Tell Me Bout Smoke!

[Hill Hunter]

I have been smoking up for 2 seasons now,I don't use anything else, now carbon suits or coverscents, I have had more deer come in from directions that they should have winded me then I can remember in the past. I used to use skunk scent and it is probably the 2nd best thing I have used if you get good scent, but smoke is much easier for me to tolorate, and so is my wife when I use smoke instead of skunk.

[buckeye_hunter]

Originally posted by Hill Hunter:
 smoke is much easier for me to tolorate, and so is my wife when I use smoke instead of skunk.

 AMEN TO THAT!!!

[7 Lakes]

I've been teaching my German Shorthair Lucy to blood trail and I've done a little experimenting.  It makes no difference if the blood came from a rare, grilled rib eye or blood straight from the uncooked package.  She can follow the "smoked" blood just as well.  Smoke does not cover the scent.  It may make it more interesting but it doesn't cover.  I assume for this arguement that deer use their sence of smell just about the same as dogs.

[KevO]

I've read through many of the comments from previous posts.  There are many pro's & con's , arguments, evidence, successes & failures.  There is evidence for & against smoke, cover scents, getting s short haircut, lures, urine, chlorophyll tablets, carbon clothes, etc., etc. I've often wondered if some guys just smell different, i.e., stink, more than others. I wonder if diet & / or plain old body chemistry have more to do with it than anything else.  I've never tried smoke, but it has merit.  I've always tried to be clean, get a short hair cut, & "play the wind", but still get picked out when I think I've done everything right.  I've got a good friend that doesn't worry too much about overdoing the scent control thing &  he kills a nice buck almost every year.  He wears a lot of wool, doesn't wash it much, but hangs it outside.  I know of another successful hunter who has a houseful of dogs & cats, and you can tell!  He kills a good deer every year as well.  Go figure.

[Winterhawk1960]

Ya'll can keep on doing whatever "works for you". I'll keep on buying my hardwood chips, its much cheaper and works as well as ANY of the other ways of masking your scent does. The last three years have given me all the proof I need.

There is a "reason" that in the old days meat was either smoked or cured. The woodsmoke "inhibits" the growth of bacteria. Do your own research and find out what the LEADING cause of "odor" is. It might go against everything that you have been taught or believe......BUT....it works for me and many others.

Winterhawk1960

[LimBender]

You know what sets this site apart?  Civil discussion and thoughtful posts.  Lots to think about.  

Looks like the one thing separating smoke from other cover scents like coon or skunk or cedar,  is that the smoke itself may actually kill and inhibit bacteria and odor.  I know it's not gonna let you get away with much downwind, but using careful scent control, I've had several deer walk or cross my trail without noticing or spooking much, so that's more what I'm going for and that last second they are closing the distance into a cross-wind.  That little time or less alertness can be all the difference you need.

I think I'm gonna give it a go!

[josef2424]

yea i heard that another TV hunting celebrity made everyone on his camera crew walk through a trailer made just to be basically a smoke house in order to make sure noone on his crew messed up his hunt by smelling bad. The indians used smoke and bear grease as a scent control strategy and im sure they knew what they were doing. Smoke is made up of carbon so the way i see it, it's like having a new carbon suit every hunt...besides i hear a lot of those carbon suits work for only the first few times, and theyre so much heavier than normal hunting clothes.

[dink]

ive bee n smoking my clothes for the last 6 years since i went trad i believe it woks if the areas you hunt    the smell is norm. in my area we all have outside furnaces im convinced but i still try to watch the wind i believe its more a cover sent than a stopper

[SteveB]

Originally posted by Winterhawk1960:
Ya'll can keep on doing whatever "works for you". I'll keep on buying my hardwood chips, its much cheaper and works as well as ANY of the other ways of masking your scent does. The last three years have given me all the proof I need.

There is a "reason" that in the old days meat was either smoked or cured. The woodsmoke "inhibits" the growth of bacteria. Do your own research and find out what the LEADING cause of "odor" is. It might go against everything that you have been taught or believe......BUT....it works for me and many others.

Winterhawk1960

So it is working then as an odor inhibitor/killer because it is killing bacteria (the cause of odor's)and not covering anything.

[Winterhawk1960]

Originally posted by SteveB:]

So it is working then as an odor inhibitor/killer because it is killing bacteria (the cause of odor's)and not covering anything. [/QB][/QUOTE]

That and I'm sure, somewhat a cover scent. There isn't a doubt in my mind that the deer can, and do smell the woodsmoke. It smells even more so if you get wet. The deer in WV and southeastern OH just don't seem to pay any attention to it.

Winterhawk1960

[owlbait]

Would it make sense then to smoke with some old cedar posts that I just dug up? I'm not sure if the cedar smoke smells as good as fresh cedar but....

[smoke1953]

I never thought of it just as a cover scent but more for a saturated carbon source that may provide additional odor absorption qualities.

[owlbait]

Isn't there a bug repellant based on cedar oil? Maybe the cedar smoke would also work as a repellant?

[Winterhawk1960]

Originally posted by owlbait:
Isn't there a bug repellant based on cedar oil? Maybe the cedar smoke would also work as a repellant?

Not sure about any bug repellant qualities but I'd be willing to bet (and I'm not a betting type person) that if you were hunting in or around cedar trees that it would work. Everywhere that I hunt, the hardwoods are the main trees in the forest.

Winterhawk1960

[Hill Hunter]

my understanding it that the bacteria killing component (can't think of the name) is only found in hardwood smoke.

[bearbowman]

Sponsor Doug Schlabach  http://www.lettinlose.com  turned me back on to it a few years ago. I did
it a few times back in the day but got away from it. I save the leaves I rake up in the fall and
when I am ready to go out I dump out a small pile, start a little fire and smoke up.

[huntin_sparty]

Afters years of wasting money and a ton of time in pursuit of not being a stinky human.  I realized that sent free is impossible and just use natural stuff.  I keep my clothes in containers with hickory nuts I smoke all my clothes and self before hunts so I smell smokey and nutty (which my wife thinks I am! But she is thinks I am less crazy than before folding clothes with rubber gloves sealing in ziplock bags and then sealing in plastic containers, spraying people for even looking at my stuff with "scent eliminator"  which cant even knock down the smell of my shoes but will magically hide me otherwise)!  Anyhow Ive used smoke for the last 2 years and seen more deer than ever when I get a change in the wind or have to hunt in a less than favorable wind.  So #1 Wind 2# smoke or something that is common to the area you hunt to cover as much stinky human as possible.  Smoke works in my area because most in the area use woodburners for heat and smell them most of the season as a normal and daily smell in the area.  My rambling .02 cents try it, its cheap anyhow!

[Friend]

In all seriousness, a couple of old friends have extremely poor hygeine under just noraml conditons and you don't have to be a deer to take notice. When you arrive at there deer camp, they seem to always have big fires and the smoke is so bad it burns your eyes and you feel totally saturated in smoke even after being there for but a moment. It's quite comical to watch them employ their techniques that us so called seasoned hunters would totally avoid.  They seem to always get their deer.

[Missouri CK]

What I like about smoke is that if you ever go to camp hunting situation like an elk camp, your going to smell like smoke after sitting around a campfire.  All the whitetail-type of scent prevention is pretty much impossible in those settings. Guys kill elk all the time so it definitely can work. Plus, its just fun to be around a campfire with friends.

All the commercial scent stuff seems like snake oil to me.  I'm not saying anything including smoke can fool a deer.  Their noses are able to detect things in the parts per billion that we can't. So how can we really say something neutralize our scent to a deer.  Its all seems like speculation.

Not trying to rain on the parade, I just think its much more complicated than anyone in the pro such and such scent would have us believe.  

JMHO
CK

[Stinger]

I remember back in the 60's that we used to de-scent our hunting clothes with the exhaust from a car right before we headed for the woods.  The idea was similar to the smoke.  The theory was that deer smell exhaust fumes all day (where we were hunting anyway!) and this would mask our scent.  I can't say it worked or not because like the rest of you, you never know how many animals smelled you and walked off without you ever knowing it.