scentblocker, why?

utahgolf said:

I bet that was cool! I have no idea how the cover scent is vs scent blockers and eliminators. I'm sure a cover scent like elk urine and others might do a good job of confusing an animal for awhile vs scent eliminators/blockers. I'm not sure if that was in the article.

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Boy I'll tell you what, it was INCREDIBLY unnerving. To make it worse, my blind was on a slope, and there was a cow less than 10ft in front and below me looking at me eyeball to eyeball, but I couldn't see her vitals as she was downhill and the side of the blind was too high... so I'm sitting there thinking in my mind "HOLY S%@#, this jig is going to be up in about 3 seconds", so I drew back, elk behind me snorting on the back of my neck and bumping my hat, and aimed at a cow 30 yards away that was in the clear. So I literally shot over an elk 10ft in front of me, elk behind me... and nailed another cow 30 yards out. All the while the whole herd was filtering past to get to a spring for water.

It was NUTS! One of the craziest hunting experiences of my life. Oh and I kindof pulled the shot a little (nerves lol), arrow hit just forward of the shoulder, clipping the arteries off at the neck. She went less than 30 more yards from the spot of the shot and tipped over. Amazing.

-DallanC

I've been reading the other tests done by field and stream. I can't find the petersen one, it's in the new issue so it might not be online yet, but it is a lot harsher and skeptical than field and stream, could be a sponsor thing, who knows. But it seems a hard test to do with dogs, a dog wants to be rewarded so the dog will cautiously take time to make sure which box the hunter is in and in a couple instances the dog does catch human odor in the test but checks out all the boxes to makes sure... Also dogs get bored and will take more time after awhile... I don't see a deer caring about a reward or being bored.. If it gets your scent or something isn't right they are off. I think I would be more prone to wear a "cover" scent than waste money on scent killers and sprays. Your breath, heat from your head, heat from your boots, it just seems impossible to eliminate enough odor to make a difference at all,, masking odor on the other hand might buy you a few seconds. maybe. But a lot of things we do in hunting are mental and part of a routine.

My theory is that you don't have to have your smell to disappear, just don't smell too foreign. Most of the wildlife in Utah are around people often enough. They see trucks, horses, four wheelers, people, camp fires, exhaust, hikers, hippies, youth groups, etc... that it is just one more thing to deal with. It isn't odors that will spook them, it is feeling a threat of some kind. Back as a teenager, a group of three of us stalked some deer to less than 5 yards during the archery. The first part of the stalk included wading across the Salmon River, so when we came out of the river, we smelled like the river. The deer looked straight at us and kept on feeding in the hay field. Only one of the three of us was even wearing any camo.

I don't know if it makes a difference or not. I think that like most stuff found under the big green roof, it is more about selling product than any science. And that goes from higher modules graphite fly rods, to mossier oakier camo patterns, to strike inducing spin bait-a-ma-jiggers, to scent block. Shesh. Take old WyoGoob for instance. The old guy successfully hunts everything from elk with a shot gun, to ptarmigan with a sling shot, to bison with a voodoo jedi mind trick. And he smells like pickled squirrel guts sausages.

I will use scent eliminator under my arms, on my hat band, and a few other selected areas to rid the b.o. smell, then put sage, pine or earth scent on the brim of my hat, back pack and clothing. I also step in all the fresh elk scat and wipe it on my pant legs. I have also placed elk urine saturated dirt in a sock along with scat and tied it to my belt hoops. I know for a fact you can't rid yourself of human scent, but you can minimize it and then use a cover scent to try and mask it. I have killed many elk doing this. I quit the practice a few years ago and just went out hunting. Since not taking the time to "un-stink" and then "stink up", I have not been able to get as close to elk or deer.

An old bear hunting trick is to take a sweaty shirt and leave it at your bait site. The bears will get used to it when they come in to feed. When it is finally time to sit the bait, they will be familiar with your scent and not be as skittish/cautious when they come in to feed.