Scent Control Not an Ancient Chinese Secret

As promised in a previous blog, I would lend my experience and best practices in scent control. Some of my tactics come from reading, some are from doing, and some are things that make sense to me. As you there are a variety of commercial available scent control detergents and soaps. In addition to that, there is a huge amount of scent blocker or controlling clothing. They may be great but again, you will pay for it.

My first outing this year, I purposely didn't go to the extreme of my scent control steps. I wanted to see want I could get away with first. With that being said, three deer came right into my downwind direction. At 2o yards, I could see and hear the lead doe trying to feel me out. A grunt wease and stomping her feet like Dirty Dancing. I found it hilarious. But with nothing to link the scent with a predator, they kept moving closer. At five yards she finally locked eyes with me and knew something wasn't right. The three deer turned away and disappeared into the thick cedar forest. I could have taken her or the other two deer at different points, but I needed to know what I could get away with. If this was a trophy buck situation, that buck would have been down before I got busted.

So here is what I do for scent control. All my hunting clothes or cloth material gear which I feel is capable of absorbing scent gets treated in my scent control process. So lets start with your hunting clothes, as they are most used item in the field besides you. Start from scratch, you buy a new hunting outfit (T-shirt and pants). Its been sitting in the store, with possibly hundreds of folks touching it and walking past it, the little kid with ice cream on his hands or the over baring wife with too much perfume on. What I am getting at, is the clothing or media that you are wearing is constantly absorbing the smells it is subjected to. So every new outfit gets washed right away utilizing a commercially available scent eliminating detergent or you can use baking soda.

So washing is the first step to neutralize and clean clothing. This can be used for new clothing or clothing from the field that was used. When drying the clothes, you can use the dryer but skip any fabric softener or drying sheets. My endpoint on scent control is to end up as neutral or matching the environment. So then your clothes are dry, what do you do with them? You have to block any smells that will start absorbing back into them. Now you will be wearing underwear, socks, and most likely an undershirt. All of these items need to go through the same process. So storage is you next step.

Storing you clothes is just as important as washing them. Plastic binds or seal able storage bags are usually the best choice. My hunting clothing and gear spends 8 months of the year in the attic, in plastic totes. Sealed with some carbon packets to soak up any smells that could infiltrate my plastic totes. These are available at any fish store or pet store, you can also you baking soda but it is bit harder to keep from spilling. If moisture is a concern then a few silica packets can also be placed in there. These are aspects of staying neutral but what about matching the environment that you will hunt. My colleague at work got me interested in this aspect. Throwing in some oak leaves or oak chips in your clothing storage can help you smell like a tree. But if you are sitting in pine trees, then oak scent may not be a good match.

Think about going out to the bar for an hour or two. It takes not time at all to smell like the bar. But you don't know it until you leave there, you typically find yourself sitting at breakfast the next morning with family and wreaking like cigarette smoke and adult beverages. The same situation would apply to a deer that is coming into from the downwind direction. Now you think you don't smell but a deer has 10 times more scent receptors than a human. So don't assume you are in the clear, know you are. Any food or drink you bring in the field should again go neutral as possible, water is an easy one. In the winter maybe make it tea. Food is harder though, try to fill up before the field, avoid aromatic foods like bacon. Take in snacks like trail mix or granola bars. My favorite is the variety pack of crackers. Something quick and doesn't draw much attention.

It's now time for your big day in the field. your clothes are coming out of the plastic totes to be worn. I wait until the last possible second to put on my field gear. It may mean leaving it all in the truck rather than in the lodge with grandpa and the good ole boys smoking cigars or cooking greasy foods. Avoid what can -- smells that is. You should be fresh out of the shower by using a scent control soap or body wash. Why is this important?... Well besides the overbearing smells from the good ole boys, your body has bacteria and natural scents that build up. You want to clean and become as neutral as possible. Then stay that way from your lodging spot to your stand. I try to scent control my truck also, on your long trip to your hunting area can experince road food, cigar smoke, and gas from fueling up. Hunting gear is kept separate or sealed up in containers still. Multiple cartons of open baking soda are placed in the truck as well.

I wear my base layer out to the truck and then gear up with the rest of my outfit depending the temperature. I use a stock spray scent controller on my base layer, then add on my outer layers and spray again. Don't forget about your boots. It is ideal to have a pair of boots you only use in the field for hunting. The material of the boots is important, leather can carry smells into the field. You can spray them down but its hard to cover up like fuel from the gas station (gas up the night before). Its best to go rubber here. I own a pair of insulated muck boots. They are easy to wash down, they carry minimal scent, and can be put on in a heartbeat to go into the field.

Make your way to the stand, everything should have been placed a week to 10 days such as your stand or blind. It provides time for deer to get used to the new object and for scent to dissipate. Use wind to your advantage to get to your hunting spot. This may not always be the case so don't fool around and get into your spot, quickly and quietly. You should have cleared pathways of leaves and sticks to make it super sneaky. Once in the stand give another spray of cover up before settling in. I know I sometimes work up a sweat which I try to minimize. There are even deodorant sticks that you can use to mask you sweat smell from your armpits. I find my feet sweating, so a bit of deodorant there can help that.

Know your wind direction at your hunting spot and it should have been checked prior to getting there. You should have planned ahead. If wind direction is unfavorable, than make a judgement call. You may have went for it anyway and ended up not seeing anything. Think about, you know your spots the best, should you have seen a deer. The deer can smell you from pretty far away, maybe even out of your sight line depending upon the setup and topography. Take notes when you do get busted because it can help bring down the big one later on. Don't let your smell risk your trophy of a lifetime.

The Hit List

So with over a 1000 pictures of deers on the property, we have developed a small list of deer with names to help tracking them. The term hit list does not mean all of these deer are marked for death, just a cool expression to entice the reader.

On the girls or does list are the following: Lindsay Lohan and the Soccer Moms. So lets start with Lindsay, this doe is always on the camera, day, night, and even happy hour. She is always hogging the camera with an occasional flash of her backside. She also seen with her boyfriend who we named Fez (the 4 point buck).

The soccer moms a pair of does with four fawns. They drag their little ones by the camera to catch a quick meal and then off to play in the forest. It is unfortunate to learn that one of the little fawns were hit by a car about two weeks ago. Brian was able to care for the little one and put her at rest. I have no intentions of breaking of the family for freezer meat and tarnishing my karma with mother nature.

On the boys side we have the following: Fez (4 pt), the Basket 6 (6 pt), the old 8 and young 8 (both 8 pts), Spike (2 pt), and not on camera but seen from my tree stand yesterday was another 6 point buck which I call the Player. I caught him trying to woe two does as once. I can call these deer names all day long, but lets put a name to face with some pictures.
Fez

The Basket 6

The Soccer Mom

Old 8

Young 8

Lindsay Lohan

See its 2 AM and she is out and about for the camera.

Processing a deer at home.

So does processing a deer at home make you a hillbilly? If so, than I better change my name to Bill Bob and marry a cousin. It would only though take a hillbilly to realize the savings by processing a deer at home. Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out how to butcher a deer, absolutely not. At the average cost of $100 per deer to get it processed by a butcher and a few you-tube videos was enough to give it a whirl at home.


The equipment you need to do this at home is actually not much. I can tell you that you don't need a shop full of high priced machinery. So a few sharp knives, a sharper, a saw that is capable to cut through a couple of bones, a hoist (which is probably the big ticket item), and some general supplies and you are in business. So I sat back for an hour and watched some you tube videos of a butcher that was willing to share the butchering process and his secrets.

My garage happens to be equipment with a metal beam in the overhead so a pulley was easily installed and I lifted the deer up to working height. With few short cuts of the hide and some pulling the deer was skinless in about q0 minutes. I have to giggle here, because the wife walked in just as I finished this task. She was terrified and ran back out of the garage.

Now came the quartering process, I removed the front legs and shoulders which was relatively easy. Just cut right up the armpit and ensure to cut all the way around the shoulder plate. The next step is downsize the rib cage and half the the body. Take the tip of the knife and score the inside of the ribs at the halfway point. Then taking you saw cut straight down your lines on both sides. The remaining intact section will now get detached just below the loins. This spot is basically right along the last rib and follow it across to the backbone. Use a knife to first cut any meat or tendons and then finish off the backbone with the saw.

There is one more section to cut out before separating the hind legs. Use the tenderloins as template to cut out this portion. So cut up toward the inside of the legs above the top of the tenderloins. Again cut all the way through until the backbone again and saw through it again.

The last thing to do is cut the pelvic bone out which is holding the hind legs together. Basically take you knife and follow the contour of the bone to do so. If you get close enough, you may be able to pull the legs apart exposing the bone. Just finish the removal of the side that is left en tact. This portion is could be easier by removing the two hind legs from the hoist and doing it on a table.

So lets review what parts you should have in front of you now. The two front legs with shoulders, the rib sections, the neck and upper back section, the lower back section with has the loins and backstraps, and the two hind legs. I can describe the most of the sections and how to further remove meat except for the legs. I would suggest watching the you-tube video as is helps to see it in performed.

I have included a picture below on the general breakdown of meat cuts from the body.

So I will briefly describe how I processed my sections. I do not have a grinder yet, so any meat that did not get steaked, put into a loin, or a roast then I just cubed up the meat for stew. The next deer will allow me to do some grinding for ground meat or sausage. So the first section that I did was the neck and up back. I cut the loin meat on the top of the back. Take your knife and follow the backbone down and the contour of the ribs. You can trim this up to make a loin or steak out the meat into medallions. Any remaining meat on the neck and trimmings can start your ground meat or cube meat pile.

Next was the lower back section. On the inside of the section is the tenderloins. On the top are the backstraps. For the backstraps follow the same process as the upper back and neck section. The tenderloins on the underside just need to be trimmed out of the body. The back straps can be kept whole or cut down into smaller steaks. Again, any extra meat from trimmings can go into your ground meat or cube meat pile.

The ribs can be kept whole, or you can cut all the meat out that you want. I kept them whole and am going to attempt to smoke them later today. This is the extent of my experience as this was my first time butchering a deer. You want to make sure you have your knife sharper ready as your knife will dull over time. Also have your working surface prepared and cleaned. I use large trash bags to lay out all the sections. Then laid a wet towel with a cutting board on top (the wet towel keeps the board from sliding around). I had a five gallon bucket for crap meat and fat as you make your cuts. It also contained the head and hide from the skinning process. By the end the bucket was full and simply dumped it into a heavy duty trash bag for disposal.

This was my first time processing the deer, if you are handy with a knife and brave enough to try it then you will join in the savings. Remember to have you packaging ready for finished cuts. Before cutting your steaks out, you can put that meat in a freezer or cooler with ice to firm up the meat. Hope this is helpful and enjoy your harvest.

New Archery Equipment

So last year I spent 2800 miles on the road just for hunting season in Pennsylvania. This cost alone should have been the whisper in my ear to tell myself to purchase better archery equipment. Although my equipment wasn't completely at fault, I missed two solid opportunities on quality bucks (deer that is).

So in early 2010, I started my research into a quality bow package that would assist me in my hunting effort. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with a new compound bow or a cross bow. Cross bows in PA are now legal for archery season for all hunters. I had a few reasons that lead me to going the cross bow route for this season. First, with it pin point accuracy and take down power was important to me. Unlike TV, real hunting opportunities come few and far between for the average hunter. Hunting can dig into your vacation time at work and with limited chances on the weekends to get out in the woods doesn't make it easy.

Like any hunter, you want to have every a chance to be successful. In my mind this includes equipment like a quality up to date bow. My current bow is a USA Spirit by PSE, which is an early compound bow from the early 90's. My second reason for the cross bow was the flexibility of users, it can be used by a left or right handed person, older or younger, and even for my wife. This was a major decision point for me. The third reason was cost, the quality bows that are marketed all over TV run in the $800 range. I would have also had to purchase a separate bow then for my wife which would have cost more.

So with those reasons backing my decision, I was able to narrow down my search to a Parker cross bow (the Enforcer 160). I tested this bow in early 2010 and finally pulled the trigger on the purchase about two weeks ago. The pin point accuracy of the bow is incredible and easy sighting in made the setup easy. My first shot at home lead me to buying a better target because the cross bow bolt almost passed through the target. For a comparison standpoint though, my old PSE compound bow only penetrates the about 3 inches. This was money well spent, and I already have a deer in the freezer.

Hard work paid off and savings in my pocket.

A month and half of work has finally provided its first profit. Yesterday I was able to harvest a nice deer from my new property in PA. Back in the end of July started our scouting and site preparation and over 1000 trail camera pictures in our possession. With the first opening of a limited anterless deer season, we were able to capitalize.

The first morning in any tree stand provides that feeling of wonder and freedom. This morning was no different, listening to the sounds of birds and watching the first movements after dawn. It wasn't long until the first signs of life began to show move through the forest of cedar trees. Yup, a huge skunk ran right under my stand and starting sniffing around. A quick beat of my boot on the tree stand was enough to scare the little guy away though. The first deer as expected to see at some point of the day was the 4 point buck known as Fez. He looped through past the trail camera and was gone.

The next deer to arrive were a pair of does with a new 6 point buck that has never been captured. Of course he will be added to the hit list to track in the future. The lead doe in the group was very experienced, and was able to recognize something was not right. By doing so, I was able to get a clear shot and held off on trying to shoot my cross bow. It wasn't long after they bugged out that another group of deer moved in.

Three does were moving right in toward my stand. I found myself going from one to the other trying to setup a shot with an anxious feeling. I knew though, that waiting for the deer to move closer and not rushing a shot would present a clear and more precise shot. With that being said, one of the does following a small trail in front of my stand stepped out at 10 yards. Without further ado, I squeezed the trigger with my 10 yard pin just to the right of the shoulder. It was like listening to a baseball hit exposed skin at high speed. The doe quickly circled around and trotted down into the woods.

I gave a quick text to Brian to come help me track her down and load her up in my truck. The next step of this adventure was to process the deer at the house instead of paying over $100 for a butcher to do so. There will be a separate blog entry on how that went but it proved to keep money in my pocket. Below is the best picture the trail camera as captured yet.....sucess.

10 Days until the Soft Opening -- PA Bow Season

Just like the casinos, Pennsylvania offers a soft opening for deer season. It provides an opportunity to hunt does in mid September in WMUs near major cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The WMUs in the Philly area extend into Bucks county which provides some lush area for deer. Although huntable land is hard to find, the deer are plentiful. This gives me a great chance to get settled in my new property I am hunting by my house. It will be good practice for the statewide opening on October 1st.

Lets me take a minute to talk about our most recent scouting results from our new property. All photos from the trail camera up to this point only presented a small 4 point buck and a few doe. My buddy Brian emailed me on a Saturday morning and to my surprise the pictures showed some decent bucks. Two nice eight point bucks in velvet filled the camera in mid August. Their is also a pretty unique six point buck with some basket rack antlers but still looks pretty cool. Take a look at the eight pointers below. One is old and one is young.

This new property which just over 2 acres provides a good funnel for deer to travel from bedding to feeding areas. When we first scouted the area with the landowner Brian, we observed the deer trails are packed with hard dirt from the constant travel. The wooded area is relatively thick and is filled with mature red cedar trees. The far back corner of the property is more heavily wooded area which is most likely the bedding area. The back and side of the property have a dry creek bed which allows another secluded travel path for deer. Aerial photos were also reviewed as to not miss any steps in the information gathering process of scouting. Since the initial visit, a dedicated trail camera has kept eyes on the main trail to log deer movements and track the bucks.

A few final preparations are in order before the 17th. One is to hang my stand on of the larger trees that overlooks the travel paths, another is to pickup my new crossbow and get it sighted in, and the final step is clothing to cover ever day scents. Now I am no expert on scent elimination but I do take it very seriously. I will provide my ancient Chinese secrets in my next blog.

Until then, quiet stalks and precision shots!