11 Essential Tips to Avoid the Detection of the Deer’s Nostrils

It’s game-over when a deer even as much as smells a whiff of your presence. A hunter’s greatest challenge is evading a deer’s incredible sense of smell.

Did you know that deer have 297 million scent receptors? Humans only have 5 million! That ought to give you a vivid sense of just how high the smelling ability of a deer is. A mere breeze can enable the animal to smell you from 150-200 yards. Even after several days, the deer can pick up on the relic of your scent. Therefore, it is essential for a hunter to have scent control. Here are some tips to help you escape the smell detection of deer.

1. Begin from loosing every speck of odor on your body

Take a shower before every hunting quest. Be sure to remove all the dead cells from your skin-might sound a little extreme but this measure is almost peripheral when considering deer’s sensory ability that you’ll have to guard against in the woods.

2. Use scent frees soaps, shampoos and shaving creams

Wash with odorless soaps and shampoos and use similar shaving creams. Scent control products can be found on the market; they are effective hunting-gears manufactured exclusively for the hunters.

If you find these products to be a bit pricy then you can just stroll down to your nearest supermarket and grab a hold of affordable fragrance-free products. Because of the considerable percentage of the population with allergies many corporations manufacture products that are scent free. This comes in handy for the hunters.

3. Steer clear from spicy or highly seasoned food

Consuming spicy or over seasoned food should be avoided days before your hunting venture. The odor these foods leave in your breath and your pores can be picked up by deer at a dizzying pace and from great distance.

4. Avoid alcohol consumption and tobacco

Strong liquor and cigarette have the tendency to leave an indelible odor on your body and breath. This can end up thwarting your expedition by alerting the deer of your presence.

5. Use fragrance-free products to wash your hunting wardrobe

The same attention dedicated to your body scent must also be devoted to your clothes. Use scent control laundry soap or detergent to wash your cloths. After you’re done hang them outside to dry, preferably somewhere isolated where human scent or any other smell will not reach them. Once they’re dry, store them in a scent free bag. Carbon or charcoal lined bags will be perfect, but if you don’t have any at your disposal, a sizable garbage bag will do. Most hunters make the mistake of storing their hunting coveralls in their garage weeks before going hunting, leaving the clothes steeped with various scents that deer could easily detect.

6. Get out of your cabin or house fast

When you linger in your residence or the cabin your dwelling in, it is easy to collect human scent or any other unfavorable odors, so it’s wise to leave as quick as possible when you plan to go hunting.

7. Change into your coveralls once you've reached your destination

Nothing could be as detrimental as wearing your coveralls in your ride to the hunting location. Firstly, you’re sitting in your scent contaminated car- it can be considered a self-defeating move. Second, you might have to stop by a gas station to fill up your tank; this would eventually lead to you conducting gasoline odor all over your cloth. Thirdly, vehicles tend to leak a lot of liquid offensive to the smell and alerting to the deer. The chances of you stepping on these liquid extracts at gas stations or parking lots are very high. These traces could later follow you into the woods and thwart your objective. So always change into your hunting coveralls and boots once you've reached the hunting site.

8. Put on two layers of fragrance-free products

The hiking and climbing entailed in hunting can have you sweating profusely, so it’s smart to put on both the base and outside layer of scent free products. Through a capillary action, the base layer will draw off the sweat on your body and pass it through the next layer where it will be absorbed, leaving you dry and odorless.

9. Spray everything with scent neutralizer

Every piece of equipment that will accompany you to your stand will have to be sprayed with scent neutralizer. This will be your last step to ridding yourself of any unwanted odor.

10. What you must not forget in your wardrobe

It is often advised to wear head garment and scent free gloves. But it is mandatory to put on rubber boots.

11. Check for the right wind direction

You will have to be smart in playing the wind right as it is the medium which carries your scent molecules all the way to the deer’s nostrils. So you will have to be cautious in your choices. Choose a steady breeze and select tree stands or blinds that are downwind from the deer.

So, my fellow hunters hope these tips will help in downing your targeted deer. Hey, they say easier done than said, right?

In bowhunting, scent control is a controversial issue. Let us know what your experience has been like.