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Old December 27, 2013, 10:56 AM   #16
buck460XVR
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Join Date: December 28, 2006
Posts: 4,341
Quote:
Originally posted by BerdanSS: The property where we hunt is VERY seldom walked by humans. Its also quite narrow, I just had the feeling that maybe the gut piles attracted predator animals or wandering dogs. The smoking is something that I'd wager the deer have only smelled when he's hunting there. So defiantly NOT a familiar sent.

Just seems funny to me, I've never even spotted a really good size or mature deer anywhere on the property. See lots of them in the fields along the road on the way out.
I too have hunted with folks that smoke. Their success rate seems about the same as others with similar hunting/shooting skills. Scent control is not that much of an issue when hunting with a firearm. In one the areas I hunt deer, the area is full of small hunting cabins and farm houses. Most of which heat with wood. On calm days early in the morning, the smell of smoke is everywhere, with smoke itself as thick as fog in the valleys. This is a case where the smell of smoke may be an effective cover scent.

My son has a small parcel of property that we hunt both with gun and bow. Over the years we have taken several 150-160 class and larger bucks off it with bow and have seen many others. During the same time period, we have yet to take a trophy buck during the firearms seasons. The reason being, it is not big enough, nor thick enough to offer the cover or sanctuary that big bucks prefer when pressured. The nicer bucks we have shot off it during the rifle season were all on the move from being pressured somewhere else and not moving naturally. All have been later in the season when hunters are pushing deer that have sought out areas of sanctuary somewhere else. This includes large fields of unpicked corn. This may be the same reason you have never seen mature bucks on the parcel you hunt, and has nuttin' to do with your partners smoking habit.

Gut piles are something I've yet to see disturb deer. As others have stated, I've watched deer munch on the undigested contents of a stomach opened up in a gut pile by predators or crows. While deer will alert to 'yotes and dogs actively feeding on a guy pile, old scent by either does not disturb them. Old scent tells deer they are no longer there.
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