Blackout Before the Hunt: Unscented Skin Gear for Hunt Season
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Blackout Before the Hunt: Unscented Skin Gear for Hunt Season
Wiley Buck Company · La Grande, Oregon
A deer does not care what your bathroom smells like. It cares what you smell like when you step out of the truck. Hunt season in Oregon is a scent problem before it is a gear problem, and the last thing a lot of hunters put on their skin is the wrong one: a detergent body wash, a scented lotion, a beard oil that belongs at the bar and not on a ridge.
Wiley Buck Company makes skin gear in La Grande for that country. For the weeks you are actually hunting, the kit gets smaller. Blackout Hunter Soap to wash. Unscented Tallow Whip to seal. Everything with a scent story stays home.
No bar makes you invisible. A deer’s nose is still better than your kit. What a good unscented wash does is stop you from adding a second smell on top of the one you already have.
Why the shower is part of the hunt
Human scent is not one thing. It is sweat, bacteria on skin, the soap you used yesterday, the cologne that hung in the closet, the coffee on your hands, the diesel on your sleeve. Deer and elk live by sorting those smells. You cannot erase the animal you are. You can stop painting a fresh trail with Bay Rum.
Most body washes are built to foam and perfume. The foam is a detergent blend. The perfume is the point of the bottle. Both are a problem the morning you walk in. Detergent strips the skin barrier, so dry Eastern Oregon air cracks your hands and face by day two. Fragrance does not “cover” human scent. It adds a smell that does not belong on a ridge.
A cold-process tallow and lard bar takes the other trade. It cleans sweat, dirt, and camp grease. A 6% superfat leaves a cushion of oil so your face does not feel tight after you rinse. Glycerin stays in the bar. No essential oil. No cover scent. That is the wash we want in a hunting kit.
If you want the chemistry behind the bar, it is in Soap Making in La Grande, Oregon. This post is the field use.
What Blackout Hunter Soap actually is
Blackout Hunter Soap is a fragrance-free charcoal bar, about 5 ounces, handmade in small batches in La Grande. The fat base is the same family as the rest of the line: grass-fed beef tallow and pasture-raised lard, with coconut, olive, castor, sweet almond, and jojoba. Activated charcoal and black kaolin clay are in the bar. Vitamin E is in the bar. There is no fragrance and no essential oil.
Charcoal and kaolin are not magic. Activated charcoal is in the bar because it grabs odor. A charcoal particle is full of tiny pores, so sweat, skin oils, and the smell that rides on them stick to the surface instead of staying on you. In a soap, that is a useful job: the charcoal picks up the odor load while you wash, and the rinse carries it off the skin and down the drain. Black kaolin does the same kind of work, holding oils so they leave with the lather. It is not a cover scent and it does not make you disappear. It takes the smell off your body and sends it away with the water.
They are adsorbents. They hold oils, sweat, and odor compounds on their surface so more of that load rinses away instead of staying on your skin. That is a real job. It is not a promise that a bull elk will walk into your lap.
What the bar is for:
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Pre-hunt shower, the night before and the morning of, when you want zero fragrance interference.
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Post-hunt wash, when you are covered in sweat, dust, blood, and camp smoke and you still do not want a scented bar in the kit.
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A hard, long-lasting bar that survives a truck kit better than a bottle of body wash.
If Blackout is between batches, The Original is the plain unscented daily bar. Same fat base, no charcoal story. Use it the same way. Do not substitute a scented bar because it is what is on the sink.
The seal: unscented Tallow Whip, not a scented lotion
Washing is half the job. October air in Union County still pulls moisture out of skin, and a hunt week is cold mornings, wind, and hands on rifles, calls, and pack straps. If you strip the barrier and then put nothing back, your hands crack. If you put a scented lotion back, you undid the wash.
Unscented Wiley Buck Tallow Whip is the seal. Grass-fed beef tallow, golden organic jojoba, a little beeswax, arrowroot, vitamin E. The unscented jar has no essential oil and no fragrance. Scoop a small amount, warm it between your palms, and put it on face, hands, and any spot the wind has already split. It absorbs in a minute or two. Wipe your palms before you touch a scope or a call.
Leave the other whip scents at home for the duration. Bay Rum, Bourbon Cream, Buckskin Woods, Citrus Chill, Birch, and Black Oakmoss are good barside. They are not good on a sit. Same rule for Ultra Light Beard Oil and the mustache wax if those bottles are scented. A drop of fragrance under a beard is still a smell on your face.
The everyday stack — wash, whip, oil, wax — is in Skin Gear for the Rugged Life. Hunt week is the short version of that stack.
The three-thing pack list
You do not need a shelf in the truck. You need three decisions made before you leave the house.
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Blackout Hunter Soap in a tin or a sock, not loose against your gear. Wash the night before and the morning of. Rinse well. Do not stand under hot water until your skin is cooked.
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Unscented Tallow Whip. Small scoop on damp skin: face, hands, knuckles. Skip it on palms if you are about to handle calls, optics, or a bow release, or wipe after.
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Nothing scented. No beard oil with fragrance. No mustache wax. No body spray. No “cover” scent. If your beard itches, use a rice-grain of the unscented whip on the skin under it, not a scented oil.
That is the kit. Bar, unscented whip, and the discipline to leave the good-smelling stuff in the cabinet until the tag is filled or the season closes.
What to leave at home
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Scented Wiley Buck bars. High Desert Sage, Dark Cowboy Brew, Bay Rum, and the rest are daily skin gear. They are not hunt-week soap.
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Scented Tallow Whip, Ultra Light Beard Oil, and Mustache & Beard Wax. Beeswax hold is useful in town. It is a smell on your face in the field if the tin is fragranced.
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Detergent body wash and aftershave. Foam is not cleanliness. Perfume is not scent control.
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Fabric softener on the layers you hunt in. The soap cannot undo a shirt that was dried with scent beads.
Store the hunting bar away from the scented bars at home. Charcoal adsorbs. A Blackout bar sitting in a drawer with Bay Rum will pick up the neighbor.
A simple night-before and morning-of
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Night before: shower with Blackout. Wash hair with whatever unscented option you already trust. Rinse longer than you think. Dry with a towel that has not been washed in scented detergent.
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While skin is still slightly damp, warm a small amount of unscented whip and hit face, hands, and any cracked spot. Stop there.
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Lay out clothes that have aired out, not clothes from a closet that shares air with cologne.
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Morning of: a short Blackout wash of face, pits, and hands if you have water. Whip only where skin is already angry. Gloves on before you touch the truck door if you can help it.
Wind, thermals, and how you walk in still matter more than the bar. The bar’s job is to not make those other mistakes worse.
Eastern Oregon, western Oregon, same rule
La Grande sits in Union County, on the east side. Eastern Oregon deer is controlled hunts, not a general season, and a lot of those any-legal-weapon hunts open in early October. Western Oregon’s general any-legal-weapon deer season runs October 3 through November 6. Elk seasons stack up behind that into November. Dates and tag deadlines live with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, not on a soap label. Check the current regulations before you drive.
The skin rule does not change with the unit. Dry wind on the breaks, wet brush in the Coast Range, a November sit for Rocky Mountain elk: fragrance is still fragrance. Blackout and unscented whip travel. The scented line waits at home.
Frequently asked questions
Does Blackout Hunter Soap make you scent-free?
No. Nothing you wash with makes you scent-free to a deer or an elk. Blackout is fragrance-free, and the activated charcoal and black kaolin adsorb oils and odor compounds so more of that load rinses off. It removes a smell you were about to add. It does not delete the one you are.
Is Blackout the same recipe as the other bars?
Same fat family: grass-fed beef tallow, pasture-raised lard, and the supporting oils, cold-processed with a 6% superfat. The difference is charcoal, black kaolin, and zero fragrance. The Original unscented bar is the plain version if you want no clay and no charcoal.
Can I use scented beard oil if I put it on the night before?
No. Essential oils and fragrance hang on hair and skin longer than a shower. If you are hunting, leave Ultra Light Beard Oil and the mustache wax at home unless you have an unscented option. Unscented whip on the skin under the beard is the substitute.
Will tallow whip spook game?
Unscented whip is tallow, jojoba, beeswax, arrowroot, and vitamin E. No essential oil, no fragrance. Used light, it is a skin seal, not a cover scent. Scented whip is a different product. Do not pack it.
Where are these made, and where do I buy them?
Small-batch in La Grande, Oregon. Order from wileybuck.com. Start with Blackout Hunter Soap and unscented Tallow Whip. Free shipping on qualifying orders and free local delivery in the area.
Black out the scent. Then go hunt.
The rest of the line can wait. Bay Rum has a place. So does a beeswax mustache wax on a Saturday in town. Neither belongs in the kit when you are trying to get close.
Wash with Blackout. Seal with unscented Tallow Whip. Leave the scented gear in the cabinet. Skin gear for the rugged life, cut down to what the season actually needs.
Start at wileybuck.com.
Stay wild,
Mark
Wiley Buck Company — La Grande, Oregon