“ROOKIE
ERRORS - 10 DEADLY SINS OF NEW BOWHUNTERS”
Controlling Body Odor, and Overdressing
EDITOR'S NOTE: Good bowhunters can become better bowhunters
if they don't commit 10-deadly sins that decrease their
odds for bagging any deer and especially trophy deer.
Here's 10 of the most-common mistakes that even good
bowhunters – sportsmen who have taken several
deer with their bows and who have hunted for four or
five years - make that I've identified by hunting with
through the years.
Controlling Body Odor:
Notice that I didn't say you need to eliminate odor.
Dead folks are the only people who don't have body odor.
However, the hunter can control how much odor he emits.
I don't think that most hunters pay enough attention
to body-odor control, which begins with taking a shower
each day with odor-eliminating soap. Besides keeping
the body clean, every effort should be made to have
clean clothes. In my opinion, clean clothes don't solely
mean keeping the clothes dirt-free but more importantly
odor-free. If you store your hunting clothes in your
house, the clothes you hunt in will pick up smells of
deodorizers, food cooking, and pets. So I recommend
storing your clothes that you'll
wear hunting in plastic bags in the vehicle you'll use.
Then put your clothes on just before you hunt. Be sure
not to store clothes in your hunting club, because the
night before a hunt there probably will be wood smoke
from the fireplace as well as tobacco smoke and food
smells from breakfast cooking. Having those odors in
your clothes can alarm the deer you're hoping to take.
And one of the worse things you can do if you come in
from hunting with wet clothes is to hang those clothes
in front of an open fireplace to dry out and then plan
to hunt in those same clothes that afternoon. Your hunting
clothes may be dry, but they're also full of every odor
in the lodge. I'm convinced that deer can detect those
odors.
Now I like a dog as much as anybody, but when I get
ready to go hunting and put on my clothes, I don't want
the dog rubbing up against me. I don't want to pet him,
and I don't want him around me, because I know deer
don't like dogs. And if I smell like dog, deer won't
want to some around where I'm hunting. Too, be sure
to leave your boots in your hunting vehicle too, and
don't carry them into the house. Hunting clothes are
designed to wear in the woods while a sportsman is hunting.
Wear other clothes in a house or hunting lodge.
Overdressing:
The hunter has two problems with body odor and body
heat as they relate to hunting. He must wear enough
clothes to stay warm as he walks to his tree stand.
But if he wears too many clothes and perspires while
he's walking, then the clothes he's used to keep himself
warm have caused him to sweat. The evaporation of moisture
from the seat actually makes him cold. As the hunter
walks to his stand in his warm clothes, he's like a
radiator, giving off human odor in all directions along
the path he walks. Too, many hunters overdress when
walking to their stands. When I'm hunting in cold weather,
I wear insulated clothing and underwear. If I put my
goose-down vest on and walk maybe a mile to my tree
stand, by the time I arrive there, I'll be sweating
and giving off too much human odor. This problem keeps
me from hunting with any confidence at all, and within
30 minutes, I'll feel cold too. So even if a deer does
come in, I won't be comfortable or able to shoot accurately.
In my opinion, a bowhunter needs two types of clothing
- the clothing he wears when he walks to his stand and
warmer, heavier clothing that the hunter carries in
a pack and doesn't actually put on until he reaches
his stand. By using this system of dressing, the hunter
won't give out nearly as much human odor and can hunt
warmer and more comfortably than if he wears all that
clothing into his tree stand. Even if you're wearing
a human scent cover-up and sitting in a tree stand sweating,
the very-best cover-up scents won't hide the human odor
you're giving off. To put it simply, I haven't found
any cover-up scents that can mask the human odor of
a sweaty body.
To
learn more about bowhunting, order “The Masters’
Secrets of Bowhunting Deer,” which contains information
from more than 50 top bowhunters, written by John E.
Phillips. You can send a money order or a check for
$13.50 to 4112 Camp Horner Road, Birmingham, AL 35243
and specify the book you’re ordering, or pay by
PayPal by sending the money to nighthawkpub@mindspring.com.
You also can learn more about the book by going to http://www.nighthawkpublications.com/hunting/mastersbow.htm
where you’ll also find a direct link to PayPal.
TOMORROW: NOT KNOWING WHERE
TO PUT LURE, AND NOT UNDERSTANDING WHEN TO RATTLE
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