Since we all try to keep our "smell" to a minimum and with all of the new scent free clothing.what about the smell of wood from the camp fires that we enjoy so much. Does it hurt our chances for being scented? I have ofter thought about this.

I have used wood stoves in my deer stands for years I have had deer walk right up to the stands with the fire poping away. But if I move or ping some metal they alert right away and sometimes run. I do not belive wood smoke bothers them at all. The closest one I had walked with in 10 feet it was very cold and I was putting wood on the fire then looked up there was a deer stand there.

Wood smoke is a naturally occurring scent in the bush,leastways it is here,especially during the fire season.

I still try and maintain scent disciplin(sp)and don't wear my hunting gear while I'm in camp.I'll dress outside and try to stay away from the smoke of a fire if we have one going,and there's usually a fire in the stove in the tent all the time.

I think scent is a huge preoccupation. Personally, I don't think there's anything you can do to completely eliminate human scent. Human beings are constantly emitting odors.
Hunt downwind.
FWIW
35W

I look at it this way.....if you are hunting with the wind in your face you dont have to worry too much about being scent free. Really, I try to be as scent free as possible and here is why. This past bow season I had three different deer on different occasions approach my stand upwind, as their trail indicated they would. My stand was not very high up the tree, and these three saw me in the tree, but could not get my scent. They blew, stomped their feet, and walked cautiously out of bow range around me, until my scent was blowing to them. They snorted again and left the country. Had it been gun season it would have been a different story, as I could have taken them before they saw me. Being in the wind I have had deer almost get close enough to touch, but stand-hunting doesnt always allow you to hunt in the wind. A perfect exmple of this is my hunting buddy George, who often goes in the woods smelling like he is going on a date. He stalk/still hunts and gets lots of game that way, and doesnt smell like he made love to a skunk, which some do if they use lots of cover scent.
Fwiw.....

Good luck and good shooting,
Eterry

Hmmm...I don't know about deer, but moose don't seem to be bothered by smoke, and bacon, steak, scrambled egg smoke



My hunting partners and I have a BBQ pit right in the middle of our campsite, and on top of it a heavy iron grill. On top of the grill we place a piece of aluminum foil on which olive oil pools. Then we place a few steaks on the oil, onions, Mrs. Dash seasoning, garlic, and salt to taste. Before I go to bed I wash my face and beard, and sometimes even my hair, but the BBQ smell stays in my clothes. I place the clothes in a plastic bag to keep the smell down just a little, but inside my sleeping bag I can still smell steak and onions on my nose hairs.



The smell is mostly gone by morning while I am out hunting, but i know bears could probably tell from a great distance I am there. Moose seldom know I am near, hidden in the brush, but they sure see me if I move around, and immediately hear me if I speak or make noise. The human voice travels very far in the forest.

Scent, I think, is just one more item you can control and use to your advantage. Hunting in Maine, scent is imporant since you will be close to the animal you are hunting. Most of my deer have been taken within bow range. I am sure if you are hunting in areas that 100, 200,300 yard shots are common, then scent will not be as important.

I watched a Buckmasters video years ago. They showed the results of hunting with their treestands at 15 to 18 feet. The deer would walk near the stand, get nervous, then sometimes look up or bolt. They then showed the results with their stands at 25 feet up. The deer for the most part were comfortable. So this shows that while hunting from tree stands, 7 to 8 feet more in height makes a scent dispersal difference. I am sure they were trying to be scent free. What is the added distance with no scent control?

I also think it makes a difference to what the animals are use to. I archery hunt in a zone that allows the taking of bonus deer, in high human population areas. These deer smell Humans all the time. They feed on lawns and never fidget. Put your stand or set up in this location and scent doesn't bother them. Now in the same area if you walk in the small sections of woods and leave scent from your boots where they do not normally find human scent, watch them react, they go from leasurly strolling to extremely nervous, fast.

I think the answer could be to taylor your scent control to your hunting environment and success. If you get a lot of deer blowing around your stand location, change!

A few years ago, it was 0 degrees F during deer season. My dad & I were hunting together on my place. He comes up the hill, says he's cold, and that we're going to start a fire in our "lunch cooking" fire pit that we're standing at near the barn. I say no way, but, well, he's my dad.... so he wins.

The smoke is drifting right across the area I'm expecting to see deer (or WAS expecting...). The breeze is fairly good, so the smoke is staying low as it blows.

Sure enough, a little while later, a group of deer are crossing RIGHT THROUGH THE SMOKE TRAIL, maybe 80-90 yards away. They never bothered to even look our way!

I've seen it numerous times since, the latest being three days ago when a friend shot a deer at about 50 yards, while standing in a little tin "shack" with a woodburner going full blast.

I now believe pretty firmly that deer just don't care about smoke...

I think some people worry too much about scent. No matter what you do, you still will carry human scent. So, what does it tell you, hunt with the wind in your face if at all possible. Our forefathers would not have stood a chance if the most important hunting stratigy was no scent. Can you imagine how they stunk compared to us and our lifestyle now a days? Hunt smart, and use the wind to your advantage. I think that is the best scent stratigy. While in camp, enjoy yourself, eat good, rest good, and be ready for a full day the next day of hunting. So cuddle up to that fire and get warm, tomorrow's another day.

I read somewhere that all you need is to exhale once and all your scent control becomes worthless. I've personally had a deer approach within five feet of me without showing any sign of alarm and I used no scent control whatsoever. As long as the wind is in your favor and you don't move, my experience has been that they can't pick you up.

I always try to keep the wind to my face, but sometimes terrain and frequently changing winds (at least in my stomping grounds) makes this quite difficult to always do.

I'd also wager that the scenting abilities of these animals - deer, bear, etc is so unbelievably keen that I doubt anything you do can really mask it more than a fraction. I've heard a dog's ability to "smell" is up to 100,000 times greater than a man's. How on earth do you think you can defeat/fool that? We just may be kidding ourselves to think that we can.

Movement and noise is a big factor and one you can obviously control far more than scent. The campfire smoke phenomenon mentioned above is quite interesting and perhaps basking in your campfire's smoke might be your best bet in attempt to "mask" your own odor?

This is an excellent thread!

I agree that movement and noise spook deer worse that a little whiff of human odour. I don't use scent covers at all; I just use unscented sportwash on my camo and that's all the scent masking I do. During rifle season this year I had a little whitetail buck feed to within 5 yards of me (sitting on the ground under a spruce tree). When he got my wind he alerted; took about 3 bounds and stopped.Then he started blowing and stomping while looking right at me. I didn't move and he calmed back down and continued to browse his way along until he disappeared into the trees. Later in the season I had pretty much the exact same encounter with a little muley buck. Both deer alerted when they got my wind then seemed to calm back down when no other senses gave them a cause for alarm.