With so many different opinions on the matter it will come as no surprise to find out I too have an idea or two on the subject.

Scent control and the game animals reaction to it has been a subject of considerable research of mine. So over the years I have developed different scent control scenarios for different animals. This is vital since many animals react differently to scent. For example, if you hunt deer over a bait pile and choose to refresh that pile every other day, you will only succeed in making sure no animal ever visits that site or does so only under the protection of dark. No matter how careful you are dead skins cells (called loft) fall to the ground in the surrounding area. These carry with them oils from your skin which emit odor. After so many visits the amount of loft has built up enough to create enough odors to discourage any but the dumbest whitetail from approaching your site. This is why all veteran whitetail hunters regard the 1^st time at a site to be your only true Golden Time" Miss your chance then and the next visit and the next will have left enough loft under your stand that every deer within a  mile knows that area is dangerous. Study with canines has shown that while boots and gloves and hats and various other methods can reduce loft, nothing can prevent it from totally occurring.

Of course this is discouraging news for the deer hunter, but not necessarily so for the Bear hunter. This is not to imply that black bears do not have a keen olfactory ability. Quite the opposite. Bears use their nose every bit as often for basic survival, food gathering, alerts to danger, breeding, direction of travel etc.. The difference is that a bear is not necessarily viewing itself as a timid woodland prey. So when it approaches an area it will have a slightly different mindset. He will approach with concern, but not fear.

Every bear hunting guide I have talked with confirms that when they keep bait active with tasty morsels they do not have the practical ability to run all their bait sites and maintain an odor free status. Yet bear frequent these sites day after day. Many times multiple bear are hitting a bait site that must be carrying volumes of dead skin cells from the guide and branches into and out of the site are teaming with oiling fingerprints on them. Their boots carry odors from the truck used to drive from site to site and carry odor from other competing bait sites. In fact the dirt picked up from one site and deposited at another may very well carry the scent of other bears.

What's the key point in this example? Merely that black bear when accustom to an odor will come into the area unless you have given them reason to be shy of it. Reasons to be shy of coming into a site filled with tasty food can be many. It may be anything from encountering the guide or hunter unexpectedly to actually being shot at.

So how can we use this information to benefit us in our black bear hunting? Well primarily it can be of use to the hunter if he is doing the baiting himself as opposed to hunting with a guide.

From the beginning of the process of establishing the bait site, you can begin to condition the bear to your scent. In very simple terms, if the bear wants the food then he will have to get used to your smell.

Let's cover a few steps I take when preparing a bait site. In another article we will cover how to find the location for the site, what bait to use etc... For the sake of this article let's assume you have done your homework and now have a suitable location to begin drawing in and conditioning your black bear. Let's also skip over any particular technique for baiting, which again is fodder for another day.

So at this point we fast forward to the act of setting up and maintaining the bait site.

I take no special concerns to be scent free or keep scent from spilling to the ground or surrounding area. I do were rubber boots, but mostly because were I would choose to hunt a bear cannot be approached without wading through some watery regions. I do wear rubber gloves, but only because I don't want to get my hands smelly. Of course this doesn't mean doing anything that would aggravate a bear either. Leaving your scent in an area to get a bear used to it does not mean you have carte blanche to urinate or any other offensive gesture.

Aside from one critical point I will cover in a moment, you merely get into the region, establish or fill the bait site and get out. You want the bear to get used to a normal visit to the site and to let them associate a normal amount of your odor with the fresh arrival of food. Linger too long at the site and the bear may feel he has to wait hours before he is safe to enter the area. Let him get used to your BRIEF visits.

The one exception to this rule of drop your bait and get out is to bring a camouflage T Shirt with you . Hang this shirt from a clothes hanger off a branch in your tree stand. then hang a shirt you have worn and sweated in somewhere at or near ground level. In addition a hat you have worn also works well.

Jacket positioned in tree to resemble a hunter

In the last two years I have modified this method to the point were I feel it is as good as it gets. Originally I would hang a shirt in the tree stand that had been worn by me. This got the bear used to my smell and the bulk of something within the tree itself. This method worked well enough except that while the bear would be accustomed to me and my odor they would also be aware of its presence and its association to possible danger the human odor brings with it. While hunting from these sites, I  noticed the bear would make a point of looking at the tree stand. The bear was unspooked at the site of me, having become use to something in the tree. However, I wasn't comfortable with the attention. Theorizing that it was not form form in the tree that caused it to routinely check the stand but rather the smell associated with it I made adjustments to this method.  The last two years I have used a modified form of this technique. I still put a coat or shirt in the tree to get the bear use to a form in the stand but the difference is the garment is scent free. It became clear the bear was always going to make a check of the garment if it carried any odor that could be a threat. So now I put a well worn and smelly shirt at ground level. This forces the bear to get used to my scent but does not draw its attention to the tree stand each time. Once the bear has become accustomed to the shape in the tree it does not seem to pay attention any longer to it. Instead it immediately walks over to the shirt or hat that was left behind from the last baiting run and gives it a sniff then gets back to the business of feeding. The key point to remember is that a bear can get use to your smell at the stand but will always make a routine check of its freshness. It may be accustomed to the odor you leave but never will it not associate it with the potential for trouble. So now we leave the shirt in a spot the bear can easily satisfy it need to be safe. Once done the bear is as much at ease as can be expected.

When hanging the scent free shirt in your stand, hang it on a hanger in full view right were you would be sitting on the tree stand. A method I use is to hang a camouflaged rain umbrella in the tree and hang the shirt from the support rod that screws into the tree. This way the shirt is in the approximate position the hunter would be in. In addition you also have the bear used to the umbrella as well. This way if the weather turns sours while you are hunting you have the means to stay dry.

Why is leaving a form in the tree stand and your scent behind important as opposed to perhaps trying to always reduce any scent you leave when coming and going?

Hat and T-Shirt worn while baiting are left near ground level and by bait to force the bear to get used to my odor. It is important to put the shirt in a place that wont cause the bear to focus on you while it gives it a cursory once over.

As mentioned earlier, you want the bear to acclimate themselves to your natural odor long after you have gone. Your fresh odor you leave naturally by just entering the site certainly help to make a bear know you and know your presence does not necessarily mean danger.. However, after you leave your deposited scent will start to fade. Your lingering scent from the shirt will stay around the area and force them to get used to it. This is vital, because otherwise the bear may simply choose to wait out the site until your smell is no longer strong. The shirt assures us that your odor will linger in the area far longer than the bear is willing to wait. Then when the bear does work up the courage to visit the site, he comes and goes without anything having happened to cause him to be fearful.

Research from University of California, Berkeley clearly shows that an unfamiliar scent can be made to be associated with an accompanied scent. Then when you remove the initial scent, the animal will react to each separate scent in the same manner. So I simply give my unique scent as a person to the bear in association with fresh bait. Then I can introduce it later on its own and the association is not as adverse as it would be if I tried to always keep my scent under control. Now it does bear mentioning that while your scent may be unique, it still smells like a person. As such your smell will constitute a certain amount of caution on the bear's part. Which is why we keep the shirt in place. It forces the bear to have to put up with the smell if he wants the food. After days of feeding in the presence of your odor and nothing bad happening he loses a certain amount of his natural caution to your scent.

A word about the shirt you hang up. Choose something you don't mind losing. The first time you return to the bait site the T-Shirt will be ripped up a bit. In every instance I have done this, I have had the first shirt in the tree stand torn up by a bear who was checking the smell and object out. Once they get that out of the way, they quickly get used to the object in the tree and only give it a cursory look.

The Second important point was hanging the shirt in full view. This simply gets them used to seeing some form or bulk in the tree. Bear may not be known for their keen eye sight but you better believe it is at least as good as a human. Which means at 20 yards a bear will easily recognize a form in the tree when every other day there was none.

More than once I have had bear not even give the tree I sat in a second glance, because I simply replaced the T-shirt in the tree with myself. As far as the bear was concerned I looked the same.

You might assume that my semi careless regard for odor would carry through to the actual day of the hunt. Nothing could be further from the truth. As regards to personal hygiene and odor control I go way beyond fanatical. Look at it this way. All along we get the bear accustomed to some amount of odor in the area. We do nothing to make the bear associate it with fear, only food. Now as I enter the site for the actual hunt. I can assume that any odor I was unable to eliminate will be far less than is normally occurring at the site on any given day. At this point you hopefully see the method to my madness. It is no different in theory to when a game caller suddenly lowers the volume of his calling to make the predator believe they are yet far away. If I reduce my odor to as close to nothing as possible then there is no way he should be able to discern my presence. Experience has born this out to be true.

It is unbelievably important to also know that science shows that once a adverse reaction is associated with any scent, then forever the reaction will be adverse to the formerly reaction free smell.

As an example, the previously mentioned study wired rabbits to monitor brain waves in order to judge base reactions to smell. In the study rabbits were given certain smells that they knew would have a positive association, smells that should be unassociated with good or bad reactions and smells that would trigger an alarmed reaction.

This particular study noted that clover had a typical and expected reaction in the rabbits; The odor of bananas had no reaction. Then they coupled the two and the rabbit learned to associate Banana with clover. So when the clover was removed the rabbit's brain waves show a similar pattern to bananas as it would had then smell been clover. Now the part to be concerned with is when they introduced the smell of a fox. The reaction was as you would expect. The rabbit acted with fear. But then they gave the rabbit the smell of bananas along with the fox smell, the rabbit's reaction to the banana was forever changed to be that of a fear reaction. No longer could they get a positive or even the neutral reaction from the rabbit with the smell of banana. It stayed that way forever. The moral of the story? You can ruin all the effort I just mention about your smell and the association of it to the woods and surrounding area and the bait site by just one negative association.

This means that if you fill your bait while the bear is likely to be visiting it and blunder into him and startled it, your chance to take the bear you will have reduced. Because forever engrained in that bears mind the association of you, that site and the food you use. All these items now have a negative association attached to them. He associates fear or at least caution with your smell and the odors you bring in.

Naturally if you just run the bear off, he may not have felt a true fear. Only perhaps an alarm that will make him more cautious (and nocturnal) but if you in any way brought a true fear or really startled the bear you may never see that particular animal again. Even the slightest hint of your odor will be enough to make the bruin circumvent your area. Regardless if you use this method or any other, the nature of the matter is that the bear will associate your odor with concern. This is so even if you try to approach a site with total scent control. Simply put you can reduce your scent, but not enough that it is eliminated. Some scent for negative association will remain. Unless you are wrapped up in an airtight space suit, you will leave behind some evidence of your presence. A bear's ability to smell is so acute he will have no trouble finding your odor and placing it and the concern he feels together in the same synapse brain pathway.

Science Clearly shows us that patterning an animal to respond to smell is possible and done carefully it can be a tremendous aid to bear hunting. However, it also shows us the risk we take in discouraging the bear from using our sites by our careless conduct while in their territory.

This technique is best used when doing the baiting yourself. This is so because the bears need a few days before they will come into a site that has been set up. Then they need a few more days to get over any concern they might have. This is the time period they are training themselves to get used to your odor. It can take weeks before a bear is fully adjusted to your smell.

You may have noticed that 3 to 4 days are needed for the bear to come into your site when you bait it. This is because often times your scent dissipated over the past days and now that you revisited the site they are getting used to your renewed fresh scent all over again. This can be a big problem for hunters who have maintained a active bait prior to season. Then the take a long weekend to hunt and the bear does not show. Why? Because your renewed scent is going to need another 3 to 4 days for them to get used to again. Now imagine if you actually try to keep your scent to a minimum. It will fade even quicker from the site. The bear will indeed come in sooner. Then when you return, he will have had very little scent to get accustomed to. The strength at the site fades then gets stronger with your return, then fades then gets stronger, every time you bait you renew your scent, then you and your scent leave. Then next weekend you come back and start the process all over again. This is why guides bait every 3 days or less. That way the bear have to get used to a certain constant level of scent all the time. This is why I put the T-shirt and hat at each bait site. Make sure that every time you come back to the bait you replace the old shirt and hat with a new freshly worn shirt, This make certain a high level of odor is always presnt. The the hat is becoming much more imporant in my scent method. A hat with oils from your hair will hold and oil and produce the smell far longer than just a shirt that was worn while sweating.  Another finer point is to put your shirt and hat in the shade and ideally under a canpy of leave of some sort. UV light will eventually decay the oils and bacteria you left behind in your clothes. Rain will wash your skin loft from your shirt into the ground where bacteria will consume and breakdown the odor. But the umbrella protection from leave or overhanging branches in the shade will protect your shirt  from the direct light and rain will preserves your scent until you can next visit your bait site to renew the food and your odor. Your odor never completely fades from the bait site. This is absolutely vital, your scent must never completely fade from the site.

So when the day arrives that you plan to hunt, any scent you unwittingly bring into the woods with you, will not be of great concern. In fact if you keep your scent is under strict control the bear may not be aware that you are there at all. He is used to far more scent than your happen to bring in the actual day of the hunt.

This patterning technique is much less useful when hunting with a guide. Since it is his scent and not yours the bear is used to week after week. The process can be modified though to be of some use.

Every bear guide I have spoke with mentioned that the hunter should not be upset if he does not see a bear for the first three days. This is for the reason we mentioned before. The bear smell a new person around and need that time to get used to the new presence. You can shorten the process by a day or two by having your guide take you to the site you will be hunting as soon as you arrive in camp, then place a hat or shirt near the stand you will be hunting from. This way for 24 hours straight the bear will get a head start on getting acquainted with your smell. Every time I have done this I have seen bear one to two days earlier than the other hunters. They routinely started to report sightings after the third evening while by the first or second I usually have bear activity. The non threatening smell at the site non stop for a day or more the bear has longer to get over any initial concern.

You can make a strong argument for not introducing any scent at all in a guided hunt situation since the bear may never have enough time to get comfortable with your odor. Remember I always advocate super strict standards for the hunt itself. However, even then you CANNOT eliminate all odor or evidence of your presence. The bear will to some degree know you were there even if it isn't until later when he investigate the area and comes across some minor odor. At this point, the whole prices of getting the bear used to you has to be started now. I only submit that if one way or the other he will have some idea of your presence then why not control the matter and do it early on and in a time frame where the bear feels no fear. Your smell is there but you are not and so each time he arrives and smelled you he also left unmolested. In this case it all comes down to if you really feel your body scent id truly under control and the bear will be bagged before he does smell what little scent you have left. In this matter it truly is a judgment call only you can make. Whatever the issue you need to be confident enough in your self to stay on stand. If you lose faith in any method it won't matter because you will have talked yourself into leaving for camp long before the bear shows up anyway.

I might also add that while you may put your scent were you will be hunting from, you should in my opinion let your guide continue to bait your site and you stay away from the bait station itself. You won't be there long enough for the bear to learn an association with the food so why pollute the scene any more than usual. If you must bait it yourself then take every precaution to keep yourself and the bait area scent free.

Only let your scent dominates the bait area if you plan to start and maintain the bait site as your own. This would preclude a guided hunt where at best you have a week.

In future articles I will discuss the methods I use to become as scent free as possible. Then I will shatter some myths about what people think works and share some scientific ideas about how to get scent free and stay that way as long as possible.

Reference to article: From: February 1991 Scientific American, Vol. 264, (2) Pgs. 78-85.