cover scents

[bullrub]

How many of you guys out there use cover scents, and how affective are they.

[pointysticks]

i do. effective? dunno.

i still play the wind all the time..i bet the hunting industry sold us a something dumb. like ice to an eskimo.

but i still use it just in case.

funny story..i have a friend that uses the stuff religiously. but when he steps out of his truck, his camo smells Downey fresh!! hahah..his wife washes the laundry and treats his camo just the same as the bedsheets. he smells like fresh sunday laundry. even playing the wind works for him.

[bullrub]

Now thats funny I also use the stuff and work the wind. Like you said i don't know if it works or not, but i guess it makes me feel better. But my wife does not touch my camo's.

[cnelk]

I cut fresh blooming sage and and pine boughs and let my camo 'cook' in that prior to season.

The sage keeps the 'spooks' away too

[Swede]

I will crush a little pine, juniper or sage and wipe the juice on my clothes. Does it work? Like cnelk; I haven't been bothered by spooks. Mostly I prefer to just be as scent free as possible.

[Lefty]

I cut fresh blooming sage ,.......

I do the same, place it in a cloth bag about the size of a pillow case then all my clothes go into a storage tote.
The sage resin will stain your clothes camo it may not matter,.. but white underwear looks funky

Keeps the garage smelling good

[WapitiTalk1]

I wash my hunting clothes in some kind of scent killer stuff I buy every year or so. On occasion, I spray myself and partner down with whatever he or I have but honestly, nothing man made disguises human scent. I do the clothes washing thing cause I'm amping up for the season and it's part of the pre-hunt ritual, and, do the spray sometimes because it's on hand. I will never carry scent killer spray in my pack (if it's a base camp year, I'll use it to spray down with just because it's there). It doesn't matter if you shower in 15 gallons of the stuff and wash your clothes 15 times in the latest scent killer, blocker, inhibitor blend.. If the wind shifts and bullwinkle is downwind from you, it's game over each and every time.. Like pointysticks said, you must work the wind.... always. So in a long winded way, I say no, cover scents do nothing more than make money for the guys who manufacture them. RJ

[foxvalley]

Phantom,
I agree 100% that no matter what you do to mask or cover your scent, that elk downwind will smell you each and every time. However.............

I also know that minimizing your scent in every way that you possible can while elk hunting is better than not. We smell,stink,if you will, just like a skunk to an elk.Imagine a skunk that just sprayed,you can smell that stuff for a mile, and the odor will be there for a long time. Now,imagine a skunk that hasn't sprayed in a month,you can faintly smell the odor only if you cross his path,but thats it. The less you smell the less odor floating around, and the less the elk will know you are there.
An elk will not tollerate the slightest wiff of human, but back home I hunt big whitetails right behind my house,and they smell me all year long........at a distance. Now when I bowhunt these crafty bucks,I get as scent free as I can, then I walk past my wood boiler, and get a little wood smoke in my clothes,just like what they smell all fall and winter. In the woods, these bucks smell me,but it smells to them that I am still at the house,not 20 yards away. The less you smell, the further away they will think you are.

[WapitiTalk1]

Phantom,
I agree 100% that no matter what you do to mask or cover your scent, that elk downwind will smell you each and every time. However.............

I also know that minimizing your scent in every way that you possible can while elk hunting is better than not. We smell,stink,if you will, just like a skunk to an elk.Imagine a skunk that just sprayed,you can smell that stuff for a mile, and the odor will be there for a long time. Now,imagine a skunk that hasn't sprayed in a month,you can faintly smell the odor only if you cross his path,but thats it. The less you smell the less odor floating around, and the less the elk will know you are there.
An elk will not tollerate the slightest wiff of human, but back home I hunt big whitetails right behind my house,and they smell me all year long........at a distance. Now when I bowhunt these crafty bucks,I get as scent free as I can, then I walk past my wood boiler, and get a little wood smoke in my clothes,just like what they smell all fall and winter. In the woods, these bucks smell me,but it smells to them that I am still at the house,not 20 yards away. The less you smell, the further away they will think you are.

Interesting point foxvalley.. RJ

[mattstanton]

wind, wind, wind, wind, wind, wind, wind!!!!!!