Originally posted by Buckeye Trad Hunter:
I don't think the animals are so much afraid of smells that are unfamiliar as much as they are afraid of smells that they associate with danger. Notice a fawn the first time it catches your scent? It doesn't run it tries to figure out what you are. Mama teaches it to be scared of that smell, she knows it's dangerous.
You just nailed it Buckeye!
It all depends upon what a deer associates with that particular smell. I remember a deer calling scent that was widely used back in the 80's and it did work quite well, but it had nothing to do with what naturally occurs in their habitat.........wanna know what it was?
Oil of Anise. Yep, the stuff smells like black licorice and brings deer in, but there is nothing in their world that even closely resembles this smell. It's a curiosity scent, and it smells kinda sweet so the deer think that it may be something good to taste.
Back to the question at hand......I smoke and chew Levi Garrett, but I try not to smoke any more than I can bare it while in the stand. I'll carry along a pouch of Levi and chew on that in between cig cravings. I know for a fact that tobacco spit will not spook deer, my brother has done it for years and even spit on a doe's back one time and she barely even flinched.....then kept on feeding.
I have had deer come in upwind while I was smoking, but then that's upwind and my scent was drifting away from them. I also don't have any idea how many trophy bucks avoided me while I was smoking and circled my direction rather than coming on past me.
My final 2 cents on the matter is this.......We go through great pains to control our human scent and spend excruciating amounts of money on Scent blocking clothing, sprays, washes, deodorants, ect. Why then would a guy sit in his tree stand and smoke? Seems like that would defeat the purpose of blowing all that cash on high tech scent control to me.
I don't buy into all that nonsense anyway. I simply wash my hunting clothes in baking soda and take a shower in unscented soap. Then I put my camo in a tub with a couple of earth scent wafers and call it good. That's about all I'm willing to spend on that, and I can tell you right now that even with that kind of careful approach....a deer coming in down wind is still going to smell you, but whether it spooks or not is entirely dependant on the personality of the deer. Don't think for a second that they don't smell your dirty butt even though you sprayed down with earth scent, because they do.....it just takes the edge off of your natural predator smell and tones it down to the point that you just might get a shot before the deer bolts.
True story.....The landowner we used to hunt on killed the biggest buck of his life when he hurried out to his stand wearing the same green coveralls he just worked on his tractor in. He said that he wreaked of diesel fuel, but didn't have time to change and simply grabbed his bow and hit the woods.
He said the big boy came in from directly down wind, turned and looked away.....then caught a broad head square in the chest at 15 steps from the tree. The deer never did know that anything was out of place, nor did it find the smell of diesel fuel alarming or repulsive. Think about it, deer smell tractors and farm equipment all the time.....kinda makes you rethink your scent control strategies don't it?
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Topic: who uses tobacco (Read 726 times)
