Diet & Scent

JimB · April 15, 2010, 11:04:00 AM

I agree that playing the wind is a no brainer but reducing human scent to whatever degree is possible,will always be a plus.

I haven't taken chlorophyll in years but used to get it from Jack Howard in the early 1970's and I saw the same results as others.In those days,it wasn't in pill form but liquid and it was like drinking the squeezings from fermented grass clippings.

Playing the wind may be the number one tool in our arsenal for remaining hidden from animal's noses but it isn't the whole picture.There is also scent left behind or left where we touch something or walk.

I will never forget stalking a buck in his bed with about a foot of soft snow on the ground and I had on white coveralls,hat and gloves.

The wind was strong and steady in one direction-perfect.I got within 40' of the bedded deer but he was in a dense willow thicket and I still didn't havs an opening.

All at once,the wind stopped.I mean,stopped dead.I began thinking,"this isn't good".I never imagined saying that about the wind but when it is dead still,your scent slowly radiates from your body in all directions.In a few seconds,maybe 30,the buck jumped to his feet and froze.He had gotten such a tiny wiff that he hesitated a couple seconds before bolting.I still didn't have the shot.

That may not be an everyday experience but I learned the lesson that at close bow ranges,you can be winded on a still day.A reduction in odor may give you that extra second or too and I can remember many,many situations where a couple seconds would have changed the story.

If you are in a tree stand and it is still,the scent will drop around the base of the tree in early morning and late evening when the air is cool.Who knows how far out it radiates? 10 yds,30 yds?How often do you need that deer to take just one more step?

Reducing scent by using chlorophyll or diet will never be a negative thing.We will never be able to measure it on paper and it will be way too much trouble for many but it is another tool in the arsenal of the serious hunter,if he wants to use it.

Where are you guys getting your chlorophyll?

Charlie Lamb · April 15, 2010, 08:46:00 PM

To all who gave positive input... thanks. I have always believed that it's important to be open minded in hunting and most other things as well. About the time we start mocking ideas just because they are different than our own is the day we stop learning and that should never happen.

Ground Hunter · April 15, 2010, 09:56:00 PM

One other thing you might want to think about. I work with a lot of drug dogs. People have tried just about everything to fool them. Coffee, mustard - you name it. Dogs find the drugs. Why, secondary transfer. The smell is transfered from hands etc. to other items. The dog then alerts. Deer have a much better ability to smell than a dog. Just something to consider. Your smell is not just on you, it is around you and on what ever you touch - and it stays there. H

highelk · April 16, 2010, 11:27:00 AM

Couldn't agree with you more Charlie.
Thanks to all those involved. I also have to agree that even a minor advantage is better than no advantage. Not that there hasn't been alot of success without these methods, but I for one need all the help I can get.
Shoot straight!!
Chad

ron w · April 16, 2010, 12:01:00 PM

I have hunted with a bunch that was not to careful about what they ate or drank. I can remember hiking up a mountain and we all started to work up a sweat, the guys in front of me, all drinkers and extreme eaters were really getting lathered up. All I could smell was stale beer and garlic. It was come'n right out of their pores. I don't hunt there much anymore........

kenn1320 · April 16, 2010, 12:14:00 PM

While its nice to hunt into the wind, you have to get to your stand. Anything that might help is worth looking at. That being said, I spoke with an officer who has a drug/lost person recovery dog. He also hunts. He uses that certain clothing and showers with special soaps and all that. He said his boss hunts with him and said you know that isnt working. He said you do your best to be scent free, go hide, and I garauntee your dog can find you within 5 minutes. He said that is true, but every little advantage is better then none at all.
Some guys swear by the smoking of themselves method to cover their scent. I spoke with a guy who trains dogs in search and rescque. He said a dog can smell many things at one time, and isnt over whelmed like humans. Said he has had buildings that a person couldnt stand to walk in, due to the smoke smell. He said if an accelerant was used to start that fire, his dog could find it and show you right where the fire started. The thing to remember however is we do not know how a deer smells. We can assume they are similar to a dog, but we dont know that for sure. Charles Alshiemer said during the rut the bucks in his pen line up on the one side. He said there is a wooded ridge over 300yds away(might have been further, dont recall exactly). He speculates that when the wind blows from that ridge to the pen, the bucks can smell a doe in heat that far away, hence them bedding by that fence. Just something to think about.........

ChuckC · April 16, 2010, 03:14:00 PM

Charlie, I tend to agree EXCEPT when I eat vegetarian. . beans and barley. . even a person with no nose can catch MY scent.. . for a moment, till their nose is cauterized. .
ChuckC

Mojostick · April 16, 2010, 04:01:00 PM

Diet and scent? Well, if most of us went on a diet, we wouldn't sweat as much! LOL

Tootpaste, soaps, shaving cream and everything we come into contact with leaves some scent.

Before hunting, brushing with straight baking soda and using scent free soaps and shaving cream, if you shave, is a must for me, if only for attitude.

But in truth, trying to fool a deers nose while being upwind of them is almost always a fools errand.

Instead, be very serious about always being downwind of the deer. Have many multiple stand options for every possible wind. And don't hunt a location unless the wind for that spot is perfect.

Also be very careful of entry and exit from the stand location. Don't cross the trail you're hunting, or worse, don't walk right up it.

The time to be planning entry and exits and preparing multiple stand sites is right now! Or earlier if possible.

Whatever work you do now, that scent and "changes" will be long forgotten by the deer in a month.

In fact, I'm taking off in 3 hours to drive to our deer camp for a boys weekend. Tomorrow, we're going to plant 600 pine and spruce saplings for a new bedding area and we're going to start prepping natural ground blinds.

As an elixir to motive us, I've got 2 coolers full of iced down micro-brews to add to the fun of dragging deadfall. LOL

A win-win weekend!

(I need it bad. My wife and I have 6 month old twins and I haven't had a night away since last deer season.)

allan f · April 16, 2010, 04:17:00 PM

If you don't think what you eat can come out in your body try taking a big clove of garlic and mashing it up stand bare foot on it and take 15-20 deep breaths, you can smell garlic on your breath.

Your body is a big filter and what ever you put in is going to affect everything else "downstream" and that includes all the oils and moisture that you are going to excrete. Stronger smelling diet stronger smelling body odour...If you have really stong body odour to begin with maybe you should consider a dietary cleanse to benefit your health. ( Can't hunt at all if your dead)

Allan

Terry Green · April 16, 2010, 04:43:00 PM

Charlie.....I hear ya. Just to let ya know, they are now making a liquid Chlorophyll with a spearmint flavor. I used it last year....don't taste half bad, and it goes directly to work faster than those gel pills. You can pour it into a glass of water or tea.

I got it at a herb shop here in town.

buckeye_hunter · April 16, 2010, 08:13:00 PM

Hypothetically- If we eat a vegetarian diet, then hunt and kill an animal- I see two possible issues:

1. Our stomache will not be used to meat and you will get sick eating it. I have seen this happen and....

2. We eat the animal and that blows our diet and increases the scent factor again.

Just a couple of thoughts.

However, I can of course see the benefit in reducing scent whreever possisble. I never heard of the Chlorophyll pills until now. I might have to give it a try.

fisherick · April 17, 2010, 12:13:00 PM

I experimented with Chlorophyll pills while working out and found that I could get away using the same t-shirt 2-3 times more than not using the pills. I now start using Chlorophyll pills two weeks before hunting season along with unscented- soap, deorderant, and clothes wash. I also eat an apple after coffee for breath control. I have found that I see as many or more animals as my compound carrying Scent-Loc clad hunting buddy who does the same regiment.

April 17, 2010, 12:38:00 PM

I have had mature whitetails come straight at me from down wind while smoking English pipe tobacco. I have had a black bear do the exact same thing while I was eating sardines in mustard sauce. Last year I had a yearling buck sneak up on me and eat an apple core that was about four feet from me; my scent had to be on that. I must warn anyone thinking that apple scent is the way to go, back when everyone was using it, I heard of a case where a local hunter stored his camo in a plastic bag all scented up with apple coverup scent. When he went hunting the bugs drove him crazy. Then he went to storing his clothes in a bag with fox pee, and now it is a combination of fox pee and urine. The area around his tree stand looks like a party has been going on with all the stinkies that he has dangling around. the reason he never gets a deer is because there are people that don't wear rubber boots and wearing scent in the area. His cigarettes that he smokes while he is hunting apparently don't count. Although diet controls scent, I have my doubts that it is worth counting on considering how good a deer's nose is.

anw0625 · April 17, 2010, 02:48:00 PM

I agree with lpcjon2 keep the wind in your favor and you will be good. If you do eat a lot of garlic and onions and I mean a lot you will start to smell like them:)

jhg · April 17, 2010, 03:39:00 PM

I don't think anyone has said animals can't/won't smell you. Its what they THINK when they smell you that counts.

BTW, don't hunters bait bears with smelly stuff? My Dad shot many a young buck using a half rotten apple in his pocket as a lure. I always chided him in my youthful ignorance, but he usually came home with blood on his jacket. And any deer worth its salt knows a hunter smoking English pipe tobacco can't hit anything anyway. ;0)
If I have learned anything in the woods its that most prey animals learn cues respective to their area that signifies danger from humans or that you are human ( thus dangerous). Fuzz up those cues and they will not react with the same authority and conviction. That is an edge worth using.

Joshua