These days scent control is pretty much a given for any relatively savvy hunter, but one man’s “scent control” could be another man’s scent disaster. With varying levels of thoroughness to people’s control methods come varying levels of success and as many of us know, you’re scent control system is only as strong as the weakest link. You really need to cross your t’s and dot your i’s when it comes to managing your scent. You just can’t cut corners. That being said, there are a lot of small mistakes that people make that can really destroy all the work they’ve done with scent control precautions. So as an example of  some of these mistakes, here are four often forgotten items that, if not taken care of, can really stink up your hunting area and ruin your “system”!

1. Backpack: I’ve been guilty of this more times than I’m proud of and we’ve probably all done it. Bringing your backpack into the truck or house is going to stink it up and not enough of us take the time to throw our bags in a tote, keep them scent free and then spray them down consistently.

2. Safety Harness: Hopefully most of us use a harness when in a treestand and I think a lot of people, I included, forget to treat these as another piece of clothing. A cloth harness is no different than another layer of clothing, so keep it scent free!

3.  Hat: If you wear your camo ballcap around the house or in the restaurant before hunting, you’ve got to remember to either switch into a scent free hat or really spray it down before hitting the woods.

4. Seat Cushion: If you use a portable hang on or climbing treestand, make sure to spray down the cloth cushion on your treestand. These will soak up scent and most of us just throw a stand in the garage, truck bed or storage room, where it will stink up and eventually blow your cover for you in the woods. Also, if you use a cushion to hunt on the ground or a folding chair to sit in a pop up blind, make sure to spray that down too!

So always remember that your scent control is only as strong as the weakest link. Make sure to pay attention to the details when trying to control your scent and it will pay dividends in the long run. There’s nothing worse than seeing the white flag of a a fleeing whitetail, but nothing better than holding a glimmering white antler. Make sure you’re seeing the latter this fall, so pay attention to your scent.

I’m sure there are some other easily forgotten items that I’ve missed, so if you’ve got a good one, share it with the Wired To Hunt Nation in the comments!

Once again I am thrilled to share with you a guest post from acclaimed deer hunting expert, John Eberhart. As I mentioned in John’s previous post on hunting pressured whitetails, John has a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with us all.  He has taken 23 bucks that have been entered into the Commemorative Bucks of Michigan and he has been published in magazines such as Deer & Deer Hunting and Petersen’s Bowhunting. In addition he has wrote several books, including “Precision Bowhunting”, and has produced multiple instructional DVDs for hunters. So without further ado, John Eberhart’s guest post on Wired To Hunt…

10 Points on Proper Care for Activated Carbon Suits

1. All Scent Lok branded garments use carbon derived from charred coconut shells. Coconut carbon has smaller pores than most other carbons making it one of the best available carbons for adsorbing small molecules associated with human odors.

2. To reactivate carbon garments, put them in a household or commercial dryer for 30 to 40 minutes on a high heat setting. The heat makes the bonded human molecules move rapidly (become more energetic) and the motion breaks a percentage of the molecules free from the carbon (carbon is not affected by the heat) and allows them to escape out the dryer vent. The energetic molecular motion is very similar to why there are expansion joints in highways and steel bridges. Without expansion joints our highways and bridges would buckle from energetic molecular motion or expansion when temperatures exceed a mere 90 or so degrees. The reactivation process should be repeated every 4 to 6 hunts. Due to the extreme amount of odor coming out of your hair follicles, mouth, nose, and hands, head covers and gloves should be reactivated more frequently than the jacket and pants. New carbon garments should always be reactivated prior to use in the field, because they are loading up as they hang in the store.

3. All carbon garments should go directly from the dryer into an air-tight storage container (garbage bag, carbon bag, or a Scent Tote) that allows no outside odors (air) inside. Never put scent wafers, pine boughs, dirt, or any foreign items in the container with your suit because their odor molecules will prematurely load up the carbon, requiring more frequent reactivations, and shortening the life expectancy of the suit. Carbon suits have a life expectancy of about 8 years with average use and proper care before they can no longer be effectively re-activated.

4. Carbon lined garments must be kept in their container until used in the field (not even to be wore in the vehicle). When finished hunting the suit goes back into the storage container prior to getting back into the vehicle or walking into the house. Do not wear carbon garments in the house, car, getting gas, in restaurants, etc., just hunting.

5. It is advised to wash all undergarments in a non-scent detergent and taken care of them (storage unit) in the same manner as the carbon clothing.

6. Scent-Lok branded garments can be washed periodically (once or twice per season) if they have physical dirt or blood on them. This can be done in a washing machine using a small amount of scent free detergent for carbon clothing (preferably Scent Lok’s or Scent Blocker’s). Suits should be air-dried in the dryer first to assure there is no shrinkage. Once air-dried, reactivate them with heat as described in section two.

7. There is no need to spray scent inhibitors over your suit.

8. It is advised to shower and shampoo with non-scent soap, and use a non-scent
anti-perspirant prior to going hunting.

9. Always wear clean knee high rubber boots in conjunction with your suit, and wear your pants outside of the boots instead of tucking them in. Every time you take a step a puff of air comes out of your boots and the carbon in the pant legs will adsorb it.

10. Keep your fanny pack or backpack scent free by frequently washing it in scent free detergent, and keep your loaded pack in its own air-tight container. Nearly every hunter gets into his or her pack every day they hunt to reload or reorganize it before or after each hunt, and they never wash their packs. Hunting with an unwashed pack is like taking a large human scent wick in the tree with you. So, if you don’t keep your pack clean and get winded, don’t blame it on your carbon suit.

An activated carbon suit will only take care of you if you take proper care of it and everything else you take hunting with you. A properly cared for suit wore in conjunction with scent free accessories will make a huge difference in the amount of deer you get close to.

-John Eberhart

For more information about John Eberhart visit http://www.deer-john.net and to pick up one of his DVDs or books, follow the links below.

John Eberhart DVDs (Check out my review of John’s “Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails Volume III”

John Eberhart Books

The Basic Steps of a Scent Control System

1. Removing scent from your body with scent-free soap, shampoo, deoderant, etc.
2. Removing scent from your clothing with scent-free laundry detergent and dryer sheets
3. Properly storing your clothing and gear in a scent-free container until reaching your hunting location
4. Eliminating any additional odor on clothing and gear just prior to the hunt with spray on scent eliminator
5. Hunt stands when the wind is in your favor

If you want to do just one thing to increase your odds of shooting a deer, this is it. No other change in tactics will improve your deer hunting than implementing a scent control system. The deer’s nose is it’s # 1 defense mechanism and ignoring that is just foolish. Take the extra time and money to begin putting a scent control system in place this year. You will see more deer, spook less and kill more. I guarantee it.

For a more visual example of how a system such as this can be implemented, check out Anthony and Aneal from Bowcast.com explaining their process.

But was it really luck? I’d like to think not. I use a careful scent elimination system in order to minimize the amount of human and foreign scents I am trailing into the woods with me and I fully believe that the proper implementation of this system allows me to see more deer in the woods.

There are three steps to the system I use:

1. Washing hunting clothes in scent-free laundry detergent
2. Washing myself in scent-free shampoo/soap
3. Spraying down all my clothing and gear with scent eliminating spray before heading towards my stand

It’s important to note that when using my spray, I spray down EVERYTHING that is going into the woods with me. All my clothes, boots, hat, gloves, face mask, chair, blind and pack. Any cloth object you bring down there can carry in scent, so make sure to spray it down.

Now when it comes to choices of scent eliminating products, there are tons. I’ve used everything from Scent Killer, to Wilderness Research Center to Hunters Specialties. Currently I’m using the Scent Away brand  of detergent, shampoo/soap and spray from Hunter’s Specialties. I made this decision based on research reported by Deer & Deer Hunting magazine which showed Scent Away being able to eliminate the most scent when compared to the other top brands in the market. After my buck encounter last weekend, I’d say I chose well.

No matter what brand of products you choose, make sure to implement a complete system of scent control. Wash your clothes and your body, and finally don’t forget to spray down your clothing and gear when you hit the woods. These simple steps will without a doubt improve the number and quality of deer you see.

To illustrate this idea, here is a commercial from Scent Away showing all the elements of their scent control system.

To hear Hunter’s Specialties CEO David Forbes talk about the Scent Away scent elimination system, check out the most recent episode of Petersen’s Bowhunting Radio. (This is a Podcast, so you must have itunes installed on your computer for this link to work properly)

What’s your favorite scent eliminating spray or wash?

One of the most important steps to scent control is eliminating human and other foreign odors from your clothing and hunting gear. One of the easiest ways to do this, is to just prevent your gear from coming into contact with many typical household odors which can alarm deer. So how can you do this? Well it may seem simple to most, but I’m sure there are others out there who don’t take this simple precaution.

Always keep your hunting clothing in a scent proof, plastic container or bag. This should keep your hunting garments separated from all the scents wafting around your house that can follow you out to the stand. In addition to keeping my hunting clothing in a large plastic trash bag, I also keep all of my gear outside. This is just one more level of separation I can place between the strong smelling home/humans and my hopefully scent free hunting gear. Some people also like to throw dirt, leaves or other “nature” scented items into their bag to add more natural odors to their clothes.

So remember, keep your hunting clothes out of the house and in a scent proof container. This is one quick and easy step to a more scent free and successful hunt. It’s so simple that you really have no excuse not to do it.

You guys have any other ideas about this? Any certain things you throw in with your clothes? We’d love to hear what you have to say.

Want more scent control tips? Check out Deer Hunting Scent Control Tip # 1.

Wow. Stop and think about that. 4,000 times more effective?! I personally think that would be a rough life. With that strong of a nose I think Macy’s would just be unbearable and lets not even talk about those nights at deer camp after beans for dinner. Lucky for us (actually very unlucky), it’s not us, but the deer with the super human noses.  Constantly trying to evade the whitetail deer’s incredible sense of smell is consistently one of the largest challenges facing deer hunters. But there are ways to beat it.

So what do you do to combat the incredible nose of a whitetail? The answer to that is a long one, but here is a quick list from Deer & Deer Hunting which covers a lot of tactics I hold to be very important. Although many of these are commonly practiced, it is still good to refresh your memory once in awhile. If your new to the sport, do additional research on each one of these topics and stay tuned for more scent control tips in the future from Wired To Hunt.

1. Wash your hunting clothing and equipment with non-scented detergent.

2. Use scent-reduction garments.

3. Store all apparel and as much of your equipment as possible in scentproof totes and/or bags.

4. Shower with non-scented soap.

5. Spray all apparel and equipment with scent-elimination sprays.

6. Under-dress for the temperature until you get to your stand.

7. Avoid spicy foods that can show up in sweat (garlic, alcohol, etc.) and avoid gas-producing foods (beans, cabbage, etc.).

8. Fuel up the truck the day before instead of stopping on the way to your hunting land.

9. Use cover scents common to the local area.

10. Pay attention to the wind at all times.

- 10 Ways To Beat A Buck’s Nose

Plan to check back in soon, as we will review many of these ideas in more detail soon. Good luck hunting and stay stink free.