Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hygiene in the bush?

Depends on what I'm doing and where. Have gone skinny dipping many times when the day is warmest. Like has been said, you must keep up the feet and both sides of the butt.
If it's really cold, I go with OK's system. Do a half at a time, and preheat the water.
I insist on doing not only the crotch, and feet, but the pitts and my neck as well.
All in all, the best way to do an extended hunt in really cold werather, like Montana's elk season, is to camp out in a fully equipped RV. A hot shower every night, hot food at breakfast and dinner, and sleeping in clean sheets at night.
Just make sure you get one with a built in generator and has a forced air system that keeps the pipes and holding tanks from freezing. I use a Lance truck camper to this. E

I once dated a girl that didn't have much hygiene in the bush. Whew, won't do that again.

Shaving the bush is much more condusive to good hygiene.

We carry a couple of the wash rags in foil packs, heat them over the pocket rocket stove and wash away.
I often carry stuff thats a bit hard to find these days, I forget where i got it last, but one thing is a clear crystal type stone that is good deodorant and another is a thick paste that you dab(don't wipe or smear) on and lasts for days at at time, even in TX heat if needed. And you wash up with that on and it works more...

But after 4-5 days heated up wipes don't cut it and its like the others said, I try to find and out of the weather place if in a small tent, IE like a ravine/creek etc... and just wash the top off really well, then the bottom and put new clothes on. I have not tried the waterless shampoo yet, but just do a quick shampoo as is. You can clean pretty quick and the last big hunt I did it on, it was below zero when I bathed and was not bad at all as long as you are out of the wind.

I have not thought of a squeeze type bottle of warm water but I'll be searching for the best shortly now that I read that.

We try to not carry much along on backpack hunts but if you keep the crotch clean and swap underwear every other day you are doing good, swap to clean I mean, thats not much extra weight, and we swap liner socks for new ones every day, and swap the outer socks back and forth every other day, letting one pair air out, even if it has to "air" in the sleeping bag...

Works for us.

Jeff

Well I use gold bond powder a lot, and in winter I wipe down with rubbing alcohol, its not perfect, but it works in Cold weather well enough, I can go 50 days this way if need be. Nothing like a hot shower thou. It becomes a problem when you carry all your stuff on your back. I once used a sort of tub on a hunt once, heated up 5 gallons of water, stood in it and gave myself a sort of bath, Got cold never the less, took all night just to warm up. Some of the things I would do to collect an Elk. Now a Lance truck Camper makes a lot of sense as I get older.

I was at a bar and this girl was wearin' scentlock and I thought you know, she's probably alright. no. she wasn't- I mean if you wanted to dip copenhagen and share a tent with another stinky hunter- she was aces. BUT... bush or no bush- hygene becomes pretty critical at a point

yeah...agreed on all points. especially the girl part. lol

Has anyone tried rubbing down with the mineral salt deodorants?

Is this thread for real? Seems like an extension of the men are turning into wussies thread.

Keep your crotch and feet clean and dry, and live with the stench. Your diet has a big effect on how much you stink, so consider what you are eating. Making a sweat logdge and having water to rinse off in would be the ticket.

Our main elk camp in Idaho has a hot spring so we run a pipe line to three bathtubs stair stepped made of 55 gal. barrels, and put a wall tent and wood stove over them..the hot water runs in one side and out the other back into the hot spring..Ingenious if I do say so myself, a good soak, a ceegar, and a some sipp'en whiskey and your ready for a good meal and a good nights sleep..

In Africa of course with have flush toilets, hot showers and sinks with mirrows in every tent, electric lights, those bloody Africaners know how to camp, no doubt about that, but wheres the air conditioning?..

I am always camped by a creek and use it..Keeps the blood running.Warm up a soup(small) pan or two and soap up with one and rinse with the other.Doesn't take all that much water to wash the important places...

I do use creek safe soaps when bathing in the creek..Dr Bronners Peppermint in the summer which is one hell of a skeeter and tick repellent in itself.

Jayco

Baby wipes work well. I bring them into my sleeping bag about 5 minutes before getting up so they'll warm up some. Cold wipes are no more confortable than a cold shower!

Once, at the local Farmer's Union Oil Station, a group of farmers were talking about whether they carried toilet paper,paper towels, or what when out all day in the field. An old farmer (in jest) said he just used a flat rock. It didn't clean you up so well, he said, but it spread it thin enough so it dried fast. He brought the house down with that one.

There is a shower in a bag you an get from some medical supply providers. We have them in the hospital.

Baby wipes.

A cigar will cover up a lot of odor, and some sipp'en whiskey can make me not care about the odor.

I'm curious, how much scent can scent lock clothing contain?

Heat water on stove for a quick wash each evening, feet etc. Dry socks daily, change underwear every six days, turn inside out on third day!

Ya really don't smell worse than some of the critters ya hunt esp bears!

That shower when I get home sure feels good the first hour or so.

Whore's bath. I use a wet rag and I clean my face first than neck, pits, junk and finally feet. Rag always gets washed before re-use.

Powder feet and junk and I'm good for a few more days.

Baby wipes suck, I can't stand them except for at meal time.

That's me-a wuss I guess . In AK I stand nekked in a stream turning blue with skeeters chewing on me and rifle at ready. In bush, a shower bag and/or a very large version of Baby Wipes-not comfortable 'till clean at the end of each day if at all possible and I make as sure as I can it is.

I like to carry those sponge pan scrubbers as the green plastic scrubby side is good for removing ingrained muck...

For warm water, I used to use a metal water bottle as it could be heated directly over a flame and was a lot easier to use than the issue mess tins..

One trick that used to be popular with some of the old sweats was to wash their feet, crotch and pits ect with the still warm dregs out of the tea earn (sans milk and sugar of course)..Usually this was black and strong as the industrial size tea bags would still be in the bottom of the earn..

The reason given was that strong black tea was actually an antispectic/anti bacterial due to the tanin content..I've seen it used for wet shaving too..