Any one use smoke as human scent killer?

[Jerry Jeffer]

I have seen a few fellas use camp fire smoke or even a bee hive smoker to cover their scent. Any one else doing some thing like this? Reactions of deer, if any that you have noticed please.

[Dano]

I used ta like a good ceegar after the hunt, does that count.  

[Izzy]

I have had deer wind me and spook in the Adirondacks.I always heard it worked well but not that time.But if you play the wind I guess it doest hurt ya too much.

[BigRonHuntAlot]

IMHO  Deer are not spooked by wood smoke.  They encounter it regularly and seem to be content with it where I hunt.  YMMV


  Best of Luck to You.  

[Deadsmple]

Hey Jerry I think you know it works where I hunt as wood smoke is a very common smell in the woods around here. Although I rarely use wood smoke on purpose I have hunted with my clothes saturated with woods smoke and have not had any bad reactions from the deer.  99% of the folks around here heat their homes with wood burning stoves so that smell is always around. IMO it really depends on the area. If the deer are unfamiliar with a particular smell then they'll get spooky. I've put corn out back and even though the deer ended up eating it all they were very nervous at first because they are not used to corn being there. Same thing happened when I experimented with apples, another food source not normally found on my side of the mountain. They know their woods so if suddenly there is the smell of a pine tree where they know there is none then they'll get nervous.

[electric blues]

I love to use it. Like the guy above said though, if you use wood that is really foreign to the area, it WILL spook deer. And almost any other animal. Scent is what deer use to identify threats, sound and sight and just indicators. But if you burn pine and there are pine trees within a couple of miles then it will be okay.

Use wood that is local though and it's far better than any scent ive found or heard about. ooh and ciggarette smoke is probably the worst of all, obviously. But I've heard cannabis accually attracts deer. I guess that hunter was a little too occupied to get his deer though. It does smell a little like doe piss....

[adkmountainken]

i'll tell ya a little story. i use to be EXTREMLY carefull with my hunting clothes. scent killer detergent, dryer sheets, waffers in the plastic box the whole works and then i would still air them outside the night before at my mothers house where i hunt. i got to moms bright and early, walked in and noticed my hunting clothes were laying on the hearth of the wood stove. it had rained at night and mmom moved my clothes in side to dry. son of a $@#!%!!!! smelled of smoke enough to gage a maggot!!! well i had no choice as they were the only hunting clothes i had there. i'm telling ya man they STUNK to high hell of smoke, could smell them a mile away. the whole way i was walking to my stand i was saying to myself this is useless! i was in my stand maybe 45 minutes and i could here deer coming, heard them stop, snort, wheeze and blow. thought to myself yup, i knew it!!! well out pops 6 does and a slameer 8 point. wandred back and forth, never knew i was ther, often the does stopped to check the wind as the buck tried to cut one off. won't tell ya result as i was not carring a bow however that day changed my thoughts about wood smoke. i have not tried to use smoke again but i would not hesitate to wear clothes that smelled smokey.

[elkbreath]

Crazy this should come up.  We had snow yesterday, lots of it, real wet.  By about 4 we were all saturated with water.  So, We took a siesta to let the blizzard die down as the wind died in the evening.  I started up a little fire, and we dried ourselves out real good with it.  our clothes smelled heavily (love it really) of smoke as that was the primary drying agent.  Upon getting them back on and hunting hour and a half later, we had some great experiences.  I called up a big lead cow that came to 8 yards and walked a full circle around me trying to figure me out.  after returning to her starting place, She wandered the 60 yards back to the herd and went back to feeding!  Though not as surprising, we had a calf stand down wind of us maybe 15 yards out for a looonng time, till her ma walked by and she fallowed.  I found that neat.  Though I can't reliably say it WAS the smoke, it sure didn't hurt nothin.  

Shoot straight.

[JEFF B]

well over here i just rub tea tree leaves on my self works a treat all the deer smell is tea tree because where i hunt there is nothing but tea tree.

[Dave Bowers]

I tried it last year and had mixed results.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

The natives used it to seal their buck skins.

[Daddy Bear]

I believe it impossible to cover your human scent to eliminate detection from a canine, a deer, or a bear. They have the genetic ability to pick out the most minute particle of human scent when it falls into their path.

When out on a multi-day wilderness pack hunt, woodsmoke does a great job of penetrating, enveloping, and encasing you and your gear with the wonderful aroma of burning wood which helps to make you tolerable when living in the bush for any duration. Without the woodsmoke, you'd be intolerable to the human nose by day four or five. An added benefit is that you'll develop a woodsmoke glaze which will turn many insects away making for a natural bug repellent. Also, you can unpack your gear the following season and still smell that wonderful woodsmoke. This will surely bring back memories of past hunts while it primes you for future adventures.

later,
Daddy Bear

[Straitshot]

For the last 5 or 6 years I have used the smoke sticks that look like the punk sticks you use to light firecrackers with years ago. Made me a smoke can out of two coffee cans with holes drilled in them. One inverted on top of the other one. Light the smoke sticks, stick them in a little dirt I put in the bottom can, set the other can on top, put it at the base of the tree I'm in if tree hunting or about 5 or 6 feed down wind of me if hunting on the ground. I have had mature bucks and does 10 feet away down wind not detect me, or if they did the smoke sure had a calming effect because they acted as though I wasn't there. I have had this happen time and time again. Best cover scent I have ever used.

Louis

[BrianK]

There have been several references in Africa's Bowhunter magazine where smouldering wildebeest or zebra dung was used to cover scent. I haven't tried it myself and can't comment on how efective it is. Anybody tried deer dung?

There are many bush fires in Africa over winter so I can see that smoke would be a familiar scent to game animals.

[702plmo]

If a coon hound got sprayed by a skunk the Old timers around here would build a fire with alot of oak leaves next to the kennel and the smoke smell would overpower the smell of the skunk.

    I have never done it but Have seen deer walk into a smke filled area and they would stop for a minute and then continue on their path.    
 
  I have wanted to try it but have not had the chance yet.

[EASTERNARCHER]

My father taught me to lite a fire when I stopped for lunch and keep the rifle handy as the deer often would come in to investigate the smell.

I know he had done it, but never worked when I was there....Although, while resting from packing out 2 beaver pelts and a couple of partridge from the trapline, I had a nice 6 point check me out from 25 yards when I was younger. I missed with the slug gun...a bit excited shall we say!

[SteveB]

What DB said - you can't hide the human scent.
If they smell the smoke, they smell the human with it. You can reduce the human scent so that it may not be as alarming, but you can't hide it.

Steve

[Roy from Pa]

I always build a fire when hunting, the buck smells the smoke and comes over to see what is burning, that is when I stick him:)

[rbaustin]

Some old timers that I used to hunt the fackahatchee strand with, swore by fat pine smoke. They built a fire every morning and drank their coffe while getting smoked up.....and they killed a lot of deer!!

[mark land]

When I am hunting farming areas like in IL I always smoke up before hunting, just use oak leaves and get all in it, rub your hair, definitely helps.  Jesse Moorehead shared that secret with me while we were hunting in IL several years ago and seems to work for him and those he hunts with.  Now it areas where there is little chance of deer encountering smoke, might not be a great idea, but in farm country something is always burning and deer are definitely use to it.  Mark