The Blacktail Coach Podcast
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The Blacktail Coach Podcast
Scent Strategy For Blacktail Hunting That Works
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Your best stand location means nothing if a mature buck smells one wrong detail and locks up. We dig into the real mechanics of deer hunting scent control and why the “spray it and wait 30 minutes” mindset sets hunters up to fail, especially on cautious blacktail deer that live and die by their nose.
We walk through the scent categories we actually use and what each one is designed to do. That includes calming pheromones like EverCalm for bedding areas, plus tools like Hodag Scent Rope to create a summer communication hub where deer leave orbital gland scent and establish a routine you can monitor. From there we get honest about doe estrus and dominant buck urine: they work best as part of an illusion, but only when you match the product to the correct phase of the rut. We also cover practical issues like CWD-related rules, synthetic urine options, and why gels and concentrates can matter in rainy climates.
Then we hit cover scents and full system scent management. We explain Nose Jammer and “vapor lock,” why you must introduce it progressively weeks ahead, and how scent-free detergent, dryer sheets, scent-free storage bags, rubber boots, body wash, deodorant, and field spray all fit together. We also talk merino wool for odor control on multi-day hunts and why ozone generators like Ozonics can be a true game changer when used responsibly.
If you want more consistent daylight movement and fewer blown encounters, listen through, try the framework, and tell us what’s worked where you hunt. Subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more hunters can find the show.
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Why Scent Still Matters
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron. And I'm Dave. So this week we're going to talk about why the nose knows. We're going to cover a lot of different scents and pheromones and cover scents, all of that, and explain kind of what we use and why we use it. And some of the things that we don't necessarily use. We'll try to cover it all. So any initial thoughts?
SPEAKER_00I don't know how to quite say this, but I I I wanna I I think what we're gonna do is dispel a lot of misnomers uh about when it comes to sense. In my seminars, I talk about how not all scents are created equal. And I think this is a good opportunity for us to to explain why we say that. And and as we get into this, we'll delve into that and and kind of enlighten what the average hunter needs to know when it comes to sense. I I think they're underutilized. I think the expectations are completely wrong, and I believe the average hunter doesn't know what to expect except what he sees on a 30-minute show on TV.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Spray a little here and there and within 30 minutes you should be seeing uh, you know, buck activity and and you know big buck down. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Not quite realistic.
SPEAKER_00That's putting it nicely.
SPEAKER_02Might take more than 30 minutes, maybe. Right. So let's start off with and I labeled them as calming pheromones. Would you say that's accurate?
SPEAKER_00I would say absolutely 100%.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00When
Calming Pheromones That Build Trust
SPEAKER_00you're dealing with an animal that is completely high strung, I mean they jump string on bows, you know. And and the average guy is shooting anywhere from 240 feet per second. That's the average guy. You know, somewhere in that he's somewhere in that range, most guys fall into. And I can't duck an arrow going 240 feet per second, you know. But a deer can and does it all the time. So they're they're pretty high strung. And so getting them to calm down, yeah, that's if is at least how I feel, that's pretty important.
SPEAKER_02Or just switch over to rifle and 2800 feet per second.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then they're jumping, but they're not jumping straight.
SPEAKER_02Just dropping. Yeah. Okay, so the first one that we use, hodag scent rope.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02So actually, why don't you you explain the what? So hodag scent rope, what is what is that? What is its purpose?
SPEAKER_00The purpose of a hodag scent rope is to create a communication hub, basically. So if I'm going out, and I usually do this, I like to start this when the weather starts drying out. So somewhere around the 4th of July, I'm gonna start putting out my hodag scent robes, okay? And they're they're real easy. It explains on the package exactly how to do it. But what you're doing is you're creating a communication hub. In other words, when I'm putting out minerals and protein, I'm trying to I'm putting that out with a purpose. And the purpose behind that is to help my bucks reach their absolute maximum potential, okay? The second purpose is to help my be as completely healthy as I can get them. Because the dough plays more of a role in the caliber of buck than the buck does.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So it's her, it's her genetics that are passed on to that buck. So and and that gets into culling and all that, but we won't talk about culling the herd here. We're gonna talk about this other stuff. So I put it out with a purpose. The hodeg scent rope is put out with the purpose of helping me catalog what's in the area. I may not see my target buck, but what I'm doing is I'm creating a hub where these deer are gonna come and they're gonna rub their orbital glands on this rope. And it's their way of communicating to the other deer in the area. Hey, I'm here, this is who I am, yada yada, yada, you know, kind of giving them the script of, hey, you know, I'm a part of this area, this is where I walk, this is where I travel, and and familiarizing themselves with the other deer in the area. And this plays a role later on when we get into the rut where we introduce a buck that they don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This helps in that response. That hod central helps in that response. So, what I'm doing is I'm creating a a place where these deer can communicate one to another, and it's granting me the opportunity to catalog what I have and to watch them grow throughout the summer. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So the next one for calming that we use is EverCalm.
SPEAKER_00Evercalm. So that is a pheromone that does put out in bedding areas.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And and it it's a calming pheromone. It helps them relax. So does want to relax in and obviously in bedding areas because bedding areas is where they sleep. And anybody who has gone to bed nervous or excited or you know, it's hard to fall asleep. So they put out this pheromone that helps other deer in the area. It doesn't just calm the dough that's there, it calms the other deer. If you've ever been trying to take a nap in a house full of kids that are running around and playing, you see, you see what I'm saying? So that's that's kind of the analogy that I can give for that. It it calms everybody down and helps them relax. Okay. So I got an image of like Riddling, just being passed out to kids. NyQuil.
SPEAKER_02Nyquil, if you're serious and you need immediate relief.
SPEAKER_00There you go. There you go.
SPEAKER_02Don't give, don't give NyQuil to your children. I think it's against the law.
SPEAKER_00But this this calming pheromone, ever calmed by conquest sense, man, it it's a game changer in in how much it it'll help get that buck to daylight. It really brings them in and they start hanging out at your set.
SPEAKER_02And it tells it this is a safe spot to be in.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02But now, are there any other calming pheromones that are those are the two that that we use. Those are the two that we use.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and and basically those and I I really haven't had to go with anything else. I mean, Aaron, you you know, I'm chasing a big record book buck every year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I've really, you know, I I've got a room full of mounts, and so I'm I'm pretty happy with the with the outcome of there. I haven't had to look anywhere else, I guess what I'm trying to say. The hodag throughout the summer, when it starts getting back into the rainy season, it's hard to keep that that scent on it because it just drips right out of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's a it's a hemp rope. And then as we get into season and we start going into the first rut and the second rut and everything like that, I put out that that EvaCalm, which is waterproof. And I usually only have to do it once, I think at the most twice a season.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and it's covered. We're good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And you can store it from season to season as long as it's in a ziploc bag and it stinks.
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness gracious.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it looks like a deodorant stick, but it just it's terrible. It's horrible.
SPEAKER_00It is it I don't know if it calms them or it kills them.
SPEAKER_02It just wipes out some brain cells.
SPEAKER_00It's terrible, it's terrible. But the the package itself is a sense is a ziploc seal on it so that you can and you just keep it in a cool spot, you know.
SPEAKER_02Now let's talk about urines. Donester and buck urine. Okay. I would say just why would you use those?
SPEAKER_00I would say I would counter that with why wouldn't
Urine Scents And Rut Timing
SPEAKER_00you, for the simple reason that I'm trying to create an illusion. And in order to do that, I I've got to to have this buck think that there are multiple doughs here, that there are other challenger bucks, that yeah, I have to create an illusion. And and the only way to do that is by using, you know, scent pheromones and and attractants. And and to me, the urine is is an attractant for the time of year that that I want to hunt that buck. But this gets into what I was talking about initially when I said that not all scents are created equal. So I'm a pro staffer for Buck Ventures.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Our sponsor is Tinks. We have our pro staff meeting every April. So we fly down to Oklahoma and Tinks is there. So the representatives for Tinks, they're there and they've got all of their new products that they're going to bring out on the market before they've even been introduced as far as commercially to the public. To the public. And they take us in a room, you know, they break us up into groups and everything. And so they'll take this group in the room and they basically sit us down and they say, hey, this is our new product. This product is created for this phase of the rut. This product over here, this is our old product. This product is created for this phase of the rut. This product is made for the pre-rut and the post-rut. This product is made for the entirety of the rut. So just because it says dough and estrus or dominant buck doesn't mean that it's made for the entirety of the rut. Every scent is made for a specific part of the rut. There are a few that are made for the entirety, but there are those that are made for the pre-rut, the mid-rut, the post-rut, the chasing phase, the seeking phase, all of that. So you really need to have the right expectation placed on the scent that you're using. So, and I think that it's it's it it's oh boy, it's a tragedy when guys sit there and watch TV, and we all do it for entertainment. We watch the hunting shows for entertainment, but we also watch it to glean something off of it, right? So it's a tragedy when they watch it and they walk away thinking, man, that guy used this scent. And if I just put this out, I'll get a buck to come in. And the reality is that all you gotta do is take and do a little bit of research, and you'll figure out what phase of the rut or what time of year is that scent made for. You know, hodag does great in the summertime, okay? Because we're trying to get these deer to come in and you know, socialize. Yeah, you know, give us a head count and everything like that. You know, when we get to the rut, the bucks don't want to be around other bucks. No, you know, so it's like, well, why is he gonna come into that hodag center? Well, I'm I'm spinning my wheels by putting that out, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Plus, he already knows by then what what's out there, right? Well, who his competition is.
SPEAKER_00Right. And if I'm hunting, if I'm hunting post-rut and I'm using a scent that's designed for the pre-rut, yeah, it's counterintuitive. And so, yeah, everybody needs to do a little bit of research or come to the class and I'll tell you. Yep. Sign up for one of my courses and I'll tell you what that scent is made for. And when you realize that, then putting the puzzle together, pieces of the puzzle together to get this buck to daylight becomes that much easier.
SPEAKER_02So we want to give you information help with with your hunts and stuff, but yeah, you need to come to the class if if you want the how. We'll give you the why and the what, but not the how. That'll that we want you to be part of our community. I know there's different brands. We've actually used several different brands.
SPEAKER_00We use obviously Moccus and Joe. They're big in the Northwest, they do a lot of blacktail stuff, but you know, in all honesty, it doesn't have to be blacktail. We also use Tinks. Tinks is my sponsor, and I use a lot of Tink 69 and uh the Peak 30 and that kind of stuff. So again, it's just knowing when and where to use it. And then the James Valley.
SPEAKER_02James Valley. We started using read about that. I believe Scott Haugen. Haugen, yep, he was the one who really likes using that. And so I went ahead and bought some the Doe and Estris and I believe Wallhanger, which they recommend for the Pacific Northwest. This is concentrated, it stinks, and you only use a little bit of it. And they they what's great is they actually send you a whole full page of instructions on how to use this. Right, right. So, which is really great, but it's very potent stuff, yeah, and very effective. That's all I used last year on my sets, and it was bringing in bucks and right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. But you know, uh again, all scents are not they're not created equal, but at the same time, you know, getting back to expectations, you can't just simply put this out and expect something to happen right away. This is something scents are made so that you it's a progression of things as you put them out, you start to manipulate behavior, but you know, it's not something that happens, you know, first, second time out. Yeah, you know, you you've got to be regular with that stuff. And I, you know, again, in the courses we go over how to do that, when to do it, where to do it, and all of that.
SPEAKER_02All the specifics. Now, there is also a difference, and in a few weeks, we're gonna actually have someone come on, a special guest, who's gonna talk about CWD and uh someone who really knows what they're talking about. And unlike us who would just read the same articles you could and try to piece together, we have someone who who knows what they're talking about, but in several areas, they've they've banned doen asterisk and buck urine. 100% urine. 100% urine. So you have to go with synthetic.
SPEAKER_00Right now, what is the difference between synthetic and the as far as the difference as far as results or effectiveness? I haven't noticed they've both been really effective. I wouldn't say one is any better than the other or one is worse than the other. Uh they both work.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we have we have a pro staff who were down in Oregon, we're up in Washington, and they have to use the synthetic.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they can't use any any so pure urine.
SPEAKER_02But as far as when they say synthetic, in my mind, I'm thinking chemicals mixed up in the lab that it's not actual urine. Is that the case as far as you know?
SPEAKER_00Or I you know what? I'd just be guessing if I said, okay, you know, I really haven't, and maybe I should. Maybe I should take the time and and read up on that. But I have not done any kind of study on it to figure out what exactly it it is or how it's made or anything like that. I guess I'm kind of like the average guy. I just buy the bottle and squeeze.
SPEAKER_02But depending where you're at, that is something that you'll want to make sure that you understand what your local laws are and you you do want to observe whatever your local laws are. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00And you know, even in Washington, you can use 100% pure urine, but I've gone trying to get more Doe and Esterus or buck urine or whatever, and they've been out, and all they had was synthetic. And I've used the synthetic, and and like I said, I don't notice I don't notice any difference.
SPEAKER_02So, one thing, actually, we forgot about this. One thing about the James Valley that I like is because it's a concentrate and it's more like a gel, it actually holds up with our rain. It holds up better. So you don't quite lose if it's going to be raining a lot, you don't lose that scent as quickly. Right. Eventually it is gonna wash away. Right. But it's and it's not one that you would be using on a regular basis. It's kind of you do it once and you might come in and refresh it down the road, but it lingers a little bit longer than than the like a moccasin gel.
SPEAKER_00Right, right.
SPEAKER_02Now, Tinks, I know we had it's kind of a spray of their donester, but it was a gel. Is that how do you know if there's any difference with that and how it holds up to the no anything that anything that's a gel is gonna hold up better to the rain than than the spray.
SPEAKER_00But Tinks also, and you can still find this in some places, not very many places have it left. They they stopped making it, but Tinks did make a black tail douan estrus at one time.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00And you know, they had it in the bottles that spray like 12-15 feet. Yeah, you know, and I know one of our pro staffers bought a whole bunch of it, and I think he's out now. But they if you search hard enough, you can find it. But if you got white tail, white tail works just as good.
SPEAKER_02You know, so yeah, and all of James Valley is all white tail. Yeah, yeah. Again, it it seemed to work just fine once it was put out. So moving along, attractants. So, what is an attractant?
SPEAKER_00So, an attractant is different than a urine or a doanesteris. An attractant is something that is uh I want to describe it
Attractants Protein And Real Expectations
SPEAKER_00as an accessory. Okay, so this is something on top of my urines that I'm putting out. Now, whether that is a big and j product or a buck bomb of of sorts, it's not my main thing. It's a one-time shot kind of thing. So if when I go out and I do my sets, you know, and we go through the class and I show these guys exactly what I do, where I do it, how I do it, when I do it, the portion I do it in and everything. Okay. These attractants may be something that I do the one-time shot when I'm hunting. Like I'm gonna hunt today, so I'm gonna put this out, use this buck bomb and see, because I've already I've manipulated behavior, I've already got this as a part of routine for these deer. You know, now I need a little extra, you know, maybe to to pull that buck in like 15 minutes before dark or 20 minutes before dark, something like that, you know, to get him over there.
SPEAKER_02So when we're saying attractants, so the urine, which does work as an attractant to a to an extent, yes, to an extent. Yes, absolutely. But it's it's creating the idea that there's another buck or another doe out there. Now, attractants, is that creating the idea that there's food out there, a food source, or is it that and more?
SPEAKER_00So you gotta be careful when you start talking about baiting. It's a touchy subject for a lot of people. Okay, there are those that are very dead against it, and I get it. I understand. And there are those that say, you know, I don't have a problem doing it, and I get that. I understand that as well. So, you know, when I when I think of baiting, I think, well, that's a way of maintaining a healthy deer herd. Yeah, it helps you to have select harvest. And at the same time, I also know, and anybody that's baited bear knows that just because you put food out there doesn't mean they're gonna come in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That food's out there at night, you know, what's making them come in the daytime. They don't have to.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They don't have to because that food's at night and they know they're safe at night. And not to mention that, man, they can eat probably 50% of everything that's out there. So food doesn't make bucks daylight.
SPEAKER_02You know, here, you know, it might be more of a necessity in maybe southern Oregon, drier, less vegetation, but here it seems like up further north, there's a lot of vegetation out there. Yeah. Lot of stuff for them to eat.
SPEAKER_00Right. And we don't get the hard winters typically, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Where they're it's killed everything off.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, and they're digging like, you know, two feet down in the snow to get to something to eat. It isn't like that over here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so, yeah, so food as far as an attractant, it's probably more for the does and the smaller bucks, but for the bigger bucks, they're just too smart.
SPEAKER_02But thinking when I was asking about food, so big and j or the buck bombs, uh-huh. Okay, so we use to die for is one of the ones that we use quite a bit. Is that giving the deer a sense that there's a food source? Is that how it's attracting? So they they smell that and they think, oh, there's some food over there that I need to go investigate, or is it or is it triggering something else?
SPEAKER_00So when I use like to die for and and wet cob or dry cob or stuff like that, it's usually in the summertime. And again, where I'm trying to maintain good here herd health. All those things have protein in them.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so when I put out mineral, I never put out mineral without protein.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because you'll make your deer sick. They'll come in, they'll hit the mineral. If there's no protein there, they get bloated, they get sick to their stomach, they don't want to come back to that mineral again. They may come back one more time, but they typically don't hit it again. So when I do minerals, I want to do protein. So Big and J has a lot of products on the market that are long-range attractants that have protein in them. So when I'm trying to catalog deer, that's what I'm trying to do. But when that buck comes in in the summertime and he's sitting there and he's he's hitting the minerals and he's hitting the protein or the attractant, he also recognizes because he lives his life through his nose, that he's smelling other doughs coming in there. Okay. So that's what I want him to pick up on. Okay. And then we have the ho dai.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, and we piece all these things together and we create this illusion, and that is what we're trying to do to manipulate the behavior.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So it isn't, it isn't so much a lot of the the products like like big and j, whether it's a block or something like that. If you can't keep it dry in the wintertime, they don't want it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because it'll mildew, because it everything out there has sugar in it.
SPEAKER_02The block holds up, I've seen fairly well.
SPEAKER_00Unless there's a bear in the area.
SPEAKER_02But so we do our scouting, we're like January into February. We're doing scouting, we'll throw those out then to get them some protein, but it's before the bears. Because as soon as the bears get up, they will just sit there and eat those blocks down to nothing in a couple of days.
SPEAKER_00Typically they have some kind of molasses or syrup in them, and and yeah, they don't take them many times.
SPEAKER_02Glue them all together. Yeah. But but the deer really do like those, and they do they do come in for those. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's it's different with you know bear candy. It's when I say that that all all scents aren't created equal, all attractants aren't create are not created equal either. You have to find what your deer in your area, especially blacktail.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They are finicky, they are browsers, they're not grazers. You gotta find what they want, what they're craving. And every area is gonna be a little you go to one area, you put out, you know, trophy rock. We got a guy that it's in class, he's using trophy rock, and they're all over it. They're hammering it. I've never had any good luck with trophy rock.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I put it in areas where I know, and I mean, I'll sit there and get a picture. I could put that trophy rock next to another attractant, mineral sorts, and and they'll hammer that other mineral, and they won't even give the trophy rock two thoughts.
SPEAKER_02And I can't remember what we used. It was one of the big and j products. To die for have had pretty good success. But there was another one, and the deer wouldn't touch it, and it just mildewed and started to mold. Legit. Legit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But other guys, very close by, 20 miles away, swear by it. Yeah. They think it's the greatest stuff ever.
SPEAKER_00I've had that same. I've put legit out on one set, and it does fantastic. I put it on another set and it'll stay there through December.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'll put it out in February and it'll stay there through December.
SPEAKER_02That's kind of what's happened with a couple of my sets. It just they could care less about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you just gotta find what they like. Yeah, and I it's just it's a trial and error. It it absolutely is, and it takes a little bit of money, and it's right. Yeah, that's why we have the thing here at the house. We try stuff out. Yeah, you know, and and even then, it may do good here and not, you know, on a set. It may just be a flop.
SPEAKER_02You know, so join our community because we actually we have guys who try different stuff, and you know, they'll throw it out on on the Facebook page and everything of what they've tried. So it kind of short circuits what you having to try everything, right?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02You can just try a few things or just go with what they you know they said first and then well that didn't work. I'll I'll move on to the next. Yep. So the last thing we're gonna talk about is cover sense. A lot of different categories and different products here, but well, let's start with nose jammer.
SPEAKER_00So nose jammer
Cover Scents And Nose Jammer Logic
SPEAKER_00is a great product that I feel is underutilized, but I feel also is is probably more misunderstood than anything else. Okay, so nose jammer operates on the premise that a deer can only smell six to eight things at one time.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Once it gets past that, once that deer starts smelling more than that, like you and I, we can only smell like two or three different things at a time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The human nose is just not made to smell more than that. So you come into your house after work or whatnot, your wife is cooking spaghetti, and you open the door and you can smell the spaghetti. And maybe she's cooking French bread. Or, you know, maybe there's something else that you pick up on, and you You can smell those two things, but you can't smell the flowers on the table.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Right. And then the deer, however, can smell six to eight different things at one time. Once it gets past that, they go into vapor lock. So that is what nose jammer is. It's nine plus different things into that can, right? And when you initially spray it, you and I smell vanilla.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right? And we'll smell that vanilla for a few minutes until our nose goes into vapor lock.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So when you're using nose jammer, again, you have to know what its purpose is. You have to know how it operates. When I use nose jammer, I don't bring it out for the first time when I go into hunt. It is something that I have to introduce progressively over weeks, building up to that hunt. I have to get that deer or that buck used to that nose because he's gonna smell that vanilla and some of the other things that are in that for a few minutes. And then he's gonna go into Vaporlock.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So if I introduce that the day that I go out and he's been coming into my set for the last week and a half, whatever, and I finally get a daylight pick of him and I know he's gonna daylight that day. I go out there and I'm like, well, I can't afford a nozonyx, or I didn't get to wash my clothes, or you know, maybe you don't think, or somebody told you that that there's nothing to all this cover scent and whatnot. I don't whatever, however, you want to do it. And you introduce that nose jammer and he smells that vanilla for the first time. Well, you've just changed it up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You've you've introduced something that he's not used to.
SPEAKER_02This might be a good way to explain this. So when we smell something, there's there's uh the phenomena, I guess, where you smell something and then 30 minutes later you can't smell it anymore. Okay, so our brain lets us smell something so that we can decide whether or not what we're smelling is that a threat to our safety or not.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02And if it's not, then our brain brain shuts that off. It so we don't smell that anymore.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02So that's the whole idea is that okay, I'm safe. I don't need to keep working and doing that.
SPEAKER_00And you and I aren't, we don't face life as a hundred percent of the time, yeah, you know, survival. We we do stuff for recreation, you know, we we take naps, we do all this other daily routine stuff that deer and and other ungulates don't get that pleasure.
SPEAKER_02But think of the initial panic, I smell smoke. There you go. That's a great example. That's I smell smoke from an electrical fire. What where is that coming from? And you're trying to figure out where is that coming from, and you're a little bit panicked until you figure out where what the source is. Yeah, that's so that's what's going on, is it's it's an alert system.
SPEAKER_00Right. It's just so when when you're using the no data nose jammer and you introduce it weeks in advance and he starts coming in. So if I go out to my set every other day, every other day I'm gonna spray a little bit of nose jammer because initially he's going to smell that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then once he gets to okay, this is and then the snow goes into the the scent factory goes into vapor lock, he no longer can smell. It doesn't bother him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You see what I'm saying? So it's a great product, but you have to know how to use it.
SPEAKER_02How to use it. Okay, so I'm gonna lump the next three in laundry bombs, body wash, and laundry bombs is also the dryer sheets and deodorant.
Scent Free Systems Clothes And Field Spray
SPEAKER_02Okay. So actually, let's laundry bombs and the dryer sheets. So the point of those, and this is all dead downwind stuff that we we end up using. What's the idea behind that?
SPEAKER_00To be scent-free. That's the idea.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, you're never gonna be a hundred percent scent, you just can't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00As long as you're breathing, you're moving around, you're your body's shedding skin, follicles, and and all that stuff. So you're never gonna be a hundred percent scent free, but you want to try, you know. And I, you know, I've heard people say, well, it's a gimmick and all that. And if you hunt the wind, which we all should be anyway, yeah, then you know, I can get in and I can kill and all that stuff. And that's fine. I'm gonna always err on the side of caution. And even if it gives me five percent more confidence, it may be that five percent that puts me over the top to be successful.
SPEAKER_02And we talked about this, uh, like the two percent ideas. Exactly. That's kind of what we call them. Is those they give you a little bump of making you feel a little two percent more at ease or two percent more confident. Right, right. And so they take out the odor. But we use that in conjunction with the scent-free bags, scent-free bags. Which are a rubber, basically a rubber-coated bag, and all of our hunting clothes go in there, and we drive out to our set, and then we put our clothes on because in your car, that random French fry that fell as you were driving home from work, like cutting all summer in it, you know. And so that odor will get into your hunting clothes. Well, you don't smell that, but the deer who has 320 million scent receptors, they're going to smell that. So that's why we we protect our clothes until we get out in the field, and then before we get in the car, it's get undressed, put it all in the bag, and then because it won't pick up the odors from your car.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. And impervious to scent.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So and most people I don't know that they know that, but that's why that dead downwind bag is such a great thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's impervious to scent. So long as I put in scent-free, I'm pulling out scent-free.
SPEAKER_02And it's the same idea with going in with the rubber boots. Exactly. Because it's not going to spread and with our pants tucked in so that we're not we're minimizing minimizing the amount of odor we're leaving. And the body wash and deodorant is the same thing, but on our person as opposed to the clothes.
SPEAKER_00And it's doing your hunting partner a big favor.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, wash, wash up, and you know, the deodorant, that stuff has a lot of really strong odor. Yeah. So, you know, you want to. I remember a youth group I was working with. A kid goes, Wow, that's that's great cologne you're wearing. And I'm like, That's just my deodorant. But if we can smell someone's deodorant as we're walking by, yeah, think of what the deer are smelling. So you want to negate the body odors.
SPEAKER_00No Taco Bell runs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, don't put on the Chanel number five before going out in the field.
SPEAKER_00There you go.
SPEAKER_02Tell me about, because this was a new one to me actually last year, the field spray. And I think the first couple of times I went out, I didn't know anything about it and I didn't use it. And then you came and sat with me on a hunt, and you brought along the field spray and you doused me with it after we got fully dressed, and then you had me douse you completely with it.
SPEAKER_00Right. So the field spray, ideally, what you want to do is when you get your stuff out of the dryer, you want to spray the field spray on your clothes and let them dry and then put them in the bag. Oh. That's how it's designed to work. Now, when I go out and I get out of the rig and I get changed and everything, I will spray more field spray on me. Just because uh, especially, you know, early season hunts and stuff. If I'm on a buck early season, if I found a shooter and I'm in a spot where I can think I can get him to daylight, then yeah, I use it early season. Late season, uh, as I get into November and December, it's not because it's gonna rain anyway.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, okay.
SPEAKER_00But if it's not gonna rain, I do want to put that stuff on. I want to make it so that it's harder for the molecules to come off of me. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So is it like well, for lack of a better phrasing, is it like a no scent for breeze? As far as or is it just okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's that's a good way of describing it. Yeah. And you know, yeah, it's just like, and I feel like, and this is just me personally, I feel like stuff that could have blown off of me is now stuck to me because I've got a little bit of moisture on yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's how I kind of view that.
SPEAKER_02And so as far as clothing, one thing that this just kind of popped into my mind, and I learned this last year. So coming home every night, because I hunted all four or five days in a row of the extended but extended modern, and it was I had one set of thermals underwear, and it's merino wool, and I took it off and I put it back on the next day, took it off four days in a row, and at no point did it pick up any noticeable scent. I'm sure it it did because it's there's oils, but it doesn't it it blocks bacteria growth from your body sweat and everything.
SPEAKER_00Marino wool is antimicrobial, antimicrobial.
SPEAKER_02So thinking about whether you're getting natural fibers or synthetic.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, that was that was pretty impressive to me. That and I actually I liked it so much that I went out and picked up another set so I wouldn't have to keep wearing the same set over and over and over again. But it was really effective for controlling odor because I know because I'll wear the hex and that will because it's a synthetic material, it'll it'll start to smell after a few hours because the bacteria will start growing between the sweat and the oils from your body.
SPEAKER_00And that's that's what's great about marina wool. I mean, it's just naturally my antimicrobial, and and you know, it has a lot of other great factors too. Yeah, the wicking, the wicking away of of the moisture, the warmth, the warmth, you know, even when wet. Yep. So marina wool is a is a great, great material.
SPEAKER_02And if you haven't, if you don't do any shopping on camoufire.com, it actually is a really good source. That's where I found mine, and it it was pretty reasonable finding it on there. I got a full well, both my sets came from Camel Fire, but there's an app, and they change it's different deals every day, all kinds of hunting gear. So, you know, they'll get some discontinued items, or they'll get close out stuff, close out stuff, yeah. And so you can get some pretty good bargains on on things, so really good source. And so the last one on here, and we've actually we did a half an episode on it, was ozone generators and ozone, especially Ozonix.
SPEAKER_00Yes, so we all use OX.
Ozone Generators And Final Takeaways
SPEAKER_00Yes, and and the episode we did on Ozonix was game changers, and it it is a product actually going invisible part one. Was it going invisible? Yeah, if you go back and listen to that episode, this is absolutely a game changer. I don't want to hunt without it. I don't have to worry about the wind once I'm in stand. I set that up and I'm hunting. Yeah, but it works, you know, and I don't know how many times, how many different stories we've got. It it it just it continues to impress me, but the science is there and it works.
SPEAKER_02They make a car version, but you can scent kill your car, don't do it while you're in it.
SPEAKER_00It isn't the same as exhaust, but it's it's not good for you.
SPEAKER_02It it'll not only off your exhaust or your uh your scent, it'll off you as well. Yeah. Uh the garment bags, so you could put your clothes into a garment bag every night, and after 30 minutes, it's killed all the odors. Yeah. And so, yeah, but a really great product. So, and I would encourage anybody if you want to know more about that. And I've mentioned Hex. We have a whole episode where we just talk about Hex and our experiences with that and Ozonix and just how much we believe in those two products and stuff. So Going Invisible Part One is that one, that episode. But that kind of wraps it up. We wanted to cover some of the yeah, the nose knows. And when we're going out hunting, especially for black tail, it's a battle with their nose.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And one we want to win. So thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next week.
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