Smoke!!! Campfire and Cigarette

I can imagine this has been posted before and or debated but after some recent tailgate talk I wanted to get the forums opinions and experiences on just how much or little campfire and cigarette smoke affects deer?

IMO if it happens year round and is random in occurrence, then they are used to it. If it starts now then it might effect them.

I try to avoid it and try my best to be scent free but had a friend that smoked like a freighttrain in the stand and he killed as many or more decent bucks as anybody in our area. Go figure.

I have seen the argument that cigarette smoke is the same as a campfire or wildfire and therefore a natural smell for them. WRONG!!!!! There are over 4000 chemicals in a cigarette and if I can tell the difference between the smell of a wildfire/campfire and a cigarette you can bet dang good and well a deer can.

Will they run from the smell of smoke???? Some will and some wont. I would rather them smell a cover scent like Raccoon or Fox pee than a cover scent like smoke. Smoke represents fire and fire represents danger. At the very least the smell of smoke will put them on alert and yes a deer can decipher several different smells at once. I think the number I seen thrown around is 7 different smells they can detect at once.

As long as I have a buck tag in my pocket I try to avoid wearing my hunting clothes around the grill or campfire. Once I have my buck I don't pay that much attention to it.

My dad kills deer every year while smoking in the stand. Now i take it more serious and dont want to chance it but to each their own.

I wouldn't call it a cover scent. I don't think they make a "cover" scent that will fool a mature deer anyway. Always always hunt the wind period, that's the only way I've ever fooled them. I smoke in the blind if I have the right wind and have had mature doe and buck within bow range while smoking.

My father smoked while ground stand hunting and always tagged out. He also wore plaid shirts, a cowboy and only hunted with a shotgun. That man could hunt.

I smoke in the blind. Blinds range from 75yds to 120yrds.

Last year I had 3 bucks show up on the 75yd blind. They stayed over an hour and I smoked the whole time. The oldest buck, my guess he was around 4-5yrs, didn't seems to mind so the younger bucks didn't either.

I killed a 150" - 6.5yr old last year from 60yrds. Had to put out my cig before I shot him.

I personally think it's all luck anyway.

Yes deer can smell smoke and tell the difference between campfire and cigs. They can also smell your hair shampoo, body soap, deodorant, car exhaust, sweat, and that Allsup burrito on your breath that you ate this morning. Not to mention that odor eliminator you just sprayed all over yourself.

If you are concerned, hunt into the wind - proven to work for hunters for the last million years or so for all sorts of game.

Some deer are put off by smoking, some aren't.

A lot of guys kill a lot of deer every year while smoking. Big deer too. But they never know the deer they don't see because they spooked off.

Truth be told, deer get cautious around new smells, sounds, etc. That's why you sometimes see deer - big deer - standing next to busy highways or in neighborhoods close to people playing, etc.

Mix your butts with corn or leave them continuously next to your blind, and eventually deer will ignore the smell.

My thought is that why risk it? If it's not there on a regular basis, then the odds are very good that a smart old mature buck is going to recognize that something isn't right and avoid the area. Young and dumb little bucks might hang out, and if you are in an area thick with deer, it might not matter.

I had a series of game camera pictures showing a group of hogs coming to the feeder every evening half an hour before dark for over a week. A friend who had never shot a hog and his dad who claimed to have shots tons of them where invited to come get his first hog. They showed up late in the afternoon and I sent them out to the blind to wait. They came back an hour after dark saying they didn't see anything. I was disappointed, but figured that's just hunting. The next day I went out to the feeder to get the chip out of the camera to see what time the hogs showed up and then went by the blind to make sure they cleaned up and didn't leave a mess. Right in front of the blind, next to the stairs, they had built a camp fire and from the smell of it, cooked dinner before going into the blind to wait for the hogs!!!!

Simple, save your money on all the scent killers. If u want to smoke, pass gas, whatever, fine...just keep the wind right..

Sorry guys, but if you smoke... even if you don't in the stand... the deer can still smell you. The smell is saturated into your skin. You smell it all the time and can't tell that it is there anymore. I used to smoke, but I quit. So I have seen it for myself. That smell just hangs around you like a dark cloud. Anything you touch with your smoking hand will smell like it too. If you smoke in the stand, you won't be putting out that much smoke, but remember it might affect you downwind.

We have camp fires almsost nightly
I've stood around then in my hunting clothes and worn the same clothes the next day and killed deer

Having some smoke smell on you isn't as bad as smelling hung over and still reeking of booze

Unbelievable!
And I bet they were puzzled as to why they didn't see anything

Personally I have mixed feelings. Growing up I hunted type 2 land around Palestine and Caddo N.G. were deer were about reclusive as Bigfoot himself. This hard to catch prey turned me into a fanatic about scent control and remained this was for the part of 2 decades.

Now in resent years I have hunted with smokers and personally seen buddy bowhunting on the ground with me and see deer walk 360* while cig. lite. MIND BLOWN. Still stuck in my old ways for the most part but I guess I dont stand 50 yards away from the camp fire in my cameo.

Always an interesting conversation to discuss, my personal experiances have lead me to belive that it all depemds on the specific piece of real estate. Some deer dont care and some seem to find new zip codes over anything associated with human.

Good luck out there this year guys

the deer came in






then the hogs came in and scared the deer off

We give deer entirely too much credit IMO. Yes, they have a good sense of smell, just like alot of other animals, but they aren't superman. Nobody made this kind of a big deal about smell until companies started putting out the scent blockers. My great grandpa killed hundreds of deer in his life. Usually while smoking a cigar.

Sitting in box blinds etc. I don't much care our setups are such that the wind is in our favor unless we have a very unusual wind blowing.

When I bow hunt im sitting on the ground usually about 15-20 yards away, I don't wear my hunting clothes to work around camp.

Thank you for settling the debate.

If it is a smell the deer have been exposed to and they have not associated the smell with danger, then it won't bother them when they smell it. We have filled feeders, drank beer while doing filling them, even smoked cigarettes and threw the butts down on the ground. When the feeder went off before sundown, the deer were back at the feeder.

heres a vid of me in a bow blind a mere 9 yds from the feeder, hogs come in and i light one up and deliberately blow smoke towards them. towards the end one gets a whiff of it or me and looks at the blind and growls, but the corn is to much for him to give a flying you know what.

I like the idea of visiting the blind and feeder as much as possible. Getting the deer accustomed to your scent not being a threat is a good thing. I think staying away from a blind and suddenly showing up adds noise and scent that the alert deer.

Dang - that's awful close to be on the ground next to all those big oinkers;
I'd be afraid a couple might end up INSIDE that ground blind when they scatter after an arrow flies . . . .

ya that was the owners son in laws bow blind, he set it up there even after repeatedly telling him its to close, hes one of those know it alls that doesnt know squat. he would even move my tripod closer to the feeder, the owner finally told him if its not yours dont touch it. i work on this place all year long and he shows up once in a blue moon and wants to change everything around.

Good advice.

If cigarettes thrown out by the blind will desensitize deer to smoke smell, I wonder if human smell i.e. a shirt worn all weekend thrown out near the stand would begin to work the same for human smell. Maybe start 100 yards upwind of the prevailing direction then work up to tying off on feeder.

Wonder if someone would be willing to test this theory and report back. Start with a blind where the deer are known to bust you then work up to human smelling shirt on feeder with pic/video of deer under. Could be fun!

Does, young bucks, hogs....now we need to see some pics with cigs and trophy bucks

Well I quit smoking I'm using a vapor cig now I could do it but its a different smell. But I got this guy at 60 yds smoking a cig.

There's a post somewhere on here, or on TBH, about an older gentlemen who does that. Every time he goes to the lease, after he sweats and finishes his work for the day, he removes his sweaty shirt and hangs it on the stand and takes the one home to wash, that he left on the last workday. According to the guy who posted it, the old man shoots quality deer every year, and believes that they are accustomed to his scent. Who knows...it may actually work

You try it and let me know

My dad smoked like a chiminey and killed deer every year. He used the smoke as a wind direction indicator. If they can smell the smoke, they can smell you.

Regardless smoking is bad for you and you should smoke.

Dang, Son. Beauty of a buck.

If cigarettes get thrown out by the blind on our lease chances are you wont be back on the lease the following year! LOL

Depends on what the deer are used to. I hand feed deer right in front of my garage out of a big orange Bill Miller Mug. Cars, people, clapping, petting, yelling, and probably even smoking won't phase them.

At my ranch I witnessed first hand on more than one occasion the deer and hogs were skittish and easily busted my friend who smoked in an elevated box blind. If I was on my own and smoke free the deer/hogs typically hung around. Definite smell on the air, nose up, squeal/snort haul butt behavior. Rationalize it all you want, but just because someone smoked and hunted successfully, who's to say what might have come in without the smoking. I suspect the older, more savvy bucks would be the first to blow outa there if something didn't smell right.

Ditto. I find your butts on the ground anywhere on my ranch you can expect an exit visa.

thats fine and dandy. as a smoker i can tell you its a nasty and i mean nasty habit, but i hope you hold those standards to someone who leaves a shot gun hull on the ground, cause they stick around a lot longer than cotton.