Brushing Teeth Before Hunting

[.308sniper]

If I use mint toothpaste to brush my teeth before I leave in the morning do you think it will spook the deer.  If so what would you recomend as a toothpaste.

[R.W.Dale]

 I hear that the most sucessfull hunters refrain from baithing for a full month before season Illedgly deer will not give you a second thought if you smell like a Yak.


 seriously, you don't think deer can smell your stank breath if you don't brush your teeth. If a bomb sniffin dog can detect a 1/2 oz of plastique in a tank full of gasoline don't you think a deer (that supposedly has just as good a sense of smell) can smell your spearimint or cinnamon toothpaste.

[joshco84]

i just wait and brush my teeth after i get back

[beemanbeme]

If the deer can smell your breath, you're not set up right or you're hunting in the wrong direction.  The wind should be blowing from the deer to you.  You can buy all the go-stink soap, and all the scent shield clothes you want to and they won't work if you exhale while you're on stand or hunting down wind.  In the absence of any breeze, the thermals will move uphill in the morning; downhill in the evening. 
The best scent blocker is to spit on your finger and hunt toward the cool side.  Beyond that, make up a gel using baking powder and doe-in-heat scent and try that.

[.308sniper]

I think the doe in heat scent would taste bad.

[joshco84]

o beem that is just mean...... funny but mean 

[dw06]

I use backing soda to brush teeth in deer season,also only deodorant i use while hunting is backing soda mixed with corn starch about 50/50,keeps odor down and don't smell like the perfumed stuff.My as well tell all,I wase hair with nothing but old ivory soap.

[HuntingGuy]

Scent Away (It's either scent blocker or scent away) makes a breath spray.  Smells almost like natural maple.  Another option is "Gumoflage" if you can put up with the nasty taste...  It's a chewing gum that tastes and smells like pine needles 

[lewdogg21]

Baking soda.


Not brushing my teeth at elk camp begins to gross myself out after a morning or two.  When you think about it your breath may be the most important scent to mask b/c your constantly blowing it out.

[Buckskin]

I wouldn't worry about your mint toothpaste spooking deer.  Actually they probably would like it.  A buddy of mine was bow hunting once and a little 8pt came in and licked up all of his mint flavored chew spit from the base of his tree. 

When I bow hunt I usually take an apple w/ me a chomp a bite out of it every so often.

[.308sniper]

I like the apple idea.

[alsatian]

You can get too worried about such things.  If it does worry you, brush your teeth with baking soda and water.  On the other hand, if the wind is in your face it probably won't matter.  Other factors like making noise, moving around, being well hidden from view are going to be more important than your toothpaste or your laundry detergent if the wind is in your face as it ought to be when deer hunting.

This applies to camoflage also.  That is, people get too worried about it.  If you locate in the shade, if you locate where your outline is broken up by objects behind you, if you locate where objects in front of you screen your legs and lower body, if you sit still and move slowly . . . how much difference does it make if you are using camoflage or not or what specific camoflage pattern you use?  One thing I do is wear a face net to reduce the reflective quality of my caucasian skin.  I'm concerned that my white face produces an apparent "flash" when I turn my head in the woods.  I'm hoping the face net reduces the flash effect.  But I'm not a strong believer in camoflage clothes for the reasons discussed above.

[beemanbeme]

well said, Alsatian, well said. 

[Don Fischer]

This is great. If your gonna worry about what your teeth smell like, what are you gonna do about the Hoppe's in your barrel? Maybe that's a natural smell so just mix a little Hoppe's in your tooth paste, but just to be safe, I think I would rinse with the doe in heat stuff! Oh, by the way, the raisins in your trail mix should be removed and replaced with deer droppings, or elk if thats what your hunting!

I just had another though, I don't think hunting into the wind is such a good idea, it might slow your bullet down to much when you shoot! And if you eat an apple, take apple sauce, the crunck of a granny smith could well scare off everything for miles!

[Siskiyou]

For some it does not matter, like Don Fischer spells out the hunter carries a lot of scents.  There was an old friend of the family who had a particular oder.  He was had a lip full of scent chewing tobacco.  It seem like he always smell and was spitting.  It was always good to stay a least ten feet from him.  As a kid regulated to the back seat of the unaircondition car I always knew to keep the back window up, and to duck if he started leaning towards his window.

As a non-smoking cop I could always find a smoking cop in the woods.  On one stake-out I could not help but laugh at an American Indian cop in the brush.  I could not see him but the cloud of smoke he was creating was visable, and I could smell the smoke a hundred yards downwind.  I am sure a deer could smell him a few hundred yards downwind.

Recently in hunting camp I fixed dinner.  I fried up hamburger patties, opened up a can of baked beans, and some fruit.  I am sure the next mornig any deer down wind was aware of our location.

I still brush my teeth.  Now days I spray my clothing down with a scent blocker, but it can only over come so much.  This fall I was in my ground stand watching a bunch of does and fawns.  They paid no attention until my partner step on a dry limp some distance away.  Is sound more important then oder?

[Savage .250]

 Another vote for Baking Soda.   

[Ranger J]

I think there are a lot more important things to think about than how your breath smells, mine probably smells like Snickers bars.  Missouri’s deer population was practically exterminated in the early in the 1900s by hunters who took a bath once a month or so, if they needed it or not and probably didn’t even know what a tooth brush was far.
RJ

[Don Fischer]

There may be more important things but not many funnier things. I sure hope 308sniper wasn't serious about this!

[.308sniper]

I just didnt know if it mattered or not?  Didnt think I would get so much grief over a simple question.

[Don Fischer]

Please don't concider it grief. This is really fun. Have a good day!

[.308sniper]

Have a good one yourself.

[beemanbeme]

I think sometimes we take our sport too serious.
 I like to brush my teeth with baking soda not because of any scent reason but because nothing makes your teeth feel cleaner and your mouth taste better.

[Ranger J]

I do however, always carry a sack of lemon drops with me when in the stand.  This wasn’t to make my breath smell better but to keep me from coughing or clearing my throat.  It has got to be a kind of a ‘luck’ thing with me.  It always seems that I did better when I used Lemon drops rather than life savors or parish the thought, Hauls cough drops.  Maybe there is something to it.  PS we are not giving you grief about this subject this is just this bunch’s way of seriously considering it.  Sometime we may come on a little strong but we mean no offence to a serious question, which this was.
RJ

[WylieKy]

I have my own brand of "gumoflage."  I keep all the tarsal glands from my bucks, and chew them while in the stand. 

I use baking soda.

WylieKy

[Buckskin]

This is great. If your gonna worry about what your teeth smell like, what are you gonna do about the Hoppe's in your barrel? Maybe that's a natural smell so just mix a little Hoppe's in your tooth paste, but just to be safe, I think I would rinse with the doe in heat stuff!

I was commenting on the question as a bowhunter.  Rifle hunting not such a big deal because you don't need to put yourself as close, but I do watch my scent then also.  By the way petroleum products are not as much of an arlarm as you might think.  Deer have no fear of farm implements that are covered in them, I have seen them walk right next to a tractor, grain truck, and numerous others.  I also have a buddy who is a mechanic and routinely goes hunting right after work, you would be amazed at how much he gets away with in his work clothes.  And yes you can fool a deer nose if you are diligent about reducing your scent as much as possible.  Two nights ago I had a 6pt walk from directly down wind of me as close as 30 yds and never noticed a thing.  Rifle hunting is even easier IF you have greater distances to play with.

[jhm]

Use the baking soda or just refrain from brushing and in a couple years you can just leave your teeth in a glass back at camp    JIM

[tscott]

I put down the capicole and hot pepper hero I was enjoying as the buck approached yesterday. I was sitting in a spot chosen as I walked in the dark, because of the wind!

[Redhawk1]

I brush my teeth before I go out, I have had great success and don't think it is a factor.

I won't ride with a bunch of guys with bad breath, I will brush and ride alone. 

[kyote]

hmmm,I like to be part of nature when I go..kinda sound and smell like the things in the forest,blend in if ya know what I mean,wear colors that match other animals,move slowly,I eat a lot of pickeld eggs and eat several cans of beanie weenies,that way I don't have to worry about the wind(just my own)and if a deer see's me he will also have smelled me.and think I am some sort of filthy coyote.and I can get right up close enough to give em powder burns when I touch of the ole fire stick.I am just wondering now if I should not use the everdent over night before I go..

[dakotashooter2]

Since we cannot totally eliminate scents the trick is to ensure the scents we emit do not represent "danger" to the deer. As mentioned in most case deer do not perceive automobiles, tractors and such as danger and therefore are not alarmed by the smell of petrolium products. That does not mean that they will ignore those scents but that they will discount them after determining there is no imediate danger present. While deer may flee on the basis of scent alone in most cases they will not flee unless two of their senses have been triggered. I have often had deer scent me only to resume what they were doing as long as I stayed motionless untill they determined ther was no danger present. Sometimes this may take quite a while. 10 minutes is not uncommon and 20 -30 minutes on occassion. Even when a deer does "bust"  I remain still for a period after it has fled in order not to reinforce the stimulation of its senses to danger. This is most common in areas with little hunter pressure and extended seasons.
It comes down to whether some of the "extreme" efforts taken to eliminate scent produce results that make the efforts worthwhile. I've been there and done that and at least for me it is more trouble than it is worth.