Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Shamanic Baking Soda Failure

I'm sure as soon as I hit the "POST" button, the scheißvogel will descend on this thread and pepper it with "I told you so!"

The point of making this post is to say:
1) The Shamanic Baking Soda Method is not Infallible or sure-fire
2) It has limits
3) Results vary-- especially if you don't follow the process

Saturday was the KY Muzzleloader Opener. It rained all night and cleared out just before we went out to our blinds. The wind started gusting in the morning and it was going full-on for the afternoon. I had a chilly 5-10 mph wind down the back of my neck when I went out to the tower blind. None of us were really worried about shooting anything. For us, ML season is just a dry run for the big show in November. I'm the first to say that I wasn't really trying.

I have a bunch of details about how and why the Baking Soda Method failed here:
Muzzleloader Season, 2021

If you want to review the method, my article is here:
Shamanic Baking Soda Method


The bottom line is that due to the dropping temperatures and the rising wind, I did nothing from 10 AM when I came in until 4 PM when I went back out to reduce the stink. I left all my hunting duds on, I even added some untreated layers to deal with the cold wind. I ate my lunch in my hunting duds. I was around cigarette smokers. I wasn't serious about the baking soda thing, and I ended up seeing the result.

Someone is going to argue that the exceptions don't prove the rule. Look, all I know is that with 10 MPH winds blowing straight at my back, I would have kind of half-expected the deer to notice me at some point. However, I would have not expected them to wind me at 200 yards and run off. I've sat in that tower blind for 4 seasons, and done so with all manner of wind. I have been busted, but it has always been from things other than smell. Normally, they cue on my orange-clad head bobbing around as I shift to get a bead on them. As long as I don't move, even with unfavorable wind conditions, the scent level would be low enough for them to get within 50 yards or so before becoming aware. I've even had them walk up to the blind, walk around the tower and finally stand at the base of the ladder to catch me.

Never beat wind and thermals no matter what method you use

I'd disagree. As I said in my post, normally, I could have gotten those deer to come a good 150 yards closer even with the wind straight at my back. It's a long thin pasture oriented E/W. Their normal habit is to come out somewhere on the eastern end and then walk towards the blind feeding as they go. The other habit I've seen is for them to cross in front of me at about 80 yards. This latter pattern gives me great broadside shots. In both circumstances, they normally get hinky about 50 yards from the blind, because there is no roof to blind and they see my head bobbing about.

The method I describe in the article is not a magic bullet, but it does help.

I'm just shocked at the results........

It's obviously the most magical 200 acres on earth.

Oh just stop...

Rather than work my butt off to get the word out, all I have to do is make one post like this, and the scheißvogel ]do all the work. If the scheißvogel were smart, they'd never comment and let the thread die. However, after 18 years on this august forum, I am able to leverage their basic instincts. This will go 5 pages minimum. It astonishes me why folks would perseverate so hard on a technique they've never tried.

In a somewhat related topic. I visited the salt lick at the back of the property, and marveled at the the depth to which the deer had excavated the crater. I've been pouring rock salt into the same spot for 18 years (as long as I've been on the forum) and there the hole is now 18 inches deep. The deer use this lick from March to about September. They have stopped visiting by the time Rifle Season rolls around. It's just a fun way to get some eye candy with a trail camera, and it gives me an idea of the general health and numbers of the local herd.

I bury the rock salt by digging a bit of a trench about a foot down, dumping in the salt and the covering it back over. It makes the deer work a bit harder to get at the salt, and it keeps them from getting too much at one visit. The result is a bit of soil leaves the lick in the deer's gut. I was sitting in my stand on Saturday and had time to kill, and tried to calculate in my head how much salt and how much time it would take for 100 whitetail to excavate an 8 foot deep 30'X30' basement. I didn't get to the end of the calculation, but it would be long enough to make it highly impractical.

Stocked up on bicarb over the weekend. Thanks for lookin' out Sheman. I am a convert, a true believer.

Thoughts on attractants?

shaman, god bless ya - I've never seen anyone commit to sharing more profundity on how to shoot 1.5 y/o deer.

I admit Ive used baking soda to wash hunting clothes, body over 40 years when Im tree stand bow hunting. It does seem to result in extra deer , elk, bear sightings if conditions are right, but if the wind is wrong I'll set up in a different area or not hunt . You can't beat deer , elk, bear noses.

I stopped using cover scents over 20 years.Like grunt tubes, rattling over used by too many hunters. Ill make mock scrapes around my stand for deer but half the time no urine in the scrapes. still up in the air on that one

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate your appreciation.

I used to do it all-- cover scents, attractants, estrus, tarsal. What I found was that for every good experience with a scent that I had, I could point to another instance where the deer ran away like I'd set them on fire. Finally, the year I got the farm, I put all that aside for the sake of simplicity and went with nothing but the baking soda on my clothes. I filled both my tags and had a bunch more close encounters-- more than I had ever had in the past. Once I got settled in, I tried everything again one more time just to see if there was any distinct advantage. My results were overall poor, and I finally gave up.

The theory I ascribe to is that whitetail will respond to just about anything, but that it does not take much for them to go from curious to threatened. It's far better to just put yourself in a good spot and try to be as invisible as possible and let nature take its course. I think one of the biggest mistakes hunters make is trying to manipulate the deer instead of just learning their habits and responding. Second: I believe there is no "winning edge" out there, no scent or decoy or call that will make up for a lack of scouting and patience. All I'm doing is lowering my stink a little bit in the hopes they come a few yards closer.

I have tried bringing a half dozen apples with me and cutting them in half and leaving them 20 yards from my stand. That seemed to bring them right in and they didn't give a damn what I smelled like lol

I did use tinks as a cover and a fresh earth scent wafer.

But they were homed in on those apples.

fish on

I am pretty sure hillestadj is being facetious.

The fuucker doesn't know how to be anything buy an ass hole.

Hook him up blackheart.

"The fuucker doesn't know how to be anything buy an ASS HOLE. Same for ribka. SOB needs to laid once in awhile."

Pot meet kettle?

He hasn't been able to get it up in years. He should try hookin up with BobBrown. Word around the truck stops is that faag can suck the chrome off a trailer hitch and only charges a quarter.

I'll start you a GoFundMe for a box of Arm and Hammer if it'd cheer you up. Honest injun friend.

You ain't got room to talk there sunshine.