[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/scent-control-this-or-that\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/scent-control-this-or-that\/","headline":"Scent Control: This or That?","name":"Scent Control: This or That?","description":"The Program Scent-control is one of the most talked about strategies when it comes to hunters preparing to hit the...","datePublished":"2014-09-09","dateModified":"2018-07-02","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/#Person","name":"Hector Agosto","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Legendary Whitetails","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","url":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","width":522,"height":226}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/JJ-Unpacking-e1431029749876.jpg","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/JJ-Unpacking-e1431029749876.jpg","height":675,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/scent-control-this-or-that\/","about":["News"],"wordCount":1181,"keywords":["News"],"articleBody":"The ProgramScent-control is one of the most talked about strategies when it comes to hunters preparing to hit the woods.\u00a0 With emerging technology and new products hitting the shelves each season, companies are trying to keep up with the demand of hunters.Scent control and excellent stand placement can lead to more scenes like this.Why the craziness surrounding scent-control?There are very obvious reasons why scent control is important and \u2018popular.\u2019\u00a0 Research has told us deer can smell anywhere from 100 to 1,000 times better than the human nose.\u00a0 So there\u2019s your answer, scent control is important because deer have an unbelievable sense of smell.\u00a0 If hunters (especially archers hunting from a stand) intend to get close, they must reduce some human odor.\u00a0 Today\u2019s companies fully understand this, so they create and market their products through celebrities and television shows to garner attention.\u00a0 From Scent-lok to Scentblocker, Nose Jammer and Ozonics, the influx of products can be intimidating and confusing to new, as well as seasoned hunters.\u00a0 It begs the question, what is necessary to get close to game in order to harvest them?\u00a0 The answer isn\u2019t a simple one and it requires preference, budgeting and trial and error.Necessary ProductsThe clock had struck noon and the action was starting to pick up.\u00a0 After a slow cold morning, the morning chill gave way to a whitetail filled afternoon.\u00a0 After seeing a couple of antsy does buzzing around a ridge top, I figured something with antlers wasn\u2019t far behind.\u00a0 I was right on, as a solid ten point followed a doe off the ridge top into the \u2018bowl\u2019 I was overlooking.\u00a0 Right away I knew I didn\u2019t want to harvest the buck, but I was curious to see where they were headed and why.\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit I didn\u2019t put forth my best scent control effort for that afternoon hunt, but the parts of my program I did follow would\u2019ve provided me with venison had I squeezed the trigger on my Model 700.\u00a0 Prior to almost all my hunts, I shower with scent-free soap, have my clothes washed and stored away, use scent-free deodorant and spray all my clothes just prior to hitting the woods.\u00a0 The one thing I didn\u2019t do before that particular afternoon hunt was shower, although I did shower before my morning hunt that day.\u00a0 After eating lunch and nabbing a few jerky sticks to go, it was probably the odor of my breath that stopped the buck dead in his tracks when he caught my scent stream.\u00a0 Even after he caught my scent and matched his eyes with what his nose was telling him, it was too little-too late, he was easily in range and I was scoping him head to toe.\u00a0 Although I gave him a pass, my scent control program had done its job by allowing for a harvest opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0 Could I have gotten this close to him without showering, washing my clothes or spraying down?\u00a0 It was a breezy day, so probably not.\u00a0 That buck was one of thirty-four deer I saw during last years gun opener, and the only one to scent me.In another situation, my program was followed carefully and no payoff occurred.\u00a0 Before a late afternoon October bow hunt I showered, eliminated breath odor, and sprayed all clothing and equipment just prior to the hunt.\u00a0 For this particular hunt I had a climbing stand setup, which allowed me to reach about twenty-three feet up in a tree overlooking multiple ridge-top travel routes.\u00a0 With a cold front in progress and recently picked corn in sight, I was primed for a great sit.\u00a0 Not twenty minutes on stand, my eye caught a dandy buck most likely cutting the tracks of previous doe travel.\u00a0 I felt confident as the wind was in my favor and I could see the buck slowly moving through the timber working my way.\u00a0 Then all of the sudden wind direction began to shift and I could countdown the seconds to when I knew my scent was going to reach his nostrils.\u00a0 By the time I hit ten, he had a bead on me and the hunt was over.\u00a0 The next thirty seconds that followed were full of stomping, only to be finished off with a grand blow to alert anything and everything.\u00a0 I had done all I could prior to the hunt to eliminate scent, but the whitetail nose proved to be too much.Winds tend to swirl in rolling farm country, making scent control even more critical.\u00a0Research has shown when wind direction, humidity and temperature are just right, whitetails can detect scent from at least 400 yards away (Alsheimer, 2006).\u00a0 Taking this into consideration, when a deer catches our scent, the deer needs to be fooled into thinking what he smells is days old instead of a recent or immediate scent.\u00a0 There are many great ways to fool a deer\u2019s nose through clothing, sprays and other technology.\u00a0 On my makeshift, \u2018days old scent\u2019 spectrum, if a hunter is wearing scent reducing carbon clothing, washing all clothes, storing them, spraying clothes before hunting, showering and controlling breathe odor, a hunter is most likely getting deer to think his or her scent is a few days old.\u00a0 Bow-hunters who don\u2019t follow any program at all are risking a lot, it\u2019s a risk I\u2019m not willing to take.\u00a0 At minimum, I believe hunters should shower and spray clothes before every hunt.\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit, before I started following my scent control program, I killed a few good bucks that never had a clue I was there.\u00a0 If you have the right wind, good stand placement and spend hours upon hours in the woods, without a doubt you\u2019ll collect some dandy bucks, but I feel great about my program and I\u2019m confident it has allowed me to get closer to deer more times than not.Summing it all upClearly, whitetails are survival machines that rely on their nose to reach old ages.\u00a0 If you\u2019re new to hunting or hoping to even the score a bit against the whitetail, consider hitting the \u2018scent\u2019 isle at your local retailer.\u00a0 The most successful hunters use a program to reduce scent in order to get close to older, wiser deer.So let\u2019s hear it below, what forms of scent control do you practice?\u00a0"},{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Legendary Whitetail's Blog"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/scent-control-this-or-that\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Scent Control: This or That?"}}]}]