Hunting And Outdoor SportsTactics And Training
A Scent Control Case Study: Does It Really Work?
A Scent Control Case Study: Does It Really Work?
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✍️By ZRIntel Editorial Team📍Michigan
There might be some legitimate scientific studies that show if scent control works, but if so, Im not familiar with them. I have read accounts of a few tests using trained dogs to find hunters under boxes. But in my opinion, these lack validity. Too few data points, deer being a different species than dogs, and the fact that a person hiding under a box in an open field is vastly different than a hunting situation are all reasons to disqualify these results, in my mind. Instead, the best analysis of scent control efforts may be a simple A/B test on whitetails conducted while hunting. This can be done by any hunter and potentially include hundreds of data points over multiple seasons. And the results of both before and after a scent control regimen can be compared. Case studies like this are a valuable analysis tool, so lets look at one 32 years in the making my hunting journey. First lets define what scent control is and is not. The term scent-free is often thrown around and misleads hunters to think they can eliminate all odors coming from or left by them. But is this what you need to do? In a recent discussion I had with Dr. Karl Miller, former professor at the University of Georgia Deer Lab, he mentioned something that I believe is the key. He said: There is an odor threshold above which deer adversely react, and below which they do not. Deer have many more scent receptors than humans, a larger area of the brain dedicated to process odors, and the ability to sort odors far above a human. However, there is still a threshold of odor molecules that if not exceeded, will not trip a whitetails trigger. Our goal therefore should simply be eliminating enough of our scent to fall below Dr. Millers odor threshold. This should include both contact odors (left by touching brush, twigs, trees, and what we transfer while walking) and also airborne odors we emit from our bodies and gear. When I hit the woods for the first time as a 12-year-old, I wore blue jeans, a green hoodie, and had zero scent control. I specifically recall hunting over a bait pile, and nervously shaking for over 20 minutes as a monster 6-point stomped and snorted downwind. Apparently, the gnawing in his stomach couldnt override the stench in his nostrils, and this is the way it was for that entire season. In fact, my dads hunting journal details that I spent an incredible 100 hours hunting with no success. Over my first 19 seasons, one thing became a fact to me: if a deer got downwind, it would smell me and adversely react. And I had hundreds of occurrences over those years to prove it. This is where I want to introduce a simple graphic organizer to visualize these occurrences and show how anyone can track their own experience. The challenging part of a scent control regimen is measuring its effectiveness, which is best seen by an adverse reaction, as its difficult to tie a non-reaction directly to any one cause. However, through a quorum of hundreds of observations, I believe trends become beneficial. The challenging part of a scent control regimen is measuring its effectiveness. By the data, my scent regimen works well; its something any hunter can test for themselves. In the 13 years to follow, hundreds of similar occurrences piled up, data points largely falling in that same quadrant, and in that time I honed my regimen to the point where I currently dont worry much about wind direction. The entire regimen is much too detailed to include in a single article, but Ill give the main ideas as a starting point. The big key is adopting a no-tolerance attitude toward odors. You cannot allow outside scents to contaminate hunting clothes, gear, hair, or skin, because it only takes one contaminated item for a deer to catch you. As the season progresses, this tends to get harder as deer are more on alert from hunting pressure, and hunters are more apt to get lazy. Ive had many instances where deer travel an exact path I took through waist-high grasses and have no idea I traveled it. Since my conversion of sorts to a scent control regimen, Ive had hundreds of encounters, mostly grouping in quadrant 4. To me, this indicates that a thorough and well-executed scent control strategy significantly enhances success in hunting. This approach, while demanding effort and consistency, carries the reward of encounters where deer remain unaffected by a hunter's presence. It tells us that scent control may not only be feasible but also crucial for success in whitetail hunting. If you maintain such a regimen throughout the season, you can not only believe but actually see the results manifest in your hunting experiences.