Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting My Annual Baking Soda Rant

Sorry SKane, you know what I told you but I CAN'T resist.




Pete & Shaman,.... Shaman & Pete ?? Same Same


Jerry

I have a pritty ridged sent free regiment my self... but yours is better... I'm going to use these tips and prosses to make my set up better....

Thank you for sharing !

Most scent is in your hair, I shaved my hair used baking soda clean clothes Yada, yada,

A lot of animals came from down wind.

But some would wind me.

I don’t do it any more as I have moved out west and it’s impossible to stay that clean and have a enjoyable time IMO.

Nuthin like enjoying a camel wide smoke; telling you where your stink is going.

Scent spray doesn't work or police drug dogs would be out of a job

Been there and done that. Sadly we had two dogs that became incontinent in their last days, so we had ample opportunity to test this. The last one died just before last Christmas. The family room carpet was already a basket case, and is overdue for replacement. When one of the dogs let go we immediately got it picked up and ran a carpet shampooer over the spot, and then used baking soda sprinkled on the still-wet carpet to deodorize. We tested this against Fabreeze and couple other products, and the baking soda did as good or better.

One of the properties of baking soda is that it changes the pH on your skin, hair, and clothes rather dramatically without causing irritation. The alkaline environment inhibits bacteria growth, and this is what produces the worst of the human stink. If I shower with baking soda and rub a little bit in my pits and elsewhere, the stink stays away for a good long time. I shower every morning before I go hunting, and the baking soda in my clothes keeps this up all day.

It ain't perfect, but it does a fair job.

Yeah, so what about the scent coming from your eyes, nose, ears, breath, etc? "Fair" job is being generous. Maybe better than nothing is what I would say, but what I actually say is it is a waste of time and effort.

I'm with ya.'

I'll play the wind and the only 'cover scent' I use is Permethrin.

10-4 on that Permethrin. I used it in Africa as well and it flat out works. Good luck with your KS hunts this year skeen.

Yep....

None are so deaf as they who will not hear !

Think I read that somewhere.


Jerry

Look, I'm always the first one to warn folks: If somebody is telling you there is an invisible force that is keeping you from being a successful deer hunter and they have a solution, be very skeptical. That goes for scent reduction and doubly so for Anti-UV agents.

However, it also works in reverse. I'm down with the idea that there is scent coming from all of your orifices, and that it would be possible for deer to sense it. However, I seriously doubt that those emanations contribute significantly to a hunter's overall scent profile. I know guys that swear by chlorophyll gum and eating activated charcoal before season. I'm just not going to go down that bunny hole. I've had too much good luck with baking soda alone.

I also reject the idea that deer have magical senses and that any scent whatsoever will make them flee for the next county. All this baking soda regimen probably does is knock the worst of the stink off. I don't know 50%(?) 80%(?) Instead of walking into a cloud of man stink that tells them, there's a guy in a tree at 50 yard's distance, a deer may get a whiff and not bother reacting-- too far, too weak. I honestly don't know how it works. All I'm saying is that the regimen I describe has worked well for me for 30 years, and I'm willing to share it.

Look, if you guys want to start a thread about deer blinds, by all means, have at it.

Meanwhile, I'm getting a lot of positive feedback on the baking soda thing.

SWOOSH ------------->

But will the baking soda stop scent from being produced? I doubt it which is why I’m skeptical of cover scents. Yes it may make the clothes scent free but your going to ruin that within 5 minutes of wearing them

I realize this has worked well for you for 30 years, but to a lot of us on here it’s worked well for you because you paid attention to the wind and wouldn’t really have mattered if you’d doused yourself in Old Spice instead of baking soda

That's a good question. The answer is a qualified yes. What baking soda does is inhibit bacteria growth by way of raising the pH. As I understand it, the bacteria feed on your detritus (dead skin, oils, etc.) The byproducts of this growth are what give places like your armpits their distinctive stink. Depending on how thorough the job you do of showering and applying the baking soda to you and your clothes, the baking soda will work for hours. When I was bowhunting, I usually changed clothes between morning and afternoon hunts.

The stuff growing in your armpits and crotch is also the same sort of stuff (Lactobacillus and yeasts) that makes sourdough bread work. What I would suggest is this: read the weblog entry, and follow the part about showering and applying baking soda to your body. Do it on a non-hunting day. Check and see how long it takes for your pit stink to come back.

I'm not an expert on wind management. Believe me. Whenever I think the deer must be coming from one direction due to the wind, they always seem to show up on my backside.

I'm also not touting this method based on alleged expertise in any of this. All I'm saying is that it has worked for me, and I'm doing my best to share it with others. If you're the kind of guy who spends big bucks on scent reduction every year, this is a way to get off on the cheap. If you're a fellow who just plays the wind, this probably all sounds goofy. That's okay too.

I generally find the wind here is constantly changing directions. I use baking soda as a result

I use nothing but Baking Soda to clean my coolers. I have tested its use by leaving great good gobs of greasy grimy Gopher guts in them until it began attracting Monitor Lizards & Buzzards. Not really, just dead rotted fish & shrimp. The baking soda removed any trace of smell to my amazement.

Have used nothing else since.

Hunt the wind... must be nice.

Mostly where I hunt, it's swirly and ever changing. Not that it matters. Where I hunt the most, it's because it's the only place I can at the time. There I generally I hunt facing one way, sitting or walking, because it's the only direction I can safely shoot. The choices are ignore the wind or don't hunt at all.

As far as attempted scent control, sure isn't perfect, but I view it like trying to whisper in the woods vs yelling. They can still hear you, but maybe not as well or as far.

Dead shrimp... thas a damn tough smell to get rid of. Glad to know baking soda will clean it up.

Damn, that's good! Can I steal that?