campfire smoke for deer - issue?

[roddem]

hi .
I just read that camo is not essential . most important for deer hunting : 1 - slow accurate movement / 2- smelt .
if I spend night at campfire I smell like smoked salmon.... and if the wind is not favor to me next morning .. ??
should I change my coverall ? or just stay away from the campfire..? or use any sprays ?

another question - what is the decent 100m grouping to shoot from the stand position without any support? and knee position ?
thanks

[Rayne]

1/4 Inch group is ideal the closer the better. But vitals are the size of a pie plate on a deer.

[roddem]

thanks Rayne . I m not so bad when I shoot on the range frm table with bipod but when I m in bushes .... overestimated myself - missed twice last week frm 100m ... to keep my heart rate after steep claiming and excitement without any support .
as we spot each other at the same moment and I know they will gone if I make any movement to find comfortable shooting position .
if the knee position is the most practical?

[Mulehahn]

1/4" group off hand without any sort of rest?! Damn, that is impressive. I am happy to get a 4" group with an elevated heart at 100yds standing. Prone (laying down) is ideal, but often impractical. I could never get comfortable shooting off my knee. In most circumstances I will use a tree as support, placing my hand against it to steady it and provide cushion or use shooting sticks. They are becoming a lot more popular and fairly easy to make.

As for smoke smell, I don't wear my hunting clothes in camp. That being said, smoke probably smells more natural than human. Butyou should always play the wind when hunting. If you can't get it in your face atleast try to walk across it.

[roddem]

thanks Mulehahn .
is it kind of messy to keep in one hand rifle and stick in other hand ?
using sling make difference?
yes I try to keep in mind wind direction but sometimes its only one way to climb the heel

[mpotzold]

1/4" group off hand without any sort of rest?! Damn, that is impressive. I am happy to get a 4" group with an elevated heart at 100yds standing. Prone (laying down) is ideal, but often impractical. I could never get comfortable shooting off my knee. In most circumstances I will use a tree as support, placing my hand against it to steady it and provide cushion or use shooting sticks. They are becoming a lot more popular and fairly easy to make.

As for smoke smell, I don't wear my hunting clothes in camp. That being said, smoke probably smells more natural than human. Butyou should always play the wind when hunting. If you can't get it in your face atleast try to walk across it.


He must be related to Annie Oakley!:)4” to 6” is about right depends how steady a person is!

I always stand in front of a campfire every day in order conceal the human scent.
http://www.fieldandstream.com/answers/hunting/deer-hunting/deer-hunting-tips/can-fire-smoke-conceal-human-scent (http://www.fieldandstream.com/answers/hunting/deer-hunting/deer-hunting-tips/can-fire-smoke-conceal-human-scent)

As for deer remember the old saying!
"When a pine needle falls in the forest, the eagle sees it, the deer hears it, and the bear smells it."

[Stormy]

thanks Rayne . I m not so bad when I shoot on the range frm table with bipod but when I m in bushes .... overestimated myself - missed twice last week frm 100m ... to keep my heart rate after steep claiming and excitement without any support .
as we spot each other at the same moment and I know they will gone if I make any movement to find comfortable shooting position .
if the knee position is the most practical?


Get yourself elf a set of Bog pods - solid rest every time


http://youtu.be/OPGLICOphtM

[brian]

Deer can smell detail like you can see it. They have 270 000 000 scent receptors in their noses where you or me only have 5 000 000. This doesn't make them 5 times better at smelling things, it makes them a f**k of a lot better at smelling things. They smell as well as dogs do. They can pick apart smells into their constituents parts. So they can independently smell the campfire, your BO, and the cover scent you tried to cover the campfire and BO with. You and I cannot pick apart smells so easily or with such fine detail. We can do it with our eyes but not our noses. So you basically have little chance if the wind is not in your favor. An exception I have seen is a deer paralyzed with indecision by swirling winds. Once I was stalking a deer and had been back winded a number of times, but the swirling wind prevented the deer from getting a bead on me. It was 50 yards away and I needed to close the gap to 30. It knew I was around but did not know which way to run. As long as I was still it couldn't see me (note no camo). It stood there testing the wind trying to figure out where the scent was coming from. I cursed every time I felt the wind on the back of my neck, but fortunately it would quickly swirl onto my cheek. I moved every time I saw the back of its head. This went on for about half an hour while I carefully stalked through noisy undergrowth. Long story short I blew the stalk by forgetting which tree it was behind. I moved when I thought it was safe and it busted me. Now I do not practice any scent control other than using the wind. Its the greatest weakness to relying on scent for your defense, if the wind is no good then neither is your nose. If you are hunting a stand the rule is wind in your face or cross wind. The deer will be leery entering an area if they can smell any fresh scent. If you are still hunting then you can get away with a swirling wind, but having the wind in your face is better.

Ignore what is a good grouping is and know your capabilities. What someone else shoots at 100 is completely irrelevant to you ethically harvesting an animal. Know how well you shoot and keep within those distances. DO NOT HESITATE TO PASS UP SHOTS THAT LOOK BAD TO YOU!!!! But if you want to know how well you compare to how well others shoot then you can look at silhouette shooting competitions. They have 4 targets set a different distances and shoot offhand. The first is a a roughly 13" x 11" chicken set up at 200 yards, then the pig 22" x 14" @ 300 yards, the turkey which is 19" x 23" set at 385 yards and finally the ram is 32" x 27" set at 500 yards. If you can knock down all of those consistently then you are a top silhouette shooter. But you will notice all the targets are roughly 5-6 moa. That is what it takes to be good. Above that and you are average to poor. Below that and you are good to exceptional.

[warnniklz]

Fire is a natural scent. I've seen deer next to burning slash piles. Now if you have a campfire, wall tent and trucks in the middle of a main deer corridor... that's a different story

[Glenny]

Like the goat smoker says, they are used to that smell of smoke. Might even cover up your own stinky human scent, no offense we all get like that after a few days in camp.