ORIGINAL: Hoytail Hunter
ORIGINAL: GregH
My interesting story is that I smoke in my stand, pee out of my stand and sometimes cough while in my stand. While I don't recommend it, the funny part of the story is that I kill some decent bucks once in a while.
I don't have any cousins that hunt so I usually go by myself.
Well Greg, since I want to be like you "when I grow up",
I might have to rethink my hunting game plan. Maybe smoke and pee aren't asdetrimental as I thought?
Geee, now I'm confused. Why then is it, that deer patterns and travel routes start changing as soon as hunting season opens? I take it that it's moreso due to the violent encounters they havewith hunters rather than the scent that those hunters are leaving in the woods? But, if that's the case thenshouldn't they alsoassociate those smells belonging to those hunters with the violent encounters they've had with them too?
And if smoking and peeing out of your stand isn't that detrimental then why is it that scent control is the number one thing stressed when it comes to bowhunting? I guess that the deer aren't so much afraid of those smells as the smells (for example your sweat or breath) that tell them there's a live predator in the area right that second?
Hoytail,
if you want to be like me when you grow up, then you'll have to start paying much more attention to the wind. The whole idea is to
not let the deer know you are there. By making the wind direction my number one concern when choosing a stand and carefully picking my entrance and exit routes, I could basically grill a hamburger on a hibachi if it weren't for the visual and audio sounds that it'd produce. There's other details involved also, such as, I don't smoke in the mornings until the sun is up and the thermals are rising and I don't smoke during the last hour in the evening when they are falling. I carry a container so ashes and butts never hit the ground. Like I said, I don't recommend it, but I am weak and I smoke. I am going to try and kick the habit by the first of the year. I'm doing it purely for my health, seeing more deer may be a side benefit. It surly won't change the way I use the wind when I hunt.
Peeing from your stand won't hurt your chances of seeing deer either. It has been written that it may actually help. If I can help it, I won't pee from my stand, but if I gotta go, I go. Last year I actually had a 10 pointer come under my stand and thrash the brush where I peed with his antlers.
Lastly, you got to hunt for yourself and hunt smarter than those other hunters rather then come on here and whine about it. If they are screwing up your area so bad either get a new area or move to a more remote location where the others haven't screwed it up. That's where the deer will be.
The bottom line is that it really is about the wind. I don't care what scent containing, scent killer you wear or spray is, if the wind is blowing directly from you to the deer, he's gonna smell you.
Here's my personal scent control regimen:
1) Shower the evening before so my pores aren't wide open when I step out into the cold.I use any regular shampoo and Irish spring soap.
2) When I get up I apply my old spice deoderant and put on fresh, regularly washed underwear, socks and tee-shirt.
3)Then I put on my long underwear and remainder of my hunting clothes (mostly Treebark) that are only washed in plain water and air dried outside.
4) Check the weather (wind) one more time and jump in the truck and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes all the way there while listening to Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon. Really loud.
5) A good one for the way home is Queens....Another one bites the dust.[:-]
Side note: Every stand I set has a down wind side that blows my scent totally away from or over the top of deer that come from where they aren't supposed to. If the wind isn't right I won't hunt.
Oops, I forgot to mention that I'm big on the use of a particular cover scent.... I stand around in my buddies dairy barn BSing with him while he's milking. Works pretty good.
Good luck to you in your hunts.