Smoking cloths?

[Mountain State Archer]

Has anyone ever experienced with "smoking" your cloths for scent prevention?   What are your Thought , issues, results?

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

Me! I find it quite effective on elk. I believe the trick is to use green pine boughs (any coniferous tree will do in a pinch), and the effect wears off fairly quickly. I.e. I like to build a smudge fire in the mountains, right before going places the wind might betray me. I've never hunted from a stand, never pursued whitetails, and never hunted in non-pine forested areas though, so take it for what it's worth.

[kevsuperg]

I was going to but we have a burn ban in effect here so no outside fires, burn barrel,wood stoves period. So then I figured if there's no fires there's no smoke so why do I want to smell like it. Went the pine bough route with clothes in a sealed container instead.  
 Use the search feature, lots of threads on this subject .

[Jasper2]

Yes, I bought a bee smoker years back and am sold.  I still play the wind and wash my clothes in scent free detergent beforehand, but I've seen enough in the field proof that I will never spend money on any of that other store bought crap.  Smoke is way more effective in my opinion.  For what it's worth, I hunt whitetail on public and private lands in the Midwest.

[Rough Run]

Forty years ago, my father taught me that a smoke smell was not foreign to deer.  Natural forest fires, land-clearing fires, leaf burns, wood stoves and campfires all put the smell in the air, and the deer were acclimated to it.  He was right.  We were hunting in the mountains of West Virginia, and there is no shortage of wood smoke smells.

[Roy Schmidt]

Originally posted by Jasper2:
Yes, I bought a bee smoker years back and am sold.  I still play the wind and wash my clothes in scent free detergent beforehand, but I've seen enough in the field proof that I will never spend money on any of that other store bought crap.  Smoke is way more effective in my opinion.  For what it's worth, I hunt whitetail on public and private lands in the Midwest.

^^^^^^^ this Exactly!   Did it for 3 yrs and worked great! They could smell something but very rarely spooked. However I switched to the scentcrusher gear bag last yr and am sold! It's amazing. Never one time did I get winded last yr!

Roy

[John Fragale]

Smoke saturates your clothing and other gear with phenol, a naturally occurring antibacterial and antimicrobial. It also deposits lignin (the sticky substance found in woodsmoke), which keeps odor-causing bacteria from growing. (Phenol and lignin are also what prevents smoked meat from going bad.) Activated carbon is released in the smoke as well. Since the smell of smoke is common, goes the argument, it doesn’t spook deer.

[batbow]

Kevsupberg
All you needed to do today is put your clothes outside.
Looks like everything around us is on fire!

[Bob Foster]

I’m interested in hearing about the different techniques of applying smoke to your clothing. That is, do you just build a fire and hang you cloths downwind? Or, do you build some type of tent that catches the smoke like a smoker?
Also, what type of wood would be best for smoking your clothes? What about burning pine boughs?

[Longbowlogan]

I started smoking my clothes about 3 or 4 years ago and have had great luck! The deer that get a whiff of the smoke smell just seem to sometimes just stop to look around and carry on with what they were doing. I don't think I've had a deer blow out from smelling me since I started smoking my clothes, now if they see you that's a different story lol

[kevsuperg]

Batbow, right on. Everything here smells like a smokehouse.
 Got out yesterday only saw a few turkey, rode out to st Regis Montana and back up to Sandpoint.
 No clean air to be found , everything is burning.

[YosemiteSam]

Yep.  Been using a bee smoker with pine shavings (same thing I use for the bees at times).  Had a wildfire haze on the last morning of my last hunt.  Seems like a good idea in theory.  But then I thought about all the repellent I was wearing to keep the skeeters off me & figured I was probably undoing whatever benefit I would have got.  So I probably won't bother for the late summer season.  Maybe in the late fall, once there are fewer critters flying in my ears, I might try it again.

[michaelschwister]

I have a group of friends that hunt coastal south carolina, they have the most horible wind changing issues down in those swamps. The whole gang builds a big dirty (rotten wood) fire and smoke their cloths before they leave camp every time. They kill a ton of deer,and would probably would not bow kill a thing if they did not.  I did not smoke my cloths at first when I hunted with them, and did not get a shot opportunity until I broke down and joined them.

[Roger Norris]

Originally posted by John Fragale:
Smoke saturates your clothing and other gear with phenol, a naturally occurring antibacterial and antimicrobial. It also deposits lignin (the sticky substance found in woodsmoke), which keeps odor-causing bacteria from growing. (Phenol and lignin are also what prevents smoked meat from going bad.) Activated carbon is released in the smoke as well. Since the smell of smoke is common, goes the argument, it doesn’t spook deer.

That is a great explanation, thank you.

[Mountain State Archer]

Love hearing all the feedback.  I believe I will be trying it this fall.  I have a bee smoker.  Keep the feedback coming.

[oz]

lots of natural smoke cover now, Don't think you would find me lighting anything on fire to smoke anything this fall.  yikes.

oz