Washing your hunting clothing

Hoss · Post by **Hoss** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:43 pm

Dave H I know you take alot of deer and I didnt want to sound as if I know better than you my friend..

I just was statin my belief...Its really all in what you are use to..I do what Terry-1 does I use cedar... I pull cedar berries of the tree and crush them on the ground then roll in it...then when I get to the woods If there is cattle on the property I step in you know what and then walk to my stand...It boils down to what makes you confident in how you hunt..the wind is my best friend and at times worst enemy..I put to much time and effort into my hunt to try to trust down wind deer lookin at me...and we all know if a wise ole buck smells you down wind or smells something outa place you may never see him..and he may change his pattern...and for what its worth i think some deer are just down right stupid.( uneducated ) I had a doe who was bedded down upwind about 25yds see a buck that I didnt see bust me...what did she do? she got up wondered why he ran off in a hurry she decided to come and investigate...she worked her way down wind of me and then nose to the wind kept coming closer and closer till she was right under my tree..I know she smelt my presence and she knew I was in the tree. she kept lookin and smellin and lookin..I was hopin she would just leave. I didnt want to have her blow at me..well she kept on lookin up at me I got tired of her getting educated at my exspence so I put her in the freezer..so I do believe a guy could make all the mistakes in the world and still get a deer..BUT when you are tryin to get ole mossy you better play the wind..my pennies...again not knockin scent blockers, sprays, but no matter how good they say a scent suit works it aint good enough for me.....just sayin what ever makes you confident go for it...that whats important!

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:45 am

Hoss, I hear what your saying and your 100% correst. But one thing I do a little different is I don't want scent where that scent is not normal. Their are only a few natural scents that are trails. and their the sex scents of animals. Or that's what I have come to learn. I may be wrong ?

Guys, this is how I do it; I wash all my clothing in Arm and Hammer or a scent free hunting detergent. More so for my own confadence. Socks, underware, work paints and shirt. Anything I ware. I store it in Plasic tubs or scent free bag. I never use scented waffers. I will put Ceder clipping in my bag's. As far as I have figured, their are a few natural scents that will work to cover your scent.
. wild onion, I will pull up the onions and rub them all over, I like doing this when I'm hunting in or near bedding areas. Bedding areas around here always have onions in them and when a deer first gets up he relieves himself , hunting down wind of a bedding area I usualy know when the deer are moving. The strong urren and musky smell is strongest when a deer 1st gets up. I don't know why just is.
. Ceder; to me is the best scent blocker in the woods. I can sit in a ceder tree after wooking all day and not showering but just spray my neck , arms, hair , beard and outer clothing down , break a few ceder twigs and scread them, Make a few doe bleats for locator and have bucks walk dirrectly under me around my stand, walk cross over my trails and not spook. I do take very close attention to where I walk and what I touch. Wareing knee high rubber's. I don't or try not to let anypart of my body brush up against scrubs. I have watched deer walk in the same trail and sure enough, that darn leaf I touched the deers nose went stright to it. Usualy a low grunt will distract them if that's all the scent I left. LOL hopefully.
.Another good thing to do is ; if you find fresh deer dropping, don't walk in it but rub it on your pants legs. Deer will crap up to 40 times a day. A good conscentration of dropping is a good location. If I'm not hunting one of thses areas I will collect the dropping and replace them, useing a rubber glove also, in the area I'm hunting.
.I know alot of guys say that ATV's will spook deer out of an area. If the deer are local which all deer are territorial and have there area's. Once the ATV is turned off it's not a bother to them , in my area anyways, I use it many times to get to my stand. Alot of time I park in under my stand. Leaving no human scent. Over the past few years I would park in 50 yards or more away when I'm hunting open woods and will watch deer walk with in 20 yars of it. So I started parking it at my stand if I'm hunting an out back area and have taken many deer that pay no attention to it. Sometimes when hunting thickets near a creek I will park it in the creek where a creek back will conceal it.
. Hunting hights; depends on your location. Hunting a hill side, 1/3 down from the top I have always found to be the best. But I try to get to the level of the hill top. It makes a steep shot if the deer are walking the bottom but I usualy find the trail where the deer are angeling from bottom to top where they are heading to the fields. 18' of higher is good. If the wind is slight and it morning you scent will rise it's the evenings you have to realy pay attention too when the pressure is dropping also befor a rain.
. Right after a heavy long rain is premium time for a good hunt. You notice the strrem on the street rises, so dose your scent. A good thicket is the place to set up early. Deer tend to seek secure places to lodge durring long rain storms. I will get in just befor it will stop raining to ensure a good clean entry. If the moon fase is right even better !
>Some of you know I have been hunting the moon fase for years and these days that's what I do all my hunting by on my lease. Up till the rut and after the rut. Bucks tend to egnor any theries about the moon fase when the rut kicks in.
>My observations of bucks durring the rut; Bucks will tend to walk up wind of bedding areas to locate hot doe's. Doe's are still bedding and feeding to the moons fase and will move accordingly. Once the doe's get moving the bucks will follow their trails. Mainly thickets for the young doe's that are trying to avoid detection from a presueing buck. That's one of the reasons I hunt thickets mostly.

brayhaven · Post by **brayhaven** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 9:30 am

DaveH says, "I have watched deer walk in the same trail and sure enough, that darn leaf I touched the deers nose went stright to it. Usualy a low grunt will distract them if that's all the scent I left"

This is a good example of the value of a call (and knowing how & when to use it). I teach several deer calling seminars a year and have people come back and tell me how much calling added to their hunting expoerience. Even if a deer smells some human, or any, scent that shouldn't be there, the presence of another deer (or perceieved presence) will often (not always) convert alarm into nervousness or even complacency. They are herd animals. Depends on the individual & the hunting pressure. I've called deer back in to me that I've busted while walking, though not often. BTW, Dave, the urine is stronger when they first get up, because the kidneys have been concentrating it while they rested.
Greg

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 9:47 am

Bray, What knid of area are you hunting ? What part of the country ? I'm hunting 19 miles outside of Wahington D.C. The deer run the parks which are off limits to hunters and my lease is 125 acers nessaled in the Y with large homes to the left and right of the Y and the park starts at the leg. The Y is also a large creek to the right and a small feeder creek to the left. with 300 yards of woods on all sides. The top of the Y on the right opens to a field where I put my main food plot with homes on the side of it. A road is at the top of the Y.

This is my lease but the pic is 1988 the creek to the left is the left side of the Y and it's all grown up with persimmons and lager trees now.

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T ... 39.0796343

brayhaven · Post by **brayhaven** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 9:49 pm

DaveHawk wrote:Bray, What knid of area are you hunting ? What part of the country ? I'm hunting 19 miles outside of Wahington D.C. The deer run the parks which are off limits to hunters and my lease is 125 acers nessaled in the Y with large homes to the left and right of the Y and the park starts at the leg.

Sounds like you have a glory hole there, Dave. I hunt all kinds of woods that FL has to offer, from public national wildlife refuge & mgmt areas, to private lands. My gunsmithing customers invite me to hunt on some leases. Some is high rolling hills in the panhandle and some is coastal swamps in north & south FL. Some of it is heavily hunted and some are what I call "Ray Charles" hunting spots, because even Ray Charles could kill a deer in those

Greg

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:09 am

My whole area is a Ray Charles area. We have an psm of 250 to 350, depending which mile block your in

, I'
m in probably one of if not the highest consentration of deer in the country.
.I own a high end Antique Furniture refinishing shop. Get allot of the same offers. Lil honey hole here lil honey hole their. Must get on an avg. of 4 to 5 a year.
.Check out our fourm hunts over at East Coast hunting. We have some good times.

wilsonj73 · Post by **wilsonj73** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:27 pm

When my camo is dirty I wash with Arm and hammer baking soda to clean it or the non-scent detergents you can buy.

Then I store my camo in a rubber maid container which I cut cedar and fir boughs (common trees here) and lay them in the bottom of it and layer it with my gear.

It seems to hold the natural tree smell well.

I've had deer and elk wander within a few yards of me and never know I was there so it must work.

A good practice passed on by a very successful hunter friend of mine.

J.

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:54 am

Wilson, your friend tought you well !

I'm glad to see this back up. I have a friend who never washes his closthing and takes deer every year in WV , BUT- he shoots a rifle and makes shots of 150+ yards. What's that tell ya ? He has not taken any deer in bow range. Sure if you hunt the wind which I do on days I leave the shop and go stright to the woods to hunt, stinking with lacquars, wood dust , glues and what not but for me hunting high and with the wind is still the best way to hunt no matter if I'm being scent concous or not.

Dave Hawk

A.W · Post by **A.W** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:48 am

I was in the supermarket a couple of days ago and looked at the various detergents. A couple of them advertised scent-free and phosphate free.

My question is; do these detergents still contain the stuff whiteners that deer can see?

The stuff I use just now is pretty pricey.

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:36 am

yes they do , Arm and Hammer is the best. Or get a closthing wash from Cabela's or the distributor you use, Scent Free.

A.W · Post by **A.W** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:03 pm

Thanks.

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:36 pm

bstout, do you handle your clothing ? if so your putting your scent on them. The neck line gets allot of scent and the sleves. It's the little moliculas that cling to your clothing that escaps and the deer pick them up. I use a gental wash cycle and swith clothing often. Movement is one of the dead give-a-ways in the woods but if thay smell ya that will not need to come to see ya and you will not see them.

If you not going to wash often, use rubber gloves and store your clothing in containers. you probably do but just a reminder.

I don't use either so I wash often. I still have 2 tree back over-alls from the 80's that look great. I don't ware them often, just when I'm hunting evenings and in thick hard woods just to change things up.

kendo kid · Post by **kendo kid** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:55 pm

It is not the scent of the clothes the deer fear . . . it is the scent of you. I used to worry about it a lot until I realized I was missing the most important factor in acheiving success. THE WIND. Now I play the wind religiously. The success rate has improved more than any other thing I have done. Play the wind and it does not matter if you are loaded with flower scented or racoon scented squirtum. Sometimes we get so caught up in the little details we miss the most important one.

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:21 am

Yesterday I went out and hunted a tree that has good cover , loaded with vines. I had to cut a branch of a tree leaning up against the one I climbed. The wind was in the face of the deer but I was 22+ ft up and I had no effect on them. What did get their attention was the fresh cut branch. I had 2 mature doe's walk right under me and a 6 point and a few yearlings. They all came with in 5 yards of the tree and I nkow they had to pick me up but the fresh cut limb realy bothered them more.

mdcrossbow · Post by **mdcrossbow** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:12 am

I will hunt from the same tree this evening but get a few ft higher. I just put all my stuff through wash last night and I usualy change on locations. Spray myself down and take my time setting up. Allot of times in the early season I have to spray down again.
This location I'm hunting is a Y , the outside of the upper Y is a hugh field, the 2 forks of the Y are old tree lines no more than 20 yards wide and homes on the outside. The foot of the Y opens up to hard woods and is a low draw with a creek but where I am positioned it is no more than 75 yrds wide and I'm in the center. Its a sweet spot but the wind is always in their face so I have to hunt high and stay as clean as I can. But ............... can't eliminate it all.