Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Ozone Generator for hunting clothes storage?

Anyone use an ozone generator for clothes storage? I'm not looking at one for use while hunting, mainly thinking of one to reduce the number of times hunting clothes are washed during a season. I'm usually hunting 1-3 days a week from October through the start of February.....reducing the number of washings that everything except base layers has to go through could save me a lot of washes and reduce the wear of washing on clothes.

I tired it, and still have it but don’t use it now.

It does work, I hunt an area that has a lot of bedding areas that is surrounded by fields, so you almost always get winded if you have any scent on you. I got tired of washing like you mention and did the Ozone thing, and I did see a good number of deer that I didn’t see before.

I quit using it because when I treated my clothes it slightly but consistently irritated my nose for a day or so after I ran them in the box with the ozone pump. Now I get shots for allergies so some things just pester the heck out of me, and that slight irritation was enough for me to just hunt from my box stand and shoot the bean field rifle for deer.
But if I were elk hunting in cover, or bow hunting I’d take an allergy pill and be happy.

Before going down that road, I would strongly suggest anyone read this:

Baking Soda– the Shamanic Method

This is what we used to do back before there were all these scent-killing products. It works. It works as well or better than anything else out there. I've been doing it for over 30 years.

Remember that Ozone eats things like elastic rubber and some plastics.

I’ve got one piped into a cedar closet at my farm. I run a 10 minute cycle before I get dressed and another when clothes go back in. Just started this last year. No idea if it helps. This is generally for outer layers. When base layers and other stuff get washed they go straight from dryer to rubber totes

I use the Ozonic system religiously at home and in the field. I'm a scent control freak. Started out using baking soda and other homemade cover scents, the progressed to scent loc clothing, then on to silver linked clothes. I hunted whitetail deer 70+ days last year and never washed any of my primary hunting clothes. I had a few deer smell me or hear the Ozonic HR 400. It's not completely fool proof but it's the best available technology to stay sent free while hunting.

Realtors & car people use Ozone in houses and cars to kill nasty smells - I borrowed a big one once,,...stupid stuff really works.

It is NOT good for a person to breath, and it does deteriorate elastic stuff too...

I wish it didn’t bother my nose or I’d use the heck out of it.

My son has one and uses it when storing his hunting clothes.

I bought a used wool hunting jacket that apparently someone sprayed with fox urine to hide their scent.
Took it to the dry cleaners and it didn't touch it, while clean, still smelled of the fox urine just as bad.
My son put it in his ozonic tub he uses and ran it, let is set overnight and the smell was finally gone.

I run clothes through a ozone generator and then vacuum pack them. I also bring it along the trip and stick it in my duffle bag and let it run for a while to refresh clothes. This year in an AM hunt I was in a stand that I knew would have a wind change sometime in the mid AM.It was a gamble for sure but the wind changed and a few minutes later a little buck walked past my stand at 50 yards and acted as if he ran into a wall. He could not get out of there fast enough.

That said I do not know if an Ozonics unit would have worked in that event. I do not know if deer even like that Ozone smell and treat it with suspicion.

I am usually very particular about my clothes in archery season and play the wind. This past season I tried an ozone bag. Results seemed pretty good. I didnt get busted and had deer down wind quite a few times. I have multiple sets of clothes and rotate them out also. Once I'm done with a set they hang outside on a clothes line. Before I hunt I run them in the ozone. I also used some on back to back hunts thatbI ran in the ozone and had good success.

The bag I bought was smaller and have a bigger one on order. I say go for it

It’s all a gimmick. You couldn’t even hide from your dog with any sent reducing product currently available, let alone a deer. The only thing that I have found to work is to play the wind or get into a sealed box blind.

Sure, you do what you can but if they are downwind, not much will help.

Yup, besides you can't hide your breath, smells from vehicle or the scents your body is constantly generating. The potential slight advantage isn't worth the investment. You'd have better luck convincing me a 30-06 greatly surpasses the 308 as a deer cartridge for shots 300 yards or less.

So many are missing the question I was asking.....

I'm not trying to cover scent while I'm hunting. I'd like to reduce the number of times I wash hunting clothes. If I can brush off dirt and then throw it in a box to keep if from smelling like yesterdays workout cloths and at the same time reduce the number of washes it goes through to prolong the outer rain/water repellent it's a win/win.

Edited to add, thanks to those who did answer the question. It sounds like the product would remove my sweat/body odor...so that I don't have to live with my stink next time I put it on....without running through a wash. Thanks.

Since I look on hunting as a Sporting Proposition, not a war I’ve no interest in any of the scent-control stuff as a tactic; you gotta give the game something.

For my own comfort, I like clean clothes, so I wash the polypropylene base layers between wearings. With HE washers, they don’t get super wet, or beat up much, and I just hang them under a fan to dry. Washable outer layers, including Pendleton shirts, get washed when they get dirty or sweated-up and air-dried as well. Almost always both are ready to wear the next day. Wool gets dry cleaned when soiled.

I've got clothes that have lasted me 30+ years using the Shamanic Baking Soda method. The baking soda is quite a bit easier on fabric than detergent. You're basically rinsing the clothes out a little bit and letting them dry up and then hitting them with more baking soda before you pack them away.

I think the thing you're forgetting is that just using an ozone generator does not remove the source of the stink. All your sweat and bacteria and oils and whatever stay on the clothes. You need to figure out a way to remove those contaminants. I've recently purchased an ozone generator for our basement. It's got a musty smell. The instructions specify giving everything a good cleaning before ozone treatment.

Crude example: Let's say you have an incontinent dog. The dog keeps soiling the carpet. You leave all the puddles and piles where they are-- maybe sweep the dry one out the door. You decide the best solution is an ozone generator because you don't want to wear out the carpet. I'll let you fill in the details.

OXI CLEAN powder works very well. Has no odors or brighteners and cleans well. BUT you still have to be downwind to be 100% sure. I do use OXI CLEAN with arm and hammer washing soda for my hunting clothes.

How much A&H stock do you have? I believe the ozone generators actually kill mold, mildew, and bacteria. The cloths will be washed....but if I can cut the number of washings in half or by a third it's a win.

+1. the ozone particles destroy everything including the clothing(at least the lycra or spandex) over a period of time.

Jay - you are correct - ozone generators do indeed kill mold and bacteria. Hell, ozone has even proven effective in treating MRSA.
Standby for your next shamanic education – how to score a whitetail.

I did not say ozone didn't kill mold. What I stated was that it did not remove the contaminants. See my example regarding the incontinent dog.

Since this thread got started, I've ordered an ozone generator and put it in place at one of our houses. We had a freezer full of meat fail-- lost a couple hundred pounds of venison, and we didn't find it right away-- maybe a couple of weeks.

Yes, the ozone generator did do a great job of dealing with the dead meat smell, but we had to remove the meat and clean the freezer as well as the puddle of blood off the floor. The basement also had a pretty bad musty smell. The house has been unoccupied for while and there has been some water coming through the foundation.

I'm sold on an ozone generator for this kind of work. However, as I guy who grew up in a family that lived off apartment rentals, I can tell you that if you do not remove the source of contamination, the smell comes right back. Furthermore, the longer you keep the contaminant on the object, the harder you have to work to get it out. The dead meat smell is gone from the house, probably for good. However, the musty smell returns after the ozone generator is off for a day.

On the other hand, I've got multiple sets of polypro underwear I've packed for my turkey hunting trip that is going on 20 years old. It gets washed with detergent maybe once a year if it gets deer blood on it. Mostly, all I'm doing with it is doing the shamanic baking soda drill and air drying. The stuff still looks new.

BTW: I haven't a clue about scoring whitetails.

No, I don't own A&H stock. The only reason I mention the method is that folks spend ungodly amounts of money on scent-reduction products and never know there was a cheap and easy method already in existence. The method isn't even mine; I just read a magazine article in the mid-80's and gave it a try. Compared to other methods this one is very effective and a lot cheaper.