Anybody use smoke as cover scent?

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WV Bowhunter
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Re: Anybody use smoke as cover scent?

Unread postby WV Bowhunter » Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:05 am

Josh_S wrote:
WV Bowhunter wrote:I went through the smoke routine about 15 years ago. I was religious about it, washed everything, line drying, smoked with hickory or oak chips and then went hunting. I thought it helped some of the time on the first time I wore the freshly smoked clothes. I did kill some bucks smelling like a pack of hickory smoked jerky, haha. After a few hours though, they didn’t work and when a deer smelled me it would go on high alert. I believe this was due to the bacteria growth causing new scent which a deer can sort out.

Best thing I ever did was get rid of my ways of thinking I’d fool a bucks nose and learn to hunt using the wind to my advantage. I wouldn’t waste my time on it if I were you.


Thanks for the input. Do you mean after a few hours the deer were on high alert more than usual?


Yeah I would say so. If I had a deer hit my scent stream first thing, they would stop dead in their tracks, sniff and lick their nose, then wag their tail and go on like nothing was wrong. After a few hours, same thing except they would blow and snort like crazy and then high tail it out of the area.

I decided it wasn’t worth the effort for the small amount of gains I saw from it for the first few hours. It was a lot of work.


Luck is when preparation meets opportunity!!
mipubbucks24
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Re: Anybody use smoke as cover scent?

Unread postby mipubbucks24 » Sun Aug 29, 2021 6:20 am

Boogieman1 wrote:
mipubbucks24 wrote:I just play the wind, I don’t have enough time for all the other junk. Last year my father in-law told me I must have good scent control with killing 2 bucks on the ground in such close range. I said nope, have not washed my hunting cloths in 2 years. They go in the back of my truck with tools and whatever else. It’s all about playing the wind. And yes deer wind me every year. When I “used” scent control products the deer never smelled me! You know why, I never saw any deer, lol. I put all my faith in it and would hunt good spots on the wrong wind and would only see young deer that are too dumb to know any better. The mature deer smelled me and would not come out, it was as simple as that. Those same young deer walk by down wind now, and still have no idea, but anything with more then a year of life experience will normally react in some way or another.

Play the wind, watch how deer use the wind, then hunt them based off how they use the wind.

While I didn’t realize it at the time, the first deer I shot with a bow (a young 3pt) followed my steps directly to my tree just staring at me. I’ve had my closest encounters from on the ground, in some cases I’m talking mere inches. But the getting the bow back is a different story. Found myself recently thinking about wind and elevation. I mean from 20ft up it blows a pretty good distance b4 gravity takes hold. From where they can smell it there is some point where it goes over their heads and they lose the scent. From the ground it dumps quicker and collects in terrain features. Possibly my wild imagination talking but it’s how I relate my experiences.


Yes getting the bow back is the hardest part, but if you are in cover and have the wind advantage they can be mere feet away and will not smell you. I have also sat cut corn field edges with my wind blowing out into the field where if a deer would come out, I have to shoot it before it gets down wind. I will use this on the small private I hunt behind work. They will bed in the corn to the north, and the bucks will run the southern field edge trying to find where a hot doe crossed or find the bedded does in the corn. It’s a rut/small buck strategy but every once in a while mr big will pop out. You have to shoot when they are at a 45 degree angle before they can catch your wind, also I normally try to do this on a fairly strong wind day that has consistent wind. In 2018 I rattled in 4 bucks in 1 hour doing this, none were shooters but it was a lot of fun.
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Re: Anybody use smoke as cover scent?

Unread postby Josh_S » Sun Aug 29, 2021 10:04 am

WV Bowhunter wrote:
Josh_S wrote:
WV Bowhunter wrote:I went through the smoke routine about 15 years ago. I was religious about it, washed everything, line drying, smoked with hickory or oak chips and then went hunting. I thought it helped some of the time on the first time I wore the freshly smoked clothes. I did kill some bucks smelling like a pack of hickory smoked jerky, haha. After a few hours though, they didn’t work and when a deer smelled me it would go on high alert. I believe this was due to the bacteria growth causing new scent which a deer can sort out.

Best thing I ever did was get rid of my ways of thinking I’d fool a bucks nose and learn to hunt using the wind to my advantage. I wouldn’t waste my time on it if I were you.


Thanks for the input. Do you mean after a few hours the deer were on high alert more than usual?


Yeah I would say so. If I had a deer hit my scent stream first thing, they would stop dead in their tracks, sniff and lick their nose, then wag their tail and go on like nothing was wrong. After a few hours, same thing except they would blow and snort like crazy and then high tail it out of the area.

I decided it wasn’t worth the effort for the small amount of gains I saw from it for the first few hours. It was a lot of work.


It does seem like a lot of work. I'll try it in certain situations, but not to the extent you did. My plan would be to smoke a ghillie suit that I would pack in.


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