Smoke Smell and High Country Animals

LJ Buck

WKR
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
863
Was debating using a Tipi stove combo this season in the high country. Does the smoke smell spook out the mule deer? What's everyone's thoughts. I typically like to go as unnoticed as possible and it has worked but would love the benefits of a stove.
 
Animals smell smoke from forest fires and lightening strikes all the time. Some of the best areas to hunt are old burns.
 
I had a group of elk within about 250 yards of me all night long while I had a tipi and stove combo going. They were bugling, fighting and mewing all night long. When horses came up they were gone.
 
I don't worry about smoke but I have wondered about the noise of the stove popping when it heats and cools. It's really loud to me but I don't know how it affects the game.
 
I've had moose and Deer walk right up to the tent while cooking food on my woodstove. Also had elk within a couple hundred yard of the tent. So could it scare them, maybe. But I'm guessing they would be more jumpy with your smell or the sound of talking.
 
smokes a pretty natural occurrence in the mountains. ive always found it pretty humorous how guys worry about it. its not like we invented fire, its part of the natural world
 
Honestly I think it attracts them. Seems we always have a herd of elk come into camp to investigate. The guy left back at camp has a very good chance of needing a rifle. Last rifle season a 270 bull came right up to camp to take a peek, and earlier that week I'd built a warming fire to wait out a snow storm. Later it cleared a bit and I moved on down the ridge only to return at dusk to find tracks from a herd that came in to check things out.

As for cigarette & pipe smoke, doesn't seem to bother them either.
Hunt'nFish
 
I would think that it would not bother them. I smoke my whitetail gear to kill the bacteria that cause odors and have deer walk right under me all the time.
 
I've had moose and Deer walk right up to the tent while cooking food on my woodstove. Also had elk within a couple hundred yard of the tent. So could it scare them, maybe. But I'm guessing they would be more jumpy with your smell or the sound of talking.

Yeah not sure what it is about those ID moose and deer but they tried to curl up to my fire a few times last year.
 
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