Human scent from tree stand.

Crossbow Hunting
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Ronster
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Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:52 am
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Human scent from tree stand.

Post by Ronster »

I gotta question. It's forcast to rain tomorrow morning and get a little colder. Will my human scent drift downward from my stand ( +/- 15' high) due to the rain and the dropping barometer? I'm not sure what the wind will be doing at my stand. If there's zero wind, I'm thinking about hunting somewhere else because I don't want to ruin this stand.
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kendo kid
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Post by kendo kid »

Rain will wash you scent away. However, dropping or cooler tempertures will force your scent to the ground and make it easier to detect you. One other note: there is no such thing as no wind. The air will be influenced by cooling or heating during the day. The air will move. It just may not move fast enough for you to see it. Always hunt the wind.
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tkstae
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Post by tkstae »

kendo kid said it all. It will be a rough hunting in the stand with those conditions.
Ronster
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Post by Ronster »

Thanks guys. That's what I thought. I'll go out tomorrow, and if there isn't a fair breeze in the right direction, I'll just go to my alternate stand.
Good hunting.
Big Al
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Post by Big Al »

That "hunt the wind" is the best advise you can get about hunting from anybody anywhere at any time. No scent blocker yet will mask the scent you exhale with before every breath you take.
Hi5
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Post by Hi5 »

kendo kid wrote:Rain will wash you scent away. However, dropping or cooler tempertures will force your scent to the ground and make it easier to detect you. One other note: there is no such thing as no wind. The air will be influenced by cooling or heating during the day. The air will move. It just may not move fast enough for you to see it. Always hunt the wind.
kendo

I think it's a bit more complicated than that.

It would seem, logically, to depend on ground temperature and air temperature. If the air temperature is colder than the ground, it would tend to create rising air currents as the air contacted the ground and was warmed. The reverse would also seem logical.

Also, your scent is carried by air molecules which are warmer than the ambient air. It rises until it is cooled down to the same temperature as the ambient air. (If you exhale in cold, still air, your "breath" rises.) So, your scent at first rises unless the ambient air temperature is higher than body temperature. A good side wind may disperse it to the point it needn't be a concern.

Only if the ambient air temperature is warmer than the ground temperature, would your scent tend to sink to the ground with the descending air currents.

Even then, depending on the horizontal speed of the wind and your elevation above the ground, your scent in a descending air flow may be so diluted as not to be a concern. A steady breeze would be your best bet.

So, if you are willing to do some checking on temperatures and check weather reports for wind predictions, you might be able to use your stand successfully.
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kendo kid
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Post by kendo kid »

Dear Hi5
How long do you think you breath stays warmer than the surrounding air in Manitoba in November? Where do you the think the smell of the garlic bread you ate last night goes when these molecules cool? This takes a few seconds and does not move far from your stand before joining the surrounding area. If what you said were true; then we would, in calm or perfectly dead air, have a chimney of scent ascending toward the heavens in a continuous stream of celebration of the galric bread. Hummmm good theory but it don't work that way. Bambi smells you.
The only ex who has a piece of my heart is Excalibur
NZ Hunter
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Post by NZ Hunter »

Well put Kendo Kid, small partickes of air would cool very fast. If those scent blocking companies could make $5.00 of every hunter per year, simply put thats alot of money. Smart hunting is what is needed to get the big one on his own turf with all his natural instincts and survival skills to beat.
If it feels good, DO IT.
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