Rotten Death Smell

[Superdoo]

Let us know what you ended doing and how it worked!

 

[SoTxShooter]

I kind of envy your problem, honestly! But in all seriousness, please let us know if you figure out anything that works!

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Will do. Having already tried the soak and water at the car wash when we flew out of the field twice, then the long Dawn soak and wash twice, I sprayed it down with an enzymatic pet urine spray last night and this morning that seemed to make the most difference. Still smells like ass, but at least not one thats been dead and decaying for weeks. I did go ahead this morning and put it in the tub with some clothing detergent and will scrub it again when I get home from work. Just need to get it out drying soon as I need to pack it Sunday for the next sheep trip if I am going to take it. It smelled less enough this morning that I think I could deal with it--but will say the darn slight downwind breeze on the last 7 miles of our pack out was miserable because of the smell--at least made me forget how bad my shoulders and hips hurt.

On that issue, man I wish I could run a Kifaru belt/harness with that bag. Love the way SG frame fits me, and absolutely love the bag, but carrying my brother's and wife's Kifarus a couple times now, sure admit I like their belt/harness design a lot.

 

[trophyhill]

Dawn platinum scrub and then maybe additional one adding Borax to the soap? Borax is a known thing you add to wash to help get out the smells. I always add that to my hunting gear wash.

Also get an Ozone generator device. I've got a nicer sized one I can set to run for a certain amount of time. Just shove it into the pack and let that ozone break down that organic matter particles that's left behind. Also those sprays for Cat and Dog Urine/feces accidents will help tool. They are Enzymatic cleaners that work by helping to naturally breakdown the proteins found in that organic material. Just like "Scent Killer" and others.

Borax also kills and prevents mold.

 

[lonedave]

Just brainstorming here, but how about a combination of some of the ideas here....from the AKC for getting skunk smell off your dog. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/home-living/get-rid-of-skunk-smell-on-dog/
I usually use the soak overnight/hydrogen peroxide spray/soak several times/hand wash with oxyclean/air dry outside method. So far it's been working for me on a couple different packs, though I'm sure the amount of blood/crud soaking may change things.

 

[JoeVon]

Will do. Having already tried the soak and water at the car wash when we flew out of the field twice, then the long Dawn soak and wash twice, I sprayed it down with an enzymatic pet urine spray last night and this morning that seemed to make the most difference. Still smells like ass, but at least not one thats been dead and decaying for weeks. I did go ahead this morning and put it in the tub with some clothing detergent and will scrub it again when I get home from work. Just need to get it out drying soon as I need to pack it Sunday for the next sheep trip if I am going to take it. It smelled less enough this morning that I think I could deal with it--but will say the darn slight downwind breeze on the last 7 miles of our pack out was miserable because of the smell--at least made me forget how bad my shoulders and hips hurt.

On that issue, man I wish I could run a Kifaru belt/harness with that bag. Love the way SG frame fits me, and absolutely love the bag, but carrying my brother's and wife's Kifarus a couple times now, sure admit I like their belt/harness design a lot.

Wow! You sure you don't have a hunk of meat stashed in a pocket somewhere?

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Got her all back almost as good and purdy as new. Think there was just a lot more blood, crud, sweat and everything in it than I realized. I had packed two sheep in it in 2018, and then one in both 2019 and 2020. Those first two years I had just soaked in a tote with cold soapy water then ran it to the car wash for soap and rinse spraying. Put in the dry shed till following season and would be dry and didn’t smell.

Don’t think that got it truly clean—know it didn’t. So this year when it got soaked with blood followed by days of rain, it just got super nasty.

On Friday I had already car washed it twice, soaked for a couple days in tote with dawn and then rinsed, dried, soaked with pet urine enzymatic spray. Finally decided time to take bag off and put both in the tub with some clothing detergent, plus oxy, plus borax for good measure. Figured it was clean by this point and was just doing last measures of getting the smell out. WRONG. Think that enzymatic cleaner must have broken down the stuff enough to allow it to be washed out.

Put the pack in a hot tub of the detergent mix and went to get last minute things finished at the office. The misses sent me this picture about 3 hours later. Clearly the pack wasn’t quite clean yet.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

So when I got back home decided to hell with it, no more time to mess around and with the misses now running prehunt errands, I threw the bag and lid into the washing machine with more of the same detergent mix. Washed the heck out of the frame in the tub with new mix of the same. Then hung overnight in the garage. Result—good as new and ready to be bloodied again hopefully. Weather permitting we fly back in this afternoon and if she finds success the ol’ gray will be again grimey. Should be less so since I did remember a compactor bag to use as a liner. Shot of our packs this morning ready to bring over to the transporter in Tok for weighing.

 

[Mike Islander]

Vinegar is your best friend to get rid of laundry stink. Add a cup to 10 gallons warm water and get that pack down in it overnight. Wash tub works well for that.

Old MX racing gear and wetsuit cleaning trick.

 

[Marble]

what's worked for me in the past is i put a piece of a chlorine tablet in a bucket. Soak my item and check it every day. Leave the lid on it and check the water daily. The lid helps keep it in.

Chlorine eats everything that is organic in the water first. So any synthetics will tolerate it well. Organics like blood and hair break down rather fast.

It's taken the smell out of a freezer that sat with hundreds of pounds of rotten meat in it. Smelled like death and made me dry heave.

 

[E2Eastman]

I had the exact same issue with my EXO. I washed it as recommended by the manufacture several times, but it still smelled horrible. I eventually took a gamble and washed it in the washing machine after removing the bag from the frame. It worked great and removed the horrible smell. I used scent free detergent and let it air dry. I have now done this several times with no issues to the bag.

 

[Voyageur]

Let us know how the hunt goes.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

I laughed at myself yesterday at how diligent I am typically about scent-free soap, and after finally having had enough with the stinky bag just used the misses regular scent Gain and Oxy. Realized yesterday that if the fresh again scent is what gives me away, then our quarry is as nose blind I am on the last day of a backpack hunt.

Kept telling my wife I thought I smelled fine, didn’t stink at all, certainly not as bad as the early season hunt when we were afield much longer with many more miles and much more rigorous terrain. She pointed out I was soaked with sweat several times daily, had griz and sheep blood on my pants and main shirt, which I also slept in every night since with all the damn rain again it was basically only way things would get dry.

Still in all, thought I smelled darn good given the circumstances. That is until out of the field, showered and changed. Next day pulling out a couple things to run through the hotel laundry as we travel home I realized—nope—smelled quite foul. Basically like the south end of something that died headed north bound. Luckily, I enjoy just how nose blind I get on a hunt, but man do my clothes, and yes now my backpack yet again, need serious cleaning and have decided to heck with scent free soap. Going right to the flowery original scent Gain to try and cleanse/hide the dead ass smell of my filth and the actual dead sheep and griz smell of my pack bag before goat and moose trips.

Figure as bad as I smelled, don’t see any way anything is going to smell, let alone spook from the detergent scent before my general overall funk-filth.

Yes, wife’s hunt went well despite seeing more griz on the trip than legal rams. She did great though—and took her first griz at 60 yards. Which also only required a brief 110 yard ride in my pack to get to our camp. And sure wish that was the only one we saw close.

 

[Oldffemt]

Put it in your tote with warm water and 1 capful of ammonia. Agitate, scrub, let it soak then rinse thoroughly. Your stinky troubles will be over. Works like magic!