Sweat troubles
General Topic
I hunt steep terrain in WV and I'm soaked by the time I get to my stand. I've tried most scent free antiperspirants with no luck. Not so much underarms as my back and chest. If I'm stand hunting I wear a short sleeve and take a ziplock bag for my soaked shirt when I get there. Works ok but not so good during the rut because I'm mostly on the ground. I can't really smell myself but I'm sure the deer do! Any suggestions or good products you guys know of. If there's a solution, I know one of you hardcore guys will know about it :). Thanks
remove hat go slow open your zipper
Slow down a bit if you can. Merino wool clothes. Seems like you are already going with minimal layers getting to your stand and changing into new ones, which is good. Play the wind as much as you possibly can. Heavy sweat makes it worse, but you still smell to a deer even right after getting out of the shower. Getting busted is sometimes just part of the game.
I go as slow as possible. Don't wear my hat till I'm in stand. I've done all the obvious things. My backpack doesn't help. I have went to a waist pack that has helped some.
Are you overweight? I sweat like Mike Tyson at a spelling bee, so any exertion and I’m wet. Several of my stands are located where I have to cross some deep ravines to get to, and I get pretty lathered up by the time I get into the stand as well. I wear the bare minimum base layers and no hat gong in like you’re doing. I’m about 30 lbs overweight. I lost a bunch of weight several years ago, & I noticed that it made a HUGE difference for me. I would barely break a sweat by the time I was settled into the stand.
Maybe 5 pounds or so Troy. I'm 6'2 and 220#. Don't really like to go under 215. Wife says I look sickly if lower than that.
As suggested above, try some merino wool shirts. Black Ovis make some good stuff. Love merino wool for hunting out here in the west where long sweaty hikes are the norm.
sport, you a muscle guy?
im 6'1 175# and could prolly loose 5 yet...
What’s wrong with swearing? Head out to Colorado during archery season when it’s 80 and you’re climbing and descending 1000s of feet for hours upon hours. There’s a river of sweat running down my back. It is what it is. Oh yeah, and don’t shower for a week while doing it. Wear merino and be smart about wind.
I'm not a muscle guy Ben. Was an athlete many moons ago and that's the weight I feel "good" at. I can drop 10 pounds or so by just cutting out Coca Cola. That's my vice.
I wouldn't worry 1 iota about the odor. Perspiration is a concern of health (avoiding hypothermia) and comfort. A deer that would smell a sweaty hunter is a deer that would smell a hunter, period. Unavoidable.
X2 Owl. Don't sweat it !! Hahaha. Get your wind right, if its not, your busted sweat or no sweat.
I agree with Owl and Mtnrchr.
Base layers with a high percentage of silver will inhibit microbial growth (smell). NASA proved this with numerous studies and it's what they outfit the space station astronauts in. I like Silvermax but there are other good ones.
Merino is also great but does nothing about the bacteria on your skin that produces the odor in the first place. My layers are poly silver base with a merino pullover over that.
Don't try lavilin. I tried the cream. I stank worse and I tried it for the entire container. I wanted it to work but was as about as disappointed in it as I could be. Like others said work out more, move slower, wear merino, then just forget about it because a deer will smell you and not your sweat. On another note I like arm and hammer deodorant.
I do like Lou does. Merino does not transfer water like polyester based material. So, wear the polyester next to the skin, then merino over that. Get on eBay and buy some of the polyester base layers. They are light and thin. And, they dry very quickly. I've been just dressing over it instead of changing out. I'm dry in 30 minutes after getting my clothes over top.
Sport, I suffer from the same thing. Unless you've been here and done it, it's hard for people to understand exactly how steep and rugged the coal fields of WV are. The word steep is lacking. When slopes average between 70-80% and, you gotta climb 1200 feet in elevation, it can't be understood until you do it. There is not a slow enough gear to keep from getting hot. Heck, coming down repelling from tree to tree will get you soaked. There is no shape in the world in a humid environment that will stop it. It just happens.
For perspective on this, Before cancer severely took my health, I did absolutely nothing getting physically ready to elk hunt CO. Cruising timber everyday in southern WV made elk hunting the Rockies look like a cake walk. Last time out I carried a bone in front shoulder, bone in rear quarter, and a back strap a touch over two miles and 2000 feet of elevation in 1 hour 37 minutes. It was tough. But, if I'd done that in southern WV I'd summitted three mountains. There is no rougher, steeper terrain in the world where you hunt non goat species, than Mingo County WV. That why these bucks get so BIG. God Bless
Double post. Weird stuff too
Drive your ATV right up to the stand and put a camo cover over it:)
Agree with what has been said about playing the wind being critical.
Sitka baselayers will solve all your issues. With the polygene technology incorporated into their baselayers no more stink.
This morning was 75 and humid as he'll. Did a hang and hunt and was pretty lathered. By the time I was situated my baselayer shirt was virtually dry. I have found nothing dries faster.
Alternated between two shirts last month in the mountains for nineteen days. The only time they got washed is when they got rained on. Never did get stinky.
"There is no rougher, steeper terrain in the world where you hunt non goat species, than Mingo County WV. That why these bucks get so BIG. God Bless"
-Never been in Mingo Co. but I hunt Highland, VA (on the WV line). Steep. For you western guys, the footing near the top is like a shale field completely covered in hardwood leaves...with Mt. Laurel thrown in for plain evilness. Horrible. I did a 3-4 mile bear chase there last year and I thought I was going to snap a femur or die.
I tell anyone who is concerned about personal hygiene and scent detection to go coon or squirrel hunting with a decent dog. Once you see Ole' Yeller nail a few lay-ups, your perspective will change and you'll free up some bandwidth for things about which you can actually affect.
Funny, Sitka's new Polygiene odor-reducing technology is nothing more than recycled silver chloride in the fabric. You can read all about it on the Polygiene website. So you can buy Sitka poly base layers with silver and pay for the brand, or the same thing that is isn't branded Sitka for half the price or less at Cabelas, Sierra Trading Post, etc..
I got my last set of silver-poly long sleeve top and bottom base layers at Sierra Trading Post for roughly the price of a Sitka T shirt.
Glad to see Sitka finally discovered science for odor control, LOL!
Double post for some reason? Dang "smart" phones!
Your right Mountaineer, the hunting is tough. I've never been fortunate enough to get to hunt out west but I suspect it's similar in the physical exertion. I've tried to slow to a crawl and that simply doesn't work. I appreciate the heads up on the silver poly and Marino wool. I knew you guys would have some answers :) I wish I could do that Habitat, too steep and no trails.
Chlorophyll capsules. Not 100% but what is? They DEFINITELY reduce BO stink.
"Don't try lavilin. I tried the cream. I stank worse and I tried it for the entire container. "
You may be the only one - love that stuff for mulitday hunts.
Woods Walker, not to derail the thread, but what does chlorophyll do to inhibit the gas produced by the bacteria on the outside of our skin? I've never been able to find anything scientific to indicate that chlorophyl does anything besides make poop green and maybe make the inside of your mouth raw.
I knew a guy once who claimed his diet eliminated body odor. Maybe to him. To everyone else he was a major "whew!".
I know a guy that would go vegetarian a couple weeks before season so he stopped smelling like a predator. I prefer to eat a big ol' ribeye and sit downwind.
The guys above have talked all around it, but the bottom line is that your base layer (long johns) function is not to keep you warm, it is to TRANSFER SWEAT from your skin to the outer layers of your clothes to dry. So get one of ones mentioned above IN LIGHT thickness and it should help a lot.
I've tried that vegetarian thing many times without great success. I figure the deer I'm eating have only been eating plants... vegetarian.
Hey Jaq, I'm just relating my personal experience with it, and it DOES work. And I didn't post that to "derail" anything. Just to suggest. Turning this into a chlorophyll debate would be derailing it.
Ok, fair enough. Bet it doesn't work as well as Nose Jammer and silver impregnated base layers... :-)
BTW, I tried chlorophyl for a season and didn't notice any effect one way or the other, except interesting poop.
Go too a doctor and ask them. Could be a medical condition. I had a pituatary tumor and it caused me too sweat profusely. I went through the 6 hour surgery to have it removed(not just because of the sweating) and it really helped with the sweating and a lot of other issues I was having. Shawn
Shawn mentions something I was going to bring up last week, a medical issue. Hypothyroidism runs in my family and it causes me to sweat a lot. Meds keep it in check.
