Smoking on stand
Wisconsin
Just curious how many guys smoke on stand? I am one who feels the smell of a cigarette covers my human sent and does not spook dear. Case and point, I had a doe fawn come in this morning and bed 12 yds away, dead down wind, I when it was time for me to get up I decided to have a cig figuring she would smell that and walk away without me having to spook her. Well, smoked the entire thing, blowing the smoke in her direction and she didn't seem bothered one bit. This is not my first experience with deer not being afraid of the smell, in fact, I shot my biggest buck at ten yds while smoking. Just curious if others have had the same experiences as me.
A fawn is dumber then dirt. Smoking is not conducive to many future fall hunts. Smoke has a scent not natural in the woods.As long as the deer is upwind smoke,stinky clothes, farts, ect. doesn't matter.
I agree with Howatt. I do believe however that deer can associate certain scents with humans, but with that said, since there are very hunters who smoke they don't make the correlation. It may have been different back in the 60s-80s when there were more smokers overall. If anything they're likely more curious then alert.
If this worked do ya think some rube would have already marketed a corn flavored incense little smudgepot? Heck instead of hanging the garments on the back porch or in a hermadically sealed cooler with an ozone unit lets put them in chain smokin Uncle Jimmys car for a month of curing...
I agree, kick the habit for your own sake. Lost a brother-in-law 2 months ago to lung cancer and he wasn't even a smoker.
I've killed my biggest bucks while not smoking or using cover scent, or using attractant scents, or peeing out of my stand... just sayin...
I Lost my Dad and my Sister to Lung Cancer. This will be my first Deer Hunt with out my Dad. I was a two pack a day smoker until 11 years ago when I quit. I'm not sure what your success rate is, but I have seen and shot way more Deer since I quit smoking and I know that me not smoking is the reason. I see more deer now, and there are less deer in the woods to see.11+ years ago there were deer everywhere except around me, I got most of my deer on drives. good luck.
I believe the Motion caused by smoking, and the discarded butts with saliva on them spook deer.
I do not believe that the actually cigerette smoke bothers them at all, as the most successful hunter in our group over the last 40 years, was a chain smoker (and also a very good hunter)
i remember reading Myles Keller saying he chewed and spit on stand trying to make as little movement as possible. Reasoning is he enjoyed it and it kept him on stand longer. Anything that can keep you out there...
One of many comical hunting stories. Years ago my chain smoking uncle was sitting in his usual ground blind not far from me in the woods. I could never see exactly where he was. I was perched in a careless platform stand built right into a group of trees. Anyway, I heard him coughing/hacking and not a minute later a group of does came out of the woods right from his direction (obviously originally were heading right to him. ) As soon as the biggest one presented a shot, I obliged & filled my hunters choice tag (anyone remember those? ) I was happy & proud. Deer weren't easy for us to see at that time. Great strategy. Guess this could have been posted on the fail thread from my uncle's point of view!
Depends upon what you're smoking.
I smoke on stand!
That being said - I wish I never started. Terrible and expensive - but I do enjoy a smoke.
Deer -I hardly ever get busted. Dont wash my clothes in special soaps, dont do any scent control at all. BUT...I do smoke on stand.
Is it the smoke...I dont know...maybe.
I believe everyone has a different chemical make up and we all disperse different levels of "scent." I have a friend who hunts deer with a bow and he has the bad luck of getting busted more often thn anyone I know. He's a very good hunter and spends hours and hours in the woods.
I think the smoke in my situation has helped me - should have quit 10 year ago - I feel good...but who knows. Never start!
Who cares if it spooks deer or not. Keep doing it and "you're" the one that's going to die !!
+1 bloodtrail
Completely agree
Funny little story-
My brother in-law who just happened to pass away from cancer and I were hunting a farm near Westfield years ago. I shoot video for a living and agreed to record his morning hunt. Back then it was with a VHS camcorder and I could not see anything through the lens in the low light. In the predawn, I watched the shadow of a basket buck walk right up the tree line at him. He was having a smoke on stand. I know this cause I could see the glow of his cigarette. The buck walked right under him and little to his right. He had no idea it was there because the ground was wet from a morning rain. Now mind you, we didn't sit very high in the tree back then, maybe six to eight feet off the ground. We didn't have portable tree stands and made our own wooden stands and were uncomfortable going higher. He went to flick his cigarette on the ground and it bounced off the head, (we assumed) of the buck straight back into his lap. He jumped about a foot, cursing, and yelling, off of his stand as the cigarette caught his nylon pants and started to burn. The buck jumped about 3 feet up and 20 feet out as he had no idea he was there. I laughed so hard I about fell out of my stand and needless to say we didn't get that deer.
Howatt, the deer bedded on a ridge at eye level, there is no way she did not smell it, while I do believe that a more mature deer would not be as complacent, I also think that the smoke sort of works like a nose jammer. Two days before this, I had a mature 8 pt come down a bluff right through my scent cone at 25 yds and stop broadside to feed in the field. The only reason he didn't get whacked was because the neighbors fence Is 22 yds. Not trying to start an argument, simply stating another experience.
Never going to convince me that any deer but a fawn will hang around cigarette smoke. Winds do things we don't see.
A pack a day is the monthly payment on a boat or piece of land. And your not killing yourself or your family.
Quit pal, your house is cleaner, your car, your clothes. Just quit.
This may piss some off, but oh well. People that smoke don't realize how bad they stink. If you smoke and get/see deer while doing it, it's due to luck and or thermals.
I totally agree that it is a terrible, stinky, expensive habit. Definately a habit I hope to attain the willpower to break, I am certainly not arguing that point. And I hunt farm country so it is much easier to play the wind. It does keep me on stand longer and of the experiences I have had, my terrible, stinky, expensive habit does not seem to bother the deer that do happen to come from an unexpected direction, or I let pass and they enter into my scent cone. I was simply inquiring about other smokers experiences of downwind deer. I feel like my hunting buddies, all of whom are non smokers, seem to get winded more than I do.
Crusader, stink is stink. It comes in many forms. Your buddies who get busted more might not wipe as well, or their perspiration stinks greater, or their boots stink?
I have a buddy who has shot some dandies. He smokes. He stinks! I can ruin a pair of boots in a month. That stink is horrible. We have an ongoing joke. We are hunting deer that walk with the wind. I do know that mature deer use their nose way better than a fawn or 1.5 or 2.5. Some would say they're smarter. I would say true, only because every experience (good or bad) with a human likely teaches them that that cigarette or foot odor or butt-stink or urine below the stand or store bought deer scent or soap you used to wash etc. Is attributed to possible danger. Deer and people don't hang out.
I have sat in a 8 foot ladder stand before, with falling thermals, and no wind, and literally watch the smoke cloud I exhaled, float down and hit multiple does in the face. There was no negative reaction.
As I posted earlier, I think smoke from a cig, fire, or woodstove is all the same to deer. But the motion of smoking or stinky saliva butt on the ground does affect deer negatively.
To be honest with you. The only people who think smoking doesn't bother deer are "smokers"...who are trying to justify there habit. Smokers stink, so does their clothes and everything they contact. Do yourself a favor...quit and not worry about it.
I often have to wonder where these pristine unmolested hunting areas are in this state. Where wildlife has never been in contact with human smells.
So no I dont believe the smell of smoke bothers them. How often they encounter it, and the scenario in which they do. May dictate their reactions to the scent. Just like with any other scent they encounter. I would believe the actions from smoking may be more harmful. Lots of movement, or the hacker are far worse.
