Tips and Tactics for Early-Season Scent Control

Scent control and whether or not scent-elimination products are effective have been topics of discussion among hunters for several years, especially during the early part of the season. If you take time plan your scent-free strategy, the answer to the question is a simple “yes.”

How to Dress
When bowhunting, early-season hunters are faced with one of the biggest challenges when it comes to staying scent free, that being the weather. A lot of early season hunters prefer to hunt evenings, which requires traveling to the stand when it’s still warm. However, no one likes to sit in a treestand sweating from the walk in, due to the amount of human odor it creates. To prevent this from happening, you need to properly dress in light, quick-drying fabrics. A fabric that is light and dries quickly helps keep you scent-free and cool. I like to carry a light jacket inside of my Scent-Lok Rogue 2285 Backpack. This keeps odor away from my jacket until I’m ready to put it on as the sun starts to go down and the temperature starts to drop.

Spray Everything and Spray Often
Scent-eliminating products do in fact work—if they are used properly. I literally spray everything that I’ll be hunting with using an eliminating spray, such as Code Blue D-Code Field Spray. I’ll spray all of my hunting clothes, my boots and the inside of my hat, gloves and facemask. I’ll also spray my bow and all accessories, such as my release and arrows. I also spray all hunting accessories, like my grunt call and rattle bag. The mistake that a lot of hunters make with sprays is not using them often enough, especially in the early season. You should spray down before heading to the stand, again after getting in the stand and periodically throughout your hunt. The continuation of spraying during your entire hunt keeps any odor from developing, which in turn keeps you scent-free.

Entry and Exit Routes
Other than dressing properly and using scent-eliminating sprays, another tactic in helping to stay scent-free in the early season is to not over exert yourself. Choosing a good entry and exit route to your treestand should be designed to spook less deer going in and out, while providing a quick route that’s easy to travel to prevent you from getting hot and sweaty on the way to your stand. The goal is to get in the treestand relaxed, cool and scent-free.

If you take the time to prepare yourself by dressing properly and making the right decisions as to how to get to your stand as scent-free as possible, then you can confidently rely on scent-elimination products working as designed throughout the duration of your hunt. Staying scent-free during the early season is one of the biggest factors in being able to harvest a mature buck. Scouting, having the right set-up and being in the right place at the right time doesn’t mean anything if a buck is ultimately going to smell you when he gets within range. Remaining scent-free throughout the early season could very well be the biggest piece to the puzzle when it comes to harvesting a mature buck.