Best Cover Sents /Or Sent Free whats best.

[buckaroo]

What do you guys use as a cover scent or do you go totaly sent free in the old days i used coyote urine but that is a predator so i quit using that and started using coon urine seem to work pretty well but just watching the body language of some deer it seems they get a little uneasy about it  you see those plastic sent wafers and i got some to try the other day i allways use sent killer on my clothes and wear  lacross burly rubber boots that seem to work well but the best defense a deer has is his nose if they smell human you will never see them or you will hear them 200 yards away blowing at you for 30 minutes and running every thing in the woods off just looking for a little edge.

[Kevin]

I use the scent-free detergent and dryer sheets. Once I take them out I put them in a big zip-loc type bag. It's huge and holds all of my clothes, and I also put all my hats and calls and everything in it. Throw a couple of those wafers in the bag and you've got a pretty good start.

For cover scent, I always use some kind of doe urine. Once I kill a deer I cut the scent sacs off the hind legs, tie them to my boots and let them drag behind me. Smell them early in the season vs during the rut. During the rut, the scent will knock you back!

[Wizard]

In the past, I have used Atsko Sport-Wash to wash my clothes, but this year I am trying out Penguin Sport-Wash.

As for scent elimination, I use either Scent Killer or Scent-A-Way sprays.

I've also used Team Fitzgerald's Deer Dander scent/attractant and VK attractant.  They seemed to work really well, but paying $14.99 for a 4-ounce bottle just isn't worth it.

[ArkansasSloughboy]

On my bow hunting clothes I use Scent away laundry detergent. Then I bury my clothes in a cooler full of persimmon flavored corn. I've watched deer 200 yards downwind put their nose in the air and come to me trying to find me. If I don't have those clothes with me I will pull some pine needles off a tree and rub them all over me. If I'm gun hunting I will just take a smoke bath by the camp fire.

[blindset61]

I'm not trying to be controversial, but I just don't know if I believe in the benefit of the whole scent free business.  There just ain't no way you can be totally scent free.  Maybe reduce the scent, but heck, how much scent would an animal need?  Gun oil, boots on truck mats after standing at the gas pump, there are all kinds of odors that remain.  I think deer, bear, etc. are attracted to certain odors and smells, but I also think they can detect everything else, too.  I remember my birddog used to trail me up pronto when making the normal rounds they do.  I think it much more important to take the wind direction into account, and the benefit of getting up in those trees can't be overemphasised.  Deer are used to people and people are in the woods all the time.

I remember old time trapping books warning about scent free steel traps, that a coyote would smell steel in the ground and shy away.  Heck, if coyotes were to get buggy over the smell of steel I would  hesitate to think they couldn't take two steps without wigging out with all the old metal, barbwire, etc. around.

[BHixson]

The only thing I use is scent Away .

[Kevin]

Blind, we wouldn't be hunters if we didn't get all caught up in the marketing of the business!!

I agree though, you can't really ever be 100 percent scent-free. However, there are definitely steps I try to take to reduce my scent.

Washing my clothes with scent away detergent vs "spring meadow" Tide, or using scent-free soap vs some strong scented eucalyptus body wash or something are just things I'm willing to do to increase my odds.

If I can increase the chances of a deer not getting a whiff of me in the breeze from 50/50 to 80/20, I'll take that every time.

[buckaroo]

Allways looking for a little edge deer are smart and can smell very well no you will never be sent free but i have a few rules #1 never wear the boots i am hunting in untill i get ready to start to the stand #2 when i can walk to the stand instead of getting on a 4 wheeler and riding  do it the less noise the better try to keep it natural #3 no smoking on stand i will smoke a good cigar at night when supper is over and #4 i know deer smell smoke from fires and local people burning wood for heat but i stay away from the camp fire in the early hours and at midday i hate to hear a deer blow i feel like i have been busted.

[ArkansasSloughboy]

Buckaroo, I think campfire smoke helps. We don't have a shower at our deer camp. Sometimes I will go a couple days without a shower wearing the same clothes. I will be covered in blood. Drenched in sweat walking thru thickets. I take my clothes off and they can stand up on their own. I'm sitting in the stand on the third day and I can smell myself. No cover scent or scent-away and the deer will be right under my stand. The only explanation I have for it is the campfire smoke. I've seen it many times. One of the places I bow hunt... there is nothing you can do to keep them from smelling you. You either stay down wind or they take off running and blowing. You can do everything possible and when the deer walk across, as soon as they get down wind they startle and run off.

[buckaroo]

Arkansas slougboy you could be right i have seen hunting shows where they are out west hunting for elk  and pronghorn in sagegrass and no cover in site and thats what they did got  smoked by a campfire and got with in 15 yards they looked at them but never spooked whitetails are skidish to say the least i camped primative for 23 years in Dallas county i took gallon jugs sat them in the sun and in the middle of the day stood on a piece of plywood and cleaned up so i know what you mean about your clothes standing on there on the one thing i do know the nose of a deer is its best defense so i do everything i can to try and fool them best of luck to you and everyone else on this forum on this years hunt.

[ArkansasSloughboy]

Good luck to you too.

[donut]

I use this stuff I get at Ingrams here at Quitman call head hunter. I use the ghost clothes wash, sent away body wash, the cover scent is call humus smells alot like fresh earth with hs hunter's fresh earth scent wafers.

[Greg]

I've been bowhunting now for 35 years and I'm now working part time at Mack's sport shop in Stuttgart and have access to just about any scent or scent control on the market. Here's what has worked for me; use a good scent free detergent specifically for hunting clothes, any of the top brands will do, keep the clothes sealed in an air tight container of some sort, I fill old socks with baking soda and add to the container, and for cover scent I use coon urine. I'll either make a drag or use the boot pads soaked in the coon urine. Once I'm at my stand location I'll spray the coon piss around the area and on my climbing stand. I'll also spray my pull up ropes prior to climbing up. I always shower before the hunt using the unscented soaps now available for hunters. I've been doing this for years now and it seems to work for me. I don't have any Pope & Young deer on the wall but I manage to get one or two regular deer a year. I've had numerous deer follow my trail to my stand and just this October had a spike come in licking some of the leaves I had sprayed the coon urine on! He came right under my stand and milled around smelling and eating then just mosied off. I've had this happen numerous times in the past. I've had nice bucks cross my path, stop and smell, wag their tail and just wonder off not alarmed at all. I will use some doe scent during the rut. That's the extent of my scent control.

[mpoor]

I'm not anti-sent, but, I think you can introduce too many "new smells" in the woods. I try to go in and come out undetected. That being said, I do wash my clothes in sentaway and bath in the same soap and wear rubber boots, which I think is the #1 sent control measure going to and comming from the stand, being careful not to touch anything either. On the stand there is no substitute for wind direction, you must have the wind at least crossing or you stand no chance of seeing, much less killing a mature deer. Think about it, you breath all kinds of sents into the air, how do you eliminate that?

[jncviper]

Think about it, you breath all kinds of sents into the air, how do you eliminate that?

....umm scent-a-way toothpaste...DUUUHHHH!!!!!
http://www.cabelas.com/fryprod2-1/741852.shtml

Ok, I dont go that far on my scent control.  However, I do wash all my clothes in SAW laundry detergent, store them in a sealed bag, use human scent elimination spray, try to play the wind, etc.  I wear my Muck Boot Woody Elites.  I dont have carbon lined clothes or anything like that.  But, I do not eat, drink, piss (not even into a bottle), etc on the stand.  The guy Ive been hunting with goes into the woods with tons of food, pisses about a gallon, and uses the awful smelling wintergreen berry snuff crap.  needless to say we were never seeing a dang thing.  Last time we went into the woods I asked him to not take any of that crap with him.  He said fine, we will see what happens.  Well he had a pretty nice buck come about thirty yards behind his tree on a ridge even with him as far as elevation and down wind.  Now he is a firm believer in scent.  However, he doesnt think sound matters now because he had only been settled into his climber for about 20 min when he saw the buck....