Smoke as a cover scent
Elk
So I read this quote on Page 47 of the July/Aug issue of Bugle magazine.
"....Fires are great for smores, but if I'm bedding down with the herd, the last thing I want is smoke in my clothes."
Given the fact that fires are pretty common in elk country during September, I thought that smoke might actually be a good thing to have in my clothes.
Any thoughts?
With that said, I usually just hunt the wind and don't worry about cover scents when I elk hunt because I am usually sweating much
I don't know about elk but it has been my experience that moose are indifferent to objects that smell of natural wood smoke. Especially, (obviously) when I hunt old burns that are rich in second growth but still have a lot of charred trees and stumps.
They could possibly react more to the smoke itself but I've also seen them downwind of cabins that have wood smoke coming out of the chimney.
I live on a reservation and most of the Cree hunters here smell of smoke from campfires and from smoked moosehide footwear, mittens, and hats.
I think it depends on how acclimatized a particular animal is to it.
Shoot, the indians used to sit in a smoke house until they had a fine layer of ash on their body to mask their scent.
I'm surprised we haven't seen the next big product innovation "Ash Rub" cream or lotion for that " I empty dive bar ashtrays for a living scent"
There is absolutely nothing that will mask your scent, so the best thing you can do is have as little scent as possible.
I have several friends who used this for whitetails last year and had great results. I tried it this past Spring while hog hunting and I'm a FIRM believer in it. I had three wild, free range, and heavily hunted hogs 25 yards down wind for 20 minutes and they didn't care one or notice me one bit. My experience was very similar to my friends in Ohio. If I were going elk hunting I'd be smoking my clothes up for sure.
www.scentsmoker.com
I wonder how closely related smoke is to activated charcoal...hmmmmm.....
fill your pockets with poop what ever animal your hunting collect there poop and fill your pockets
I get much closer to deer when I'm wearing my buckskins (not in gun season), than in camo and the buckskins reek of 100 campfires. I had an older fawn, no spots, folow Me all over the woods while squirrel hunting. When I'd sit down she'd lay down and wait for me to get up then follow me again.
similar to Big Dan. We used it often in Africa, when the PH thought the wind swirling would hurt us. He burned the dung Inside the blind, and it worked fine.
I mentioned this in the article of "Big Game Adventures" "Mboggo bull with one Arrow"
I just got one of the scent smokers and will be giving it a try this fall. I had one experience with a trash fire upwind covering my scent to deer downwind, Worked great.
www.scentsmoker.com
Heck, put some bacon in your smoker and go bear hunting, then you could be the bait.
are you all confusing bigD with Big dan???
Anyway I often wondered how well you can mask odor look at dogs they smell all odors but they also can seperate and distinguish odors as well. Look what dogs can do with drugs. People are always smuggling drugs with coffee or other things but the dogs still sperate the odors. Just my thoughts I am by no means an expert.
I always use under garmits with silver woven and this will get into contact with the bacteria that is the actual cause of odor. Then the silver will burn off the bacteria. This is what the astronauts use to eliminate odors as well.
Whump Sez; Well If I am going to pick---Ill take smoke over scat any day! I would hate to get that stuff mixed up with the dried fruit I carry in my pocket. Hunt safe.
Once again, although the animals may not spook at the smell of smoke, it isn't going to stop them from smelling you. I have talked to a number of K-9 officers and they have said there isn't anything you can use that will cover up your scent. I have frequently seen hogs sleeping right inside the rotting carcass of buffalo or cattle, but if you get upwind they will smell you in a SECOND! I have had bowhunters stalk the piles of dead cattle at a stockyard to the point where I had to have them ride in the bed of the pickup on the way home because the stink had saturated them and their clothing, but if the wind changed the pigs would bolt in a second. Just because there was smoke and animals didn't smell you, it dosn't mean it was because of the smoke.
I have to smile from time to at the ideas and things we hunters think of. For many years, I tried every new miracle product that hit the street and 90% of the old wive's tales. Then I realzized, other than being clean, there just wasn't a heck of a lot you could do.
I guess the crowning blow was when a group of five elk smelled me and spooked. They were about 400 yards across a meadow and the wind was not even directly at them. I took off my high dollar scent eliminating clothes and gave my high dollar scent eliminating sprays away and just went hunting.
If the wind is wrong, you get smelled. But shoot, if something gives you confidence, go for it. What's it hurt.
Interesting. Love this site...always wondering about this issue. Seems like we have two issues going on here. #1 Does it cover your scent and #2 Does if spook game.
Years ago after about five days living out of a backpack, wearing the same clothes and busting my a** at timberline I stunk... Occasionally I rinsed out my long underwear or a splash bath at a stream…but pretty much got stinkier day by day…actually hour by hour.
Then I became a freak about staying clean (sunshower), scent free soaps, scent lock, spraying on scent killers, ( started using llamas so I could carry more)wearing neoprene gloves all the time while hunting and not leaving scent from my hands as I made my way through my hunting area. It made a difference.
Most of us have seen a bird dog work and the way they react to fresh hot scent, old scent, sometime snapping their head to the air like hmmm what was that?..,not getting any more scent and then going back to what they are doing. I look at scent like tiny balloons. If you dump the more balloons you have drifting anywhere the more chances to get busted…the less….less. I hunt in the west and its notorious swirling winds….have not had a fire in many years not wanting to risk the smoke issue…I will follow this thread and maybe have a fire or two this year
Ted
I don't currently use any scent products and haven't for over 10 years. I just hunt the wind period. But because I was asked I will give this smoker thing a try. I don't think anyone is saying it is a scent eleminator just a scent confuser that may help someone get a shot. My take anyway. I will give it a try and see what happens.
Doug
In Australia during the dry season, there are brush fires everywhere. Its common to see buffalo, cattle, donkeys, horses etc. standing just downwind of the fire in the thickest part of the smoke, why? It keeps the flies off of them! Its great for stalking, because you can see what way the wind is blowing, because even with thick smoke everywhere, they will still smell you in a heart beat if you get upwind. We often come in from a days hunting black with soot, its never stopped anything from smelling us.
So we have one of those conflicting report issue's here. And by very successful bow hunters. Gotta try it myself and see. :)
My daddy told me in 1974 to never hunt down wind. I'll bet that that still holds true today. You may get by with smoke on you and you may not but keep the wind right and you can smell like a truck load of skunks and you will still get close enough for a shot. I smell like a sweaty horse all elk season long but still get it done every year. Play the wind boys and you can't go wrong. We have swirling winds all the time and when that happens you don't kill much game in New Mexico.
This may sound weird but this stuff works great for scent control. I take a sock and fill it up and then tie it off to make a dusting bag that I dust down with before I go out on a hunt each day. It's called Chinchilla Dust and it's made for Chinchillas to clean them selves with. Spend the $5.00 and do a little test, take one drop of gas and put it on your hand then take some of this dust and rub it around. It will remove all of the gas smell and it will remove all smells that I have found.
I am firmly convinced that deer are scared to death of chinchillas. I have seen one chinchilla run an entire herd of deer out of the high fence enclosure we kept the mice in. We had to stop booking hunts for three weeks and were forced to kill all but 88 of the chinchillas.
Those we used to bait our black panther traps.
Sorry 7sdad, just couldn't resist. :)
LOL, Thanks I needed a good laugh this morning, but the stuff does work to keep your scent down when your unable to bath on a long hunt.
It works Great for Bear hunts, but! I had some liquid smoke spill on my boots while on a bear hunt once and after the bear hunt I went on a deer hunt only to stink up my area with the smoke smell. A smaller deer (6 Point) crossed the trail I left and darn year left his hide behind as he bolted out when getting a wiff of the smoke smell. /// On the other side we had a controled burn in a forty next to a woods I hunt last year. About two to three week after the burn the deer were in that field like they were drawen by a magnet. It seem that there is no real answer to that question - deer seem to have a seventh-sent and some how know if the smell is good or bad for their well-being.
thesqid, did it dawn on you it wasn't the smoke that sent the deer running? Your human scent was most likely the reason for his alarm. Your scent was no doubt mixed in with the smoke smell!!
ElkNut1
I use my eyes, ears and nose while elk hunting. If I would cover up with smoke, elk pee, etc, I would never be able to use one of my tools, ie, my nose, as these smoke/pee/etc smells would mask any natural elk smells that may help me determine if there are elk in the area.
Once I was hunting deer and it started snowing. We go 12 " that day. I gave up and started a fire to keep warm. I had 3 deer follow the smoke trail almost right to my fire.
Now that was deer, not elk, and all that. But of all the things I would worry about, wood smoke would not be high on the list. Hunt the wind, and the rest dosen't matter that much. I agree that nothing is really going to cover all you scent. The ScentLock stuff when it is new, probably works about the best, but I'm sure that it has a life span, and doesn't last forever.
I too know that the PH's in Africa burn Zebra dung, but that requires a pretty sedintary stand, which I would imagine that you wouldn't have running up and down the mountains chasing elk.
LBB
Drug couriers, seal their product in ziploc bags, wrap it in shrinkwarp plastic, cover it entirely in duct tape and then smear grease all over the entire package and drug sniffing dogs still can pick it up, a little smoke isn't going to cover your scent.
Aside from the human scent overpowering any cover-up scents, my former science training (when I stayed awake) would suggest that concentrated stale smoke on clothes smells different, from a metabolic standpoint, than airborne smoke particles from a distant fire.
One of the guys here always starts his kill stories with "I was in my stand and just lit up a cigarette when..."
Yes ElkNut1 there was most likely some thing else along with the smoke smell - maybe steped on some oil or a thousand other things but I spray my boots down often etc. so it's easy to say it was the smoke. I don't have this problem otherwise -?- Anyway, I stay clear of the smoke now.
One thing that I've learned from hunting whitetails is that you will never be able to cover your sent completely. I believe masking is a myth but a cover scent can trigger a curious behavior that will cause the animal to forget about the human scent for maybe long enough to get a shot off. I shot a whitetail with my longbow that came 150 yards directly downwind from me. I was using an tarsal gland scent hanging from a few sent wicks. I knew she smelled me beacuse she was stomping her front hoof. I didn't think I had a prayer at sticking her. Sure enough, the gland scent I was using drew her into within 15 yards and I took her from a ground blind. I don't know if this will work for elk, never tried it but the point is the scent acted as more of an attractant then a cover scent. Take it for what it's worth.
This thread makes me think of a friend of mine sitting in the smoke trail elk hunting. One of the other hunters asked him if he was concerned about the smoke scent, he replied, "Heck no, elk smell smoke, elk smell me!". He killed a fine bull the next day, by hunting the wind. bwhntr
I know of a guy thats testing a product now that uses hardwood smoke on your close. He said it was very promising. You guys may know of the guy...his name is Mike Rex from Ohio. He test different products and gives them reveiws for different companies. I have a friend that worked with him and says he's a trust worthy guy and has nothing to gain from the product so who knows.
Will you guys just hunt the wind & forget about trying to cover your scent!!! You will get burned, elk depend on their noses for survival & are darned good about it! Don't take the chance with the hype of advertisements & new stuff, hunt the wind & you're good to go, there's no precautionary measures & it's free!! (grin)
ElkNut1
Thats all good if the wind never changes. I too am a believer in you cant fool a deer or elks nose but I still try to keep the scent down to as little as I can. Keep clean and keep down wind if I can. I still believe hardwood smoke may hold some promise.
In Jay Massey's book Alaska's Wild Rivers or 1000 Campfires he mentions using smoke and believes it helps. Caribou became curious, it beats human scent any day.
When one of these cover scents, scent blocker cloths, etc fools bloodhounds I'll buy. Till then I use baby powder in a puff bottle.
Elknut I have killed enough game with my bow without using anything but the wind. A little experimenting won't hurt me. If it doesn't help, well I'll just go back to filling all my tags without it. Too many positive testimony's, I got to give it a try. Someone tried a popup for turkeys once, what an idiot. :)
Playing the wind is the best hands down, but you all know how that wind swirls with the thermals running across the hot and cool spots of an ungulating mountain side. If a scent besides human odor can cause an animal to think twice and give you a shot, I think it's to your advantage then to try it.
I'm with you Doug, Just got my smoker. I know there are a lot of carbon molecules given off in smoke, I wonder how they might work similar to the activated carbon suits, at least ways in the same principle. And like you said too many people who I know are using them and believing in them.
