Beat the Heat - by Bruce Wilds

All serious deer hunters know that in order to be successful and put a tag on a deer, they have to beat a deer’s nose. Sounds easy, right? It’s probably one of the hardest things on the planet to do and companies such as Hunters Specialties know this. So, how do you beat the nose of that big buck? By playing the wind and utilizing quality scent control products.

It is the end of August and several states have big game seasons starting to open. The weather is hot.  Sweating while walking to a stand and sitting on a stand is virtually inevitable. With sweat, comes odor causing bacteria. It is critical to use a good antiperspirant/odor eliminating deodorant such as the Scent-A-Way Bio-Strike Antiperspirant to reduce sweating and smell.

While deodorant is extremely important, there are two other products that I think are critical during the early season. The first is the Scent-A-Way MAX Foaming Cleanser. This comes in an 8 oz. bottle with a foaming pump dispenser. This product features active odor scrubbers that aggressively attract and attack a wide variety of odor sources.

The second must-have item in every hunting pack is the Scent-A-Way MAX Field Wipes. These wipes prove invaluable during the early season. As sweat pours off a hunter’s brow, these wipes not only wipe off the perspiration, but they apply a proprietary enzymatic odor elimination formula to attack and eliminate human odors with each swipe.

For me, utilizing a climbing stand or those lock-ons that I have that are deep in the timber, always cause me to sweat profusely on my walk in or climb up the tree. I usually find myself saturated and thinking that there is no way in the world a deer is going to come by me, as bad as I am sweating. So, to help eliminate any chance of being detected, I always grab a couple of Field Wipes and wipe down my face, head and neck. This gets the sweat off of me and helps cool me down. I then take another wipe and wipe down my chest and back to ensure I have gotten all of the perspiration off of those areas. Once I have wiped down with the Field Wipes, I take a couple of squirts of the Foaming Cleanser and rub it all over my head, chest, neck and back to make sure any odor has no chance to grow.

Despite feeling soaking wet, by simply taking these two steps, you have virtually eliminated any chance that a deer will be able to smell you. On several occasions last year, I got into the stand soaking wet from sweat, took these two simple steps and later in the day, had deer come in down-wind of me. None of these deer ever smelled me and they never knew I was there. I thought for sure that they would have busted me, but the trusted scent control formulas worked flawlessly. So, before you head to the stand this early season, make sure that you have a pack of Scent-A-Way MAX Field Wipes and a bottle of the Scent-A-Way MAX Foaming Cleanser in your backpack. You’ll be glad you did. As the season’s open, stay safe and good luck this fall!

Bruce Wilds

Hunters Specialties Field Staff