smoke as a cover scent

[SteveB]

Curious and cover are 2 distinctly different topics - or should be.

[Roger Norris]

You cannot eliminate your scent, but you can minimize it. Simply put, if you minimize your scent....including cover it up with natural methods like smoke (where appropriate), the deer will still be able to smell "man" somewhere in that scent cone, but they may not realize you are only 20 yards away. Your masked scent may give the impression you are further away, therefore they don't go on alert....yet.

Deer don't bolt every time they smell man-scent. If they did, they would spend all there time running around in a panic.

They smell, analyze, and react accordingly. With a PROPERLY masked scent, you can fool them for a few minutes, maybe long enough to get one to walk through your scent trail and present a shot.

[kenn1320]

Originally posted by Knawbone:
Ken1320, Ken you can believe what you want, but brother your leaving a whole lot of factors out of the equation. Now we could debate the effects of scent reduction or lack there of, but Deer are not trained dogs. Those dogs are trying their utmost to find that scent. Deer are preoccupied with many things other than trying to constantly sniff out hunters. I'll use this example: How many times have you smelled something, but the smell didn't register right away. Maybe you were engrossed in a conversation with someone as you walked in their house. The house had a different smell, but your brain didn't notice due to the fact that your thoughts were on the conversation at hand.Animals are no different at times. A buck trailing a Doe is searching for one thing, and that is the scent of the Doe. That rutting Buck may smell you, but his brain is elsewhere. Unless he gets a close up, full blast of human, he's not going to flee from the buiseness at hand. That's just one situation or senario were lowering your scent level can make all the difference in the world of the successful Deer hunter.
 So don't be so quick to think you have it all figured out when it comes to how deer react to unnatural scent.Respectfully Sir, there's a lot more factors that come into play other than what a dog can or can't smell.

Your also talking about a dog that is looking for a pat on the back from his trainer, versus an animal who's life depends on detecting a predator and avoiding death. I can see a rutting buck throwing caution to the wind, but the rut is a small portion of the hunting season. Lets look at your observation of being distracted and pausing for a moment when you smell something but arent sure what it is. Humans cant smell a fathom of what deer can smell, yet you could be doing anything, and if you catch the scent of a skunk, whoa your brakes are on. You likely have never been sprayed by one, but the fear of smelling like that puts you on gaurd and keeps you from walking over to "pet the country kitty". I also believe that deer can smell a scent and determine how old that scent is. As noted if not, they would run in circles all day. When people talk about the illusion your further away then what you really are, by minimising their scent, they are kidding themselves. Your body is shedding constantly and a deer doesnt need a lot of scent to determine if its fresh. If animals couldnt detect scent and determine its age, your rabbit dog would run in circles chasing 3 day old tracks. Im no where near claiming I have it all figured out, Im just sharing what I found out by doing some looking around. Im still a believer in keeping the wind in my face.   :cool:

[Knawbone]

Kenn1320, Sorry I just have to respectfully totally disagree with you. I hunted with bird and rabbit dogs for years, and have watched good nosed dogs lose a fresh track many times. Always harder for dogs to pick up scent when the ground is dry. And that is another case in point. Everything we talk about when it comes to Deer and what they smell is dependent on the situations and factors at hand. The Deer themselves are as different in personality and smarts as Dogs are. One may be easily fooled where another may be as tricky as Hudini.

 Ask most of the big names of Trad Gang what they think about scent control, including cover scents, and most if not all of them agree with my findings. Your kidding yourself sir, and limiting your potential as a more well rounded hunter. We all hunt the wind, but some of us kill Deer in spite of it. I wish you a fantastic season and the magic flight of the arrow. JMHO

[dink]

ive been smoking my hunting clothes for the past 10 yrs and i beliee it makes a big difference.I even killed a deer 2 yrs ago sitting by a small fire behind a fallen tree funny thing is i was roasting a piece of venison for lunch.but where i hunt everyone has outside wood burners and i have a fireplace ,so i think the deer are quite use to the smell.         matt

[Shane Reed]

matt, That's a good story. Well I went out tonight and nothing came in to test the theory. Surprise Surprise it is Vermont.

[achigan]

http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/deer-hunting/finding-deer-hunt/2012/06/cover-scents-work-better-odor-reducing-produ

From folks with more time and resources than I.

[buckeye_hunter]

Excellent article. It proves that the deer or dog can find you AND that cover scents will buy you time. I wish they had tested smoke as well. I would like to see how long it would take the dog in that instance to find the live human.

I bet it is in the 40 second range. So the video and my experiences in the woods would SEEM to be verified. Smoke does help and that can be a very good thing!

[Shane Reed]

Buckeye. What county you in?

[achigan]

The condensed version of above post:
Completely fooling a dog’s nose—and by extension, a whitetail’s—so far seems impossible, indicating that there’s no substitute for keeping a deer upwind. But sometimes bucks show up where we don’t intend them to, and all we can hope for is an edge, however slight, that might confuse the animal long enough to set up a shot. Ike proved to me that the smart money is on cover scents. And if you have to choose between skunk and acorn, go nuts.

[buckeye_hunter]

I live in Crawford county, but do the majority of my hunting in SE Ohio. I hunt Morgan and Noble Counties, usually on public land. I love it down there, but talk about a place where the wind changes often!

[Knawbone]

The real answers will be proven out in time. I know what works and that's all that matters.I try to share what Iv' learned in 40 yrs of deer hunting. Believe it or not, makes no difference to me! I wish everyone the best in their hunting endeviors.

[achigan]

You too Knawbone! Get a big one!