Smoking while you hunt?

[Young Buck]

I enjoy a good cigar and when I'm glassing I would love to puff on a good stoggy.  

Does this make the game think it's a forest fire/make them run away?

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

You know that look women give you after a good cigar? Now a deer has sever hundred times more receptors in its nose than we do, and don't get me started on pigs    

[Recurve50 LBS]

I know 2 guys that smoke while on stand. I can be 200 yards down wind form them and I can smell it when they light up. They don't shoot very many deer with their bows either. Just don't compare me to a pig ok....LOL

[Toecutter]

I agree with all the above statements, but historically the three guys I know that always seem to shoot monster bucks with their bows, all smoke on stand.  It is truly maddening.  I guess you could say that if the wind is wrong, it's wrong no matter how you smell.

Just something to think about...

Nathan

[just_a_hunter]

Kingwouldbe kills more hogs with a ceeeegar in his mouth then most normal people do without.

I'm not much of a smoker myself, but I do think if the wind is wrong the wind is wrong....

Peter Hathaway Capstick writes about leopard hunting out of a hide and having to chain smoke. He thought if the wind was wrong they would smell you regardless, but if you struck a match to light your smoke, you'd never see the leopard. So, he'd light only one smoke and light then next smoke off of the burning smoke......

Good luck to all...

Todd

[vtmtnman]

Some odors don't bother animals as much as you think.My dad has shot every one(Or close to it) of his rifle and bow deer while smoking.

[Panzer II]

Yep, I have and know other that smoke or have smoked and killed plenty of deer while smoking. Why as a matter of fact I klled my first deer while smoking one of those "funny" smokes, but that was along time ago.

[Gil Verwey]

I think smoking can only hurt, but when I smoked cigarettes I knew I wouldn't see a deer until at least my third smoke in the morning on stand. It worked everytime. I used to think it attracted them but we know that can't be the case, I think. I would wait until brown is down to light up and pop a cork too!

Gil

[Ben Maher]

not that i'm proud of it nor encourage it but i often smoke whilst hunting , just as i am prone to making a quick brew of coffee duing the break in my morning stalk.....' i usually fill my freezer. smoking for any reason is dumb i know but i think paying attention to the wind and its currents etc has far more to do with success than whether you smoke , wear camo etc ...
having said that , wished i didn't smoke as i'd feel better , save money for bows etc
cheers

ben

[ChuckC]

I won't do it, (OK,  might be a fun experiment) but I have watched two people shoot deer (albeit with guns, but at bow ranges) and both had to put down their cigarette to shoot.  In both cases they were fairly high in a tree in the swamp and I was glassing them from a couple hundred yards away.
ChuckC

[JL]

I have seen a lot of opinions on smoking while hunting over the years. Here's how I see it;

Smoking has several drawbacks, besides the health issues. It creates too much unwanted movement. I hunt high pressured areas. Mature bucks will assoiate smoking with human activity. They get a whiff and they will either duck you or avoid the area all together. Just the smell of smoke will stay in your hunting clothes for a long time (big dis-avantage).  

Do yourself a favor if you must smoke. Wait til you get back to camp and get out of your hunting clothes before you lit up.

Better yet, leave the weeds alone all together. You'll feel a lot better, be a better hunter (better stamina,ect) and save the $6/day you would spend on smokes on something hunting related.

JL

[fatman]

Probably has less effect if you're trying to glass long-distance game than if you were sitting in a stand and waiting for game to pass by.....bottom line is that having the wind in your favor is paramount....

Derek, as Todd said, your uncle has killed as much game as anyone while toking a stogey...ask his opinion...  

[Longbowz]

If the deer can smell the smoke, they can smell you.  But I do think the whole idea is still not be scented, so watch the wind.

I don't think any animal necessarily associates smoke with danger.  Around here at least they would be fleeing every time smoke from a forest fire drifted by them.  This time of year there's lots of that.

I had a friend who hunted elk primarily out of a tree stand.  His normal setup included chain smoking and lots of beer.  He hung the empty beer cans on the stubs from the branches on the tree he trimmed.  Pretty soon his stand looked like a Christmas tree hung with ornaments.  Of course drinking all that beer meant he sooner or later had to go.  Which he did - right off the side of the stand.  :rolleyes:    Funny thing was he killed more elk then anybody else.  I finally gave up trying to figure this all out.  

[WildmanSC]

My so smokes while in his treestand.  He hunts a minimum of 25' up a tree.  He didn't learn either one of his habits from me.  I've never smoked and I can't stand heights.  If I get more than 8' off the ground, the tree is trembling and shaking as if there was an earthquake or a hurricane influencing it!     I might add that my son kills 8 to 10 deer every year.  He also butchers the deer himself and the family eats off the venison throughout the following year.

Bill

[d. ward]

well said fatman.Keep the wind in your face and puff away if thats would you choose to do.Smokers always get game because of that reason they always seem to have the wind in their face.I chew so I never get any game because I never have the wind in my face or I got spit in my eyes.bd

[bayoulongbowman]

LOL>>>>LMAO>>>>

[Longbowz]

Oh one more thing I should add.  He used one of those old self climbing stands with the big knarly teeth that really bit into the tree trunk.  We hunt pretty high so the most common tree is an Alpine fir.  The kind with the big sap blisters on the bark.

After going up and down a few times with the stand, that tree looked like a very angry beaver had attacked it!  This gave the already ornamented tree a rather unique look.

I won't get into how he looked.  That was pretty different too!
 

[jcar315]

I don't even know anyone who smokes so can't comment on smoking while hunting. Wind indicator?

[James Wrenn]

Well when you smoke you always know for sure which way the wind is blowing.  :D  

I smoke but keep it to a min when hunting.Still I can show you some treestands seats with several burn marks on them from laying down a smoke to shoot a deer.I try and hunt the wind and on edges.Smoke blowing across a feild is not the same as blowing around in the middle of the woods either.Smoke does not always spook animals but if they are down wind to smell it they have already caught your scent anyway.

[longbowben]

Not a chance,wont even let a smoker in camp.