Me and my two hunting partners first season to "smoke down" was during the '73 season (yes, I'm really old and have been doing this stuff for a long time). Another hunting friend had read an article about a trapper that always smoked himself down while running his traps. We thought it would be worth a try.
Now, you have to realize that this was before any comercial scent control products were available. Our normal precautions was to wash with baking soda and then powder down with it afterwards, and wear a clean set of clothes for each hunt that had been washed with baking soda and hung outside to dry.
We made a commitment to "smoke down" for each and every hunt we made that season. During the early bow only season, our combined efforts resulted in 19 deer (recurve bow kills). We never noticed that our smoke scent spooked any of the deer that we saw.
I continued doing this for several years with the same degree of success . later on, commercial products started coming out and I gradually moved on from the smoke. But, I'm really thinking about going back to it this coming season. Just my two cents worth on the subject.