Scents have become popular for hunters. If you hunt from a stand or blind, I can see their value. If the deer and critters cannot smell you, you can become invisible.
Deer, elk, moose, and long-snouted critters have amazing smell sensors. The longer nasal passages are full of scent sniffing sensors. Grizzly bears can smell a gut pile from miles away. BO can quickly ruin your hunt. I have watched deer smell my backtrail that is hours old.
When I began hunting in Montana, things changed. Rarely do we use tree stands or blinds. Stalking and long-range spotting are more useful skills. We also decoy and call in our big game. Baiting is not allowed so we need to call the critters into range or sneak up on them.
When hunting in the Rocky Mountains, you will never beat the nose of an elk or big game critter. Hunting is at high altitudes with steep climbs and long hikes. It takes minutes to sweat and become stinky. No scent will completely cover up your stink. The best you can hope for is to manage it.
Natural scents are an answer. Cover yourself with scents that are already on site. Leaves, pine needles, fruit, manure, mud/dirt, moss, etc. Step in the poop, walk through the fruit, rub the leaves onto your clothes. Store your hunting gear in tubs filled with natural scents.
Avoid cooking scents, fire, and smoke. Fuels like gasoline and kerosene can also ruin a hunt. These scents will ruin your scent-free hopes. Smoking cigs, spicy foods, and soapy cleaners will also ruin any hope of a stink-free hunt.
Move slowly and travel into the wind. Don’t worry about noise. Other animals are making noises too. The thing that will get you busted is your smell.
Rocky Jacobsen, my elk hunting mentor preaches that “an elk will hear you 3 times, see you move twice, but smell you just once!”
Another silly stealthy solution is also removing your electromagnetic aura. I know that this sounds crazy, but all living things give off an electrical field. Every time we move, an electric signal travels through nerves to a synapse where the spark jumps from one nerve to another. This creates an electromagnetic field that critters can see. H.E.C.S. is a product that will reduce your electromagnetic field. Human Electromagnetic Concealment System. Critters now will see you but not as a human.
I have worn this HECS product and have been surprised with the results. Ravens, a smart bird, have landed on me when sitting still. Chipmunks and squirrels have marched over me. Deer and elk look at me but don’t see me. Spring gobblers have also looked at me but did not spook. Check this product out.
Remember that your gear has odors as well as your body. Cleaning and laundry products offer unnatural smells that will give away your position. If you can smell it, so can the wildlife.
Smell like the forests and fields!
Montana Grant
