Friday night Tradition??

[swamp buck]

Ok, what's your traditions when everyone is in camp Friday night? We get our camp stools and sit around a pond and pull out the Cigars and blow out our talk on what tomorrow will bring! P.S. Our clothes we wear when smoking stay indoors, and we smoke 5 miles from where we hunt!!

[viking_fan]

Ohhh thats a bit to cold for me.

I need my clothes on to smoke

[swamp buck]

I guess that didn't come out right, Viking. We DO have our cigar smoking clothes on!

[viking_fan]

lol

Just having fun

[Polar Bear]

SwampBuck, I'm almost 50 and have hunted with my dad, brother and close friends for about 35 years. We started a new tradition about 4 years ago that we really love. The guy that shoots the biggest buck of the year is on the hook for a keg of beer for the following season. 2 years ago my 73 year old father "won" the prize and provided the beer for our group of 12 guys. Last year it was my brother, I'm hoping to keep it all in the family this year!

Good Luck

[picksbigwagon]

I was arguing this a couple weeks ago with the guys I coyote hunt with. 40-50 years ago, when guys would head out into the woods to hunt, they didn't worry that much about scent. They took baths on saturday night for church the next day. Most of them smoked too, and I don't really think all the deer ran away from them....

Are we getting so wrapped up in what we smell like that we are forgetting what our grandfathers knew and did, the art of Hunting? I laugh at everyone and anyone who buys a scent free suit and then has coffee and bacon for breakfast....doesn't matter what I am wearing, if I had bacon, you know (Contact US Regarding This Word) well a deer can smell me no matter what I am wearing..... Using the wind to your advantage, and other common sense things will get you more deer than anything you are wearing. Smoke that cigar, and if you want to wear your loin cloth and sit extra close to the fire, watch out for the craklin' embers.

I am jealous right now since I am hunting in Iowa this year, so I have 4 weeks before my deer hunt. Hope everyone is safe and has a great weekend.....

[EatSleepFish]

Most of them smoked too, and I don't really think all the deer ran away from them....

My grandpa smokes on stand, the year (1970) he decided not to smoke on stand he bagged an 11 pointer. He hardly moves and is in his stand all day, if it wasnt for the smoke i can almost guarentte you that during that 35 year gap he would have bagged one

[picksbigwagon]

Thanks, I needed that.........I am just chomping on the bit for my Iowa season.....my usually friday night tradition involves a camp fire, a lot of bull snort and I will have a heater too......I was having a heater last fall and was almost run over twice with in 5 miutes, took the biggest doe I have ever seen at 15 yards, I was sitting in front of a scrub cedar on the ground

[Bubbadust]

My father has shot many deer with a heater in his mouth. And Saturday after our morning hunt, he did some car work for me--laying on the floor of an oily, stinky garage and wore the same jeans from hunting and his orange hat. Sure enough we go back out in the afternoon and 1/2 hour later he gets into his stand wearing the same clothes and shoots a deer 30 yards away from him.

Me, I washed all my hunting clothes in scent free detergent, wore the special deoderant, sprayed everything down with scent eliminator and I didn't have a shot all weekend!

[CodyDawg]

In my opinion, anyone who thinks scent doesn't matter is only fooling themselves. Can you eliminate all of it? Prolly not. Does it matter if a deer comes in upwind or crosswind? Nope. But controlling your scent as much as possible will up your odds. An anecdotal report of someone, somewhere shooting a deer while smoking is not proof that it doesnt matter. The way i look at it, smoking can have 3 affects on deer....attract, neutral, or scare. i think we can all agree it isnt going to attract them. Thus the BEST you can hope for is neutral. Maybe a young deer wont bolt at first whiff, but not many big ol' bucks will hang around.

[buzzsaw]

I'm with you Codydawg! I don't smoke, but if I did wouldn't think of doing it in a deer stand. I would definitely think that all of the research put in by the so called experts and all of their efforts to be scent free must mean something. My buddy has hunters on private land that butts up against their land and these guys just make us laugh... they smell like whiskey and smoke like trains... I'm just surprised they can shoot str8. I guess it just seperates the more serious hunters from the casual hunters.

[96trigger]

I'm not sure about smoking, or chewing, or any other earthly smell, I do know, however, that human body odor will definately deter deer. For those of you that don'e worry about scent, try bow hunting, without proper scent control, even playing the wind, the deer will know that you are there. Firearm season is different though, I personally like to shoot deer at 10-50 yards instead of 50-100 yards. I can honestly say that since wearing a carbon suit and using scent free soap, I haven't had a deer bust me from my scent. I've had them come from both upwind and downwind directions. Scent and movement are the real keys to seeing deer. I remember doing a drive one year and all the sitters had the wind at their backs, during the drive, the deer (and there were numerous deer) ran out the top of the hill and out the bottom, not one deer went through the drivers.

Our Friday night ritual is to meet at the old mans house ( the women go away for the weekend to shop, he usually has a big pot of chili cooking and we sit around, throw a few back, play a few cards, etc. Its a good time.

[bigbucks]

My brother-in-law & I always bowhunt the night before at my folks place, we don't gun hunt there very much. Then we go in, have supper with my Dad & brother & our families. The next day we head to my Uncle's place & hunt with the rest of the family. It's only 14 miles from my folks place & 4 from mine, so there really is no "deer camp", although we do have a "shack" there that we congregate in.

[Bassboy1645]

Put the wind in your face and keep it there. make sure it isnt blowing to where the deer are coming form and your good. wear my camo to school and around town alot. Oranges too. see lots of deer, only been busted twice when deer goes downwind. Can scent sutis and stuff help? sure. but we all forgot how to do one thing. HUNT! a great hunter can get within range of deer no matter what the conditons. my next problem is shooting straight...lol