...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? 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?

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.

To each his own


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

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!!!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.