Hi all,

Does anyone know where I can get unscented, non UV enhancing laundry detergent in Australia, or failing that, a recipe so I can make my own??

Living in the USA I cant say where you might find some of the fancy new formulas available but if you go to the laundry detergent section in your local market look for some borax. Here in the states I have only seen it packaged as 20 Mule Team Borax for the past 30 years . This is a great non scented deodorizing agent. I used it for years and then would air dry my hunting clothes to keep them from picking up any residual foo foo scent from the dryer then bag them in doubled plastic garbage bags when dry and pack them away in a plastic storage bins til needed. Good luck to you mate.

Hey eaglesforever & 10spotterminator,

I agree on the 20 Mule Team Borax, but because I'm lazy I use the drier, but I use Hunter's Specialities Scent-A-Way Earth scent dryer sheets.

As a matter of fact, when ever I go out I throw everything I am going to wear, except my boots, in the dryer with one of these sheets. Not only nice to put on warm clothes but the scent is great.

For lesterg3 and eaglesforever,,

Being older than dirt and an avid bowhunter as well as firearms hunter I had an affliction over the years for doing all I could to become invisible to game animals with good senses of sight and smell . I watched all of the crazes in scent covers come and in many cases go . I would do my own field testing of products before the seasons would open for hunting to try to sort fact from fantasy. I cant begin to tell you some of the NASTY stuff I have put on me over the years to try to fool a big game animals nose.

I would shower and use some of that borax disolved in a bucket of warm water, rinse it off, appply baking soda water over my body, dry off with a towel washed in borax, put on my borax washed camo and hit the field. Later in life scent elimination products for scent free hygene showed up and I use them now . Love the scent killer moist towelettes for touching up in the fied, gets hot out some days .

All of the above having been done I would travel to an area with high concentraions of deer and procced to find a well used game trail to test the scent cover or scent eliminating products. I would totally obcure myself from sight and set appx 20 yds upwind of the game trail, apply whatever the product of the day was and then settle in to wait. Before long one or more animals would arrive and instatntly let you know if the product had any merit.

Although some products seemed not to scare the bejesus out of the deer I can honestly say ALL of them got the deers attention and put them on a heightened alert status to varying degrees. Among these were some earth scented covers . Nearly 20 years ago the scent eliminators showed up on the market and made me a believer. As long as you stayed freshened up with these products you were good to go. The dryer sheets mentioned by lesterg3 sound pretty good , but for me, I opt not to smell like anything at all . I am a rotten old fart and like to shoot them when they arent looking .

Hey 10spotterminator,

I am not going to debate which of us is more rotten , or a bigger fart. Although that might be fun sometime.

I use what works for me, very successfully, and I am certain that what you do is great for you. Great hearing from you, just trying to give the kid some options.

You rotten old fart

Welcome to the HuntingNut. I'm not sure whats available in OZ I use Sport Wash for my hunting cloths no UV brighteners and scent free. I'm sure Vince will be along soon and he might have some info for ya .
Joe

Good old baking soda?

Dimitri

Gidday eaglesforever.

To be honest, I have never heard of "unscented, non UV enhancing laundry detergent" in Australia.

I am not going to argue with the two "rotten old farts" who use all sorts of products to mask their yummy scent, but I think that unless you are prepared to bathe in scent eliminators every hour or so, you will never get rid of your human scent. Its just a fact of life guys...we hooman beans smell like, well, hooman beans.

I don't think Davy Crockett or Dan'l Boone used scent maskers...and I doubt that they showered or washed their clothes even weekly, and they lived happily off the land.

What is it you are wanting to "hide" from eaglesforever (you sound like a WA AFL team fan mate)?

I think the best thing to do is get out there, do your homework on game trails, wallows, rubs etc...then on the day of your hunt, check the wind direction and stay downwind of your most likely game haunt. You won't fool them all, but the more homework do you will stack the odds in your favour.

Another option is to try and give the game something that they would expect to smell in the area you are going to hunt. If there are mobs of cattle about, well, you could always try giving a big ol' cow a cuddle to pick up her scent...or use their presence to mask yours.

Most importantly, when you shower in the morning, don't use your wife's fancy jasmine or rose scented soap, and after you have had a "dad 'n dave", don't splash on a handful of Old Spice. Same with your clothes...wash them and leave them out in the sun for at least a day to "burn off" any residual soap/fabric conditioner scent.

It is surprising how far an unnatural scent will travel in the scrub. Cigarette smoke is one of those unnatural scents and you can smell it for miles almost. Give the smokes up, at least for the day...even the smell on your body will waft around and give you away.

Have a look at this website mate...they are in Bribie Island, so they are nearby to us.

Non Toxic Life

But seriously mate, I would have to say that the chances of you masking your scent 100% is, at best, marginal...especially when you consider the olfactory abilities of game animals.

Cheers, Vince

Hey Vince I use the sport wash not so much to cover up my scent but to eliminate adding the scent of laundry detergents and Deer are suppose to be sensitive to the UV spectrum and this has no UV brighteners and it's great for gortex and thinsulate insulation here's a link for it
Joe www.atsko.com/products...rgent.html

Yeah Vince,

You are probably right on, but the stuff I use is cheap and I need all the help I can get. WITHOUT rolling in cow poop.

And you are way right on the cigarettes smoke, I did some experimenting with that, and won't even take them with me on a hunt.

On the other hand Davy Crockett or Dan'l Boone didn't bath none to often and I suspect that with the amount of time they were outdoors that they pertty much smell like it, naturaly.

I have three elevated box blinds that I use, two are easy to get to without walking over the game trails. The best one though is way back and I can't get to it without walking all over their trails, that's when I use the stuff mostly, and I never bring my hunting boots indoors.

Thanks for that Joe.

Well, I've learned something new today. I wasn't aware that deer, and I'm assuming that all deer vision is the same as whitetail, could see in the UV Spectrum.

Might just have to see if this stuff is available in Oz.

Cheers, Vince

Here ya go Lester...something that might just make your life a little easier in the scrub mate.

Check out this thread from a ways back in the Forum:

www.huntingnut.com/ind...ed+hunters

Cheers, Vince

Strange, I regularly stalk goats and pigs to less than 20 meters and fallow deers to about 40 meters.
I never bother with whatever scent detergent the wifey uses,
I hunker over the fire on cold days (smokey smell?) and sweat like any other bloke on hot days, and farts as stinky as any bloke..
I found from a hunt guide that you got to learn to stalk from downwind, and you got to take note on what/where you step.
Other than that, just do your stalk and freezes.

I reckon, scents is not a big deal, most hunting area already have human scents.
It is movement that scares animals more than scents..

my 2c cos I am wise and good looking and a great hunter and ...


Eaglesforever sounds like Manly supporter.. go Maroons!!

Gelan The Shy and Bashful wrote:

my 2c cos I am wise and good looking and a great hunter and ...

....and all round good bloke mate.

Gelan The Odiferous wrote:

sweat like any other bloke on hot days , and farts as stinky as any bloke..

As you should mate, as you should. Its what makes the world go round.

Cheers, Vince

I've been sold on the no scent/no UV brightener laundry and body soaps since I had a whitetail doe walk around me at 8 feet, tring to figure out what I was. She couldn't so she walked off. I was using Hunter Specialties Scent-A-Way products. I also use their scent wafers, almost always the Fresh Earth, clipped to my boot or the back of my jacket.