a deers nose/ since of smell

[ALAN]

i want too see what you people think of this...i saw it come up on another site someplace..it has to do with tobacco/cigerattes can deer smell it?? some as said they have shot deer while smoking etc....do you think deer can smell it??

[92xj]

Yes they can smell it if they are down wind.

No they can not smell it if they are up wind.

[Bowtech_archer07]

Yes, they can smell it. However I don't think they associate it with humans, therefore it doesn't bother them. They can smell it and think it odd, but are not spooked by it. I have witnessed my dad shooting a deer where he had to put out a cigarette in order to shoot them. And turkey hunting, we have had deer come within 10 yards of us when my dad has been smoking and as long as we didn't move, they did not spook.

[ryan1990]

Just had this discussion last night. My hunting partener said he has had to put out ciggarettes to shoot deer and then this morning he had a doe walk in to 20yds right after he lit one up. He also said the same thing as above, they dont know to associate it with humans probably cuz to them it just smells like something burning, which is common.

[Stinger-Hunter]

Chewing tobacco doesn't bother them either. I've shot several deer with a dip in and a puddle of spit below my stand. Some say they will lick it if they get close enough, but I'd have to see that.

[wtnhunt]

Anything you can smell, you had better bet that a deer can smell if the wind is not in your favor. Whether it is an offensive odor or not is another debate. I personally don't think smoke bothers deer too much. Wife's stepfather killed way too many deer while smoking and stinking of smoke.

[Doc]

It's probably another one of those things that depends on the individual deer and the circumstances of wind direction and strength. I would imagine that if a deer has encountered hunters and the scent of smoke at some time previous, they will have little problem making the connection a second time. Then there are some who will say "if the wind has your scent going to the deer, your cooked anyway regardless of whether you are smoking or not". I really don't know. All I know is that it is a scent that is un-natural in the woods, and it is a scent that is much more powerful than just human scent alone, and it probably has the ability to travel a lot farther out away from your stand and last on shrubbery and weeds a lot longer after contact. Back when I smoked, I shot a lot of deer while having a lit cigarette. I also spooked a lot of deer while having a lit cigarette. It's just one more possible handicap that most likely will never help your hunting. Logic kind of tells me that broadcasting an un-natural scent around your stand probably is not the best thing to do.

Doc

[gzilla45]

For a while I was convinced that the grape cigars I smoked while sitting in my stand actually attracted deer. I shot a lot of deer while smoking those things. But I never shot a buck while doing it either which is why I stopped. There probably isn't a direct correlation there but it was enough of an issue for me personally to make that decision to stop smoking while on the stand. I have a chain-smoking buddy that sees and shoots deer all the time so this arguement can easily go either way.

[treeinwalker]

We started doing a scent control routine 4 years ago now. In that time, we have seen more BUCKS (not just deer, but bucks) than in all the years previous to that combined!!!!

The acuteness of a deer's sense of smell is nearly inconcievable to us as humans, but imagine that a deer can smell as much better than us as we can see better than a mole.

As far as what spooks a deer, well this is a whole subject unto itself that I will try to briefly touch the surface of here.

Everyone knows that deer have the ability to LEARN. They learn to associate humans with danger because we are trying to kill them, which in many cases (myself excluded of course;)) winds up in the hunter mearly scaring the deer. If a deer is shot at, missed and startled by a bow and got a big whiff of cigar smoke just before that, then they are plenty intelligent enough to remember the next time they smell cigar smoke "hey something scared the crap out of me last time I smelled that, so I know it's something dangerous". This is the same reason that I am positively certain that relying on rubber boots to control odor is purposterous. If you whiff an arrow by a big buck and scare him and he smelled those rubber boots just before hand, or directly afterwards, guess what-the smell of rubber boots now means danger to that deer. Anyone who doesn't think rubber boots have an odor, just throw them in the floor board of your truck for a few days, especially when they warm up. I promise, the rubber smell is much more noticable than any kind of stank your nasty dogs can put in them. It doesn't matter if a buck smells your feet or your boots. What matters is which smells he has learned to associate with danger.

The short and long of it is this-deer live or die by their noses. I've had deer that I thought had picked me out stare straight at me for 20 minutes and never spook, but if they had smelled me, they would have been gone in a flash. A deer will doubt its eyes-it will NEVER doubt its nose and if you or someone else has taught it that a whiff of Skoal, the rubbery smell from a pair of rubber boots or a whiff of alligator fart for that matter means "something bad is about to happen", they WILL trust their noses and bug out as soon as they smell it.

Edited October 14, 2009 by treeinwalker

[buckee]

i want too see what you people think of this...i saw it come up on another site someplace..it has to do with tobacco/cigerattes can deer smell it?? some as said they have shot deer while smoking etc....do you think deer can smell it??

OH deer can smell it alright, but depending on where your hunting, it may not bother them too much, if they are used to smelling chimney smoke and backyard burn piles. I speak from personal experience

If you're out in the Boonies however, where deer rarely smell such things, you'd better hope the wind is in your favour, or it's bye, bye buckeroo.

I read somewhere that deer can separate 7 scents in the air, all at once, so you'd better hope they are all deer friendly.

[WvBowhunterKE]

As for dip I dont think it bothers them all that much. My father in law and speak personally on that one. I rub snuff as well but have not had as much sucess as he has to argue the issue. He has a rub in everytime he climbs in the tree...I have also heard the Skoal Apple could be used as an attractant....for the truth behind that I have NO idea... But here is a pic of a buck that my father in law shot after spitting all over the ground below him all day...It sure didnt bother this brute. You cant really see all of the points, but its a 16 point shot out of Blinerhasit (sp) Island WV up near Ohio I believe... It has a distinctive drop tine I guess you could call it, even though it didnt really drop on the left side...its more of a side tine :pop: