Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

Have you ever been given or read about a hunting tip/trick and planned on trying it, but time passes, even years, and you still have not got around to giving the tip a try....just like getting things done around the house? :)

Many moons ago, when I used to hunt with (just) a stick, a string, and an arrow, there was an old guy who used to come into the local bowshop. He would shoot a few arrows (old recurve), and then sit and watch the activity, hardly saying a word. This guy looked like a thin and sinewy version of Grizzly Adams. His face was so sun-baked and wrinkled, he looked like leather relief map.

He lived on a rundown farm next to a local river. By chance, my brother, also a bowhunter, lived along the same river about four miles north of the guy. He and my brother became friends and we, my brother and I, were eventually allowed to hunt his timber.

We soon learned that the old man was originally from the hills of North Carolina, and that he lived and made his money strictly off the land. This guy harvested and ate wild growing plants I had always thought were just weeds. He hand-hogged snapping turtles and fished with baskets and trotlines. His primary livelihood was from trapping. I soon realized that this guy did not hunt and fish mainly for the sport; he was feeding himself and his family off the land.

One day I was talking to him about hunting tactics and we got around to talking about commercial scents. Back then the primary cover (urine) scent was " Indian Buck Lure." We also used fox and skunk urine. Other attractants were mostly apple spray and acorn paste. Anyway, the old guy growled and said the stuff was worthless and a waste of money.

I do not recall his actual words, but the essence of what he said was that I was not going to fool deer with newfangled tricks. He said that the deer in a shared area knows the individual smell of each other, and that their natural curiosity might allow a bottled scent to fool a young deer, but not often and not more than one time. Regarding fake or real food attractants, he said that deer know what they are going to eat, what they need to eat, when they need to eat a particular food, and where the food is located, and that fake scents would not lure the deer off a survival pattern.

His rules for hunting deer was simple…at least to him; know where they bed, know where they go to feed, know how they get there and back, be waiting, don' t let the deer know you are around, and do not introduce any odors to the area that are not familiar to the deer.

Here is what he did to cover his scent. He said that as a trapper he covered any human scent that might be on his traps and other gear he used when trapping, with wood smoke. When he deer hunted, he used the same processes and would smoke all of his clothing and gear by hanging them near a pungent wood fire. Just before he left for the timber, he would bathe and then put on his smoked hunting clothes. He said, that in most rural areas, the smell of smoke is so common it is natural to deer and does not spook them. That they know the difference between an active timber fire and safe smoke. I recall he pointed out to me how the acrid smell of strong wood smoke is an overpowering smell to humans (cannot smell anything else), and he believed it was the same with animals.

He made sense, and his obvious results tended to give merit to his theory. However, for the last 33 years I have always intended to try his theory but never have. Again, as I have planned to do for the last 33 years, I believe I will give the old guy' s theory a test this coming season. :)

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

I think you could have the wrong effect on a lot of deer. For one, wood fires are not as prevelant today as they were in the past. Two, a little smoke blowing from over the hill and across the field is not the same smell as a 200 pound man that sat around a campfire hanging from a tree 50 yards away. I would tend to believe this would hurt more than help. ALL OLD HUNTERS and WOODSMEN are NOT always full of Wisdom and knowledge. Sometimes they' re just full of it.

That said, I have a couple places where I hang out in a tree 75 yards from some houses. In fact, one deer dropped dead between a guys tennis court and the patio of his $800,000 home. Anyway, with the right wind on a cold day you can sit up there and smoke or whatever with the guys chimney fire smoke getting in your eyes. BUT, the deer smell it all the time and pass on through like nothing is wrong. I' ve done it. They' re right at home. If you move 200 yards into the woods and try it you' re going to get busted.

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

Takes one to know one!! :):)

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

" His rules for hunting deer was simple…at least to him; know where they bed, know where they go to feed, know how they get there and back, be waiting, don' t let the deer know you are around, and do not introduce any odors to the area that are not familiar to the deer."

That' s the essence of deer hunting right there.

I do think his theory has merit, I' ve thought the same thing hunting small farm lots where every house around has a wood stove burning, every where you go in the woods it smells like that, and in areas where controlled burning is done, like where I used to hunt the Pine Barrens. You couldn' t walk a hundrd yards in there without your clothes turning black from the ash, but the deer loved the new growth.

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

I can see it working if the situation is perfect. An area close to many wood burning stoves. I also agree with 6ptsika about the pine barrens. I hunt them often here on the island and they can stink like burnt wood if you are near a recent burn. Black soot all over the place.

Just to add something else. I have always wanted to experiment with moldy clothes. You know when you leave them in the washing machine and they stink. It is a natural and strong odor, that may or may not spook them deers:)

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

Hey rack... I made some moldy clothes one time..many years ago ..... not intentionally. I ground up about 3 quarts of acorns, threw in some pine bows and even some fall leaves. Then I made the mistake of sealing them tight. Of course the first mistake was doing it 3 weeks before the season. Opening morning I open the bag and whew..... everything was mildewed and growing mold. Not a pretty sight. After about 3 hours in a tree---- I had had enough.[:' (][:' (][X(][X(]

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

Rack

I would think that the moldy smell of laundered cloth left to wet dry in a washer would resemble the odor of body sweat.

Reminds me of my " try everything" days. I remember when I first tried natural skunk essence that is used to train coon dogs. About one hour in my stand I could not tolerate the smell any longer, and ended up with one giant headache. :)

During my time of hunting frigid weather that a Polar bear would be cold in, I came up with the bright idea of using a charcoal pot on my stand, situated beneath my legs. I became so dizzy I almost puked and almost fell out of my stand. :)

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

davidmil

I know that many bowhunters throw various forms of vegetation in the bag or tub that contains their hunting clothes, and the material evetually decays. Beware of the vegetation rotting and creating a fungus/mould. The decayed material can throw off thousands of spores from the " aspergillus" family of toxins. You get those spores in your system, especially your lungs, you could be in a world of hurt.

http://www.mold-help.org/aspergillus.htm

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

I think it depends on what the deer are used to. I have had deer spook more times than I can remember when i reaked of campfire smoke.[X(]
I have heard (never tried) that turpentine makes an excellent cover scent when hunting the pines. Never know until you try.[:-]

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

Nope.
Never heard of it.

I' m curious to hear how it works for you..

but for now, I' ll stick to acorns scent and deer piss.

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

In the 1980' s I did alot of camping and hunting, every weekend the entire season. We had the fire every night and it stunk up my clothes. I used ground blinds exclusely and had deer walk all over me. My scent didn' t seem to bother them at all. Whether that forms a hypothesis about smoke scent can be debated because they were use to our camp and our smoke.
There' s a guy that teaches a class on how to learn to get close enough to touch deer in the wild. We' ve discussed this in this forum last year or year before. His primary cover was dirt and mud if I remember right. He would cover his whole body in mud. His secondary cover if mud wasn' t available was wood smoke.

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

The wood smoke may work for me, I do a lot of my hunting about a mile or less from a HUGE charcoal manufacturing plant, lots of wood smoke a lot of the time. Ive never used the smoke as cover scent on my clothes, but the deer dont seem to smell me very often, maybe just coincidence, but they are definitely used to the smell. Even big bucks dont mind the smell.[:o]

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

for me it wouldnt work well......all deer season guys sit around and have a good time around the fire the night before hunting....they all smell like smoke...but i see how it would mask human scent very well......i think im going to try something with leaves and things like that for my bow hunting....i think natural and free is the way to go when it comes to alot of hunting......who knows what REALLY goes into them fancy plastic spray bottles!!

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

my opnion on scents is when you chew something mint to cover up garlic odor. you think your doing something but most of your friends will simply just smell mint and garlic together. the same with deer cover scents. i believe they can detect that the cover pine scent in the bottle isint the same as local pines. if drug dogs can detect these subtle differences i think a deer can do the same.in other words if you use skunk cover scent i think a deer just smells human mixed with skunk scent. i say no scent is the best scent and you should always hunt with the wind in your favor.

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

I' ve listened to several very experienced and successful bowhunters who like to hunt in wood-smokey clothes. From the West to the East and all points in between, it apparently works for them.

I' ve never intentionally " smoked" my hunting clothes, so I can' t speak from personal experience, though. I can say that I don' t use commercial cover scents anymore, prefering to rub down with black walnuts, damp leaves, and aromatic soil each trip afield.

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

When I lived in British Columbia for a few years in the bush I had no running water or electricity so makeing fires were a way of life for heating water and food being outside on the pitfire or on the wood burning stove, so I always smelt like a camp fire and personally I think it is one of the best cover-up scents ever made. I have stalked up on a lot of moose, elk and mulies smelling like a campfire. The real secret is to hunt with the wind in your favor, but its difficult at times, especially when the winds change on the hour, but I do think that it will buy you some time. Even here in Montana I do a lot of my hunting in the burns that were here a few years ago and the soot smell still lingers and by the end of a day hunting and stalking through there, I myself smell like soot at the end of the day.
Bobby;)

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

C903... that was in my young and stupid years. I don' t do it anymore, unless maybe it' s a couple apples when I know I' ll be hunting around apples(not often in Maryland but I do in NY) This was before the days of all these neat little bottles of fresh earth, scent eliminators and all that stuff.:eek:

RE: Wood smoke for the ultimate cover scent??
 

David,

I still hunt the catskills with rifle a couple days a year at my uncles cabin. More for the tradition than anything else.

I also used to cut up some apples and throw them around me. Until one day after sitting for a few hours I realized I had forgotten my lunch[:' (]. I was starving so proceeded to crawl around picking up and eating my apple slices. I stoped crawling around and stuffing my face just long enough to see about 5 deer waving there flags at me:D:D

from then on I left the apples at the cabin:)