In the past 10 years or so, there has been a large push from various hunting companies to offer some sort of ozone-based product. Whether it plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter, is incorporated with a duffle bag or tote, or it goes with you in the field, these products seem to be everywhere. Hunting shows push them like crazy, but they get paid to push product so how can you be sure they do what they claim?

First, let’s look at what ozone is. Ozone (O3) is the compound name for three oxygen molecules that are bonded together. It is formed by splitting a pair of bonded oxygen molecules (O2) and the resulting single oxygens want to bond to something so they attach to a pair of bonded oxygen molecules creating two ozone molecules. This new compound is a powerful oxidant that can destroy bacteria. When I was a student at SUNY Cobleskill, the fish hatchery on campus used an ozone generator to sterilize water coming into the hatchery before letting it get distributed to the tanks.

Since most human odor is produced by bacteria consuming sweat, the science of ozone would imply a scent-free hunter. The downside is that ozone can be harmful to human health so you can’t walk into an ozone chamber, wait a few minutes for the bacteria to die, and walk out. Ozone can make is difficult to breath and can result in bad headaches. Therefore, there are so many ozone products out there so they can come in and hit at points of the process where they can’t harm you.

Clothing and gear treatment is a great way to eliminate any bacteria that could potentially cause odor later in the hunt once they come in contact with your skin. Popular options for doing this include duffle bags or totes with ozone generators built in to them. One company even offers portable closets so you can hang your clothes to make sure ozone gets to everything. Something to remember is that the powerful oxidation factor of ozone that makes it good at killing bacteria also makes it harmful to some equipment. One example is elastic. Prolonged ozone exposure caused elastic to lose its flexibility and become brittle. To avoid the issues of overexposure, only run the ozone generator for an hour. Then let the stuff sit for at least the same amount of time with the generator off before you open the container.

As with any scent control program, the odor from the interior of your vehicle can get absorbed into your clothing if you wear your hunting clothes on the ride to your hunting location. You can buy ozone generators that plug into the 12-volt plug (the cigarette lighter) to cut down on the odor. Ozone is commonly used at dealerships to remove smoke and other odors when detailing a car for a customer or to prepare a used car for the sales lot. Due to the same reasoning as clothing overexposure, you only want to run the generator for up to two hours at a time to prevent damage to the interior of your vehicle. Make sure to let it sit without the generator running for some time before driving as the high ozone concentration could affect you.

During the hunt, you could use a battery-powered ozone generator whether you are hunting from a treestand or on the ground. The constant flow of ozone molecules will follow the wind and create a scent-free zone that will let deer walk downwind of your location and not smell you. Just be prepared for batteries to die mid-hunt because it always seems to work out that way.

While some of the ozone generators do cost a fair amount of money, the increase in the companies offering ozone units has caused the prices to come down from what they were a few years ago. If you want to save some money and like to tinker with things, you can build your own ozone tote by buying an ozone generator separately and rigging it to pump the ozone into a tote.