Scent block on leather holster rig or screw it?

[Duster340]

Hey folks,

Kind of a weird question, but what the heck. Getting all my gear laid out for deer season. While doing it I realized that the new holster and belt rig for my 4" 629 smells like, well like new leather lol! So I'm wondering, do I worry about it? Can I spray scent blocker on it? Screw it and hunt? Like everyone else, I pay close attention to the wind, but sometimes it changes etc...

Thanks for indulging in my odd thoughts!

Be well

 

[mcb]

I would just spray it down with your scent blocker, as usually, with the rest of your gear. A little scent blocker is not going to hurt a good leather holster. We always spray each other down with Scent Killer as we leave the cabin in the morning and it gets all our gear. I have found it far more important to spray my boots and lower body down then the rest of my gear, to reducing the scent path I leave on the ground that they cross is important. I also have found that a Thermocell with an Earth-scent wick in it helps quite a bit, especially early in the season when it helps block the bugs too.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

That's interesting.

I've always found that wood smoke scent from a hardwood fire on my clothes seemed to make an improvement, and at worst didn't make hunting worse, and it's free. I use a flintlock and have to get the deer in pretty close, so as with the OP I pay great attention to the wind, but it does shift. I've also found that quietly scraping a patch of ground next to a large three gives me soil and not leaves to stand upon (much less, if any, noise when I'm done), and in still air tosses up a bit of loam scent to help mask me. The large tree tends to break up my outline as well.

LD

 

[Armored farmer]

I have a woodstove in my mancave where my hunting gear is kept.
I also carry a box of (dont laugh) persimmons.......in the back of my jeep.
I get out of my jeep, gather my gear, and stomp and squish my boots in the box of persimmons.....and head for my stand.

I would get a plastic container and put some leaves, dirt, apples,......? Put the holster in it for 48hrs and call it good.

 

[Duster340]

Thanks for the input folks. I'll go ahead and throw my rig in a plastic bag with some cedar boughs and oak leaves from the woods for a week or so. Will hit it with scent block as well if it's still smelly. If nothing else it'll give me a bit of piece of mind vs that nagging "what if" concern. Lol!

 

[SoonerMedic]

Deer will smell your breath probably before they smell that leather holster. In all reality, they smell it at the same time. I read somewhere that they are able to differentiate something like 1 different scents at the same time. I think the smell of your breath would alarm them before some leather product. Not insulting your personal hygiene by the way lol.

 

[troy fairweather]

before hunting season i fill a garbage bag full of fallen leafs they any kind as long they are not green. your cloths will smell like them for well after the season is over, do the same with the holster.

 

[Axis II]

I would test it on the back of the holster because ive sprayed stuff like leather and had it leave a white film on the leather. I wouldn't worry too much. I just leave my hunting clothes hang outside for a few days and then inside one of those Walmart waterproof camping bags with some baking soda in the bottom and never had an issue. Watch the wind direction and you will be ok.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

As Sooner says, your breath will give you away long before that holster. There is only one truly effective scent blocker, the wind.

 

[buck460XVR]

I'd be curious as to iffin deer are even spooked by the smell of new leather. After half a century of playing with deer, I've discovered that new smells arose curiosity as much as a fear response. Deer would have to identify the leather smell to humans or some other negative experience before it provokes a fear response. It also may depend on how the leather was tanned. Leather tanned with tannin derived from tree back or brains would probably be less inclined to spook deer than cheap leather tanned with formaldehyde or chromium.

Makers of scent eliminaters want folks to believe one cannot hunt deer without them, even tho folks successfully hunted deer for centuries without any. If it was me, and I was concerned about it, I'd hang the holster by my stand before season for the deer to acclimate to the smell.

 

[SoonerMedic]

I'd be curious as to iffin deer are even spooked by the smell of new leather. After half a century of playing with deer, I've discovered that new smells arose curiosity as much as a fear response. Deer would have to identify the leather smell to humans or some other negative experience before it provokes a fear response. It also may depend on how the leather was tanned. Leather tanned with tannin derived from tree back or brains would probably be less inclined to spook deer than cheap leather tanned with formaldehyde or chromium.

Makers of scent eliminaters want folks to believe one cannot hunt deer without them, even tho folks successfully hunted deer for centuries without any. If it was me, and I was concerned about it, I'd hang the holster by my stand before season for the deer to acclimate to the smell.

This brings up a thought I've had here lately about native hunters.....they tweezed their body hair which I'm sure helps to knock down the human scent to some degree, but I've wondered if they would take smoke baths prior to embarking on a deer hunt. I wonder if that was a primative form of scent killer? Deer aren't necessarily alarmed by the smell of smoke and they come across it fairly regularly I would imagine....so I've wondered if that was a way they would mask their human scent.

 

[Kingcreek]

I think it's ok to try to minimize scent but I don't think it's important except as a marketing gimmick.
Totally unrelated to the post but I had a problem with a trespasser. I found where he was driving in on my neighbors property and parking in a draw out of sight from the road and then sneaking into my place to hunt. He left his spray bottle of scent killer on the tailgate while he was hunting my land. I emptied the bottle and replaced it with some clear yellow liquid of my own manufacture.

 

[buck460XVR]

I emptied the bottle and replaced it with some clear yellow liquid of my own manufacture.

Funny thing is, you may have helped him more than hindered him. Common tactic is to urinate in fresh scrapes you fins around your stand. Tends to piss(excuse the pun) the bucks off and they get aggressive and drop their guard. Years ago I urinated from a elevated tree stand during a blizzard. Few minutes later several does came by and spent several minutes sniffing the yellow spots in the snow beneath me....totally unafraid. I think human urine, like coyote urine cover scents, tells a deer that something was there once, but iffin they do not get any other clues(movement/sound), they just figure it's a sign it's now gone.

 

[redneck2]

Hunters make the BIG mistake of lumping “deer” together. Like all deer do the same thing. There’s a huge difference between what a yearling doe will tolerate versus what a 5 year old buck tolerates.

 

[buck460XVR]

Hunters make the BIG mistake of lumping “deer” together. Like all deer do the same thing. There’s a huge difference between what a yearling doe will tolerate versus what a 5 year old buck tolerates.

Depends on the amount of pressure either have experienced. I have seen 5 year old bucks run after a 4 wheeler on it's way to fill the feeder, while I have see yearling does on public land that only move from their bedding areas after dark and are gone to the next section at the sound of a truck door.. Lots of variables in the hunting world. Lots of assumptions. The example I posted above was of adult does on heavily pressured public land. The 3 1/2 year old buck I shot two weeks ago with my bow was directly downwind of me and saw me turn in the treestand in order to attempt the shot. He stared me down for a good two minutes before turning his head and allowing me the shot. Those does on public land would have never let me get away with that. The buck was on private land, with lots of exposure to humans(as in farmers in their fields), but only limited hunting pressure. Since I had been calling turkeys right before he came in, he may have thought I was a turkey in the tree. Who knows. As you said, no two deer are alike, as no two hunters are. Sometimes folks like to lump other hunters too.