Scent control explained- long read

[flyby]

Thanks for the very informative post flyby!! I have a couple of questions:

1) do you suppose blood tracking dogs pick up not only on the blood odor but also the particular scent that bleeding deer is laying down?? I ask because abviously some deer stop bleeding yet the blood tracking dogs continue on the trail... At some point you would think other deer have crossed the injured deer's trail yet the dog remains on the wounded deer's trail..

2) in your opinion, how much does a handler influence an Leo K-9 tracking dog?? I work with BP and the majority of our work is tracking groups. We are in serious need of tracking k-9 teams. Most of our k-9s just don't seem to stay on trails or show interest for that matter...

1. Yes, blood, ground disturbance, and deer odor. An injured deer will put out different odors than a healthy one, just like a person that is putting out "fear scent" or having an adrenaline dump.

2. Handler is the most important part of a K9 tracking team. Tracking training is an art. Training takes alot of time, and usually involves having additional help. Many handlers don't enjoy tracking due to the time involved and not truly understanding tracking. I love tracking, but it requires dedication and time. You have to be able to read the dog, know when he is on or off, and be able to get the dog back on track when he loses it. It really is a team effort and requires alot of time and dedication by the handler and dog. I love watching a good dog track more than about anything.

[Draco]

I started using skunk scent over 50 years ago. Bob Ramsey, the man who popularized rattling told me about it. I eventually went to the 2 part stuff and it works as well. I could go on and on with stories about how I've witnessed it work. Several on here that have hunted with me started using it after seeing how well it works. I think that most times it will completely cover human scent. Many times I will see deer crossing down wind and stop, do a little more smelling as it looks like they caught some thing. Eventually, they will go on across your scent stream, no problems.

Years ago I had my welding shop in Leander and had lots of law enforcement guys that would stop by to hang. The shop had a second floor over the office and 8' out from the back wall. There was crap stacked every where up there. The dog guys liked to hide drugs up there and work their dogs to find it. It was cool to watch. We put a multi drug baggy in a card board box and closed up the flaps with skunk scent in the box with it. None of the dogs ever hit on it. You could see some, just like the deer, stop at the box for a second or two and then go on. They caught some thing but not enough to make a real hit on it.

[Draco]

Talking about the scent stream, in the early years of my bow hunting, I used a few strands of marabou feathers to test my scent stream. I would turn them loose to drift with the breeze. Those feathers taught me a lot about scent streams and breezes. It showed me that very little breeze goes through a cedar tree. That feather would not hang up in a cedar tree, it would either climb over it or go around it, climbing as it went. I always try to have a cedar tree just down wind of where I hunt just because of it.

Draws or creeks can have weird effects on wind currents. I've seen the feather take off down wind and 10 minutes later see it go the other way on the other side of the creek. I use milk weed strands now and always keep them in my bag.

[MD2TX]

Going to buy vanilla extract right now ....

[DUKFVR]

THANKS flyby for all the useful info and your service to the community!

[justletmein]

The only thing I've seen that REALLY works on odor is the Ozonics, and only in limited ways. We put a pound of marijuana in a vehicle with an Ozonics a few years back during K9 training. Every dog there should have detected the odor
2 hours later, not a single dog did. That was in a completely closed vehicle with the Ozonics running for 2+ hours. When we opened the door the ozone smell was strong, but no odor of MJ.

Thanks for the tip!

[BigThicketBoy]

I try to think of the deers noses like a smoke alarm. It will only alert at certain levels so the trick is that if they smell you that your smell seems like it's further away than you really are

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Pineywoods]

I'm of the opinion that you can't elliminate human odor...only mask it. Dead upwind is horrible as well as many others I've tried over the years. Watered down vanilla in a spray bottle has worked well for me in east tx where deer are very skittish. I use evercalm on my boots and spray down with vanilla spray. The wind direction changed this morning during my hunt. I had a young buck down wind this morning that picked his nose up to investigate my smell and then went right on eating for an hour. I had a hog walk in on the same trail I used and then with nose to the ground followed my footsteps to within 5 yds of bottom of the tree I was in and never got spooked

[jimmyneutrontx]

great info

[flywise]

I'm of the opinion that you can't elliminate human odor...only mask it. Dead upwind is horrible as well as many others I've tried over the years. Watered down vanilla in a spray bottle has worked well for me in east tx where deer are very skittish. I use evercalm on my boots and spray down with vanilla spray. The wind direction changed this morning during my hunt. I had a young buck down wind this morning that picked his nose up to investigate my smell and then went right on eating for an hour. I had a hog walk in on the same trail I used and then with nose to the ground followed my footsteps to within 5 yds of bottom of the tree I was in and never got spooked

I have Been an advocate for the V for 8-9 years around here.
Had many people pm me for information because they did not want the ridicule for asking about it on the open forum......theres several people who like to make fun of the process even though they have never tried it. But it works as good or better than any of the " scent killer " stuff

[Smart]

Scent control explained- long read

I am a tryer of vanilla back before East Texas made it cool circa 2007-2008 and did not have good results.

I still dont understand how a deer can get a nose full enough of this new stuff out in the wide open 25 foot in a tree or sitting in a box to affect a body part of an animal. It would seem to have to be ultra concentrated

[flywise]

I am a tryer of vanilla back before East Texas made it cool circa 2007-2008 and did not have good results.

I still dont understand how a deer can get a nose full enough of this stuff out in the wide open 25 foot in a tree or sitting in a box to affect a body part of an animal. It would seem to have to be ultra concentrated

I dont think that product does what it says it does, nor do i believe any of the blocker products work as they claim to do.
For me, as i see it , vanilla is simply an aroma they like ( or at least not scared of) and i apply it very heavy on myself and around me. Im guessing i have so much of it in the air that it covers enough of my scent they pay my scent no mind. Every deer that has snorted at me in all these years saw me moving

[Pineywoods]

I dont think that product does what it says it does, nor do i believe any of the blocker products work as they claim to do.
For me, as i see it , vanilla is simply an aroma they like ( or at least not scared of) and i apply it very heavy on myself and around me. Im guessing i have so much of it in the air that it covers enough of my scent they pay my scent no mind. Every deer that has snorted at me in all these years saw me moving

Agreed. Same here.

[Drycreek3189]

I try to think of the deers noses like a smoke alarm. It will only alert at certain levels so the trick is that if they smell you that your smell seems like it's further away than you really are

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

It seems to me our goal should be this. I don't believe in " scent elimination ", but I do believe a good regimen can make them think that you're not right there, but over yonder somewhere. In any setting lots of us hunt, houses and people are only a short distance, so that might work for those locations. I've had decent luck with Nose Jammer, which also smells of vanilla. Had deer downwind that kept putting their noses in the air, (at least the older ones), but never blew out.

As far as Dead Downwind, I use it. What sold me was a place I used to hunt where the doe groups would approach from downwind of my bow blind, snort, and leave. One morning after a shower, dressing on the porch, spraying with DDW twice, I carried the bottle to the blind. As soon as I settled, I sprayed the walls of the blind with DDW, mesh windows and all. I heard them walk in behind me, then deer walked on both sides of the blind so close that I could have jabbed a couple with an arrow. Killed a big old heifer that morning too ! They knew what the blind was, or at least knew it harbored human stink on some occasions, but they didn't smell me that morning for sure.

[Smart]

Scent control explained- long read

For me, as i see it , vanilla is simply an aroma they like ( or at least not scared of) and i apply it very heavy on myself and around me. Im guessing i have so much of it in the air that it covers enough of my scent they pay my scent no mind. Every deer that has snorted at me in all these years saw me moving

My regular feeder deer were seemingly ok with it. I'm assuming since I put it on a shirt and tied it to the legs as directed and put it on the corn. New and mature bucks new to the feedpen we're not fans. They would walk to the pen smell and turnaround. Had that happen several times on new deer while in the blind not seen on my camera in 2008. 2 were shooter bucks. I can't risk that happening to keep my regular feeder deer happy. It's a foreign smell to new deer as I see it.

To each their own