I think it might work and I'll tell you why. I've noticed deer before that clearly smelled me, that did not alert at all, or at least not seriously. I could see them and knew they were smelling me but they didn't blow and flag off. Most of these were at a distance. On the other hand, a deer that winds me at twenty yards will blow and flag off every single time.
Where I hunt, deer smell people all the time. Whether it is the guy fixing his fence a quarter mile away across the river, my dad getting some logs out, or the people living another quarter mile across the creek, they smell people nearly every day. If they alerted every time they smelled someone, they would be run ragged.
As I observed, deer are capable of categorizing the immediacy of a threat by how strong the odor is. Simply put, they can tell if the smell is the guy fixing his fence a quarter mile away or someone sitting in a blind twenty yards away. One scent is merely part of the backdrop in which he lives, the other is a dire threat that requires immediate action. IF scent control through any means can make a guy sitting in a blind twenty yards away smell more like the guy fixing his fence a quarter mile away instead of what he actually is, then it can work.
Does that mean that the deer doesn't smell the guy. No, and that is why those dog tests don't prove much. The dogs were told to go find a guy. They don't care if he smelled like he was twenty yards away or a quarter away, they smelled him and they went and found him. But dogs can't talk and say, "Hey, you sure didn't smell like you were that close."
Sure, you should try to hunt the wind as much as possible, but where I live that is often impossible. I look at a weather forecast the night before I go hunting to see where the wind is going to be from so I can get an idea of where to hunt. When I get up, I check it again on the internet and outside. Then I drive the forty-five minutes or so to my place. On the way, I pass a paper mill and I'm always able to see which way the wind is blowing by the smoke. Then, when I open the gate, I check it again. Then when I get on the stand I check it again. I can't tell you how many times the internet and the wind at home are one way, the paper mill another, the gate another, and finally on the stand, another direction yet. And often on the stand, it is blowing one way and five minutes later another and ten minutes after that, still another.
I don't know if the stuff works, but if it did, even simply by REDUCING the scent, it could well be worth it. That buck might think he is smelling a guy walking down a fence row half a mile away instead of you waiting to stick an arrow in him.
It.
Doesn't.
Work.
I also love how people think wind travels in a linear fashion.. It doesn't.
