Scent suppression clothing questions

[BlindSquirrel]

Hello and Happy New Year!

Over more than 20 years of hunting, I've acquired most of the essentials/gadgets I would ever want, and have wondered about getting some scent suppression clothing. I rifle hunt exclusively, so I'm not as hardcore as some of the bow hunters. I have taken many deer and elk without using scent suppression, but am just looking for an extra edge. I remember so many times when hunting deer and elk and getting busted by a steady wind that turns into a swirling wind. I know the stuff is pretty expensive too. Anyway, I would like to hear from anyone that uses ScentLok or ScentPro or whatever, and has practical advice about it. Some of my questions are below -- but anything about it would help.

1. What are the practicalities of care? How do you wash them if they get dirty? Or do you wash them? What happens if the clothing is punctured by thorns/stickers? Does it leak black stuff?
2. Can the scent suppression be effective if you only use pants/jacket with no head covering or gloves?
3. What are the pros/cons of buying the liners only vs. built into the clothing?
4. How well do the liners breath? As good as Gore-Tex?
5. Do the suppression systems add the equivalent warmth of medium weight polypropylene underwear -- making them not too desirable in typical Eastern Oregon buck season weather (in the 70's)?
6. Besides normal human body odor, I sometimes have gas problems from the previous night's food, or even from snacks like dried fruit. How well do the scent suppression systems work for this?

Cheers,
Blind Squirrel

[Lured In]

Blind Sqirrel...I would like to offer my opinion on this, but I am sure there are others who will be able to more directly answer you question about scent control.

First as a rifle hunter, you have an advantage of sorts over muzzleloader and bow hunters. The distance a rifle affords you can often be an advantage when trying to control scent. Keep in mind that your scent 'cone' (the shape of the air carrying your scent) generally gets wider the further away from you the air gets. It also becomes less identifiable or strong as it mixes with the air. I have seen deer react to this at very long ranges under certain conditions, but generally it does not spook them if they cannot pinpoint the smell or if it is somewhat dilluted.

That being said, your best scent control system is to use the wind to your favor and not hunt downwind. (Given your success in the past I would assume you are skilled in this).

I primarily muzzleloader hunt and use a combination of spot and stalk and stand hunting. IMHO scent control is most important at very close (under 100 yards or less) ranges while on stand or trying to close the gap on a stalk. If you rifle hunt you should be able to get close enough without being winded most of the time (as you do now).

I can honestly say I have only had a few instances where I was certain is was my scent (and not some other factor like movement or noise) that spooked a deer or elk. Those instances were generally a result of having game inside 100 yards with a steady wind while on stand. I watched a buck look right at me from 75 yards away when I didn't even move and was camoed head to toe. He popped out of a fir thicket, took two steps and looked right at me. He then took two more steps with his nose in the air and looked right at me again. (all lasted about 10 seconds) He then ran into the next county. I then realized he was directly downwind of me.

I have repeatedly (including the deer I got last week) had deer inside 10 yards of me while on stand. They came in from upwind and fortunately I had wisely positioned my stand given the conditions.

I could only guess at how many deer (if any) I may have spooked that I never saw because of scent. Then again, I can't really complain with the results I have had in general.

I believe that most of the 'scent control' goodies were generated out of the mega economic machine that is whitetail hunting in the east and midwest. Which, while still applicable, is generally much different that what we have out here. I don't deal with things like, "I have one stand on my foodplot and the wind is blowing from my stand to the food."

Okay now that I am done ranting (sorry). Consider this. You can go down to any army surplus store and buy a N.A.T.0. NBC (BIO-CHEM Warfare) suit for $20-$30 (Hooded jacket and pants). I have had a pair for 3 years and they hold up great. They are charcoal lined and will reduce the amount of scent you release into the air. They are cheap and effective for what I do. Do they help? Again i can't complain with the results I have, but I also always hunt with the wind in my face.

Sorry for being so long winded.
[img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

[Gun Rod Bow]

Blind Squirrel,

I have no practical experience with the suits. But I bow hunt, and I smell really, really bad. :depressed: I don't think any suit will ever cover that up.

I do make an effort to bath regularly (to the dismay of my buddies) and keep fresh cloths. Like many I have had plenty of close encounters WHEN THE WIND WAS RIGHT.

I never cook in hunting cloths, often change when getting back at camp, change out of my boots etc. But as I mentioned, I really stink. :shocked:

One thing I've wondered, no matter how these suits work, after a big bacon and egg breakfast, following a steak dinner, doesn't your breath say "meat eater" all over it?

If you are going to stay real clean, not sweat, and sneak to a stand I believe these suits would help, a little.

My bow hunting usually involves a lot of hiking, sweating, burping, f***ting, etc...Did I mention that I stink? Thought so. :grin:

I watched my buddies cousin, sitting on a log, calling elk, while smoking a cigarette. He called in 3 different bulls to 50 yds or less in 30 minutes (4 cigarettes).

I also have friends that hunt bucks in the late season, in the rain, in thickets, they use cover scents and swear by them. But those bucks are in full rut, that helps.

I believe we have seen the past 10 years evolution, of the latest camo pattern this or that. I believe the scent suit thing is the next gimmic.

Fred Bear killed every game animal in North America without camo or scent suits. I'm sure others will have a different opinion.

Good Hunting

GRB

[Tilla]

I am not so sure those suits would work. I'll just watch the wind.
If they smell you, they smell you. I don't think a suit covering 90% of my body will change much.

[BlindSquirrel]

Thanks Lured-In, GRB, and Tilla for the good replies! The typical situation that I was envisioning the benefit of good scent control is when ultra slow still-hunting pretty thick timber where visibility is usually under 50 yards, and where there is no prevailing wind. The no prevailing/swirling wind seems to occur quite often when hunting mid-day during general (controlled) rifle deer/elk seasons in the areas we like to hunt (John Day/Ukiah/Meacham/LaGrande). In this case, the animals I see are often within 50 yards or less, but it may take a hour to get a good bead on them (identifying correct species, gender, size, etc). Like you menton, at this distance, they can spook from movement or noise, not just from human stink. I hate noise when trying to be sneaky -- on top of the normal and anal being quiet state, I do things like removing the noisy foil wrappers from our preferred energy bars (Clif) before venturing into the woods -- my brother taught me that one.

With the right conditons, it is fun and amazing to stand perfectly still at under 30 yards wearing blaze orange or red plaid -- and watch animals watch you. Once they see you, they know there's something that doesn't look right -- but if you don't move and the wind is right, they will usually just mosey along in an alert state. One of my favorite memories of this is when a bobcat walked right up to me and just about stepped on my boot, then looked up and made eye contact! He never spooked and just slowly walked away. That was freaky for both of us. Another time I was standing right in the middle of a clearing with absolutely no cover when someone else spooked a herd of elk right towards me. They ran within 10 feet and locked up their 4 wheel (I mean hoof) brakes, stopped for about 30 seconds trying to figure me out, then I raised my my finger at the rag horn bull and said "BOOM". The herd turned around and ran right back the way they came. Too bad it was deer season.

I know that many people dismiss the scent control suff as over the top -- which it is for most rifle hunting conditions with good long range visibility. Using camo clothing is also over the top for most rifle hunting. The old hunters like Fred Bear didn't have or use things like high dollar multi- and phase-coated binoculars or spotting scopes, laser range finders, frs/gmrs radios, cell phones, gps's, extremely detailed contour maps, ATV's, quiet waperproof camo, etc, etc. These things can almost never be justified by cost for the purpose of hunting alone. However, they do increase safety and to an extent also increase harvest success when used wisely.

I think animals are used to fires/smoke -- and I agree they don't seem to spook from cigarettes even though it smells much different than wood fires.

Despite all this, I am still curious to hear from users. Anybody? No hard core scent control people here?

Thanks again,
Blind Squirrel

[ 01-07-2003, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: Blind Squirel ]

[Norm]

I put scent suits right up there with UV cover . A old farmers trick was to tie a small amount of human hair on young trees to keep the deer away. You can't cover your scent 100% no matter what you do. Get yourself a $3.00 bottle of powderd wind direction indicator and hunt into the wind.

[stickflicker]

Hi I'm fairly new to the board, but I can help you answer a few of your questions. I am a avid bowhunter, and have using sent lock bran clothes for 5 years. It is true that sent supression can't be 100%, but with the use of no-scent sprays I feel, along with all my hunting partners, that I have made myself as sent free as possible. The use of hoods and gloves are also a required necessity, because of the human hair holding so much sent. The mask that I wear also covers my mouth, and holds my breath inside. (also a scent lock brand). One of my hunting partners uses "scent-blocker" bran, and has been extremely happy with it's performance. We have called numerous animals into within ten yards of us, including a bull (shot this year) at 12 yards, with the wind at our backs. Sorry for being so long winded, but if you have any further questions feel free to contact me. ~stickflicker