Will Our Lip Balm Cost You Your Elk? In his book "Bones" (the basis for TV’s Crime Scene Investigations) forensic pathologist Dr. Douglas Ubelaker describes how even after years of work some of the most experienced pathologist and coroners can not adjust to the smell of decayed bodies. The favored solution is to rub a bit of camphor, or Tiger Balm (containing 15% menthol, clove oil and cinnamon extract) under the nose. This overtaxes the nasal olfactory nerves and shuts them down. With this in mind, why would a hunter use lip balm containing similar chemicals which both reduce hunter olfactory senses and alert elk! These odors are foreign in the forest. I stress using all forest clues in my book. Elk can be smelled when present, and they leave odors on rubs, at wallows, when they urinate and travel. Elk odors are quite distinctive IF you can smell them. So use completely odorless lip balm. You can not notice subtle new odors when stalking if a smear of cherry chocolate balm is directly under your nose. Dead Down Wind ("D2W") makes SPF 30 rated tube balm specifically for hunters. What I've said also goes for cough drops, candy, soaps, sun block, tanning lotions and muscle strain relief balms. Fehling Elk: This photo shows a captive elk. You may think it has acclimated to every barnyard and human scent. Instantly, it still used sensory nerves in his mouth to assess the new but subtle odor. I asked my wife to stand ten feet away and uncap a lip balm stick as I focused my camera on the bull. In the still air, it took less than three seconds to snap up its head and begin using the ultrasensitive nerves in the roof of his mouth to assess the odor and its source. I have repeatedly suggested that field-hunting clothes not be worn in vehicles or around camp. They are bound to pick up cooking odors, vehicle gasoline vapors, and just plain sweaty body odors. This advice is often taken, but then I ask about camp boots and get “so what?’ responses. They also accumulate odors that are released when you’re feet get warm/hot walking. Consider a second pair of boots or shoes to wear around camp while your field boots dry of perspiration. Relaxation shoes/slippers/booties/sneakers can feel so very comfortable after a long day of traipsing. For Scent Control – Denmon, 2104 lists 32 tips for reducing human SCENTS for hunters and/. www.bowhunting.net/womenbowhunters/32tips-html Hunter Peeing : I am appalled to write these instructions, because they really should not be necessary for an experienced hunter. However, observations of “snow writing” discloses some hunter ignorance. How you perform natural bodily functions will affect hunting success. Last year I met an elderly man of great cheer, but limited high altitude stamina, riding out at first season’s end. He had used one of my most productive stands. He said he had a good time, but never saw one deer or elk. I checked that stand the next day and saw the problem. The fellow had evidently been told by the wrangler to stay put in the blind the whole day, and he had taken that advice too literally. Obviously, he had consumed copious predawn coffee. Nonsensically, he stood in the blind and sprayed high against the three different spruce trees forming the stand. High level, distant erratic urination and spitting is what some men may do in urinals. It should never be done on a hunt. “Ernie” could have made ten steps out of the blind and dumped in deep snow within sun-shading trees. There his urine would have quickly frozen once snow was kicked over the dribbling. “Mr. President Jack Kennedy” huffed Secretary of State Kissinger during the morning Cabinet briefing. “Last night someone urinated your name on the snow of the White House lawn”. “Ah sir, don’t let that bother you” replied the president. Kissinger retorted “but it is terrible! You do not understand! It was your name, but written in your wife’s handwriting!” After more than forty years of snow hunting, I have amassed some information about how and where hunters pee. Some recollections are like jokes. Ocasionally, hunters seem drawn to childhood glee of seeing how high up on a tree they can pee. Others, out of control of their tools, leave impressive monogram arcs as if they are drawing flowers. Hence, I will try to educate the reader about leaving human pee scent. All these suggestions should be obvious, but here goes. Plan ahead. Get rid of things before entering your immediate hunt area. Use a camp latrine as much as possible so you are able to keep it covered with dirt. Never urinate on tree trunks or branches. Bark absorbs and retains urine, which will be released over the following days during thaw cycles. Do not encourage other hunters to come talk to you, especially in the morning when they are fully loaded, will linger and inevitably will take a pee near your stand. Choose a pit stop location which is not along game trails. There is no sense in diverting or turning back your quarry. Do use a place which is out the line of sight of your intended hunt stand/area. Scent there may cause game to avoid your visually blind area and favor a diversion into your viewing horizon. Plan these locations ahead of time. Choose a location with deep snow where there will be shade all day. This will allow urine to remain frozen and scatter less scent. Make a stream that punches a single hole in the snow. Then kick snow over the hole. Never urinate on a trail or in a blind. There is no need for you or another to step in the scent pile and track it around. Relieve yourself slightly off main trails before entering your hunt area. A lot of scent is already there from constant horse and human traffic. Leave you hunt area as pristine as possible. Cover your mess, if only with snow. Avoid urination on your defecation. The warm stool will retard urine freezing. The uric acid in urine can provide nutrients to colonic bacteria. The stool may start warming with bacterial decay and release vapors. Stool should be covered with small rocks and then loose soil. A latrine may “activate” on a warm day and become smelly. You may not smell it, but game will. Keep a pile of LOOSE soil at the latrine for early morning coverage; compacted soil will be too frozen to use or too agglomerated to seal off stool. Cover the loose soil with a waterproof bag to keep the soil from frost-freezing. Do spray high on the western side of trees adjacent to your kill. Western tree sides will dry slower during the day because they are out of direct sunlight until afternoon. Then the tree trunk will thaw or dry and release human scent at twilight and early night. That is when coyote scavengers will begin prowling. Ladies, you have a great vertically inclined urinary disability. Use horizontal loose logs and prop them up. Elk Pee: I seem to have heard it all. Stepping in elk urine to cover human scent might seem like a sensible thing to do, but just do not take your boots into the tent at night. It can downright irritate other hunters, which it greatly did. PS: Another humorous incident was when a father took his son elk scouting. The exhausted young fellow slept on the truck back seat upon a burst bottle of elk urine lure. And it WAS a rather nice truck. Beards – Do They Keep Hunters Warmer, Do they keep you warmer? Are they storage for food, human and cosmetic scents that alert game? The resurgence of bearded styles suggests this divergence might help some hunters. Facial hair grows differently than scalp hair. It is coarser and grows in three stages: fast growth (anagen), resting (catagen), and falling out (telogen). The “anagen” phase is shorter but faster than scalp hairs. The “catagen” phase is prolonged, so beard hair is retained longer. Some genetically disposed men have an exceptionally long “telogen” final phase and can grow very long beards if they are maintained to prevent brittleness and avoid skin disease. Hair exists to regulate body temperature. Hair follicles pucker with cold and make hairs stand up. This creates a heat trapping insulating air space above the skin. This should make your face about a degree or two warmer. Thick, curly beards may have slightly greater heat retention. However, in cold weather a beard iced by exhalation and/or perspiration will have a net heat drain and outweigh the benefits. Frozen beards melting in windy conditions can cause severe chilling by adiabatic heat loss during evaporation (cover face until it is dry). Lastly, beards have an advantage in reducing wind chill, particularly if additional face protection is worn. Beards are generally darker color than scalp hairs. They act as a sunscreen barrier. Gray, red and blond bearded men have lesser sun protection. These hair colors are skin cancer prone colors; use cover or sunscreens at Colorado’s high altitude/ high UV radiation exposure. Beards – Do They Hurt the Hunt?: A hunting disadvantage of beards is that they infuse odors from the food you eat, exhaled and burped breaths, shampooing cosmetics, and the surrounding environment. Tobacco smoking is a cardinal sin. Stand next to a bearded smoker sometime to get the full effect of this advice. Oil slathered on for humectant beard grooming would amplify odor retention. Remember that wool sweaters are notorious for absorbing odors. Keep in-hunt sweaters outside the tent. WSJ 1-25-2018 Heidi Mitchell Your Food, Your Forest-strange Scent: Your scent largely depends on what you eat. Do not eat fish, garlic, onions, beans or greasy foods a week or so before entering your hunt field. NEVER stand near a generator or vehicle exhaust, pump gas, or mess with camp fuels while you wear your field hunt clothing. Redress into scent-free clothing after you arrive at your hunt area if you ride an ATV.