Smoking while you hunt?

[wollelybugger]

I save a good cigar for a special occasion, if I shoot a nice buck I might lite up a stogie to celebrate.

[ishiwannabe]

I do, but the wind tells me when. I go to extremes as far as ashtrays(35 mm case with water) and always keeping the butts in there too. Then that goes into a ziplock and into my fanny pack.
I have had HUNDREDS of deer in bow range. I can only remember one deer, a yearling, that spooked on me due to a slight wind change while smoking. But was it the smoke? I have no clue.

Dont get me wrong, I am trying to quit, and I hate to smoke anymore, BUT if you hunt smart and hunt the wind, it isnt any different than smelling like a human...

Oh another thing, in the morning up here....sunrise, when those first rays warm up everything and the thermals bring your scent(and smoke) high up into the sky...it is nice to have one and watch the woods come alive.

[JL]

Lets face it. Most of us have limited time to dedicate to hunting due to family obligations, work, ect. If I start scouting and patterning a good buck, I'm going to try my best to keep as many advantages on my side to get him on the ground. Bowhunting is a very close encounter style of hunting. I guess I just don't see any advantage's to burning a smoke while hunting. Paying attention to wind direction is paramount when hunting, thats basic hunting knowledge.

I read were a fella did a scent experiment's with a trained police dog. He was 25ft up a tree and the Shepard locked onto him 250 yards downwind of him and made a beeline to him. Deer have twice the amount of scent recepticals in there nose's then a dog has. Mature bucks will and do learn to assoiate sounds/scents with danger. Ever have a stand squeak in ya while getting in shotting position? The big boys don't wait to see what made the noise, they are in third gear before the noise even stops. If they make it to be a brusier, you better believe they have 9 lives (at least in the areas I hunt...) and they have been shot and/or shot at many times. I guess hunting unpressured areas is different, don't know, never had a chance to find out. I guess I just don't see any real advantage to make your presence known by smoking while hunting. I know guys who have killed some nice deer with a smoke hangin out of their mouth. 99% of those guys were hunting with rifles also. Putting a broadhead vs bullet thru a deer requires differnt rules/disiplines to adhere to. Just the way I see it.

[bohuntr]

When I was archery elk hunting in the Black Hills a couple years ago I ended up hunting with some local guys part of the time. Real nice guys, who knew the country and the elk well. I ended up killing my elk while on my own but really appreciated their help along the way. Anyway one of those guys was named Dave. Dave smoked the entire time we were hunting. Dave actually got me close to 2 different bulls that would have gone between 330 to 350+". I never got a shot but that had nothing to do with Dave smoking. I remember almost busting out laughing one time when I looked over at Dave and noticed he was smoking at the same time he was blowing his elk bugle. On the way into town to check my elk in at the check station and take my meat to the locker Dave came up behind me in his big county dump truck and flagged me down. I followed him over to the county shop so he could take a look at my bull. I took a picture of him standing in the back of the truck with the bulls rack sticking up. Just before I snapped the picture Dave went to lower his cigarette so it wouldn't be visible in the picture but I told him no way ... I want the picture to get the real Dave. Anyway, long story but here is the picture of Dave ... the only person I ever saw bugle and smoke at the same time!!!    
 

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

I'm not a smoker.

But, I guess its kinda like the Thermacell discussions..if they can smell the thermacell, they're gonna smell you, too.

I know a fella who is a lethal predator caller. He smokes cigars while calling coyotes.  Guess it just depends on the wind.

[Stone Knife]

You will be farther ahead not to smoke at all period, be a healthy hunter and throw the stogies away  

[iacornfed]

I don't smoke so I have no first hand experience. I did read an article in Fur Fish and Game about a fellow in Canada who lights a small smokey fire in his ground blind to keep warm while deer hunting. He claimed the deer would come down the trail sniffing to see where the smell was coming from. Said he did it every year and always gets his dear. I live in Iowa farm country and deer here don't seem to be bothered by tractors, combines or trucks. Their not even bothered by my dogs in the yard! The only thing that seems to bother them is humans moving. As long as you set or stand still they just watch you. More and they will run.

[KentuckyTJ]

I hope my neighbors smoke while they hunt.

[Whip]

It's been a long time, but I used to smoke, and when I did I smoked while bowhunting.  Now I can't prove that it's related, but my success on deer is much better now than it ever was when I smoked.  Maybe I am just better at hunting - after all, experience should count for something.  But I've always felt smoking had something to do with it.  I'm sure some of it has to do with the extra movement involved in smoking.

It's not just the smell of the actual smoke from the cigarettes either.  Now that I no longer smoke I can't believe how strong the odor is on people that do smoke.  I can smell a smoker as soon as they walk in a room.  The odor lingers long after the butt is extinguished.  

Sure, if the deer can smell the smoke they can smell you.  But it's the same principal as keeping clean and washing your clothes.  They are going to smell you a whole lot better and from much further away than if you are clean and not smoking.

[Brian Krebs]

Bohuntr

      Smoking and wearing a 'DARE' shirt ....lol  

[Young Buck]

Interesting...

[Kingwouldbe]

Originally posted by the real bowdoc:
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

Doc. That's to funny, but your right, 95% of my hunting is from the ground and I use my stogy as a constant wind detector, hunting into or across the wind.

I do believe they some time's smell it ( how could they not  :p  ) but I also believe it does not alarm them at all, they know what smoke is, and smoke has never jumped on there back, so I don't think it gives them any cause for alarm.

 
Is there really a better nose than a hogs, I think not.
 

I have killed a few bucks while I was smoking a cigar in a tree, they came right in.
 


This is the Hope Bow for 2007 and I just shot the buck below, this buck bedded down @ 25 yards for almost a hour, I set the cigar in a fork and it went out, but it's time to relight it now   :D  
 
 

Derek, is my nephew and is just now getting into Trad Bowhunting, I know he respects a lot of the opinions here on Tradgang.

I think it's one of those mystery questions, they have to smell it some times yet, it does not seem to bother them.

If I was hunting out of the same tree every day, I might think twice about lighting up a cigar, but if they smell the cigar, they my not get alarmed, as it's just smoke.

Young buck are you bring a box for are Elk hunt? I'll show you my technique, they actually come runing to me    

[Roy Steele]

Smoke not only smells bad to the deer it also helps to carry your scent along with it.Plus the movement that go's along with it.Beleive it or not I quit smokeing because of deer hunting.
  Thats been 25 years ago and my buck siteings went way up.Remember when the winds right for you it's wrong for the buck.

[xtrema312]

I used to smoke, but never hunting deer or anything in the woods with a good nose.  Between the smell on me and everything around me and the whole idea of fire in the dry fall leaves, it just never seemed like a great ides.  Now water fowling was different.  Birds don’t smell you and lots of water around.  

Smoke less, live longer, and hunt more.  10 years smoke free for me.

[Broken Arrow 1]

I Smoke all the time while hunting and have deer and other critters very close as long as you play the wind well there should be no problem. Everyones opinion will vary Though.

[Young Buck]

quote:
Originally posted by Kingwouldbe:Young buck are you bring a box for are Elk hunt? I'll show you my technique, they actually come runing to me    

Kingwouldbe, as a matter of fact I ordered a couple including Oliva Serie 'O' Maduro, Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic, Gurkha Status Torpedo Tubo, and a few others    .  I can't wait for the elk hunt  

[Ia Hawkeye]

"A dying breed"

All smokers are a "dying breed",and in more ways then one!

[olddogrib]

Some of the most sucessful hunters I know smoke on stand.  Having said that, I certainly wouldn't consider it an attractant as much as they're good hunters and generally compensate by hunting higher.  The movement would concern me more than the smoke.  We've conditioned deer to walk around looking up in NC!

[Curtiss Cardinal]

My father smoked but limited the number of cigs while hunting. He said the smoked was his wind checker. He also said it all the movement that goes with smoking not the smoke that keeps most smoking bowhunters fail to kill deer.

[barefoot]

I smoke and have on several ocasions had to  slowly put out a smoke when I saw deer approaching. I was caught once with a smoke in my mouth when a doe came out from behind my treestand right under me. I was only about twelve feet up. I let her pass and did not shoot but she never spooked. Yes I still smoke on the stand.