Ozonics/Ozone generator and clothing in the treestand

[ajkelley]

Hey everyone,

First time posting here and hoping to get some input from folks.

I've been looking at picking up an ozone generator for use in the treestand but I've also been reading about how it can degrade gear/clothing and wanted to see what the up to date information on this topic was (most posts are several years old). I understand that in a high concentration ozone can degrade rubber and elastic but most of the posts discussing this are mainly discussing putting gear into an ozone bag but not from the point of view of using the device in a treestand. If you have used ozonics, or one of the other ozone generators, in a treestand have you noticed any impact on your gear?

Also, it appears that Sitka made changes to their gear a couple of years ago to make it more compatible with ozone and to not be impacted. Does anyone have experience with the latest gear from Sitka or other brands and if ozone is causing issues for it?

Thanks!

 

[spike camp]

Ozone won’t degrade elastic or rubber, while in a tree.
It has that affect on those materials while in ozone closets, but not in an open air environment.

To that end, ozone in an open air environment, will have no impact in relation to your ability to destroy the gasses and bacteria you’re emitting to any appreciable degree, so that it would impact your success.

 

[ajkelley]

Thanks spike camp! That was what I was thinking since it wasnt concentrated and also wouldnt have direct contact with those areas necessarily.

 

[Blearning13]

I would suggest saving your money and learning how to play the wind. Milkweed is free and will actually teach you about what the wind is doing instead of wasting money trying to fool a deer's nose.

 

[Honyock]

I would suggest saving your money and learning how to play the wind. Milkweed is free and will actually teach you about what the wind is doing instead of wasting money trying to fool a deer's nose.

^^^What he said. Buy a $4 bottle of wind checker and learn to hunt the wind. If the scent free things worked, every drug cartel would be using it. IMHO the biggest mistake a lot of new hunters make, is thinking the scent free spray etc. will let you hunt when the wind is at your back.

 

[signing off]

^^^What he said. Buy a $4 bottle of wind checker and learn to hunt the wind. If the scent free things worked, every drug cartel would be using it. IMHO the biggest mistake a lot of new hunters make, is thinking the scent free spray etc. will let you hunt when the wind is at your back.

I would suggest saving your money and learning how to play the wind. Milkweed is free and will actually teach you about what the wind is doing instead of wasting money trying to fool a deer's nose.

The milkweed for the win.
It is visible and drifting on wind/thermals many many feet away from your position.

I had a buck approaching my tree stand and without any other tool but milkweed, I knew the shot would not happen. At the approximate location I expected him to scent me, he did.
But it was a success because I KNEW. I knew where my scent was. And that is all anyone could ask for.

 

[dtrkyman]

Ozone is the only scent control measure I have seen work, yes it is limited in an open air environment but I have absolutely seen it work.

I have never hunted in a hard side blind but guy's I managed land for did religiously and I watched from a distance while they had deer 360, open one window so you are not breathing ozone all day and aim the machine out that window, insanely effective.

Works really well in a ground blind also.

We had an Ozone changing room with a generator running 24/7, that combined with Ozonics in the field drastically reduced us getting busted.

FYI I have never owned an Ozonics, just used their old units, am the biggest skeptic of scent control products ever, after trying everything over 30 years and none of it working I was shocked at how well ozone works.

 

[Thess87]

Ozone is the only scent control measure I have seen work, yes it is limited in an open air environment but I have absolutely seen it work.

I have never hunted in a hard side blind but guy's I managed land for did religiously and I watched from a distance while they had deer 360, open one window so you are not breathing ozone all day and aim the machine out that window, insanely effective.

Works really well in a ground blind also.

We had an Ozone changing room with a generator running 24/7, that combined with Ozonics in the field drastically reduced us getting busted.

FYI I have never owned an Ozonics, just used their old units, am the biggest skeptic of scent control products ever, after trying everything over 30 years and none of it working I was shocked at how well ozone works.

Agree

 

[ajkelley]

Thanks everyone for the replies! Good to see the information from both sides.

While I agree that playing the wind is always first and foremost it is always good to look for improvements. I've hunted for over 20 years and I am still amazed at how some of your best laid plans can fail, but that is just how hunting goes.

As for the ozonics unit I didnt end up picking one up but my buddy did. Ill wait and see what his experience is this season and reevaluate afterwards.

 

[Long Cut]

I was always in the “Hunt the Wind” camp.

Spent thousands of hours over the course of several years in the stand, utilizing milkweed to check my wind. Almost every time I had a mature buck pegged down with the intel from trail cameras, scouting etc.. without fail, around “closing time” the thermals would shift in the direction I anticipated him to come from.

Fast forward to December of 2019, I bought a used Ozonics HR300 on the Archery Talk forums.

September of 2020 I was hunting private land over a feeder. I had groups of 10-20+ does, bucks etc hitting this feeder. It was the perfect environment to test if any form of “scent control” was going to work.

My access, wind etc to this stand overlooking the feeder should have been perfect…. But whenever a breeze kicked up, my scent would swirl around the feeder.

So the first 3 hours, I hunted in a tree stand without the Ozonics unit. Deer would come in to feed for a couple of minutes, the breeze would kick up and they’d all run off blowing and stomping.

After a while, I turned the Ozonics unit on the normal setting. Pointed at a 45 degree angle down over my head. The deer came back in to feed, the breeze would kick up and they’d all pick their heads up and look around for a second. After about 10-30 seconds the deer resumed feeding without a care in the world.

Around 8PM a very large, mature doe with 2 fawns came in. She was by far one of the largest doe I’ve ever seen. Immediately she was on edge and kept walking around. She blew a couple of times and ran off all of the other deer. Eventually she kept circling around the area, trying to figure out what the scent was. After probably 10-15 minutes of this, she walked to the base of my tree, then towards the feeder. She offered me a 7 yard shot and I took her.

Overall I lost count somewhere around 24 deer in that evening sit. All within a 20-40 yard range of me. Bucks, does, fawns etc.. Of all of those deer, only 1 very mature doe acted spooked with the Ozonics unit running.

I say all of this to say, based off of my experiences… I believe Ozonics to work. I have replicated the results time and time again. They’re all essentially the same as this one particular September evening.

 

[DangerRanger]

The best thing for scent reduction imo in tree stands is to go high as shit. You get 25+ feet up and you can smoke and kill deer