This is very interesting to me. I have never heard of this method but am interested is this better for an area where people burn wood a lot or is this just overall a good scent mask regardless of where your hunting.
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This is very interesting to me. I have never heard of this method but am interested is this better for an area where people burn wood a lot or is this just overall a good scent mask regardless of where your hunting.
If you think about it, not many of us are not familiar with the smell of smoke. I think it would be pretty rare in most places for an animal to have never smelled it before. A lot of people say it's just another smell that will spook the animals... I don't take that view - with one exception! If you've been busted because you are stupid and you smell like smoke, they will begin to associate you with that smell and it will backfire... just like any other smell out there.
Take this all with a grain of salt and remember what Small's kept telling himself in the movie Sandlot... "Don't be a doofus, don't be a doofus!"
To counter what you just said there Genesis, my buddy last year sat on the ground 20 yards downwind of a trail he had been seeing a good buck come out on. Didn't have much cover other than the camo on his back and the small clump of trees he set next to. Sure enough, a group of does came behind him on one of the other trails entering this hayfield. The lead doe smelled him all smoked up, and kept her eye on him. Soon she came off the trail right at him, completely downwind of him, and got within 10 yards staring right at him. Soon he started getting a cramp in his leg and had to move. Sure enough she spotted it and blew and trotted out into the field. Well, in Michigan where he was at, normally once deer get spooked on this farm they vacate the field completely. Not that day. They just began feeding and working their way along the field as if nothing was there. So being stupid because he smelled like smoke must not have screwed him up so bad. There are many many testimonials out there, myself included where I was stupid and smoked my clothes and never got busted. Will there be a day that one deer may associate smoke with a human? Perhaps. But from the years I've used it they only seem to get curious rather than alerted as they had in the past when I spent hundreds of dollars on carbon clothing and scent killer sprays. Keep an open mind and you will see.
She smelled him while she was still upwind? I read it a few times and couldn't determine that one.
That said, perhaps I'm underestimating the power of smoking up? I will admit, what I said about being stupid was mere pontificating and theorizing about the ways of a deer. Although, in my defense, I would look at your story and say that the guy wasn't stupid! As a result, it didn't cause the deer to vacate, as you said.
Even if I don't get bee's like I'm planning, I have no plans to ever using smoke when I hunt. The only thought I have now is if it would be beneficial to take my smoker out in the woods with me and put it upwind of myself and see what kind of effect it might have... kinda like that ozone maker you put over your stand that I saw in the hunting magazine the other day.
The doe was completely downwind of him (behind him) the entire time as she walked up to investigate. She was sniffing every step of the way trying to determine the source. Keep in mind this was hard hunted Michigan land where these deer normally would blow, take off and not return if they would have smelled human, especially human at 10 yards. Heck it normally would have spoiled the hunting there for the next couple of days.
As far as taking the smoker out into the woods to put upwind of you I think that would be a bad idea since they would see the visible smoke billowing out of it.
Just wanted to add that I took a mature doe wed night, smoked up! this would be my 10th deer since i have started smoking up. I have killed bucks too this way. I will never again spend money on cover scents, scent loc clothing etc! It's so easy and cheap to do!