Deer do you have there ?

Scout

Cyberscout, it’s what the state big game club “California Bowman Hunters”, calls a ” pacific hybrid ” the boundary’s are basically from Monterrey south down to Mexico west of the 5 fwy.

They are closer to a Black-tail, small little bucks, most only being a fork n horn. CBH recognizes 3 kinds of deer here, and has divided up the state into 3 species areas ,black-tail along the cost west of the 5 fwy north to Oregon, east of the 5 Fwy are mule deer

Back to the topic, it was amazing that the dog could run to the guy, no matter what he did, I am a firm believer you can not fool there nose…. ether they smell you or they don’t.

Because I do most of my hunting on the ground, I just play the wind, each of us have our home area we get to hunt, and we need to think about the wind and hunt accordingly.

When I do hunt a tree stand I also pay close attention to the wind, the buck and coyote where shot out of a tree and the coyote came from behind me with the wind going right over him, and yes, I was smoking a cigar, actually there was 2 of them but I missed the other one.

[Raymond Coffman]

#48983

King-

sorry to get off track —

I like your CBH determination of subspecie —

I used to hunt BTails at ft Hunter Ligget and the Ventana Wilderness and those{your’s} are very nice, especially for that part of the coast! well done.Drew an X hunt once also.

I stay as clean and sent free as possible without very much in the way of “store Bought” scent products. Working the wind is uppermost in my mind for successful hunting.I also believe that scent will “pool” if waiting in ambush in a dead wind Condition [have seen this occur, mostly from ground blinds].

How the animals respond to levels of scent is also a matter of their current “alert status” IE Elk hanging out in town IMHO.

Scout

[Author]

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