Hunting

Human Scent, Camouflage and Hunting -
Don't Get Suckered

It seems like the entire hunting market is saturated with something related to blocking or masking human scent. With all the sales hype, one has to wonder how any human has survived this long ... while some wonder, those of us on the traditional side of things are laughing at how something so easy is made so unnecessarily complex and costly.

Step into my time machine if you will and let us travel back to the year 1800. You're heading out for a hunt because your life and the lives of your wife and children depend on you having a successful hunt. You don your buckskins, load up the flintlock and head out. ... ... ... Yep. That's it. Nothing else, you're out the door and looking from some critter to feed your family with. You ask, how did they survive without the staples of camo, attraction and cover scents? The answer is as simple, they didn't need them just like we don't "need" them now.

You stink, I stink, we all stink and critters have very sensitive noses. A dog's nose is roughly 20 times more sensitive than our human nose allowing the dog to not only smell things we can't but also to separate combined smells by individual components. The human nose detects only composite odors such that when sniffing a bowl of deer stew, we humans smell only the combined odor of all the components that have been cooked together. When a critter, such as a dog, sniffs that same bowl of deer stew, they have the ability to smell it as a composite such as we humans do or they can choose to separate the odors of each individual component. In other words, a dog can smell the carrots, meat, green beans, mushrooms and so forth as individual components despite the fact that they have been cooked in the same pot. Thus is why a dog can be trained to alert on certain odors while ignoring others.

Most of the critters we hunt also have a similar keen sense of smell, this is nothing new, those same critters had the same keen sense of smell back in 1800 as they do today yet the hunters were successful. Why? Again, the answer is simple, the hunters didn't have all the mass-produced chemical-laden food and products we do. Animals process odors as one of their three primary sensory inputs and choose their reaction based on the information provided by the sensory inputs of smell, sight and sound yet any one of the three may over-rule the other two. Anyone who has a dog in the house knows that they respond to things differently such as when you bring a new bag or box into the house. Despite the fact that the dog has seen thousands of boxes or bags, a new one may cause the dog to bolt away or go into defensive mode. It's not the color, shape or size of the box, the dog has seen plenty of other boxes of the same size and color yet it's the smell of this box that causes the adverse reaction. To you, it smells like a box, to the dog it smells like danger. To the dog, this box is different from all the others, it stinks of who and what touched it previously as well as of chemicals in it's composition or that it was exposed to before coming into the house. Still smells like a box to you but not to the dog.

You, human, are no different than that box and when you the human go into the woods, you're that stinky box coming into the critter's home turf and the wild critters are going to respond to you just as your dog did to the box. One begins to wonder, why do we have such concerns over "human stink" when the hunters of two-hundred or two-thousand years ago were successful yet didn't have electricity, washing machines or a shower. We're the same humans and the critters are the same critters so what has changed? Again, the answer is simple, it's the mass-produced chemical-laden crap we put in and on our bodies and clothes that screams "DANGER" to the critters because the odors we give off are not natural and the critters know it. Before you go thinking that I'm going to suggest not showering for a week before you go hunting thinking that the early hunters went without bathing, let's set the historical record straight. Aside from a period in history when some very misguided Europeans thought it was wrong to bathe, people in the past had noses and just like us today, they couldn't stand the smell of their own body odor either so they did, in fact, wash themselves and their clothes quite regularly as is well documented in historical records.

Let's start with the clothing. Traditional clothing was made from natural products like cotton, wool and, of course, animal skins. The clothing was made entirely by hand without synthetic fibers, chemical treatments or dyes and were not packed in plastic bags and shipped across the country, stored in a warehouse with tens of thousands of other items then put on a store shelf where they were exposed to hundreds of stinky humans shedding their chemical-laden skin cells. It may sound disgusting but a typical human sheds about 45 pounds of dead skin cells over their lifetime. All those cells flying off other people get deposited on everything you purchase and the clothing you purchase is contaminated by whatever odors that were on the dead skin cells from someone else. Thus, you bring your new camo clothing home and toss them in the washing machine with a cup of that "free" or "clear" detergent ... but wait a minute, turn that detergent bottle around and read the "ingredients" section and you'll find several chemicals listed and you'll notice a distinct odor from the detergent itself ... if you can smell it, you had better believe the critters can definitely smell it and it's not natural. Throw them same clothes in the dryer and they're going to pick up even more chemical odors that were deposited from everything else that's gone through that same dryer.

Now it's time to wash you but before you do, read the ingredients on the shampoo and soap you plan on using taking note of all the wonderful chemicals they contain. Do you really think that stuff like tocopheryl acetate, sorbitol, propylene glycol, decyl glucoside, titanium dioxide and such are "natural" odors a deer or elk is going to come across in the woods? Consider also that we're all familiar with the night before opening day, the excitement is building and it's just hard not to get the craving for nacho's while washing them down with your favorite adult beverage but consider what you're doing. That melted processed genuine imitation cheese spread made with a list of chemicals as long as your arm ... the adult beverages loaded with chemical preservatives not to mention the alcohol ... all of that which you stuff into your body must also come back out of your body! Despite how good it tastes, your guts see all those chemicals as toxins and work overtime to get rid of them not only through normal intestinal discharge but also through the skin and lungs. Although you may think all the alcohol is gone and the jalapeño remnants are contained to the gurgling in your gut by the first rays of sun on opening day but the reality is that you're still oozing the odors from your skin pores and exhaling them from your lungs with every breath. All those odors can carry for very long distances on the air currents and they just scream out "DANGER" to the critters who can easily smell all that un-natural stench.

You know you stink and think that spending a boat-load of money on special clothing and cover scents that would make a buzzard gag is the way to go ... how about taking a look at making the complex and costly very simple and far less expensive by getting back to the basics. Let's start with your body. Lay off the processed and very spicy foods for a few days prior to the hunt. The human body is very efficient at cleansing itself from the inside and you can speed-up the process by increasing your intake of fruit juices and plain water while laying off dairy products, alcohol and chemical-laden processed foods. Eat home-cooked meals and use less of the odor-producing spices especially avoiding "hot" spices. It does no good to change your diet if you're going impregnate your skin with chemicals and perfumes in the store-bought personal care items.

The basics of cleanliness is to remove stuff that's on your skin that shouldn't be on your skin and trying to do that with chemical-laden soap and shampoo just doesn't work. Again, we turn to what the hunters of old used and that is the basic all-natural lard soap that has two ingredients, lard and lye, both of which are naturally occurring in the environment. Unfortunately, the mention of lye conjures up a lot of concern but when used in soap, the lye is fully reacted with the lard creating a soap that is not only natural and gentle but also very effective. Unlike the chemical-based store-bought processed soaps, lard soap does not create the mass of lather because lather is not required for cleaning and the more a soap lathers, the less effective it is because the lather is nothing more than air bubbles that do nothing for cleaning. On a side note, people suffering from skin problems often benefit from the use of pure natural lard soap because it doesn't contain any unwanted chemicals or perfumes, it's also reportedly effective to assist with treatment of skin issues caused by chafing, poison ivy, poison oak and insect bites, however, I can make no claims or guarantee of such.

The second part of cleaning the human body comes from abrasion, most of you reading this have seen many products marketed to women sporting such sales hype terms as "exfoliating" and all that means is that the product is abrasive. A brush, non-woven synthetic pad, washcloth, loofah or other such abrasive item greatly assist in removing dead skin cells, bacteria and all the stinky crud they harbor, the all natural lard soap rinses clean without leaving your skin impregnated with a new layer of perfumes and chemicals like the commercial processed bath products do. If you're going hunting, don't slobber yourself up with aftershave or deodorants, you're going into the woods, your normal body odor is far less alarming to critter than chemical odors and there are some no-odor personal care products available if you absolutely need them.

When it comes to laundry, the same basics that apply to washing yourself also apply to washing your clothes. All those chemicals and perfumes in the commercial laundry products stay in the clothing and clothing made in whole or part from synthetic materials tend to retain more chemical odors than do natural fibers. The same natural lard soap that works so well to clean your human body works equally well to clean your clothes without leaving behind unwanted chemicals that not only stink but also get transferred to your body and often cause or intensify skin problems. The manner in which you wash your clothes is also important.

If you're going to use the washing machine, the first thing you want to do is get the nasty residual chemicals and odors out of the washing machine by running it through one cycle with nothing more than one gallon of pure white distilled vinegar in the tub, let it run through the first drain cycle and stop.  (Warning: Do NOT mix vinegar and sodium bicarbonate!) Reset the machine to the standard wash cycle adding 1/4 bar of shaved lard soap and one pound of sodium bicarbonate. Stop the machine again after the first drain cycle, reset to the standard wash cycle adding another 1/4 bar of shaved lard soap and one pound of sodium bicarbonate and allow the machine to run through the entire wash & rinse cycles until it stops on its own. Like everything else, before you put that box of baking soda in your shopping cart, check the ingredients to make sure it does not contain anything other than 100% sodium bicarbonate.

To pre-treat clothing (be sure to wash all your hunting clothes including socks, underwear, thermals, gloves, hat...) mix one pound of sodium bicarbonate into two gallons of warm non-chlorinated or water that has been bacterial treated and agitating the mixture until all of the sodium bicarbonate is dissolved (use the same ratio of one pound per two gallons of water for larger volumes). Chlorine and other chemicals are used to treat utility-supplied water, if you get your water from a utility system, you want to use un-treated or distilled bottled water or uncontaminated rain water because any chemicals in the wash water will leave residue on the clothing. Allow clothing to soak in the sodium bicarbonate mixture for at least 8 hours but agitate them regularly, soak can be done in the washing machine if so desired, just be sure to run the washer through at least one rinse cycle before proceeding to the wash cycle. Wash cycle is much the same, add 1/4 bar of shaved lard soap and one pound of sodium bicarbonate and let the washer run a complete wash & rinse cycle. Do NOT put the clothes in a dryer or you've completely wasted your time washing them! Line dry the clothes, if you can't do it outside, do it inside but in an area where they're not going to get contaminated with chemical odors from household cleaning products or the so-called "air fresheners".

Once the clothes are dry, don't hang them in a closet with other clothes or they'll become impregnated with all the chemical odors you just washed out of them! If you need to store them, put them in a plain brown paper shopping bag or wrap them in plain brown packing paper taping the paper shut. To prevent impregnation of odors, place the tightly wrapped clothes into another plain brown paper bag and sprinkle some sodium bicarbonate powder into the outer bag as it will collect odors before they reach the clothes. If you do get sodium bicarbonate powder on the clothes, it's no big deal as it'll brush/shake off easily.

If your shoes/boots stink, put them into a plain brown paper bag along with a good dose of sodium bicarbonate powder and seal up the bag. Let them sit for a few days, change the sodium bicarbonate as necessary until the odors are gone.

Natural Lard Soap can be found here: Old Fashion Lard Soap

(Not all lard soap is "natural" and not all "natural" soaps are in fact "natural". Most are formulated to appeal to women and contain ingredients that nullify the benefits of a "natural lard soap", the majority are produced by "melt & pour" hobby soap makers who utilize chemical soap bases produced by mass-manufacturers, these make for nothing more than very expensive soap that's the same as store-bought)

100% Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Powder) and Pure White Vinegar are available at any grocery store.

Now, about that camouflage thing. One will note that Davy Crockett was not adorned in spring or fall timber-pattern camo and when looking at the period muzzleloading flintlocks of the day, most were decorated with a lot of brass furniture and later period guns sported bright German silver furniture. So one would again ask, "How did they survive?" Again, the answer is simple in the fact that those things that don't look out of place, don't cause alarm. Rapid movement and unnatural sounds are both far more detectible by most animals than the actual visual picture as we humans see it. While we see a human with a rifle, the critter sees movement while hearing the unnatural "zip" sound of synthetic clothing fibers and nylon rifle sling/stock rubbing against each other, the unnatural "squeak" of a rubber boot on snow or a wet tree branch, the unnatural plastic to plastic "clank" GPS & cell phone shifting in the coat pocket and that's what spooks them more so than the outline of the human with a rifle. It's the combination of movement and unnatural sounds that cause the critters to bolt. Put it into perspective from the human standpoint, if you're in a gas station filling your tank when all of sudden you hear screeching tires and see a flash of movement coming toward you, are you going to stand there and get waffled or run away? You're going to run for it or at least try to run for it, one thing you're not going to do is stand there trying to get a better look at the situation. Critters with four legs are not all that different from humans, when something is seems dangerous, they will choose flight before fight just as the majority of humans will and just as you would rather run before getting waffled at the gas pump, the critter is going to run too even if they don't yet have a full understanding of the situation.

Back to the hunter of two-hundred or two-thousand years ago, their clothing made from natural fibers and animal skins didn't have the "zip" sound that modern synthetic and synthetic blend clothing materials do. Even if you can't hear it, the critters do because like their nose, their ears are far more sensitive than ours. Those fancy sling swivels and nylon sling make all kinds of unnatural noise even if they seem quiet to you, the noise is transmitted through and amplified by the stock material, especially synthetic stock materials. Consider using fixed sling attachments and having that plain synthetic stock custom finished to help reduce sound generation and attenuation - synthetic stock materials require the use of special finishing products and procedures, please see my custom stock & finishing page for more information.