SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

...that is of course according to the unpopular belief of a few hunting buddies/aquaintences of mine.

They will smoke, piss, hack, and cough out of their stands. Their reasoning is that their cousins do it all the time and they kill deer almost every year.Also that if the wind is not blowing the smell towards the shooting lanes then it's fine because "they'll never know." I tried explaining that that doesn't matter because later that night or the next day when you're not there and the wind is blowing from a different direction, the deer will know that you've been there. Also tried giving them the example of how a blood hound can follow a 3 day old trail and that since canines are natural predators of deer, that a deer's nose is probably as good if not betterby design but they just don't want to understand.

They alsotrample all over the place sometimes before getting on stand. I triedtelling themthat if you trample all over your shooting lanes, deer are never going to step there for you to shoot them. Brace yourself for this... The leader of the above practices said "it's ok as long as you put doe estrous in the area so the bucks will be more interested in the estrous than your scent." HUH? :eek::eek::eek:Oh btw, they've also been trying to use estrous since early October. They also bait a brand new hunting spot then climb a tree thinking deer will come to it that veryafternoon. That's just hilarious.

Just to make a point and not to toot my horn but none of the 3 guys above havekilled a single deer this year while I have one antlerless and a 9-pointer under the belt. Some people will never get it. And, I wouldn't care so much to try to educate them except that I share the same woods with them so I gotta help keep the adulteration of those woods to a minimum.

Thanks for letting me vent, got any stupid people stories you'd like to share?

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

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 recomend 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.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

To each his own :eek:


Wait a minute... did Greg say he kills some DECENT bucks ever ONCE in a while?!??!

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I smoke better than 1 pack a day and the only time my friends the cigarettes are not with me is when I am on stand. I smoke my last one before I put on my final layers of camo and pop a halls. ( Sure they might smell that to). The butts get left in the truck.
Why is it that deer don't mind campfire smoke and human wizz but they don't like smokers. I think it's some sort of PC thing..

Man can I burn thru the quarts of scent spray!!!

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I can see why you are mad at some of the things but some of the things mentioned are not a factor. Number one peeing out of your stand will not spook deer. I made a mock scrape with my own pee and later that night had a mature doe come and refreshen it. Smoking on the stand i can see, but i dont smoke so i have no info on that, but i do know that chewing while on the stand will not affect the deer, so it cant be that different. I do understand your concern for trying to control human scent in your area, but some of these things just dont seem to affect them in my experiences.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

IMO it all depends on the area. In some places, smoking and spitting and pissing will run a mature buck halfway across the county. In other places, their use to human smells. Now im not saying they wont take off if they get directly down wind of you, but i doubt a buck in my area will get spooked from smelling my cough matter a day after i was there. I see bucks all the time in places that i was standing less than a day before. Ive only been bowhunting 2 years and i try my best to remain scent free and watch the wind but in the end the deer end up seeing or hearing me before they smell me.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Id rather take close care of the whole scent thing, this way when i do finally get a shot at a monster, if he spooks i know its not because of something i could have easily avoided. I don't like experimenting with stuff like that when it comes to hunting haha.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

You mean a bottle of chew spit don't stink..

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

GregH, I'm actually suprised you smoke at all....

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I'll roll a big fattie in my stand. IfI don't kill a big buck I don't care I just laugh about it.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I chew on stand and have never had a deer respond unfavorably to it. They don't respond at all really. I also don't spit into a bottle but straight down onto the ground. I've had mature deer walk into me while I was chewing and come straight down under my stand within seconds of where I had just spit. For some reason it hasn't bothered them. I don't know if smoking would have the same outcome but I would say that the movement from your hands going back and forth from your mouth would do more damage then the smell of smoke itself.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I've had a biologist friend of mine actual wizz in mock scrapes and will have bucks actually use it. I was also at a seminar by the Wenzels (sp?) and they stated in all their years of hunting, human urine has never spooked deer. Now, I seen and heard of guys who smoke having scent control issues. I do chew from the stand and while I've had deer pick up on the scent they are more curious than spooked, although leaning over to spit will get you busted more often than not.

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RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

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?

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I smoke in my stand, actually had 3 come in (up and over a hill)butted the smokeout, they walked within 20 yrd of me ,caught me on the draw......10 min later lite it back up and took 2 drags and had a nice 6 walk in butted it out and dropped him 15 yrs from my stand.....the wind wasblowingfrom the NNW and the 3 came in from the E and the 6 came in from the S..... so to each his own I guess you could say!!!!!

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Yep, the internet is the king of misinformation. Anyone that thinks it doesn't affect or have an effect is just trying to justify what they do.

I would say it has alot to do with where you hunt and the smells the deer usually smell anyway. I know when I hunt up in Newfoundland, those moose probably never has seen a human, and we have been hiding before in black spruce and a moose would walk downwind from us, and even at 100 yards, would freak out when they get downwind, and take off running. My guides smokes like a frieghttrain.

I have seen bear do the same.

Its dadgone hard to put on a stalk on a moose if don't get downwind of him.

If you hunt in heavily populated areas where there maybe horse riders or alot of people around, I don't think it bothers them as much.

But you are not going to convince me that its better for you and hunting not to smoke or urinate out of your stand. Thats just silly.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Funny, I don't smoke and I try not to pee on or around my stand whileI am hunting.
But-- my wife does both. So I went buddy hunting with her the other day, and sure as
**** she has deer walk up and stay around her stand at the feeder. And the wind
was not in her favor. I always said DON'T but now I am not really sold it is bad or at
least negative to your conditions.
Eric S. Stacy

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

From my experience and from what Ive seen where I hunt the crops are starting to come out when bow season starts. This can change deers patterns. Plus deer naturally change there habits in the early fall (this might early enough that you dont notice it though). Also while I dont believe that just human scent from walking around bothers deer. Busting deer walking around and letting them see you might cause them to change. Where I hunt there is enough agricultural activity that the deer are pretty used to seeing humans. They run away and dont like smelling you when your on stand, butthey dont change there habits just because of seeing or smelling me a couple times a season. just my 2 cents

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Where i hunt,there are 3 house in the area and they all use woodburners and believe me i could smoke in my stand and it wouldn't bother them becaues some times thats all i smell when i'm out there .

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

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.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I still think alot of it has to do with the fact that deer don't asoociate the source of human fluids to human. Instead, they quickly recognize the smell of human from our body odor!
Play the wind is still key, but body fluids just don't seem to alert deer as does body odor.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

It's not uncommon for a buck, heavy in the rut and smelling a hot doe to become completely oblivious to just about anything, in my opinion.

However, I wouldn't plan on that,

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Ibelieve you corroborate what I said in my post previous to this.

Thinking more about it now, I'm not so sure if smoking will harm your chances at harvesting deer anymore than if you weren't smoking because the smoke you exhale still contains the scent of your breath.

I guess bottom line is it doesn't matter what you do or don't do, you can still kill or not kill deer. I personally wash all my clothes in scent and dye free detergent and baking soda. I spray myMickey Mouseboots down with scent killer. I don't walk directly on deer trails. I don't smoke. I carry a piss bottle. I usually have an east and a west tree for a north/south funnel and vice versa for an east/west funnel. I only hunt a stand if the wind is right. And out of it all, I kill deer so I'll stick with it til it doesn't yieldharvest anymore.

Happy hunting.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

People make a bigger issue out of smoking than should be - as far as deer are concerned. I quit a few years back - and hope if affords me a few extra years of deer hunting in the end!

Greg H said it - its about the wind.

I think I killed more deer when I smoked than the last few years when I have not! Honestly - when I smoked I was ALWAYS very aware of what the wind was REALLY doing. I think Now - sometimes - I think I know what the wind is doing - when I really do not.

FH

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

GregH,
That explains alot. To me anyway.Now I know why you don't use "you know what".

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Classic stuff here....

That's pretty much my approach to it as well (without the smoking)I wash the night before as well and I use deodorant, minty toothpaste, nice smelling shampoo, the whole works. I know guys who won't shower for days while hunting...I just laugh and say "If the wind isn't right, the deer are either going to"wind" a good smelling human or a bad smelling human...either way they're going to smell you."

I'm a big proponent of stand selection based on wind direction and thermals as well. For instanceI'll hunt a lower stand in a hollow in the mornings when the thermals are rising that I would never get into for an evening hunt no matter what direction the wind is.

Good stuff Greg.......

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I dont agree with the smoking or coughing or that stuff but I pee all the time out of my stand and have deer walk right by without knowing. I cant even count how many times it has happened just this year.

rick

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I once had a colonistic emergency one day in the stand. Jumped out, ran down the trail about twenty yards was faced with messing up the leaves or my pants, one or the other. Well, I polluted the place pretty bad. Thought my hunting was ruined. Later that day a monster 11 point walked right over that spot and within 18 yards of my stand. I subsequently hit a branch and missed him. It wasn't the smells that cost me that buck.
There were also some cig. butts laying around my stand too.. :eek:

I think it depends on the area you hunt more than anything. Wilderness deer are more sensitive to human intrusion.

Smoking isn't some character flaw...just a bad habit. No different than drinking coffee. I know people that are virtual saints who smoke, and some real low life criminals who never smoked. I think it's about time highbrow people quit looking down their nose at good guys that partake of a legal activity such as smoking. Do your "judging" by some other criteria.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

okay, understand that to a deer, human scent is what you smell like on the OUTSIDE - your sweat, your hair oil smell, your skin, allt he deodorant and stuff we use .... your pee ? That a deer doesn't associate with humans IMO and I doubt they know cigarettes are smoked by humans either

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Marketing and the fact that you can convince the average bowhunter to buy ANYTHING as long as it is expensive and explains away a possible reason why he isn't as successful as he would like to be. There, I said it. Hammer away but we all know that it is true.

Here is a tip for scent control. Hunt down wind of the deer. Works every time.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I find that most times. if you are in a treestand at a decent height, deer can walk all around you without winding you.
If there is a major downdraft blowing your scent right on the deer's head, yea well, your gonna get busted.
I can't tell you how many times I have had deer, including bucks, smell where I walked and even smell the tree steps that I climbed. AND I'M IN THE TREE, LOOKING DOWN AT THEM!

Deer can tell by your scent: Where you've been, and where you are. They tend to react mostly to the "where you are" kind.
Hunting downwind takes care of that for the most part.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

yep yep yep yep and yep

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

Chris Rock said it best:

"You can drive a car with your feet if you want to, but that don't mean it's a good idea!".

Can you kill deer while smoking in your stand? Of course. But you'd kill MORE if you didn't.

RE: SMOKING and PEEING out of your stand does NOT affect your hunt!!!
 

I see it in a similar way,

this arguement reminds me of pascals wager
(short version)
"It is better to belive in God only to find out there is no God in death, than to not believe in God only to find out in death he exists!"


so to translate the way I see it... Dan's wager :)

"It is better to belive in scent control only to find out in death there is no need for in bowhunting, than to not believe in scent control only to find out it was needed when you get busted!"


my .02 take it or leave it :)