I really don't much care what John's, or anyone else's practices or opinions are on this subject, but I know what I know and I firmly believe there's value to minimizing each and every aspect of my odor as much as I can.
I'm 62 and just finished my 50th season. I've done just about everything (and nothing) towards reducing my odor during those 50 seasons. My 1st 8 or so years I had no clue about odor, I just blundered my way thru the woods and odor busts were a regular occurrence. In my early 20s I started learning a few things about odor and wind, but I still was pretty naive about both subjects. I hunted that way until my 30s and I stepped up my game slightly. I started using milkweed religiously and started being a little more careful about odor reduction but in hindsight, I was no where near where I am today. Ground odor and residual odor was something that I thought was beyond controlling, even with rubber boots. If a deer cut my trail, the game was over. If a deer ended up at the base of my tree, it would bust out in a panic. I was doing some things right toward odor reduction, but there were still a lot of loose ends in my system.
But in the last 10-15 years, I've been a lot more careful and meticulous with my odor regimen and there's absolutely zero, none, nada, no doubt in my mind that I now get away with things that I did not get away with 20 years ago.
I don't give a rip about comparisons to dog studies, product reviews, magazine articles or the opinions of famous hunters. I know what I know, and I know that I simply do not get busted like I used to. This is not a matter of me believing in something just because I want to, or because it makes me feel more confident.
I believe in my system because the deer themselves have proven to me, before my very eyes, that what I'm doing has improved my hunting immeasurably.
So you non-believers can continue to poo-poo the concept and keep a closed mind, but I'm gonna continue doing what I'm doing.
I still pay strict attention to the wind, but the wind is not dependable in hilly country, and it certainly has no effect on whether deer will cross my entrance routes. I cannot control where a deer will walk or stop them from investigating residual odor hours after I've left my stand, but I can reduce (almost completely eliminate) leaving residual odor. That's where an odor regimen has it's greatest value. Too few hunters stop and think about keeping stands fresh. They over hunt them, they pollute the area with residual odor, and then they wonder why they see fewer deer each time they hunt the spot.
The worst thing a hunter can do is educate deer to the fact they are being hunte. The more you stink, the faster you give your herd a PhD in avoiding humans.