slimjim.... I had been working on a deer farm during the day and went hunting on the home farm in the afternoon.
as for gelandagans comments. watch your well behaved dog when he/she comes across a fresh cow turd!!! instint takes over the dog just has to have a roll in the green stuff pheuuuwee they stink its a way to mask thier own scent.
we had a pig dog when I was a youngun who used to love to find human doodoos man she was NOT popular when she returned.
Vince talked about cigarette smoke, well years ago on a frosty morning Dad n I were driving along a shingle road and Dad turned to me and asked if I had been smoking again as he could smell it. no I replied then I smelt it too.. a good 500mtrs further on we spotted a lady walking along haveing a smoke. both being exsmokers our body had TUNED in to the smell. I believe animals can do the same, humans mean danger and we stink to thier noses.

Lack of hiding the scent completely I think works better.

Deers are stupid, all animals are stupid. They get used to patterns, and when something is out of place they notice it and run or stay away.

If your dressed like a farmer, smelling like a farmer, and your out in the open, the deer don't run away. They smell farmers every day of the year, and get accustomed to it as a no threat situation cause generally farmers don't go killing deer all day long.

When your hiding in a tree, barely smelling like person, and they get a whiff of something unknown, they'll run with or without thinking your a threat just to be safe.

Dimitri

Well, guess I'm the contrary one. I use the no-UV, no-scent laundry detergent, some "scent killer" spray on my boots and gear and a "dirt" cover scent. I've had deer walk around me at 8' trying to figure out what I was. That sold me on the stuff.

While I bet you were using all the stuff Mike, I bet your over all bushcraft while hunting played a bigger role then you think.

Using all the tools available properly is generally a good thing. But scent elimination alone using marketed products is not the answer alone. So yes, they probably get very close to you due to the help of you using the tools you have but I bet you've gotten closer to deer without all that stuff then most do with it.

Dimitri

Yup Pumpkinslinger...And I hunted with a man that leaned against a tree [sitting] and hand fed deer slices of apple with his rifle across his legs.

Rub yerself with pizza and the Whitetail's 'll come a runnin'.

Serioulsy- if whatever it is that works for you actually works? Do it! There's just too much emmotional evidence on both sides of the coin to say one way or the other. Esp when the rut's on...sometimes a smell's a good thing, and sometimes not!

Plus when the shooting starts? Pffft....if ya cant stalk 'em ya better be good at sitting perfectly still downwind- no matter what yer wearin'.

The nose says "look out eyes, something's up", but they cue in on movement/noise- doubt they can pinpoint where a smell comes from. And if smells spooked them that bad you'd never see one- ever! Why? Ya cant mask your breath. IT stinks!!!

Bottom line is they gotta eat and drink- smells won't keep them off the plots for too long. If ya can't go after 'em, stick around. Forest Rat's aint that bright but they sure are yummy and way worth a case of numb-buns.

Pic of Bushy with the ol Jackhandle...

LOL love the picture.

Dimitri's point is well made. I once "accidentally" splashed Old Spice on when I finished shaving at a hunting camp. All my buddies went ape on me except the owner. He smoked a pipe filled with this fragrant apple type aromatic tobacco that, after one evening in the cabin, permeated everything including our clothes, sleeping bags, you name it. That day he placed me on the "Wing" and he took the other one while the guys walked through the woods making all sorts of noise. The drive was from the downwind side which meant the game would come out downwind of me and him. He shot a big stag caribou at about 25 yards which crossed in front of me at about 100 yards but between me and the drivers. That caribou must have got a real nose full of his pipe and my Old Spice. Doesn't prove anything except perhaps that animals don't necessarily associate strange smells with danger.

Oh almost forgot, waiting for the scent free boxers to come out. I have a case of stout and an idea for an experiment LOL.

MacD wrote:

Oh almost forgot, waiting for the scent free boxers to come out. I have a case of stout and an idea for an experiment LOL.

MMM, I can see that ending with the usual results, special undies or no.
Keep us posted on the results, feel free to spare us the really yuk outcomes...

Mac wrote:

...Oh almost forgot, waiting for the scent free boxers to come out. I have a case of stout and an idea for an experiment LOL.

Good luck with that one Mac. As a stout drinker of many years, I can assure you there ain't NUFFIN that will overcome the resultant problems mate...ask my missus (SWMBO).

Cheers, Vince

frying onions on the BBQ and fatty mutton chops feed the mutton fat to the family dog then leave home for a few days!!!!

I knew I saw it out there somewhere...check out this site. It has some good info about colours and the wavelengths of various UV ranges.

www.bowhunting.net/art...rsee.shtml

The website is by a company called ATSKO who market soaps for hunting clothes, but I think the information provided is genuine.

Cheers, Vince

many years ago on a very foggy day my Dad and I were mustering on oppisite ridges probably about 500yrds apart. Dad was leading a dun horse and was wearing a BRIGHT orange wolly hat a check shirt and faded blue denim shorts. The fog/mist came down and the only thing I could see was his shorts walking along. I have seen orange blend in with ferns which have browned off but blue stands out and so does pink(now Im not suggesting we should be dressed like fairies) wear what you feel comfortable in.a great way to check out your hunting gear is to look at it through a black n white view finder on a camera my red rifle sling got the treatment after seeing it on video.

Vince wrote:

I knew I saw it out there somewhere...check out this site. It has some good info about colours and the wavelengths of various UV ranges. www.bowhunting.net/art...rsee.shtml The website is by a company called ATSKO who market soaps for hunting clothes, but I think the information provided is genuine. Cheers, Vince

The cheap way to go is to use laundry detergent with NO fragrance or dyes (which are UV brighteners mainly). I use Tide Free (and there are LOTS on the market now, not like a few years ago) and when we looked at the hunter orange clothing through the video cameras there was no or greatly reduced UV glow. The whole idea of wearing orange, scarlet, yellow or white clothing is for other hunters to see you. All that being said if you follow the 5 S's of camoflauge (size, shape, shadow. shine and silhouette), limit your movement and use the wind to your advantage you will have a better chance of remaining undetected.

Ron Chimo wrote:

...All that being said if you follow the 5 S's of camoflauge (size, shape, shadow. shine and silhouette), limit your movement and use the wind to your advantage you will have a better chance of remaining undetected.

100% correct mate...as we were all taught in the services. The only extra thing we added to the five S's was an M, for movement.

If you ever have the opportunity to work with or watch a Special Forces unit on the field, the first thing you will notice is the way they move through the bush...slow and deliberate...no sudden movements, everything is controlled. Sudden movement is out of place in the bush, other than in a bad storm, whereas most natural movement is gentle, slow and just little flicks...like a leaf in a breeze. The average person, when going to ground (prone), simply flops down and adopts a fire position in order to engage the target...sudden movement which is seen, even from peripheral vision or out the corner of the eye. The SF guys are painfully slow when going to ground, but what that achieves is no sudden movement attracting the attention of the quarry.

I have actually proven this when out fox hunting...on one occasion I was lucky enough to see a fox before he saw me when I was moving slowly through the scrub. His mind was on a rabbit in long grass...both were about 25 metres from me. I saw him jump up in the grass then disappear again, only to pop up again and prop...he knew something wasn't quite the same as it was a few seconds earlier. I stood looking at him, and when I had the chance (about 15 seconds later) I slowly lowered myself to the ground. The first he knew I was there was when the sears broke, quickly followed by a 75gn .243 boollit boring a nice neat 6mm diameter hole through his brain. Had I moved quickly and dropped to the ground he would have definitely seen the movement, and me, and taken off at the speed of a raped ape.

As for the UV factor, I'm not an expert...all I've seen are depictions of what the boffins believe certain animals see. It is believed that deer see blues better than other colours, and the brighteners in washing soaps actually enhance these blues to the point where they seem to glow...which makes them look very much out of place...and unnatural to deer.

Cheers, Vince

The closest I've ever been to a wild deer was bow hunting with some "cow crap" as a cover scent. I knew beef cows were in the area so I took a ziplock bag with me. I inverted it, put my hand inside it like a glove and scooped up some fresh "pattys". At my blind I poured some out on the ground at different points around me. About an hour later I had a deer walk past litterally within 3ft of me. I had no other coverscent on me, that stinky cow poop was plenty to hide anything coming off me.

LOL!

Elk bow hunting I put cow pee on gun cleaning patches hung on branches around me for cover scent. I had an calf elk come up from behind me and nudge my hat on my head. I had 3 or 4 elk within 10ft of me during this time, I litterally shot over the back of one 6ft away to hit one at 30 yards (it was so close I couldnt see the vitals through the brush in front of the ground blind). This was roughly at the same time the calf elk behind me was snorting and smelling my hat. It was a crazy experience.


-DallanC