A hunting in general question

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
I like hunting from an elevated hunting stand. Ladder stand or Boxblind. I have always wondered about my scent, Does the height of a stand affect the distance your scent can travel, can your scent go over the head of close animals, does a closed blind ( tent or box blind) hold in a large percentage of your scent.
I am interested to hear what experiance you all have had. Kevin
I am aware that warming temperatures make your scent go uphill. And cooling temps make your scent go downhill.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Box blinds are about the best for scent control. However, they are hard to move, to compensate for the wind. I swear by Scent-loc hunting clothing. Been using it since it first came out. However, you need to keep your hunting clothes from picking up unwanted odors, also. I store mine in air tight dry bags, and I dress into them outdoors. I try to hunt from stands that have the ideal wind conditions, but that's not always possible. I hang a white thread from a tree branch and watch the wind direction. Rarely, does it adhere to one direction.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Not familiar with those brands. Been satisfied with Scent-loc...............so never looked for replacements.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Ozonics is a ozone generator. Mounted above your head if bathes you in ozone eliminating all scent.

HECS is a suite thats supposed to minimize the electrical Ora all living things have. Videos with use are astounding.


I have two base layer Scent lock "suits" as well as a couple outter garments.

cw
 

StrawHat

Well-Known Member
Have critters changed that much since my youth that they now possess super noses? I still hunt using the method my Pop taught me, still hunting. Take a slow step, scan, breathe look around, scan again, take a slow step, repeat. In other words, a leisurely walk in the woods with my rifle or pistol. Occasionally, I will sit on a stump or log and watch the area but mostly out and about. This is what works for me. Pop would hunt with a cigarette. Did he use it as a wind indicator? Maybe but he enjoyed smoking. He taught me to stalk into the wind and when in range for the shot, stalk some more. We owe it to the animal to insure a clean shot to eliminate or at least limit suffering.

Not sure I could sit in a blind. Tried it going for waterfowl. Hated it.

Kevin
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
You can get a decent education about how your scent travels with a dried out pod of milkweed seeds. It is eye opening to watch the fluff float on the currents knowing your scent is traveling the same way.
Yes being up in the air does allow your scent to travel some distance before it reaches the ground, but one still has to watch the wind.

I use have used ozone to descent clothes for bowhunting. I'm not sure you can generate enough to be really effective in a tree stand. There is a hazard with it in heavy enough concentrations to descent clothing so I am a bit skeptical about the generators in the field.

"Hecs" reminds me of P.T. Barnum's famous saying. Lets see: "I will sell you something that hides an aura that no science even suggests exists.....let alone animals see or react to"
I think he sells insurance against Knuten valve failure in your car too.

There was a retired Arizona State Police Captain who used to write about predator hunting. He has pictures of him calling coyotes within 10 yds of himself wearing a Santa Clause outfit complete with snow white wig and beard. Maybe he should market those suits to hunters?

I wear camo and even own some Scentlok stuff, but I am under no illusion that is hides my scent. Hunters have been killing game without camo, cover scents, whiz bang electronic gizmo's for thousands of years. Yes scent is important, particularly with prey animals that depend on their nose for defense. Watch the air currents and play the wind. That said, there is always the contrary deer that will follow your scent trail and come in from downwind of you while you are eating a slim jim, drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Few years back I was in an elevated box stand - 10ft, smoking, nothing special on me and had sprayed for wasps. BIG doe walks under the stand, I lean out the window to watch. She's looking around and slowly walks off. I was hog hunting but could have taken her with my XDm40 out the window.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I hunt Mule deer and IMO scent is number-3 on their list of relied on senses.
eyesight and hearing are their first two.
it's who see's who first that generally determines the outcome with them.

I have walked into the middle of about 15-20 deer bedded down in the middle of the day covered in sweat and dust, muttering to myself a few times.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Yrs ago I was in Ok state park fishing and walked through bedded deer without bothering them. They were bedded down in the close tent camping area. It wasn't hunting season yet!
 

Bill

Active Member
The area where I hunted for 40 years was in south east ok, people there (and me) would take an old rusty 30 from the corner and stomp through the woods till one jumped up, then kill it, never saw a tree blind and never heard of anyone using one, also no one seemed concerned about the size or sex of it, a deer was a deer and a lot of them were killed

Bill
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Hunted critters seem to run the gamut from hypersensitive to utterly oblivious. Song dogs around Ridgecrest were hunted HARD year-round, and those dogs had M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in contact avoidance. The coyotes around Redlands are dumb as posts, comparatively speaking. The coyotes in the local forests and deserts aren't real sharp, either--not much hunting pressure. Scent matters, for sure--but when and how much aren't fixed assessments.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
There was nothing like K-rats and fringe-toed lizards to stop the bulldozers in the Coachella Valley in the 1980s, too.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Was a farmer in the central valley about that time lost his farm over them rats. Seems he ran over one with his tractor plowing his field, legal bills cost him everything including his farm. How the tree hugger knew about it in the first place is beyond me.
 

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
I don't get overly concerned over scent. I just like to have a basic knowledge of everything.
I wish i could still hunt. But i am like the bull in a china shop. When i walk in the woods.
 

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Rub your garments and equipment with apples. I use wind falls from apple trees as neighbors are glad someone would want to pick them up.
I have deer trail me all over the river bottoms. Half rotten apples are the best.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
I think a deers' reaction to odors, sights and sounds, depends on what they are acclimated to. I've seen city deer you could hand feed, but they looked both ways twice, when crossing a road. I witnessed deer in Va. use drainage ditches, to actually get past standers on deer drives, where the deer low crawled half the length of a bean field in the drainage ditch, then stood up and ran the rest of the length of the field, undetected by the stander. The guide placed standers at the same locations most every weekend, then went to the opposite end of the drive and turned the dogs loose.
Our party here, would always post standers before getting drivers in position, because we learned that deer would often be seen while the standers were getting to their stands, and the deer heard the drivers organizing, and bailed out, sometimes miles away, and we almost always drive into the wind.
There was a pine plantation we used to drive that was about a half mile wide by 1.5 miles long, with four small hills on the south end, the pines at the time were about 5-6' tall. We usual put a stander on two of the hilltops, and a single stander on the west side. The east side was a swale swamp the deer didn't cross, and the driver on that side could cover easily if one ever did. We had from 5-8 drivers most often on weekends. The standers on the hilltops could often see deer moving around the drivers approach, using the pines to their advantage, and the drivers never saw the deer, and the deer never came out of the drive. Most of the time it would just be my Dad and I, so I would post my Dad and maybe one of my brothers on one of the hilltops, and then I would be the only driver. I would walk odd patterns inside the pines, like 100 yards one direction then turn and go a hundred in another direction, then maybe zig zag a short forty. Really freaked the deer out, and they would then bail out to the south, towards my Dad or brother. The deer couldn't see me, most often couldn't smell me, but they could always hear me.
I know of several loggers, that during deer season, just turn their equipment off and wait for the deer to show up shortly. Show me a skidder or slasher that isn't leaking hydraulic fluid, and they sure aren't quiet!
Can't tell you how many deer I've walked up on, using the wind in my favor, and jumped out in the middle of fresh logging slashes. Probably my favorite way to hunt by myself, just slinking along, stopping often, and just looking through my scope. Lever gun heaven!
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Got the kid a trail cam, should arrive soon. She needs to figure out the 'trail' so as to not screw up animal 'paths' when setting up the property. Looking for a ground portable blind. Saw a chair/blind rig that looks neat but chair legs would sink in sandy soil real fast - got the Tshirt for that. Saw many have a 'shoot-thru' screen windows. How does that work? Only hunted sitting in a lawn chair for dove - in jeans and khaki shirt for dove, elevated box blind for hogs. I have heard that urinating from a tree stand will confuse them. Apple scent is supposed to be good too. Both attractants.