Another scent thread...

[jrsower]

Was at a recent Deer Classic in my city, checking out various taxidermist stuff, etc. There was a professional hunter there. In fact, he claimed to have been the very first black professional hunter. Don't remember his name.

Anyway, he did a 20 minute session on some of the tricks he uses to be so successful. The thing he said was the best strategy he used of everything was scent control.

Now here's the interesting part. He said that all the scent products are a waste of money. Instead, he buys a 69 cent bottle of rubbing alcohol and puts it in a spray bottle. When he gets out of his truck he sprays his clothes and boots down with it. He said that he often leaves his hunting jacket at the bottom of his tree if he knows it's going to get hot later that morning while in his stand. He just sprays it down with alcohol again. Said he'd had many deer walk right up and sniff his jacket over the years.

Anyway, have any of you ever heard of this? I don't know about you but if I open a bottle of rubbing alcohol, it stinks. Does it evaporate oderlessly? I'd love to try this but am afraid it won't work.

 

[Al Thompson]

Sounds fine to me. It does evaporate and works as a cheap degreaser. Key to me is that he stands to gain little from sharing the information which raises the validity in my mind.

 

[Byron Quick]

Based on my own experience, I'm not convinced about the scent business. Especially if you hunt where deer smell humans and other non wilderness scents all year long.

I've taken scent precautions and gotten skunked for weeks.

Last year I killed 10 deer during the season...all from a thirty acre tract. No scent precautions of any type. Washed the clothes with Tide, myself with Dial. Used a regular deodorant. Stayed in the woods a couple of days without a regular bath...still killed deer.

Thus far, in the first week of Georgia's deer season, I've killed two bucks in that same tract with no scent precautions. I've sat in the stand four times and have seen four deer.

I don't know...maybe the older trophy bucks are wiser and warier.
Maybe they never come out of deep cover if they smell something funny. But where I hunt, they are going to smell something funny even if it's not me.

 

[Art Eatman]

I imagine it's the strangeness of any scent, not the scent per se. That is, in open ranching country, human scent is uncommon. For all wildlife, anything uncommon is by definition BAD.

I generally set up so the probable area for seeing the game is crosswind or upwind from my position. When walking cross country, I work cross wind or into the wind. And stop and look behind me, of course.

Art