Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: Timo on September 06, 2009, 10:55:12 am
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I was reading about the home brew cover scents on in primitive skills. Never really tried that and don't use a lot of cover scents per say. Just always tried to hunt the wind and stay clean.
I have use white wood ashes with good success (maybe be the charcoal in them)and also carry red cedar berries in my pockets,just smash them in my hands and wipe down with them.They seem to help alot.
Question......has anyone here ever did the "smoked clothes" thing? I've had a few hunting friends say it works. I've never tried it on purpose,but have had them smoked around hunting camps and such. Never noticed much difference.
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No...I just keep mine in the Wife's Cedar Chest all Year Long...and since where I Hunt has Native Cedars....seems to work just Great....ain't never been winded yet!
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No...I just keep mine in the Wife's Cedar Chest all Year Long...and since where I Hunt has Native Cedars....seems to work just Great....ain't never been winded yet!
Well, at least not that you are aware of. 8)
I like to keep odor to a minimum and use the wind in my favor. Skunk is as strong a cover scent as you can find. But you still smell like a hunter, just one that has been sprayed by a skunk. :-\
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Tim, I see smoke as a nature neutral scent and not alarming to animals...but that depends on the source of the smoke. If it is from a controlled fire with natural, local materials like wood and grasses it should not necessarily startle animals but if you use the common campfire smoke you are probably getting beer and soda cans, plastic bottles, plates and cups, uneaten food, etc mixed in and this can be alarming to animals that are being hunted.
That said, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you hunt into the wind and go into the woods clean. Cover scents make us, the hunter, seem invisible but in fact, no matter what or how much cover scent one uses, if your scent stream hits an animal's nose, the game is over. The same goes with commercial camo. Is it necessary? Is it the pattern you wear or your actions(or inaction's) in the woods that makes you invisible?
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I never use any cover scent. I try to smell as much like "nothing" as possible and don't think cover scent works. I believe a deer's nose is so sensitive that he can still pick up human odor even if you soak down in cover scent.
Smoking your clothes might work, but IMO that's just another odor to catch his attention.
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I'm with Shannon. I think scent cover is just another gadgit for people that like to collect hunting gadgits. I pay close attention to the wind and might walk 2 or 3 miles more than I wanted because the wind changed directions. And I hunt mostly from the ground.
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i dont use any sprays,anymore.
however i do keep all my hunting clothes and boots in HUNTER SPECIALTIES scent proof bags.
this keeps any odors during the year from getting on my gear,plus i like to put about 3-4 earth scent wafers in there
along with 3-4 acorn scent wafers.i also store my double bull blind this way.
when you open the bags,that all you smell is dirt and acorns.
i have had deer with in 1yd of my blind,they have even hung around for several hours.
i never shot any of them,they were always younger bucks and never felt like they were worthy.
this was when i hunted with my training wheels yet,now let one get that close and he will bleed reardless of the age >:D
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I don't get to hunt very much but when I do I usually get pretty close to the wildlife...and I don't do anything to cover my scent. I've tried staying upwind but it doesn't seem to make much difference. I find that animals are curious of human smells and will actually come closer, in search of food scraps and such, if I'm hunting close to a city. I think the further out you are from civilization, the more wary animals will be of your human scent.
The techniques that I've read about, among the Native Americans, seem to concentrate on silence, camouflage, decoys, and concealment. If there is mention of covering scents, it is usually a scent of the prey (like the dung) that is applied to the hunter. Also, I've heard that Indians would fast before hunting so that their breath would not stink and also so they would not pass gas during the hunt. ;)
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All interesting stuff.
The reason I started useing white wood ashes was from a story I read once about a couple Indian brothers that had a game of who could touch a deer. Seems that they bathed down in white wood ashes thus cleansing the outer skins.
Interesting that JackCrafty brought up a good point about fasting.Fasting will also detox the body of any unnatural scents that permiate through the skin.I just get to hungry for that. ;) We are what we eat. so many pores on our skin that release whats inside. I quit drinking coffee before a hunt because of this.
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"You are what you eat" Huh! I'm not a big beer drinker, but I hear it's made from grains and barley and stuff like that...deer like grain ::) Maybe if I drink more beer, the deer will like the way I smell and come closer :o ;D
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i use smoke but im with shannon. A buddy of mine smokes cigs in the stand and still kills deer. The wind is what matters
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i use smoke but im with shannon. A buddy of mine smokes cigs in the stand and still kills deer. The wind is what matters
my brother hubts with a dude that only smokes during deer season,big ol stogies
every year he gets one of the biggest deer that see killed during the season
personally i think its curiosity,they smell the smoke,they get curious if its a danger or not so they come to investigate
before they flee
maybe i should take up smoking again and quit drinking coffee
nah 28 yrs of it before i quit,damn sure not gonna start that again,even if it means killing deer lol
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I ain't smoked in over 20 years ...and there isn't a Deer Big enough to get Me to Start again......... :P
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What I get a kick out of is folks that pee in a bottle while 20 feet up in a tree, then carry their pee out with them :P
If I have to pee I just let er go off the stand and it never appears to have bothered the deer.
Can't see paying out my money for scentloc clothes, de-odorizing spray, cover scents etc etc etc or high dollar camo clothing, I have
some camo clothes but all of it was bought back in my wheelie days when I had to have the latest thingamajiggy every season :o
I also don't waste money on doe in heat lure most of it is way over priced and is pretty useless, at least I've never had a deer come in to it >:(
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i hang green apple car air freshners around my stands and then i put the same ones in my truck, that way i smell like green apples and the deer are used to that smell,has worked so far.
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If I am up in a Tree Stand sitting....I will Pee in a Bottle....but that cause I don't want to pee on my Pants and sit there in wet britches all damned day long....it's easier to pee in a 24 ounce Pepsi Bottle than it is to make sure that you are clear of all of your Hunting Clothes at 6 am in the Dark....... >:D
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Mike isn't it hard to hit the little opening on a bottle in the dark ::) :P
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I just close My Eyes....aint never had a Problem hitting a little opening in the Dark......... >:D
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:-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :P
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l dont use anything to cover my scent. l believe if it comes in a bottle it aint natural, no matter what the label says. l do most of my hunting on the property my employer owns....600 acres of good hunting ground. When l punch out on the time clock l grab my weapon from the truck and head for the woods, still wearing the same clothes l've been in all day at work and can get in close enough to deer that will make your heart want to jump out of your chest. l dont care about the wind, l hunt from all sides and last year l walked out of the woods dragging a deer behind me everytime l went in. l stalk, and at 5'6'' l can get around the woods without being seen pretty good and when l spot deer l follow their lead...when they move, l move alittle faster...when they stop, l sit and wait. l've had them smell me in the past but never saw me so they werent too alarmed and keep doing they're thing. l've been hunting like this for years and more times then not, l come out on top.
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I don't use cover scents, but if I was going to, it wouldn't be out of a bottle. I've tried that scent killer spray on my boots before, don't know if it helps or not. I think the wind is the main thing. If you're downwind, you're invisible. If you're upwind, you're busted no matter what you're using. You might be able to fool deer into thinking that you're further away than you really are, though, dunno. I'd like to hunt some of these places y'all are at where you don't have to worry about the wind and that deer don't spook if they smell you-around here, if a deer crosses three hundred yards downwind of you, it'll blow and haul butt away from there. Several times, I've had deer see me and not spook until they smelled me, then it was all over. I think that the nose is what a deer trusts a lot more than its eyes or ears. I've found the same thing to be true of hogs, you can let them see you if you're not making sudden movements, but the second they smell you, they're gone like they were never there.
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If I am up in a Tree Stand sitting....I will Pee in a Bottle....but that cause I don't want to pee on my Pants and sit there in wet britches all damned day long....it's easier to pee in a 24 ounce Pepsi Bottle than it is to make sure that you are clear of all of your Hunting Clothes at 6 am in the Dark....... >:D
heck i use a hunting blind and i keep a pee bottle in there too
dont want splatter hitting my blind, and i dont leave the blind unless i am off to do some scounting or leaving for the day or best case scenario
getting out to go gather my prize ;D
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Same as a lot of you,I use no cover scent,even use" Off",when the skeeters are real bad.But I work real hard to be down wind.And yes ,I do get busted every now and then,but that's deer huntin'. God Bless
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I try and watch the wind but in These TN. hills you would be changing stands every 15 mi. if you stay with the wind right.I try and keep clean and usually pull some cedar off as I walk in and rub down with it from time to time,thats about it.I put a thread in the tree or on the bow tip where if they are coming in I can tell better when I need to shoot.If the wind is good I can take my time if not I can shoot at the first best opportunity.Also depends on where you hunt,if a deer spooked bad every time they smelled a human around home they couldn't go anywhere,on the other hand at Land between lake where we hunt they may not smell a man all year till hunting season and they react very different. :) I just try and keep clean and let the chips fall where they may.If you put the time in there will be a stupid one come along now and then. ;) :)
Pappy
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Started bow hunting 36 years ago and learned long ago that store bought scents were almost never right for the area that I was in. That being said, I also learned to use what ever was naturally prodominate and blooming where ever I was. If in sage then i would wipe down with the sage that was blooming or if in allot of fir trees,then fir. The trick is to blend in and not send anything to alert. If in an apple orchard then smell like an apple.
Pumice and other things like ash and even backing powder will cut human odor as well. And the food info is correct. If you eat allot of meat you will give off the scent of a predator more then if on a diet of greens. Just as much as mesquites are more attracted to someone who eats allot of bananas. (because of the potassium) So If you want to be hard core about scent control and getting close this is how, but nothing is as important and wind savvy. I have been close enough to touch elk and deer many times.
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Didn't know that about bananas Keenan. I like them because they have no bones! ;D
The native Americans used to smoke their buckskin for waterpfoofing,so was just wondering if anyone had really tried it for a season. I have alot of ERC in my area, I was thinking of trying to smoke my clothes over it this year as a test. I mean....what's another year? EH? ;)
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Timo, instead of smoking them in cedar I'd box or bag them in cedar chips or the needles.
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I've boxed them for years, with good results,(I guess)? ;D I just thought I might try something different.I've heard of this for a long time and just never tried it. Ya never know,it just might have merit? ;)
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like I said earlier in this Post...I have been putting all of my Hunting Clothes in my Wife's Cedar Chest for Years with great results...as for Smoking Clothes....Well I have smoked a lotta Rope in my Time....but never any Clothes........... :P ;D
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i hang green apple car air freshners around my stands and then i put the same ones in my truck, that way i smell like green apples and the deer are used to that smell,has worked so far.
huh. i dip. (yeah i know, terrible habbit. :-[) green apple skoal? smells jist like green apple suckers and what not.