SCENT CONTROL SYSTEM
by Robert Hoague
 
Can you reduce your scent to a level that will deceive game?  

Absolutely!  :-) 

Two Examples:  

(1) One hot afternoon (95-degrees) during the 1990 bow season I walked a sweaty quarter mile to my central Texas ground blind--in a small clump of cedar trees at the edge of a field. I wiped down with one of those Scent Eliminator Body Towels, put on my camo shirt, mask and cap. Oops! A Doe snuck into my cedar clump and bedded down, upwind--six feet away! Still as a stone, I spied on her from the corner of my eye. For twenty minutes she carefully inspected the field. Then she sauntered off, unknowing of our close encounter. 

(2) In a stand I call "The Pocket," my treestand is only four feet off the ground--in a group of scrub oaks and cedars. It's the doorway to a huge Whitetail bedding ground. It's difficult to hunt. First, the deer approach downwind. Second, there are no mature trees to get my scent up off ground level. But they parade by me--every year--unaware that I'm close by, upwind. 

Deer don't smell me anymore! For thirty-five years the wind dictated my bowhunting style, but not any more. My system restrains human odor to the point that Whitetails won't smell enough of you to get spooky. It takes some discipline, a few grocery store items, and two things from your hunting store. 

My system has four parts.  

  1. Avoid using smelly products that alert deer. 
  2. Strangle every last bit of odor out of everything you take with you
  3. Be clean.
  4. Stay clean in the field. (Coming Saturday.)
Many man made odors are unnatural in the wild. (Even if the label reads "fresh pine scent.") Deer are experts on what is a normal odor and what isn't. Unnatural smells are worse than your body odor! It's easy to zap your body odor. All it takes is the right kind of soap. 

If you enter the wild clean and don't take unnatural odors with you, game won't wind you. It's that simple. 

1. AVOID USING SMELLY PRODUCTS THAT ALERT DEER  

Leave That Odor Behind  
Bowhunters bring many unnatural scents into the wild. The cornerstone of my system is to identify and eliminate all unnatural odors. 

Identifying things with unnatural odors or "fragrances" is easy. If you didn't come into the world with it--and you didn't get it in the wilderness--it probably has odor that is processed, enhanced, or man made. In my scent control seminars I ask the audience to help list unique human odors. Typically they list after shave, footwear, cigarettes, deodorant, perspiration, motor vehicle exhaust, food or drink smells on the breath, cooking odors, gasoline, bug spray, cough drops, snacks, hair spray and scores of household products with fragrances. 

Consumer marketers love making things smell nice, artificially. Thousands of modern products contain man made perfumes. Most brands of bath soap, hair spray, deodorant, after shave, shaving lotion, shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergents, dryer sheets, clothing, tooth paste, etc., are guilty. 
 
Step one in controlling your scent is removing those evil, fragranced up products from your hunting equipment. Leave the deodorant and "manly smelling soap" at home. 

Step 2. Strangle every last bit of odor from everything you take with you

| Step1: Avoid using smelly products that alert deer. |
Step 2: Strangle every last bit of odor out of everything you take with you. |
| Step 3: Be clean. |
| Step 4: Stay clean in the field.
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