Baking soda for scent control

[RockinU]

Here's an article that touches on a dogs scenting capabilities, as you read it, keep in mind that both a deer and an elk have more scent receptors than even a dog:

Puppy Up Foundation | A Dog’s Nose — Don’t Worry, Smell Happy!

The Puppy Up Foundation is committed to discovering causes and common links between canine and human cancers through comparative oncology research.

www.puppyup.org

You aren't going to beat their nose. They will hear you 3 times, see you twice, but they'll only smell you once.

 

[orionsbrother]

One of my hypocrisies. I hunt the wind, but I just feel “sneakier” when I don’t smell like crap. Crunchy, stiff socks and boxers and rank synthetics tend to make me less aggressive.

Some baby wipe maintenance for me and rinse and hang for my base layers especially, helps keep me and my head in the game. And I feel better.

I’m not talking about carbon clothes and the like.

Rationally, I get it that it’s really only the wind that matters. It’s just a personal quirk.

I bet that there are guys here who have the clock in their bedroom or their watch set five minutes fast...

 

[BearGut]

Baking soda works excellent...when you put it in a wind checker.

Unless you’re on the wetside of WA.

Agree play the wind.

Baking soda works excellent...when you put it in a wind checker.

I am in the "play the wind" camp and don't generally worry too much about scent beyond wearing wool and no fragrances.

But antiperspirant is definitely good to use if your pits generate a lot of scent. Deodorant is a huge no no. It has lots of fragrance and does nothing to stop the sweat that generates bacteria that create strong odors.

Antiperspirant actually blocks your sweat glands. You body then sweats more on your face, arms, upper chest, and back, all places that don't tend to generate strong odors.

Unless you’re on the wetside of Washington State.

Agree, use the wind.

 

[SoDaky]

I use it.You'd be a dam fool not to 'try' reduce your scent signature.Regardless of what,where,how u hunt.

 

[RockinU]

Count me a damn fool. I have no issues with those who wish to reduce their scent signature, it gives them the confidence to do what they do. I just recognize the futility of "reduction" either they smell you, or they don't...doesn't really matter how much of you they smell, and if they get your wind, they'll smell you.

It's a matter of it doesn't hurt anything, but doesn't help either.

 

[Cockeye]

I just put a few drops of cow in heat on my buddy’s boots it’s funny to watch him stop and say he smells elk every 1/4 mile.

 

[Cng]

I think a lot of the debate here has to do with hunting styles. Many of us eastern whitetail hunters have seen scent reduction techniques work to some degree. But that’s also usually from a tree stand, for a matter of a few hours to a day, while wearing clothes that were stored in a bag of leaves from the hunting area, etc., etc. We’re not saying it’ll let you beat the wind or anything like that, just that it can limit the degree of scent, which surely fools the animal as to how close you are or maybe how recently you passed by. I like the gasoline analogy that was used above. A skunk is another way of looking at it. If I catch a slight whiff of skunk while walking through the woods, I assume one sprayed somewhere. But if I catch a really strong, fresh skunk spray, I turn around and go the other way! A deer’s nose is far more powerful, but surely that same concept applies to some degree.

But I think the detractors are arguing whether baking soda would help on a 5-10 day backpacking elk hunt, and I have to say, probably not—or at least it probably wouldn’t for me. At that point, everything is so saturated with your smells that nothing short of a good wash will limit them enough to maybe fool an animal.

Having said that, I’ve tried unscented “hunting” antiperspirant in the whitetail woods, and by the end of the morning hunt, I could smell my own body odor without trying. But if I scrub my pits with the homemade wipes I mentioned in a previous post, I can’t smell myself at all until mid afternoon. Two wipes ought to get you through the day. If you’re backpacking, pack them in a freezer bag and squeeze out the water a bit. Add a little water to the bag when you get to camp or one at a time as you use them.

 

[RockinU]

I think a lot of the debate here has to do with hunting styles. Many of us eastern whitetail hunters have seen scent reduction techniques work to some degree. But that’s also usually from a tree stand, for a matter of a few hours to a day, while wearing clothes that were stored in a bag of leaves from the hunting area, etc., etc. We’re not saying it’ll let you beat the wind or anything like that, just that it can limit the degree of scent, which surely fools the animal as to how close you are or maybe how recently you passed by. I like the gasoline analogy that was used above. A skunk is another way of looking at it. If I catch a slight whiff of skunk while walking through the woods, I assume one sprayed somewhere. But if I catch a really strong, fresh skunk spray, I turn around and go the other way! A deer’s nose is far more powerful, but surely that same concept applies to some degree.

But I think the detractors are arguing whether baking soda would help on a 5-10 day backpacking elk hunt, and I have to say, probably not—or at least it probably wouldn’t for me. At that point, everything is so saturated with your smells that nothing short of a good wash will limit them enough to maybe fool an animal.

Having said that, I’ve tried unscented “hunting” antiperspirant in the whitetail woods, and by the end of the morning hunt, I could smell my own body odor without trying. But if I scrub my pits with the homemade wipes I mentioned in a previous post, I can’t smell myself at all until mid afternoon. Two wipes ought to get you through the day. If you’re backpacking, pack them in a freezer bag and squeeze out the water a bit. Add a little water to the bag when you get to camp or one at a time as you use them.

No, that’s not my contention at all. I used to be a believer. I wanted all the products I bought, and all the measures I went to to be working, and I convinced myself they must help, but then I got in to tracking dogs, and saw the amazing things they can do. It got me to researching, and I learned that dogs can smell in the parts per trillion! To put that in perspective that would be like detecting a particular drop of water in an Olympic pool. Dogs noses are so sensitive that they are used to predict seizures before they happen, and they do it by smelling chemical changes in the person’s body. They are able to follow the scent of a particular individual through streets teaming with people. We can’t even conceive the depth of their olfactory capacity.

But if you want to mix some baking powder and peroxide, wipe it on yourself and believe that you are in some way beating a nose that’s even better than a dogs, get after it, just don’t expect me to believe in it.

 

[Kootenay Hunter]

One of the biggest sources of smell is your breath...so unless you plan on holding your breath while hunting....good luck.

A dog can not only smell you, but smell where you once were....and track you....so if a deer can smell even better...

 

[Bubblehide]

Baking Soda put directly on the skin will suck moisture out of you, and may cause an area or you to dehydrate.

 

[jmez]

A deer's nose and an elk's nose are not the same. You can beat a deer's nose, as in sometimes they don't react much when they catch your scent. An elk will react every time, whether is is 1 drop or 1 gallon. They don't care, they smell you they leave. When they can detect 1 drop at distances greater than rifle range, again it doesn't matter, 1 drop or 1 gallon. They will be gone long before you can even hear them going.

 

[William Sublette]

 

[Cng]

I get it. I’ve dabbled in blood tracking dogs and read a couple books on it. I haven’t had the opportunity to elk hunt yet, and I’m not trying to act like I have, but I’ve had a little success with whitetails and black bears.

We all agree that an animal’s judgment can be fooled, right? I mean that’s how we kill them. We wear camo or practice our calls. And we know that we’ll never look EXACTLY like a tree or sound EXACTLY like a cow, or whatever. But we know that we can do so just enough to, if not fool their senses, then certainly exploit their judgement once in a while.

It stands to reason then that, while you can’t fool their noses, you can fool their judgement as it relates to their noses now and then.

Or so it seems to me. I’m not here to quibble; I’m here to learn. And I’m not advocating scent-free products (I thought we were talking about baking soda, after all).

Thanks all for your thoughts.

 

[William Sublette]

Sorry, I watched too many snake oil salesmen on the hunting channels this weekend.


Sometimes my sense of humor is heavy handed.



Every little bit helps but there really is no such thing as scent control.


In areas of human concentration, and ungulate concentrations you can get away with a little more than wild areas. But after playing the wind there's no such thing as scent control.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

The stuff in this review on Rokslide by Pure One Outdoors is about the best scent control stuff I have ever used!

Review: Pure One Outdoors Products X-Out and UV Elimination

Review: Pure One Outdoors Products X-Out and UV Elimination By: Glendon Mullins, Rokslide Moderator Whether you’re hunting whitetails in the Appalachian Mountains, elk in the Rocky Mountains, hogs in the Southern Swamps, or predators on the Great Plains, the one thing that all hunters have in...

www.rokslide.com

 

[couesbitten]

It stands to reason then that, while you can’t fool their noses, you can fool their judgement as it relates to their noses now and then.

Unless you smell like alfalfa or an apple, with no underlying human scent, I don't believe for a minute that you're fooling their sense of smell.

 

[Cng]

Unless you smell like alfalfa or an apple, with no underlying human scent, I don't believe for a minute that you're fooling their sense of smell.

Again, I’m not saying they aren’t smelling you. I’m just proposing that some scent control can help you fool their judgement as it relates to their sense of smell. Which would colloquially be known as “fooling their noses.”

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to convince anyone, so this is the last I’ll say about it. I know this is merely anecdotal, but run with me.

Several years ago, I was going to sit in a stand in a fence line on the north side of a half acre field. On the opposite side of the field, about 50-60 yards from the stand was woods that run about 200 yards to the property line. Having followed my usual scent regimen, and arriving at the stand a little before daylight, I walked straight from the stand all the way to the property line and then turned around and laid a scent trail of doe in heat and a little bit of buck urine in a straight line back to the stand. The wind was quartering to me, so the plan was for a buck passing perpendicular to the trail to pick up the scent.

Shortly after daylight, I called with an estrus bleat a few times, and a 120-ish inch 8 pointer with an 18+ inch spread came out of the woods with his head down, obviously following that trail. This was probably around an hour or a little less since I walked there.

Now, I’m not saying that buck couldn’t smell that I had been there. Several people above have mentioned the power of their noses, which I don’t argue. But what if I had slept in my clothes that night in bed with my wife and five kids and three dogs (I don’t actually have kids; only one dog)? And what if I hadn’t bathed in 3 days? And what if I’d stopped along the way of laying that scent trail and rolled around on the ground? The buck probably wouldn’t have continued. So limiting the amount of scent allowed me to exploit the buck’s judgement as it pertained to his sense of smell. He decided, for whatever reason, that I wasn’t as big a threat as I was, and he allowed his desire to breed win out over his better judgement.

 

[eoperator]

as a Wisconsin whitetail hunter of 26 yrs you cant tell me that a good scent control practice doesnt help. If nothing else it will buy you precious time when needed most

 

[RockinU]

Again, I’m not saying they aren’t smelling you. I’m just proposing that some scent control can help you fool their judgement as it relates to their sense of smell. Which would colloquially be known as “fooling their noses.”

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to convince anyone, so this is the last I’ll say about it. I know this is merely anecdotal, but run with me.

Several years ago, I was going to sit in a stand in a fence line on the north side of a half acre field. On the opposite side of the field, about 50-60 yards from the stand was woods that run about 200 yards to the property line. Having followed my usual scent regimen, and arriving at the stand a little before daylight, I walked straight from the stand all the way to the property line and then turned around and laid a scent trail of doe in heat and a little bit of buck urine in a straight line back to the stand. The wind was quartering to me, so the plan was for a buck passing perpendicular to the trail to pick up the scent.

Shortly after daylight, I called with an estrus bleat a few times, and a 120-ish inch 8 pointer with an 18+ inch spread came out of the woods with his head down, obviously following that trail. This was probably around an hour or a little less since I walked there.

Now, I’m not saying that buck couldn’t smell that I had been there. Several people above have mentioned the power of their noses, which I don’t argue. But what if I had slept in my clothes that night in bed with my wife and five kids and three dogs (I don’t actually have kids; only one dog)? And what if I hadn’t bathed in 3 days? And what if I’d stopped along the way of laying that scent trail and rolled around on the ground? The buck probably wouldn’t have continued. So limiting the amount of scent allowed me to exploit the buck’s judgement as it pertained to his sense of smell. He decided, for whatever reason, that I wasn’t as big a threat as I was, and he allowed his desire to breed win out over his better judgement.

What would you say if I told you I have similar anecdotal stories and I don't use any scent control at all? I've seen both deer, and coyotes screw up when I know they had my wind...I don't know why they mess it up, but they do, and it's not because I have done any sort of scent control, because I have not. Maybe it's because they are used to smelling people right there, or an unseen thermal changes the scent cone, or maybe they have a head cold, I don't know...but considering that it happens for those of us who don't "control" our scent, I feel safe in saying that's not it.

 

[RockinU]

But again...if you feel it works for you, I don't have any issue with you choosing to use it, if it makes you feel like it increases you chances, then it probably does just because of the confidence. You do you.