This is the second installment in my mini-series on crazy stuff I have done to beat a buck's nose.  If you find this entertaining or somehow educational, you may wish to go back to yesterday's blog for a similar discussion on ground blinds.

It is pretty cool when you can completely fool a deer's nose.  I don't mean cause concern but not panic.  I mean a system that keeps deer from smelling anything human. That is possible with a ground blind if you afix clear plastic wrap to the inside of the windows.  It is amazing how well that works.  However, I decided I still loved to be in a tree.  I just like being up there with the visibility it affords.  I can't think of a better place to view the world than from a tree stand.  So, even though my blind experiments with scent containment had gone well, I decided to step it up a notch and try to find a system I could wear in a tree that did the same thing.

What I came up with was a set of PVC waders from Cabela's (their Three Forks model) and a PVC rain jacket with a hood. 

I tucked the rain jacket inside the waders and then duct taped the seam where they overlapped so no odor could escape here.  Next, I put up the hood, tied it tightly under my chin and duct taped the neck opening closed so no odor could get out there either. 

Finally, I wore latex gloves to keep odor from leaving my hands.

Before wearing this system I let it lay in the sun for several days as I flipped it and rolled it around so most of the volatile molecules from the PVC would evaporate before I headed to hunt. 

Let me just say this, it worked shockingly well.  I don't think I ever got winded in that set up even from deer less than 40 yards away.  I wore it for an entire season starting in Alberta in September ending in Iowa in January.

The fact that it worked is undisputable in my mind, but it was nearly as uncomfortable as the ground blind experiment had been - only now I was at least portable. 

If you have ever tried to climb into a tree stand wearing chest waders you know what I'm talking about.  Now do it about 60 times.  What about moving stands?  Totally a pain.  I started carrying my regular boots with me in a small PVC bag and would use them to move stands and put them back in the PVC bag and bury it at the base of the tree. 

The real problems came on warm and cold days.  On warm days I literally sweated a gallon of water.  One evening in Alberta it got up near 90 and I was sitting in the sun in that rig for several hours.  I am certain it shortened my life.  Good thing I was young because I am pretty sure an older person would suffer heat stroke - seriously!  When I got back to the truck that night, I literally wrung the sweat from my pants and undershirt and poured it out of my waders!  That's right, I could pour sweat out of the boots!

Then on cold days, the system was just as bad because it wasn't big enough to fit much clothes underneath and the boots in particular - not being insulated - were miserable.  I wore boot blankets to combat the frost-bite that I would otherwise have surely suffered in my toes. 

Yes it worked and it was half-way worth it.  I would recommend a similar system to someone hunting just the right setup where he was willing to forego comfort for a few days in order to be where he needed to be.  But, the discomfort and inconvenience of such a system wasn't wearing it for a whole season.  I guess I wouldn't do that again.  But I did it once, and I learned alot.  Regardless of what people say, if you go to extremes, you can beat a deer's nose.