Scent Control vs Scent Elimination

As a hunter heading to the field our ultimate goal is to be scent free or have complete scent elimination when it comes to our clothing, boots, and accessories.

Unfortunately, eliminating scent entirely is just not possible regardless of what the “experts” tell you or you may believe.

Part of it has to do with your body and how it works, and part of it is our fault as a hunter and what we are personally doing to prepare for the hunt and how we take care of our clothing, boots, and accessories.  Minimizing the scent “footprint” to the best of our ability is what we all should be striving for as we hunt on a daily basis. 

Your Body, Heart Rate, Clothes & Accessories

Your body is constantly giving off odor in the form of flaked skin cells, perspiration and moisture generated as you are walking to your stand or as your heart rate increases as that buck you have been hunting all season approaches a shooting lane.  Your breath contains odors, your feet and hands perspire, you cough or sneeze.  Your deep breathing through your mouth as you try to calm your nerves.  There is a lot going on at once with your body which is affecting the odors you are generating.  All of these things are somewhat beyond your control, but yet there are things you can be doing to help minimize these odors.

1. Always being sure your body is as clean as possible prior to a hunt by showering and using scent free soaps.
2. Hunting with the wind or positioning yourself in the best possible location based on where you think the deer, elk, or bear will come from so they are always upwind.  That will not always be possible if the wind switches directions and you can’t move stands.  Thermals greatly affect air movement often blowing our scent in crazy directions.
3. Finally, sometimes the deer just don’t cooperate either, coming into your stand in the complete opposite direction from where you thought they would, especially during the rut.

I have to laugh when guys tell me all they do is always hunt downwind – we all do right?  Unfortunately here in Iowa, I don’t yet have my deer trained to always come in from the right direction.  Of course scent control sprays or masking scents help with some of these problems.  Different clothing types help adsorb some of the odors we give off or wick moisture away from our bodies, but moisture that was wicked away from your skin ultimately ends up where?  - inside your outer layers of clothing.

Scent Control is a Daily Process

Scent control is a daily process that you can control to a large degree prior to ever leaving your house or camp.  Additionally, it is using some common sense.

Odor you give off comes from the inside out – your body, not the outside in.  Yet the outside of clothing and accessories is where people pay the most attention and spend the most time.

Think of it this way, on the first day you hunt, you and your equipment are as close to perfect from a scent control standpoint as you probably will be all season. On a scale of 1-10, you are a 9.5.  But each day you hunt, your body is putting moisture and odor into your clothing, boots, gloves, release, straps on your range finder and binoculars.  You come in at the end of the day and you put all that stuff in totes or bags, locking in those odors and moisture so that your scent control effectiveness is decreasing proportionately.  You are making it worse and unintentionally hurting yourself by doing this. 

Why ScentMaster Matters

This is where ScentMaster is designed to help.  Moisture causes bacteria to grow, and bacteria are what create odor.  Eliminate the moisture and you have no odor.

Ever hear someone say their feet stink?  Feet don’t naturally stink.  Instead we have shoes which make our feet hot and sweaty and our shoes then trap that moisture, causing bacteria to grow, creating odor.  The ScentMaster through the use of a powerful motor which rapidly recirculates 130 degree air through your clothing, eliminates all moisture and at the same time traps any residual odors in the ½ inch activated, replaceable carbon filters. 

The ScentMaster is not a “magic” product, like so many things on the market today, but a part of the process which will make everything else you are trying to do from a scent control standpoint work better because there is less odor at the start of each day to deal with.

Instead of your clothing and accessories being a 6 on a scale of 10 by that 3rd day of hunting, keep it clean and dry daily. Start with the basics and take care of your clothing, boots, and accessories.  Everything else you do for scent control will be more effective if you do this.

Learn about the Science behind the ScentMaster