The Minnesota Star Tribune carried a story on September 23, 2007 about five Minnesotan hunters that filed a lawsuit against Scent-Lok the manufacturer of “Scent-Lok” and “ScentBlocker” among other carbon lined clothing lines. The Plaintiffs also filed lawsuits against Cabela’s, Bass-Pro Shops, Gander Mountain and Browning. The afore mentioned retailers sell Scent-Lok and Scent Blocker clothing which the Plaintiffs claim has duped hunters out of millions of dollars with false advertising. I am not going to bore you here with all the details about this case, you can read all about it by some of my fellow outdoor bloggers. In fact I didn’t want to cover this story at all but then I read the court documents(pdf file) and thought that I would voice my opinion on this issue because I start to smell BS. The story has been extensively covered by my friend Bryan on the deerPhD, here, here, here and here. There is more of it on the blogs of The Newshound, Skinny Moose Media, Black Bear Blog and Scent Lok Science.To me it looks like that these Minnesotan hunters are either on a get-rich-quick-scheme, it would not be the first time that folks sue large companies to better their finances and sadly it would not be the last time either. Or they are fools and fell for an advertising gimmick and are now upset because the big bucks didn’t jump in their lap.
Read the court documents, and I am sure you will agree with me that something stinks. I get very leery when I read phrases like “on behalf of all American hunters”.
Here is my opinion and why I feel so strongly about this scam these Minnesotan hunters stage. First it’s all about common sense. Plain good old common sense tells me that there is no such thing as 100% human scent elimination, regardless what any advertising might claim. Just as there is no deer call or buck lure that causes monster bucks falling over themselves as they come running in to your stand location.
I have been using a Scent-Lok suit for over ten years now and it works. While I am no scientist I have my observations to back it up. Since I wear a Scent-Lok suit deer sightings have improved considerably. Do I think that the Scent-Lok suit is the magic hunters have been praying for? Absolutely not! Despite wearing a Scent-Lok suit I still take my regular precautions to stay as scent free as humanly possible. My hunting day starts with a shower and once on my hunting site I change into a freshly laundered set of under and outer garments. With all these procedures I am still very vigilant of wind direction and air current. If the wind is not right for a stand location I wont hunt it regardless how many deer move by that stand.
Here is what I think the Scent-Lok suit does, it lessens the human odor and thus fools a the deer to think that I am still a mile away when in fact I am sitting right over them. Did I buy the Scent-Lok suit because I believed what the advertising said it does? I am going to let you in on a secret here. I truly believe that only fools believe in advertising. Yet advertising is very important, it sells products and that keeps the hunting economy alive. A healthy and strong hunter economy is important to sustain our hunting rights and future.
I sincerely hope that this lawsuit is thrown out by the judge. Should the Plaintiffs win this court case it would open the floodgates for other such frivolous lawsuits against hunting companies. To me that whole mess looks a bit like the stunt Oprah Winfrey pulled on the Texas cattle rangers when she took them to court just because she doesn’t approve of eating hamburgers and steaks.
Tags: Scent-Lok, lawsuit, Scent Control, Gander Mountain, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Browning
3 comments:
Othmar,
You have a very interesting point of view, and I enjoyed reading this post. (Thanks for mentioning my site!) I suppose the irony is that it's a class-action suit, so there's really no way that the plaintiffs can get rich...just money back. The real beneficiaries will be the lawyers (not surprising I suppose).
I totally agree with everything you said Othmar. I would hate to see this lawsuit actually go through. It would just open the door to more lawsuits against hunting companies.
I just purchased my Scent-Lok suit this season and I know it works. I was hunting a river bottom opening day and the winds started to swirl as a few deer came by at 15 yards. The deer never thought twice about taking their next step. Carbon is used in so many areas for odor neutralization and this case is just ridiculous. If these guys actually read anything about activated carbon clothing they would realize that this is not supposed to 100% eliminate human odor as nothing does! It is to be used in conjunction with other scent elimination methods, and as you said, used to make the deer think you are a mile away rather than 15 yards away.
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