Campfire, yes/no?

[blb078]

Is it common to have a fire at your camp(not a stove your brought). I've read that it's not good due to the scent it puts off or could attract bears. What's everyone else do when they hike back a few miles? Fire or not fire at camp?

 

[sk1]

ive never heard of it attracting bears?

no fires at my camp usually too tired, have just enough energy to eat and setup my pack for the next morning.....as im sure its the same for many people here im not back to camp usually until well after dark. then there is the scent isssue....yes play the wind but id still rather not smell like smoke. i will occasionally have a fire on my last night before packing out in the morning.

 

[blb078]

ive never heard of it attracting bears?

no fires at my camp usually too tired, have just enough energy to eat and setup my pack for the next morning.....as im sure its the same for many people here im not back to camp usually until well after dark. then there is the scent isssue....yes play the wind but id still rather not smell like smoke. i will occasionally have a fire on my last night before packing out in the morning.

I believe the reasoning behind it attracting bears was that if there are a lot of campsites around, campers use fires to make food, which makes the bears associate the smell of a campfire to food. Don't know how true it is, just read it on the net, and you know everything is real on the internet

 

[mtnkid85]

I believe the reasoning behind it attracting bears was that if there are a lot of campsites around, campers use fires to make food, which makes the bears associate the smell of a campfire to food. Don't know how true it is, just read it on the net, and you know everything is real on the internet

Dont believe everything you read on the internet.

I generally dont, almost never when Im solo. Its somewhat refreshing not having to maintain it the entire time as well as not smelling like one.
However, on occasion I will. If its really cold or we are going to sit around for a bit then its nice.

 

[KMT]

no fires at my camp usually too tired, have just enough energy to eat and setup my pack for the next morning.....as im sure its the same for many people here im not back to camp usually until well after dark.

Same for me.

 

[Ryan Avery]

Archery, no

Late season rifle, always in a stove. There's more dark hours later into the season.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Very seldom do I have a fire at camp only because I am too tired though like others have said. When I have though I have never had bear problems.

 

[Matt Cashell]

If you burn your food trash you might attract a bear.

I don't think deer or elk give a chit if you have a fire.

 

[OR Archer]

usually to dry in early archery season to risk a fire, so no. late season archery i am usually just doing day hunts so again no fire.

 

[ohhiitznik]

Why is everyone so scared of bears? Your fire will not attract a bear. Even if you burn food trash in it. What will attract a bear is going into town while car camping and bringing back 2 pizzas and a couple cases of beer to celebrate the bull you killed that morning. And then getting drunk and forgetting to burn your pizza and leaving that on top of the fire that is extinguished. That will attract a bear, in fact, it'll attract a grizzly bear that will come into your camp at 330 am while you are getting ready to hike up the mountain and scare the shit out of you. You will then play chinese fire drill with your friends to hop into your truck while your injured hunting partner is on his knees in one of the tent clutching his .45 like it'll stop a grizzly. This all will happen after you put your headlamp on the bear, and it stands on his hind legs and then mock charges.

If you have a fire, burn your trash.

 

[ckleeves]

If you burn your food trash you might attract a bear.

I don't think deer or elk give a chit if you have a fire.

Funny story about that... About 10 years ago myself and 2 buddies were hunting a very cold snowy rifle season here in Co. I killed a bull in the am and we got it packed back to our camp and went back out. One of my friends loves fires and it was so miserable that I was all for it and he built a big one!

We were up on top of a small ridge glassing a burn when 2 rag horn bulls appear about 700 yds away walking strait to us across the burn. They walk to within 80 yds before giving my buddies a good shot at both of as they were trying to do a countdown on them. The fire was raging the entire time! We joked that they were just coming to warm up with us!

 

[jmez]

Sometimes at base camp. Usually too tired to have one. If I have one I stand right in the smoke. Best cover scent there is.

 

[unm1136]

Funny story about that... About 10 years ago myself and 2 buddies were hunting a very cold snowy rifle season here in Co. I killed a bull in the am and we got it packed back to our camp and went back out. One of my friends loves fires and it was so miserable that I was all for it and he built a big one!

We were up on top of a small ridge glassing a burn when 2 rag horn bulls appear about 700 yds away walking strait to us across the burn. They walk to within 80 yds before giving my buddies a good shot at both of as they were trying to do a countdown on them. The fire was raging the entire time! We joked that they were just coming to warm up with us!

I remember a Sports Afield or Outdoor life article on Stalking from about 25 years ago when Bowhunting was my primary means of hunting anything bigger than a jackrabbit. Because I wanted to learn to stalk, I kept it for a long, long time. The article advocated cover scents, by bruising flora from the area and putting it in a spray bottle of water to spray on yourself, and then it advocated standing down wind from a smoky fire, the theory being that animals for thousands of years have had to deal with wild fires, and that smelling smoke would not necessarily cause them to alert, but that seeing smoke/fire would spook them.

Knowing what I know now about canine scent theory, I don't bother with cover scents. If we smell a pizza, then we smell a pizza. A dog can identify the individual components of the yeast, flour and sugar in the crust, the tomatoes, garlic, basil and red peppers in the sauce, the cheese, and the components of each and every other topping put on the pizza. That's why the old Beverly Hills Cop trick of packing the dope in the coffee, doesn't work, and never has. If deer/elk can smell half as good as a dog can (they can windscent just fine, not sure if they can track) then cover scents won't work.

I only have fires when car camping, like the last 2 seasons when the only areas I could get drawn for were spaghetti bowls of roads.

pat

 

[RUTTIN]

Archery season in Utah usually the Forrest Service has fire bans, so we can't have a fire in the early season. Would I have one, probably not. I'm a scent freak bowhunting. On a rifle hunt we always have a fire, the in-laws love a fire and I don't generally have a tag during the rifle season. It is nice to get warm by the fire and enjoy the camaraderie though.

 

[HellsCanyon]

I usually have a fire if its allowed and cold out. Best moral booster you can have besides a hot meal and a dry bed. Especially if solo.

Mike

 

[Backpack Hunter]

Only if I have to, unless it is winter camping then I have my fire in the tent stove pretty regularly.

 

[Becca]

Most of the places we hike and hunt are above treeline here in AK, but on the rare occasions when there is wood or brush to burn we go for it. Definitely helps if you have fresh meat in camp to cook too!

 

[les welch]

For elk no.