One of the biggest factors impacting the success of whitetail hunting is odor elimination—or better stated, scent control. A new product on the market that claims to eliminate alarming downwind scent is Deer Smoke Screen. A few days ago, I received the opportunity to try this this product free of charge. It arrived well-packaged on Saturday. Sunday was my testing day and my goal was not to influence the results one way or another, but rather only give a fair and accurate account of my experience with the product.
Fellow hunters, take from it what you will. I arrived at my deer lease at before sunrise with hog hunting on my mind. There was a small tank that had been covered in hog sign, so I knew where I wanted to set up. There are no game cameras in this area so I did not know when these pigs were frequenting the water source. I got settled in, unloaded a few supplies and I was ready for the hunt. I wanted to test this product prior to the deer hunting season and we all know that pigs have darn good sniffers too.
It important to note that at this point the inner conflict began. There seems to be something inherently wrong with intentionally sending a scent into the air for every animal to wind, but then I reminded myself that I was here for a fair and accurate review of Deer Smoke Screen. I lit it up. I was sweating heavily and the gnats were driving me crazy. After about 5 minutes there were no more gnats. Was this a benefit of the thin smoke stream? Not sure.
The wind has a tendency to swirl around this tank due to the fact that it sets in a bowl. With this is mind, I decided to light at least 1 more Deer Smoke Screen stick and set it to the West just in case any porkers came down the trail on that side. I hunted for six hours in 100 degree weather and never saw a hog.
However, I did a bobcat, two raccoons, and a coyote that came to the tank. The bobcat got within 14 yards of me and he was downwind for a brief period, but never looked in my direction. The coyote got within 25 yards and was also downwind. I would have put the drop on him, but my sling caught on a cedar branch and blew my cover.
The archery whitetail hunting season will soon be upon us and I will give Deer Smoke Screen another shot. I did not have any game animals come downwind of me, or feral hogs for that matter, but it did fool some predators. I can’t say I’m a complete believer until it fools some deer, but the product did earn a little respect from me.