That is an amazing coincidence about smoking your clothes. Two years ago I had heard about that, and how ol timers at deer camps would do that for a cover scent. That year I hung my clothes in the garage and burned leaves from the yard in a portable fire pit and smothered them to create a dense smoke. Honest to goodness two days later when I removed my clothes from the scent away bag it would almost gag you, but wore them anyway. Had a doe and a yearling walk dead down wind of me and never bat an eye. However it was a one time test, because I just couldn't hardly stand the smell and washed my clothes that night.....lol. Perhaps I will buckle up and give it another try and see what happens on multiple outings and keep a diary of results. I have however always hunted the wind.
Smoking your clothes is better then the extremes I used to go to. I used to wear the carbon suits (waste of cash in my humble opinion) wash all my clothes every day,Wash my hands in scent free soap before I would even take them out of the drier, spray down and rinse the washer and drier before uses, keep them in multiple scent safe bags, strip down to my underwear in the freezing cold, in the dark, many yards away from the truck, spray down with each layer. I am not the kind of guy who wants the cure all no worries about the wind solution. In fact it is all the little details that make hunting and especially success seem all the sweeter. I just know there is a point of ridiculous as well, and I crossed that line and was sucking the fun right out of the sport and lots of cash out of my wallet. During the rut I will sit on stand 12+ hours a day then come home and go through all the hoopla to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep at best and do it again the next day. Anyone who has hunted all day like that knows that it is exhausting without making things more difficult.
So as odd as it sounds, last year....I tried not washing my clothes everyday, but every other hunt (unless I really worked up a sweat) and just hunted the wind. In true statistics, I found that my sightings were just as successful with the wind in my face. But you are right, swirling winds and bad thermals, and smart bucks circling your stand will kill the moment in a hearbeat. I will take all the precautions neccesary, just trying to figure out what neccessary is. Thanks for the posts guys. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and respond to my posts.