Taking a shower will not hurt,If there are any cedar or pine that you can break off and rub on you or carry into the stand,it will help mask your scent.The pipe smoke is different it's something the is not natural to there habitat.You want to fit in any of the natural aromics,cedar ,pine,wild mints,whatever is in your area anything they can connect to humans stay away from.

By Jove I think you've got it! as they say across the pond. The gear companies need to keep coming up with new gear so they can stay in business and the magazines and TV shows that need their advertizing must convince us that we need all that new gear. But the truth is what you have already discovered. The $200 hunting outfit won't get anymore deer hanging than some hunter orange over the clothes you already have on. .270 Win. has killed more deer than .270 WSM and they perform about the same. Spend your money on hunts instead of new hunting gear.

Deer smell people like we do you can smell them if they didn't put on any deodorant on and you can smell um if they don't put anything on. The cheapest thing to do is just take a shower without any scented stuff. never had a deer bust me from smell.... So it must work.

my grand father about 27 years ago always cut cedar branchs off the trees and put into a bag with the cloths he was going to hunt with it worked for him bow hunting .i had forgotten about it untill i read this post thanks guys

I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that our forefathers didn't have all the "modern conveniences" available to us today so they had to become proficient with what they had, and did so very well. However, if all our toys of today had been available to them, I'm sure they would have taken advantage of them. Point being, concentrate on the basics, woodsmanship, marksmanship, etc, use those old basics like the cedar branches, and as your skills develop and you see a use for a new and improved widget, then try that too. Good hunting!

Personaly as far as clothing goes Im not into anything fancy like scent lock but I do spend alittle money on the soap (clothing and body) and the deoderant. thats about it though. I've always used it and it costs me less that 10 dollars a year so I dont figure its going to break the bank and i'd rather be safe than sorry.

I have been touring the West and hunting and fishing everywhere I go. Everywhere I go, they say, "You should have been here in the '60's.

I am terribly old fashioned when hunting. I wear the mandatory orange safety gear and abide by all applicable laws of course, but I don't buy into all the modern gadgets. I also smoke a pipe when hunting and I normaly wear subdued clothing, perhaps my old Army BDU pants and a very warm coat, but nothing fancy. I've had deer come right to me to investigate the pipe smoke, at which time I promptly dropped them. I hunt using basic skills and I have been very succesful at it. I like simple and effective firearms without the "bling". So my answer is no, you don't need all the gadgets, but you can use them if you want, after all it's YOUR hunt.