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when to smoke

Sniper4hire said:
Tom,
First, my beef is primarily with commercial voodoo products. Second, I'm not smoking my clothes, or building fires to get deer when my methods work just as well with less BS to deal with. The best way would be to roll in wet mud, then fire ash, you gonna try that even once? let alone every hunt, because that will work. Its tough being the grounded guy in this group that likes to cut the crap and work with facts and experience (not that I'm the only one, just the only one who will say what should be said). I don't say the things I say to be an A-Whole, although I know thats what it appears. I just know what I know from first hand work, such as with Ozone mojo, which ive crossed paths with in my professional life several times, and this scent loc fantasy, which believe me, is a fantasy. You throw in everything else in between, and guys are out there compromising sound hunting practices for false technology. Its an industry that's profit oriented. That says it all.
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I was just poking a little.
I read some contradictions in a couple places.
So, if smoke worked for you one time, then how is it that a blanket statement can imply that you can never fool a deer's nose?

With all due respect to anyone who states its impossible, that is pure crap. Odor is not static. The intensity and age is not measured by narrow criteria. There is strong odor and fringe odor, there is new odor and old odor (almost imperceptible even by deer) and there are a multitude of weather conditions. Put all that together and then apply it to an animal that makes decisions based upon its life experiences.
To imply that all odor reduction is a fantasy is short sighted.
Can we become completely odorless? No. Can we improve our odds by reducing odor? You bettcha.
 
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Allegheny Tom said:
I was just poking a little.
I read some contradictions in a couple places.
So, if smoke worked for you one time, then how is it that a blanket statement can imply that you can never fool a deer's nose?

With all due respect to anyone who states its impossible, that is pure crap. Odor is not static. The intensity and age is not measured by narrow criteria. There is strong odor and fringe odor, there is new odor and old odor (almost imperceptible even by deer) and there are a multitude of weather conditions. Put all that together and then apply it to an animal that makes decisions based upon its life experiences.
To imply that all odor deduction is a fantasy is short sighted.
Can we become completely odorless? No. Can we improve our odds by reducing odor? You bettcha.
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Still a crap shoot then isn't it? So anybody who adopts the philosophy "just hunt" is naive and taking a huge risk.
There is no contradiction in my posts. I described an incident, completely unrepeatable and not feasible in any way to duplicate as a practice
 
Sniper4hire said:
There is none. Stand approach and placement and stand rotation. There is NOTHING you can do to fool a deers nose.
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I completely agree with this. Also agree with playing wind and thermals. When I smoked up my clothes, I was under no false pretense that I was eliminating any of my human smell. If you want to do that, you better be able to hold your breath a loooooonnnnnngggggggg time. I smoked my clothes to act as (maybe) a mask to hopefully give a couple extra seconds while the deer figure it out if there is downwind activity, as alot of people burn wood around here and deer are used to it. Nothing more.
 
Sniper4hire said:
Still a crap shoot then isn't it? So anybody who adopts the philosophy "just hunt" is naive and taking a huge risk.
There is no contradiction in my posts. I described an incident, completely unrepeatable and not feasible in any way to duplicate as a practice
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I am 100% hunt the wind and I am 100% odor reduction...all of the above.
Neither are 100% in of themselves. And both together are not 100%. Nothing is.
Even within each camp there are dozens of important details. Just wearing Scentlock or using O3 is a tiny piece of an odor reduction regimen.
Same with hunting the wind.
What do you do on properties with limited viable stand locations? What do you do when the wind is boarder line for your stands? What do you do when a deer walks downwind where it isn't supposed to. What do you do when you educate deer at night after you've left the woods or even days later?
Answer...You do the best you can on all aspects of the hunt. Start with odor reduction, and put it in context with wind patterns and be realistic about your expectations. No, you cannot eliminate odor but you can reduce it. Your odds of deer on the fringes of your scent cone, accepting your lower level of odor are better.
The worst thing a hunter does is to educate the deer they are trying to kill. The residual odor that a "dirty" hunter leaves behind is detected for more days than that of a "clean" hunter. There are lots of mistakes that a sloppy hunter makes that educate deer. Mis-hunting the wind and poor odor reduction regimen are just 2 mistakes. Put as many details in your favor as possible.
Describing odor reduction as a fantasy is naive.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 
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Allegheny Tom said:
I am 100% hunt the wind and I am 100% odor reduction...all of the above.
Neither are 100% in of themselves. And both together are not 100%. Nothing is.
Even within each camp there are dozens of important details. Just wearing Scentlock or using O3 is a tiny piece of an odor reduction regimen.
Same with hunting the wind.
What do you do on properties with limited viable stand locations? What do you do when the wind is boarder line for your stands? What do you do when a deer walks downwind where it isn't supposed to. What do you do when you educate deer at night after you've left the woods or even days later?
Answer...You do the best you can on all aspects of the hunt. Start with odor reduction, and put it in context with wind patterns and be realistic about your expectations. No, you cannot eliminate odor but you can reduce it. Your odds of deer on the fringes of your scent cone, accepting your lower level of odor are better.
The worst thing a hunter does is to educate the deer they are trying to kill. The residual odor that a "dirty" hunter leaves behind is detected for more days than that of a "clean" hunter. There are lots of mistakes that a sloppy hunter makes that educate deer. Mis-hunting the wind and poor odor reduction regimen are just 2 mistakes. Put as many details in your favor as possible.
Describing odor reduction as a fantasy is naive.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
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Nicely stated, with exception to your last sentence. I never said "odor reduction" its scent elimination that's a fantasy. And IMO, odor reduction is almost useless as well. Its a diminishing return task. a 1000 variables exist between us all, and one thing for sure, we ALL leave the residual odor thing, thus the stand rotation. There is more to all this than can be relayed in snippets of discussion in a forum. You and I could talk one on one for hours and never resolve the gap between our philosophys. The point I will stand on, and the discussion is done for me, is, if you're counting on scent loc, or ozonics in open air to rescue you from more diligent hunt set-ups, you're kidding yourself.
 
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swampsnyper said:
I have no scientific data but the last 2 or 3 years I’ve been doing it, I hadn’t noticed any deer scent me and spook like I have in the past.
I hang all my clothes on a clothes line and use a bee smoker.
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After reading your post I got to thinking....

I hang mine outside and try to do it in a spot where the breeze isn’t blowing too much. Now I have a pop up blind. I’m going to hang my clothes in the blind and smoke em in there. Kills two birds with one stone.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
Following.
I bought a bee smoker and I plan to smoke this year for the 1st time, so I'm by no means an expert.
But I believe there are 2 different aspects to smoking...
Cover scent, which I'm not confident in at all. I believe deer have the ability to smell and decipher thousands of odors simultaneously. I don't believe cover scents work.
What I do believe smoke will do for us is it reduces bacterial growth. Inhibiting bacterial growth is one of the reasons why smoking preserves meat...bacteria is the main cause of why deer smell us.

My plan is to smoke my body and my clothes/gear as I'm getting dressed at my vehicle. But since it's not yet something I have done, I'm not sure how easily I can do it. I think its mostly an issue with keeping smoke contained around me while I'm dressing. I've thought of a few possible solutions but I have not tried them yet.
So, are any of you guys smoking just prior to the hunt? Any problems that you've encountered with that approach?

Also, what fuel are you using? I've read about "clean" smoke for use in bee keeping but it the fuel that we use important?
I've read that pine needles make good fuel. It's what I planned to try.

I need to start experimenting with this. I've had that smoker for a few months now and it's not been used yet...gotta get that figured out.
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I made a canvas shower stall for camping... You could set that up by your truck, put on your TimberPimp, Set inside on a stool and read a book, W/ a roaring fire inside. Walla, no smell.
 
Blacksmith said:
I made a canvas shower stall for camping... You could set that up by your truck, put on your TimberPimp, Set inside on a stool and read a book, W/ a roaring fire inside. Walla, no smell.
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Depends on what your sitting on reading that book. First thing in the AM after a cup of coffee, I bet there's a smell.
 
Going to give this a shot this year. Also going to use milkweed to check not only the wind, but thermals as well. Burning the leaves and twigs with the clothes hanging in the top posts of the blind definitely was effective.
Smoke.PNG
 
BuckTown said:
Going to give this a shot this year. Also going to use milkweed to check not only the wind, but thermals as well. Burning the leaves and twigs with the clothes hanging in the top posts of the blind definitely was effective.
View attachment 34664
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And this is the inside of that blind!
6cad773c53408fb1306e718f79338d41.jpg
 
Paddling out last night I seen 5 raccoons....I got to thinking about this thread and using cover scent..... So what if u made some coon or possum booties to help cover ground scent. Shape it like those little booties some workers will put on before coming in your house or get in ur car etc....I worry about ground scent more than my person and I hear other people will put coon pee cover scent on the bottom of their boots.... Fur on the outside/bottom of a coonboot would quiet your steps and cover ur scent possibly? Definitely look funny/weird....maybe I should post on the timberpimp thread?
 
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