The great lengths a serious deer hunter will go in trying to control their human scent can be extraordinary and at times almost comical. Most hunters use cover scents, and the more offensive the scent, the better, right? Bathe in skunk scent and douse your clothing in doe urine, and granted you are not going to smell like a human sitting at the Waffle House. But make no mistake, your body is still producing human scent molecules, not to mention picking up the scent of breakfast cooking and probably a few odor molecules from the truck driver sitting next to you. Skip breakfast, and you still produce human scent molecules as you walk to your stand or simply sit and wait for a deer to approach. It is these molecules that identify human presence to animals in the woods.
Hunters also buy expensive clothing with carbon-activated lining that attempt to contain human scent. A hunter could wear a head-to-toe suit of scent-masking clothing that covers every inch of his body, yet human scent molecules are still emitted with every breath he takes and spread downwind like a beacon to a deer’s nose. The reality is that for most hunters, the scent-masking clothing they wear includes an expensive jacket and pants, and some might add gloves, but parts of their body still are not covered in carbon-lined cloth. They are still emitting human scent.
Some hunters keep their regular camo outside on a clothesline or stored in a bin filled with pine needles and only put the clothing on just before heading to the stand. As soon as they put the clothes on, their body begins to saturate the clothes with human scent that a deer’s incredible nose will instantly recognize.
Unfortunately, all of these attempts to mask and neutralize human scent fall short. The longer a hunter sits in a deer stand, the greater the field of human scent that will saturate a hunting location. A swirling wind will spread human scent in every direction. Until Ozonics, the only real answers to defeating a mature buck’s best defense, its nose, was a downwind setup or a stand location that offers an extremely long rifle shot. That’s just not practical in most situations.
