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Bee Smoker?

Ive had one for 15 years, word to the wise, dont smoke your face mask. Im not sure it does anything but i do like the smell. Also, an amzn pellet smoker tube would work too in a closet, without a doubt.

If you want to try it just get yourself a chair and put it next to a wood fire down wind. Hang all your clothes you wanna smoke, they'll be smokey for sure.
 
I was on another forum the other day, someone asked about scent control , which got me thinking about cover scents. Smoke came to mind, and its like this forum reads my mind sometimes. I think we have to think like a deer, I think they learn over time what certain smells are, and what means danger. Now the smell of smoke is in the air often and I don't think deer associate that with danger. Not unless one doe has been in the area when another deer was killed. The American Indian used smoke to cover their scent.
So it makes some sense that deer would think less of the smell of smoke, its a scent in the air , possibly in areas where there wouldn't be a strong scent of smoke might put them on alert.
My friends sister makes goat soap and puts essential oils in the soap, she made us a earth or what she likes to call dirt soap. I know this stuff works as the oils don't leave your skin , so as you sweat it lets off the smell of dirt or earth smell. just like those scent wafers. Now Im wondering if she could do smoke. I'm pretty sure she could. This has been my biggest gripe over scent control products , as they will clean your clothes it cleans you off but once you go in and start to sweat it doesn't cover your scent of sweat.
I've been picked off a few times in the past when not using the soap. I haven't been when using the soap but that doesn't mean the wind wasn't in my favor that day. I often times wonder about all this scent control game with ozonics , I know it works but I'm tired of bringing in things with me smoke scent it weight free, if it really works.
 
Mike Nutto said:
I was on another forum the other day, someone asked about scent control , which got me thinking about cover scents. Smoke came to mind, and its like this forum reads my mind sometimes. I think we have to think like a deer, I think they learn over time what certain smells are, and what means danger. Now the smell of smoke is in the air often and I don't think deer associate that with danger. Not unless one doe has been in the area when another deer was killed. The American Indian used smoke to cover their scent.
So it makes some sense that deer would think less of the smell of smoke, its a scent in the air , possibly in areas where there wouldn't be a strong scent of smoke might put them on alert.
My friends sister makes goat soap and puts essential oils in the soap, she made us a earth or what she likes to call dirt soap. I know this stuff works as the oils don't leave your skin , so as you sweat it lets off the smell of dirt or earth smell. just like those scent wafers. Now Im wondering if she could do smoke. I'm pretty sure she could. This has been my biggest gripe over scent control products , as they will clean your clothes it cleans you off but once you go in and start to sweat it doesn't cover your scent of sweat.
I've been picked off a few times in the past when not using the soap. I haven't been when using the soap but that doesn't mean the wind wasn't in my favor that day. I often times wonder about all this scent control game with ozonics , I know it works but I'm tired of bringing in things with me smoke scent it weight free, if it really works.
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I don't think that smoke is a cover scent, it's a mode of odor reduction. There's a big difference. Personally, I don't believe that cover scents can work. Deer can sort out thousands of odors simultaneously, trying to cover our odor with another odor is just adding one more odor to the scent salad.
The purpose of smoke is to inhibit growth of the bacteria that causes odors. It's the same reason smoke is used to preserve meat. Smoking kills bacteria.
Take some salmon and smoke it. When it's done, what's it smell like...smoke? No, it smells like smoky fish.
I believe in smoke. But I think it needs to be understood what it accomplishes. It's not a cover scent.
 
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Allegheny Tom said:
I don't think that smoke is a cover scent, it's a mode of odor reduction. There's a big difference. Personally, I don't believe that cover scents can work. Deer can sort out thousands of odors simultaneously, trying to cover our odor with another odor is just adding one more odor to the scent salad.
The purpose of smoke is to inhibit growth of the bacteria that causes odors. It's the same reason smoke is used to preserve meat. Smoking kills bacteria.
Take some salmon and smoke it. When it's done, what's it smell like...smoke? No, it smells like smoky fish.
I believe in smoke. But I think it needs to be understood what it accomplishes. It's not a cover scent.
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I agree, but do you believe it may be a double purpose. Bacteria inhibiter and cover scent. I heat my house with a outdoor boiler and hunt woods behind house. Was always trying to hunt wind and decided to hunt deer traffic and trail. That morning wind was at back coming from boiler, smoke was thick through woods, seen more deer that morning and really got me thinking about smoke. That's when I started researching this topic. Really enjoy all the thoughts and comments.
 
JASmith said:
I agree, but do you believe it may be a double purpose. Bacteria inhibiter and cover scent. I heat my house with a outdoor boiler and hunt woods behind house. Was always trying to hunt wind and decided to hunt deer traffic and trail. That morning wind was at back coming from boiler, smoke was thick through woods, seen more deer that morning and really got me thinking about smoke. That's when I started researching this topic. Really enjoy all the thoughts and comments.
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This goes to the larger and complicated subject of wind behavior. What is "down wind"? Its not black and white. There is a huge difference in the core of our scent stream on a humid day, and the fringes of our scent stream under less favorable scenting conditions. Can a cover scent help with fringe odor? Maybe, but it certainly won't be as effective as odor elimination. Smoke is far more effective for odor reduction than it is for a cover scent.

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JASmith said:
If you don't mind, run me through a Allegheny Tom pre hunting prep list!
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Geeze, this could be a long post.
There are a lot of details of details. Some guys think its work. I enjoy the minutia of a hunt.

A portion of my prep is year round. I watch wind behavior daily. I observe flags in peoples yard while I drive. I keep wind indicators in my yard 365.
I grab and store milkweed for future seasons. Its the best wind indicator.
Make wind observations 2nd nature.

I paddle shallow rivers and need to pay close attention to current, obstructions, and eddys. Its taught me a lot about wind behavior.
In a way, all these things are pre hunt prep.

I deodorize gear and protect it from contamination. Nothing new about doing that. Lots of guys use ozone, tubs, launder, etc.

Personal hygiene... everybody showers and brushes teeth before they hunt, right? But like everything else, there are details that make it a little more effective.

Most of what I do isn't unique to me, but its the accumulation of attention to multiple details that I shoot for.
Nothing is 100%, but if I can improve my odds 10%, then that's 1 out of 10 encounters that might go my way. I will take every advantage I can get.

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Allegheny Tom said:
I don't think that smoke is a cover scent, it's a mode of odor reduction. There's a big difference. Personally, I don't believe that cover scents can work. Deer can sort out thousands of odors simultaneously, trying to cover our odor with another odor is just adding one more odor to the scent salad.
The purpose of smoke is to inhibit growth of the bacteria that causes odors. It's the same reason smoke is used to preserve meat. Smoking kills bacteria.
Take some salmon and smoke it. When it's done, what's it smell like...smoke? No, it smells like smoky fish.
I believe in smoke. But I think it needs to be understood what it accomplishes. It's not a cover scent.
Click to expand...
Ok so if that's true now , we clean our clothes in a scent free detergent , which I'm wondering which one really works better. So say we clean our clothes , then smoke them , one we are killing bacteria , but the smell of smoke is there , now if it is killing bacteria I'm sure the deer would smell the smoke smell if I can smell it as well. Would this not be some type of cover scent? I'm also thinking carbon molecules would be trapped in the smoke possibly. I'm going to look that up to see if it might be true. Therefore reducing scent. This could also depends on how much you have to exert yourself to get to your tree and get in it. I would like to be clear I'm not arguing here just trying to look into this deeper.

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Mike Nutto said:
Ok so if that's true now , we clean our clothes in a scent free detergent , which I'm wondering which one really works better. So say we clean our clothes , then smoke them , one we are killing bacteria , but the smell of smoke is there , now if it is killing bacteria I'm sure the deer would smell the smoke smell if I can smell it as well. Would this not be some type of cover scent? I'm also thinking carbon molecules would be trapped in the smoke possibly. I'm going to look that up to see if it might be true. Therefore reducing scent. This could also depends on how much you have to exert yourself to get to your tree and get in it. I would like to be clear I'm not arguing here just trying to look into this deeper.

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I hope I'm not coming off as argumentative, either.
I think too many of us try to equate a deer's sense of smell to ours...not in how acute it is but how humans perceive strengths of competing odors. I believe it's a mistake to think we can cover our odor with another odor.
Deer are said to have olfactory abilities comparable to, or even better than dogs. Law enforcement and now even the medical field is proving just how amazing a dog's sense of smell is. Dogs sort out all kinds of cover scents that drug smugglers use. Dogs locate pretty much every substance they are trained to find. Dogs are now being used to detect cancer.

Odor busts are so complicated. There are a multitude of factors involved. 1st off, we are dealing with animals with individual personalities and makes decisions. Right there, it's hard to define whether something "works" or not. And for the record, I hate the term "works" when it comes to odor reduction. It's way too subjective.
Another factor in odor busts is all the environmental conditions we deal with. Prevailing winds, thermals, eddys, humidity, rain, structure, etc all have an influence on how odor travels.
Yet another factor is the hunter himself. Personal hygiene, individual odor, familiarity the herd has that human, or humans in general, effect the outcome of how an individual deer makes individual decision on a specific encounter.

Back to smoke...
I'm no chemists and I really don't know how smoke works, but thousands of years of human behavior proves that smoke kills bacteria. Man has preserved meat for a long, long time by smoking it. Does it continue to inhibit bacterial growth? Probably. Otherwise, smoking would not preserve meat, it would just give it a smoky flavor.

Smoke, as a cover scent, is completely relative. If it was strictly a cover scent, then the ratio of human odor to smoke odor would remain the same whether the deer is 5 yards away or 500 yards away. The value of smoke is the reduction of the bacteria that allows odors to grow. Can smoke ever "work" as a cover? If deer are smelling smoke, then they are smelling us. It's the reduction in our odor that smoke creates.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
I hope I'm not coming off as argumentative, either.
I think too many of us try to equate a deer's sense of smell to ours...not in how acute it is but how humans perceive strengths of competing odors. I believe it's a mistake to think we can cover our odor with another odor.
Deer are said to have olfactory abilities comparable to, or even better than dogs. Law enforcement and now even the medical field is proving just how amazing a dog's sense of smell is. Dogs sort out all kinds of cover scents that drug smugglers use. Dogs locate pretty much every substance they are trained to find. Dogs are now being used to detect cancer.

Odor busts are so complicated. There are a multitude of factors involved. 1st off, we are dealing with animals with individual personalities and makes decisions. Right there, it's hard to define whether something "works" or not. And for the record, I hate the term "works" when it comes to odor reduction. It's way too subjective.
Another factor in odor busts is all the environmental conditions we deal with. Prevailing winds, thermals, eddys, humidity, rain, structure, etc all have an influence on how odor travels.
Yet another factor is the hunter himself. Personal hygiene, individual odor, familiarity the herd has that human, or humans in general, effect the outcome of how an individual deer makes individual decision on a specific encounter.

Back to smoke...
I'm no chemists and I really don't know how smoke works, but thousands of years of human behavior proves that smoke kills bacteria. Man has preserved meat for a long, long time by smoking it. Does it continue to inhibit bacterial growth? Probably. Otherwise, smoking would not preserve meat, it would just give it a smoky flavor.

Smoke, as a cover scent, is completely relative. If it was strictly a cover scent, then the ratio of human odor to smoke odor would remain the same whether the deer is 5 yards away or 500 yards away. The value of smoke is the reduction of the bacteria that allows odors to grow. Can smoke ever "work" as a cover? If deer are smelling smoke, then they are smelling us. It's the reduction in our odor that smoke creates.
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I'm following you , so then we are killing bacterial which we have on our bodies in general. Which are transmitted to our clothes through sweat heat and maybe dandruff of the skin.
So the first step is us , and what I mean is by cleaning ourselves , them cleaning your clothes then smoking them as that would kill the bacteria as it gets into our clothing. How long would that work for as an over all?
Something could smell like smoke but lose the ability to kill off the bacteria over time I would thing. I also only said that about arguing because this is a complicated subject matter and it may seem like we are getting argumentive. I'm trying to learn something here

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Mike Nutto said:
I'm following you , so then we are killing bacterial which we have on our bodies in general. Which are transmitted to our clothes through sweat heat and maybe dandruff of the skin.
So the first step is us , and what I mean is by cleaning ourselves , them cleaning your clothes then smoking them as that would kill the bacteria as it gets into our clothing. How long would that work for as an over all?
Something could smell like smoke but lose the ability to kill off the bacteria over time I would thing. I also only said that about arguing because this is a complicated subject matter and it may seem like we are getting argumentive. I'm trying to learn something here

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I didn't think you were arguing. I like discussion. It get the wheels turning.
There's not such thing as a single, magic bullet for eliminating odor busts. Even the basic things like brushing teeth has details to it. Showering has details. You can use all the Scent lok or smoke you want, and they do help to a degree. But if you ignore the small details then smoke or carbon is not going to accomplish what you are trying for.
What "works" is subjective and there are a pile of gray areas to the term "works". If a certain product or technique doesn't stop an odor bust, on a humid, calm day with cooling thermals, with a deer that has a low tolerance to odor, 15 yards away in the core of our scent stream, does that mean it didn't "work"? If that technique or product helps my residual odor to dissipate faster and keep the stand fresh longer, then it has worked to a degree. If a deer still busts me, it doesn't mean my tactics were useless and should be abandoned. If that technique, on a different deer on the fringe of the fringe of my scent stream, under more favorable conditions, allows me to get the shot off does it "work"? It can be the exact same hunter, using the exact same odor reduction tactics and on one day he gets away without an extreme bust with one deer of a certain personality, and that same hunter gets busted repeatedly on a different deer or different conditions.
I'm an all of the above guy. Apply attention to as many minute details as possible.
 
Totally agree, this thread has really got me thinking more. The on day my wife asked"do you smell something" I didn't. I think deer are the same. I seen that smart momma doe not only wind me but I watched her show her young where I was! Same day you will watch a young buck stroll right down the same trail you walked in on?? It is great to hear what others think about this subject.
 
DaveT1963 said:
Last time I tired to smoke my clothes I damn near burnt my bottom lip off on a metal snap. That cured me. More power to ya.
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Dave, I lightly smoke my clothes for at least 30-40% of my hunts. It’s not a wonder treatment, but it sure does something.

As far as the efficacy,
My father used to be on a large lease in west Texas, and he convinced 90% of them to start smoking their clothes. Their archery encounters with mature deer went up drastically when they started. The way they did it was hang all the clothes everyone was going to hunt in in an old metal storage shed. Probably a 10x10... then, he would get a bee smoker nice and well lit, and just set it in the shed. They just let is slowly smoke (without further puffing) until it went out on its own. Then, they pulled them out in the morning and went hunting.

All the guys told him he was crazy when he started... 2 years later, they all swore by it.


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JASmith said:
Totally agree, this thread has really got me thinking more. The on day my wife asked"do you smell something" I didn't. I think deer are the same. I seen that smart momma doe not only wind me but I watched her show her young where I was! Same day you will watch a young buck stroll right down the same trail you walked in on?? It is great to hear what others think about this subject.
Click to expand...

I love this example. I had a sit last year where a young buck (2.5) cross my downwind at about 60 yards with absolutely no reaction. An hour later, a mature buck looked like he hit a brick wall when he hit it... different deer will always have different reactions.


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Deer can defiantly decipher different scents but one thing I will add is they are a simple minded critter as well. If they don't have a reason to test the wind for something extra theres a fair amount of time they wont notice that something extra. Especially if they have something else in mind.

With that being said there are some that refuse to get killed for love. I can see smoke working even better if you could smoke your body as well.
 
IkemanTX said:
I love this example. I had a sit last year where a young buck (2.5) cross my downwind at about 60 yards with absolutely no reaction. An hour later, a mature buck looked like he hit a brick wall when he hit it... different deer will always have different reactions.


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Click to expand...
This is what I had said at some point , They do learn that certain things don't belong there. So say you went into the middle of hard woods away from houses far enough that the smell of smoke wasn't present , this could trigger a bust. I think the only way to see if it works is to smoke your clothes. Now the next question is it just better to use ozonics in your bag? and not worry? The other part is our own body. Ive noticed no matter what I do im going to sweat, I walk in , now Im using first light clothes and supposedly the wool is supposed to help remove scent naturally. I really dont know if that's true. I like their camo pattern fusion I think you blend in better then with real tree stuff that looks like a mess. Anyway I think I will have to pull out the smoker Im pretty sure my father still has his we use to keep bees when I was younger, I will have to ask him next time I see him.
The fact that it would kill bacteria is what im mostly interested in. My next thing is the soap my friends sister make us with the goat milk and essential oils , I have to chat with her. There is a whole new deal on the tv with this foam that you wipe on yourself to keep your dander down. Im thinking there is science behind it but I have more questions on weather it works
One other thing what do you guys like to use on your boots? this year I didn't get busted per say, but I did notice a doe stop on my track , she didn't alert of blow but she knew something was up. I had just had a spike walk under me so I had to question if she stopped because of him. Yet Im pretty sure she picked up, either my heat signal or something from my boots. Now I had sprayed them down. This year Im going to try putting my boots in a scent free tub but Im not sure smoking them would be the best idea , I could be wrong though
 
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