Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

I am a smoker, soon to be ex-smoker hopefully. Anyways, we have 10 deer that we are raising and believe it or not they love cigarettes. If I go in the pen w/ a pack of smokes they will steal them and eat them. I know this post is probably gonna hurt, for me, because of all the bashing Im about to endure. But.. Last year I didnt have a tree-stand so I hunted ground blinds and I also just sat next to trees with ground cover. While hunting one evening I hadnt seen a thing and didnt expect to. I lit a cigarette and began to pack up (from the ground) when a doe and 2 fawns came in from downwind and stopped about 15yds away sniffing the air. Busted..but for some reason they paid more attention to the cigarette smoke floating in the air than me drawing my bow, and I was sitting in a wide open spot. Just dumb luck right... I had several trips last year that started with no deer anywhere and ended with me smoking and deer walking up within 30yds. I also had trips where I left my cigarettes in the truck to keep me from smoking while hunting and saw nothing. IMO deer are naturally curious and the smell of the cigarette must have drawn them in to check it out. Unfortunatly for the deer I got 2 does and an 8pt using this dumb luck stratagy. Has anyone else done anything that should have sent deer running but instead they came in?

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

My dad has hunted from a 10' ladder stand for as long as I can remember. He always carries a thermos full of coffee and smokes on stand, and kills multiple deer each year.I used to get irked when he'd drive us to the farm, and smoke in his truck, after I just took a scent free shower, and washed all my hunting clothes in scent free soap, and bagged em up with pine branches, etc. I don't let it bother me any more.

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

also my dad is almost always sick opening day of shotgun season. Its funny cuz I can hear him hacking and trying to clear his thoat for the entire morning and Im cussing him the whole time til.. BOOM.......BOOM.BOOM
he always gets the first deer of the season, even with all the noise hes making. and when I ask "where they running when you shot?" its always "no, they just came out and started grazing, so I shot. Now help me drag em out."

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

Guess I will be a three pack a dayer this season. Wonder if they like beer breath too?

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

same here my dad smokes on stand and he has taken prlenty of deer over his life

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

My dad used to always smoke on stand and usually had pretty good luck getting deer, better than I did in the same woods anyway.

The bad part is he nearly died of a heart attack at age 52 because of his smoking while reffing my then 11 year old brother's soccer game. Talk about a way to scare the living bejeesus out of your youngest son!

He no longer smokes and got the biggest buck of his life a little after a year after he quit smoking!


Lesson: you may get deer despite smoking or even because of smoking, but that same smoking can drastically reduce the number of years you have to smoke.

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

Dont worry about the deer eating your smokes, they are similiar to horses and cattle. Tobacco is good for their digestive system but you dont want to over do it. I give each of my horses 1 cig a month. I dont think youd want to give them menthol though, not sure on that. I have shot more deer right after smoking than I have when I left my smokes in the truck. Go figure.

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

I had a similiar experience. When archery hunting I always hunt the wind, store my clothes outside in a plastic bag, use scent killer the whole 9 yards. Well, one day I was up at camp after a morning hunt and was just lazy and sat around all day inside in my camo while everyone around me smoked. I wasn't planning on hunting that evening so I didn't worry about it. Well, my friend bugged me for 30 minutes straight until I agreed to go with him. I smelled like a bar at 1:30 in the morning. I didn't even climb up a tree and just sat in my climber 2 feet off the ground. For some reason I really didn't want to be out but went along anyway. Not 30 minutes later a doe and a yearling walked up 20 yards from me grazing. I dropped her and then waited for my friend to show up. I'm not saying the smoke smell brought them in but it sure didn't bother them at all even though they came in down wind of me.

RE: Dumb Luck...?Strategy?
 

I don't smoke. Quit more than 30 years ago, in fact. but I do have this patchoulli incense left over from my hippie days. I wonder... hmmm....