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.

When I went over to the Piggly Wiggly all they had was the store brand soda.
Will it work as well as the Arm and Hammer?

Im still waiting for my custom coues deer rifle from blackheart. Iol

You ask about dudes at truck stops?

Heard it here on the fire so it must be true.

Blackheart - I think you owe the Shaman an apology for $hitting all over this thread. People like you really fugg up an otherwise productive and informational thread.

Gentlemen able to refrain from Blackheart's low class antics;

Three quarters of all your posts are nothing but snarky, smart assed, condescending remarks. Obviously a desperate attempt at projecting an image of intellectual superiority while in reality everybody, including you, knows you're just a pathetic loser.

Sorry you feel that way friend.

Shaman being the fish

Oh just stop...

———————-

Best 3 words in whole thread !

Bwahaa Bwahaa.

jwall, I said that !!!

not into under age filipino boys like blackie.

I'll pass

let's discuss the ozone machine or HECS, the invisible man hunter. Both proven technology

Your pathetic, ugly old ass ain't got room to be picky.

By chance did you error and use gluten free baking soda?

Wish I could help, but a suggestion…I’ve had them almost come into the blind….wind swirling…with my Dog in there with me.

Oh, if you go to the link and read the weblog entry, I had a whole list of things I did wrong. The reason I made this thread was just to illustrate that this method is not a deadnuts sure thing. It takes work. It takes time. I was just cutting corners, because it was ML season. We use ML as a dress rehearsal.

After I got back to town, I did two loads of wash with baking soda. One was the polypro underwear that is closest to my skin. The other was the Hunter Orange layer. Normally I don't wash the latter, but it was starting to show stains. All this got hung out on the line for 24 hours and then salted down with baking soda and bagged in trash bags. They'll have a month to sit in the baking soda before they get used on The Rifle Opener.

How do you get your dog to stand still for the baking soda treatment?

One season my buddy put a kerosene heater in the back of the truck with all our gear including duffels with our hunting clothes. The damn thing leaked and all our stuff smelled like diesel.

So I chewed some Wrigley's spearmint to cover the diesel smell, and it worked. I killed a nice buck, he never smelled me. Had to be the Wrigley's.

Don’t know what to tell you….more than once we have done the deed with two and once with three….friends Son did the killing at around 15 yards. No baking soda and for sure wearing the same clothes they hunted in all week without any voodoo cover scenting.

Must be a Pa thang…..

Clove is for the big boys. Deer that is..

Didn’t waste time with dosing him with soda. He would have been looking for some Bear shiit to roll in to cover his scent. Bear shiit in the blind is bad juju when Deer hunting.

🦫

Along with some of the dumbest chit I ever read in my life.

If only they had scent control detergent and scent lock bags that double zip for storing cloths.

But, the tip about hanging around inside, wearing my hunting stuff, around smokers, now that's helpful.

😉

How in the hell does anyone kill an Elk or Bear, when they are on a packin hunt without Baking soda, eating out of a cook tent, hot days climbing and sweating, etc, etc...

Must be some kind of magic only outfitters know about....

I guess the point is that for all that premium detergent, and scent lock bags and all, I'm getting great results with sodium bicarb and garbage bags, and I've been doing it since Regan's 2nd term. Check the cost of that detergent against a handful of Baking Soda and get back to me.

Yeah, one of the big things I found that helped was removing my outermost layer and letting it air on the line between morning and evening hunts and then again for a while after the evening hunt. I leave them to air and then bag them up before going to bed. I've learned that the same underwear can be worn morning and evening, but it helps to take it off if you come back into camp. Back when I was bowhunting, I'd use complete changes of everything. but I've relaxed that since I've gone to rifle.

One benefit of using baking soda instead of detergent is that detergent does not fade colors. If you're washing camo in detergent, eventually the colors start to fade. Baking soda removes the stench, but does not touch the dyes. Yeah, dirt and stains don't come out as good, but if you end up with blood on your duds or some nasty mud or oil, you can use washing soda. I have also used All Free & Clear before re-rinsing in sodium bicarb.

Larry Kollar, Hal Blood and those Benoit boys never ever mentioned that.......

Not really. The guys who say "Play the Wind" have it right. That way does work. It works fine. My method, done right, reduces what is being sent downwind. It won't totally remove your scent, but it lowers it to the point where you aren't stuck always hunting downwind or crosswind. What I was doing by posting this thread was giving an example where I didn't do much right over the past weekend and I got the results one would expect-- an abject failure.

About 15 years ago, I woke up late on a Sunday AM and decided to skip all my baking soda ritual and go out in Saturday's clothes. It just so happened that I was making my way out to the stand along this same long narrow pasture where I had the misfire on Saturday Evening. It was early in the season and I was in just a long-sleeve T-Shirt that had yesterday's sweat on it. A doe group picked me up at one end of this quarter-mile-long pasture and followed me its entire length and then another 400 yards to my stand. They would run ahead a bit and then wait for me to catch up and the snort like crazy. They even showed up at my stand to give me a good thrashing (at a safe distance of course) and would not leave me alone the whole morning.

Really,

But I’m either close to or just over 100….Bucks and Does….and have yet to soda up, yet to change underwear at lunch, have shot them with the wind going most every direction…although it has screwed me once in awhile…but I roam the hills so it is always changing and I can’t always change with it.

Most times shooting younger Deer is mostly a matter of spending a lot of time hunting. Eventually your paths cross.

And when using rifles, some well known Deer hunters have killed many old Bucks with the wind at their back. And often at close range. Deer often are curious. Have had the wind at my back and waved my hand or hat at them. More than once they have stayed to look, stomped their feet and head bobbed but stayed, or walked closer to try confirm what is going on.

Few people think much past playing the wind. Look, if you're happy with how you do your hunting, that's fine. My advice is meant for the guys who spend gobs of money on Fartlok Suits and spray $20/bottle product on their clothes. There's a cheaper way to get it done.

The oldest member of the Shamanic Dream Team is SuperCore. He's pushing 80. I showed him the Baking Soda method a decade ago, and he tried it a bit and then gave it up. He wears the same duds all week, he goes out to his one little hut, and stays there, smoking Marlboro Menthols. The hut is absolute dynamite if the wind is out of certain directions, and dead otherwise. When he has a favorable wind, he kills monsters. The rest of the time, he just sits. He doesn't care. That's his hut. That's what he's used to. What's more, he's now driving out to it in a bright red ATV and parks it right next to the hut. I'm not going to say he's wrong. He has the #2 buck and a couple more in the top 10. Of course these wizzo antler judges say they're all just spikes and forkers. However, I would invite you to visit the weblog and see for yourself.

BTW: The Benoit boys find a track and follow it upwind for miles. They've got miles and miles to play with. If I tried that, I'd have about 15 minutes of hunting and I'd be off the property line. The Shamanic Dream Team all hunt from static positions, and do most of our hunting by the seat of our pants. The trick is picking the right stand for the right conditions. The stand I picked on Saturday was the absolute worst choice for the conditions, but I like the view and wasn't at all worried about generating venison. The big show is in a month.

What's your take on the cough silencer?

Useless. I've gone hunting with a collapsed lung. The only thing I've found that works is taking off my hat and horking up into that.

Not always….And the long arm of a rifle trumps wind more than infrequently.

OK. I'll bite. You're one of the deer hunters on here I respect. Is there actually a nugget of advice in all what you're saying? I'm sincerely asking.

You're citing the great deer hunter who never used sodium bicarb. Mostly, they trudge for miles in the wilderness. You haven't used sodium bicarb. You kinda-sorta play the wind, but not religiously. You wander all over PA, north of the 'Burg and you've got nigh onto 100 deer under your belt. Are you telling me sodium bicarbonate works against successful deer hunting, it does nothing at all, or just that you've never tried it?

I started using it about 1986 and saw an immediate improvement in my hunting. Of course this was early on. I'd only been hunting 5 seasons or so. Perhaps I was mistaken, but I went from getting busted nearly every time I went out to a point where I was having deer under my stand on most trips.

I could probably stop using it entirely now, because
a) I don't bow hunt anymore
b) I've got enough years in on this farm that I pretty well know where the deer are going to be when.

It's just that :

a) I haven't found anything cheaper to wash my hunting clothes in.
b) The whole deal isn't that hard to do. I wake up, take a shower, and get dressed like everyone else. The only difference is that I air out my hunting duds when I come back in and I make a point of keeping them bagged up when I'm not hunting.
c) About the only thing that takes any real effort is washing my clothes at home and air drying them on the line outside. I transport my duds to camp in garbage bags.

All in all, it isn't THAT much of a hardship. It wouldn't be a huge hardship for someone like yourself to give it an honest shot and see if it did anything for them as well. I'm not asking you to try. I'm just saying it's really not that big a deal. I've already estimated that this thread is going to run 5 pages, and most of it is going to be spurious comments from folks saying they've never used the method and think it stinks. You'd think that in the 20 years or so that I've been mentioning this online somebody would have been stupid and gullible enough to write back and say "I tried it. It doesn't work. Shaman, you're full of beans!" The truth is, I get email from guys every year telling me it really does work. Perhaps they're stupid and gullible as well. All I know is the Baking Soda post is one of the most popular ones on my weblog, and the one I get the most positive feedback from.

The other thing that I find fascinating is that all I have to do is make mention of this method and the scheißvogel descend and start asking for my opinion on butt-out tools and the thread gets boosted to the top of the pile for days on end with the scheißvogel doing everything they can to humiliate me, and when simply ignoring me would have these threads off the front page in a matter of no time.

So, these sorts of colorful descriptors grind far more than the wind-defying logic.

We've seen the "monsters" from the dream team camp (complete with what could be the most horrid approach to field photos the forum has seen).
From the "165-inch" camp-record to the 70lbs of entrails from a whitetail deer, your proclivity for exaggeration is without peer here (at least in the deer hunting forum).

You're probably a pretty good dude so it hurts a bit to share this notion that myself (and others) have tippy-toed around for years – you're completely and utterly FOS.
And with relative ease, could produce a half-dozen 12 y/o hunters that'd hunt circles around you - none of which have a blog to share their deer hunting prowess/ignorance.

Hell, I don't know - maybe you're just playing us. If so, bravo - the joke is on us.

What that SKane guy said.

Gotta admit to having similar thoughts. And I've held them back because Shaman seems like a nice guy.

Relative to the average deer we take off the property, he pulls in his share of the largest. If they don't stack up to your standards, that's fine. I don't hunt where you do.
I don't claim any great expertise-- never have. I'm just writing about what I see and what I do at our farm. Some people love the stories. Some people could care less. Most people read my stuff and enjoy stories about a guy who's enjoying the heck out of his 200 acres. You and the scheißvogel seem to feel the need to make me and our camp appear small. This seems to bring y'all great entertainment. I really don't think you'll stop until whatever godawful hunger you have is satisfied.

The camp record? It's the biggest one we had to date. Nothing has come close. Monsters? To us they're monsters. 70lbs of viscera? Yep. I weighed it. Am I just a dolt running around in Orange? I don't know. I could be. I'm happier than a retard in a room full of bouncy balls, and I'm leaving puddles over it being so close to The Opener. You're the one trying to kick sand in my face.

I can't figure out what the motivation is. Are you going to chase me around for the next decade throwing every possible turd you can at every thread I post? Are you going to come to my house and poison my dogs? What's the end game here?

Am I playing you? You bet. I can post something like this and you hop on it. I get gobs of traffic on my weblog. I don't make money off it, but I get folks reading my stuff, and most of them enjoy the heck out of it. Right now, the traffic is up 70%.
.

Again with Scott...but I'm sure you think what you are doing is helping..

As far as myself, I haven't used soda and don't intend to. A long time ago, I would pack my Deer clothes in pine boughs, but gave up on it. Now if it is warm enough, I mostly put on my small game clothes and go hunt. If it is cold I have gear for that also.

My Deer hunting consists of moving thru the wood...slowing down some admittedly...and trying to catch them before they catch me. And have been successful over the years doing so. And bouncing them out of their beds. Less successful, but have connected more than enough to know it isn't impossible. Have shot them when the wind was at my back and at what some would consider close. Have shot them while in a stand with the wind not perfect. Most often at around 100 yards give or take, and they either didn't have a clue or didn't care. Favorite time is after a big snow or hard cold breaks..They are up and moving, often getting some food and often times care less that I am around.

I have shot a few larger Deer and a few nice ones, but most will not give me bragging rights.

My Deer hunting mainly consists of taking a walk in the wood with no special hunting clothing pre-prep...And it would take something bad to happen for me to take off my underwear at lunch...

Best of luck this year to you and yours...

See this guy off in the distance, maybe 200 yards away...Nasty day and I was moving as was he, but I caught him at it first...Moved, and making noise in the leaves, but the wind nullified it... he eventually walked within 20 yards of me feeding along. To small so he went on without ever knowing....It's not rare here.



Real close, and we both knew each other was there...But he waited...If it would have been earlier and in season it would have been a mistake..




Could have shot him at 10 feet when he crossed the trail....glad I didn't..




While taking a hunting walk....Not legal, but made for a great memory.

I had to download the pic and blow it up, but yes. I did see the deer.

Maybe so, but what about the butt-out tool and barrel de-resonator?

I had never thought of a barrel de-resonator. The butt-out tool looked like it solved a problem that didn't need solving. Besides, it made me feel icky just looking at it.

Baking soda in bulk - Locked and loaded, ready for deer season, baby!




Aw, just kiddin.' That's for the hot tub and pool.

Dip your sack in it like it’s Shore Lunch and you’re good to go for a few days.

Been my experience here in the rural farm areas of West KY I've hunted that the various common everyday scents of civilization, humans and associated human activity are so prevalent that deer generally don't pay a whole lot of attention to it, whereas physical movement will almost always catch and focus their attention. Uncommon to the area 'foreign' scents can catch and focus a deer's attention, too, but being curious by nature, it's a tossup whether they will spook or be attracted to investigate the source. Countless deer are killed every year by hunters who go straight from work to the woods, eating breakfast at a crowded greasy spoon, etc., reeking of said associated scents.



As always, though, YMMV...

If that is a corn based product, you could be violating baiting rules with this advice. Read the regs before sack dipping.

I’ve hunted Ark, La, Miss, & Al.
That has been my experience & observation in
these 4 States.

He coughs into a goose call I bet. Deer are used to geese, esp. when smelling like baking soda! LOL