Pipe tobacco and hunting

I enjoy a good pipe after the days events for sure, but I think Steve Rinella said it best "To smoke cigarettes in your stand or not. When it comes to questions like that, there's no way to empirically solve it, but I would say I cannot imagine a situation where you would regret having not smoked cigarettes in your stand. But I can picture situations where you would regret having smoked cigarettes in your stand."

I know he talks about cigarettes but I would take it as smoking in general, kind of makes sense I think. That is why I save mine for around the campfire.

Despite Mr. Rinella's bizarre fascination with eating testicles, he makes a lot of sense to me.
 
Sometimes you can smell a cigarette for many hundreds of metres if wind is right, there is no way one can smell a human at a similiar distance. Don't kid yourself. Now I know lots of guys who have shot a deer while popping cans of beer and smoking, but it's sure not helping your chances. But smoke away, more deer for us ninjas
T

Sure, but a deer can smell you from many hundreds of meters if the wind is right, whether you are smoking or not. When you are not smoking, the deer smells you and immediately identifies you as a potential predator. When you are smoking, it may be considerably more difficult for the deer to smell you under the extremely heavy scent of smoke.

This is all theoretical, of course. I am not advocating one way or the other, just brainstorming.
 
when I did the peace pipe thing, I smoked that green Sail stuff, not sure if it's still around or not. I don't think pipe smoke will hurt your hunt. I stand in bon-fire smoke just before going hunting.
 
Ive known a few fellas that smoked while hunting, and they had the best success of the camps. I smoke cigars while hunting, and this season seen three moose in two days, it doesn't seem to bother them at all.
 
Sure, but a deer can smell you from many hundreds of meters if the wind is right, whether you are smoking or not. When you are not smoking, the deer smells you and immediately identifies you as a potential predator. When you are smoking, it may be considerably more difficult for the deer to smell you under the extremely heavy scent of smoke.

This is all theoretical, of course. I am not advocating one way or the other, just brainstorming.


I agree with your brainstorming.
case in point. this season my hunting partner and I had spent hours on the mountain , from hour before the first streaks of daylight to about noonish. exhausted and famished, we found a nice flat rock outcrop and made a little fire to warm the fingers and make a coffee n some soup. we both were laying on our side on either side of our little fire, and the first deer we see that morning just come trotting down the trail and scoot right past us. Tony had to move his legs out of the way as the 3 does and 2 fawns , surprised to see us as we were them, moved off into the trees down the trail. that damp wood was smokey and blowing right up that little trail in the updrafts. not cigarette smoke but the smells of campfire, coffee and chunky stew were wafting around pretty good ;)

As a pack and a 1/2 to 2 pack a day smoker for all but the last 2 seasons of my hunting career...... I'd have to say smoking cigarettes or pipe tobacco is the least of a guys concerns.
now that said, I would think that there are certainly times when stalking up on an animal , smoking or any strong scents are a bad idea.
my biggest concern when I was a smoking hunter was starting a fire I had no intention of starting ;)
 
I have always smoked while hunting deer,..whether on stand or hunting through the woods, and I have no problem seeing deer. Infact,..I know of lots of times if I was a non smoker I would have missed out on getting deer because I have shot alot of deer while stopped having a smoke break,..if I had'nt stopped for a smoke,..I would have walked through and not been in that spot when the deer came through. I don't pay much attention to smoking while hunting,...as we all know the wind is your number one concern,...if the deer is down wind of your smoke,...then he is down wind of your sent.
 
I agree with your brainstorming.
case in point. this season my hunting partner and I had spent hours on the mountain , from hour before the first streaks of daylight to about noonish. exhausted and famished, we found a nice flat rock outcrop and made a little fire to warm the fingers and make a coffee n some soup. we both were laying on our side on either side of our little fire, and the first deer we see that morning just come trotting down the trail and scoot right past us. Tony had to move his legs out of the way as the 3 does and 2 fawns , surprised to see us as we were them, moved off into the trees down the trail. that damp wood was smokey and blowing right up that little trail in the updrafts. not cigarette smoke but the smells of campfire, coffee and chunky stew were wafting around pretty good ;)

As a pack and a 1/2 to 2 pack a day smoker for all but the last 2 seasons of my hunting career...... I'd have to say smoking cigarettes or pipe tobacco is the least of a guys concerns.
now that said, I would think that there are certainly times when stalking up on an animal , smoking or any strong scents are a bad idea.
my biggest concern when I was a smoking hunter was starting a fire I had no intention of starting ;)

Interesting. One of my hunting buddies has a similar story from this season. He and his sons were out all morning looking for a first mulie buck for one of the sons. They had got a couple grouse and decided to make a fire in a nice clearing and cook the grouse for lunch. After lunch, they were laying on the grass enjoying the sun and the warmth of the fire and my buddy notices a nice 2x2 buck wandering along the edge of the clearing, about 30 yards away. Buddy says "hey there's a buck" and jumps up to get the rifle for his son. The mulie watches him and then starts to get nervous. By the time buddy gives his son the rifle, the mulie is on his way, but my buddy says "go for it!" and his son shot him dead, on the run.
 
One time I shot a deer with a smoke hanging from my mouth while wearing a black t-shirt

I was km's away from a truck of any kind.
 
Thanks for the advice. I always consider pipe tobacco (especially english and strong blends) are much stronger in smell.

when I did the peace pipe thing, I smoked that green Sail stuff, not sure if it's still around or not. I don't think pipe smoke will hurt your hunt. I stand in bon-fire smoke just before going hunting.
It's around, but it's more of "Drugstore grade". Actual pipe store will have much better stuff.
 
I usually have a lip packed full of skoal huntin,I don't smoke (it's gross) So I cant help you there.

What are you gonna now with the ban on all flavoured chew? At least in Ontario only shoal straight available after December 15th
 
Old Russian family members actually used to start a campfire and wait for a deer to show up to shoot it. Was in the north part of Sask they did this.
 
I had a good buddy get cancer in his jaw from that sh*t you're endorsing.

They cut half his face off trying to stop the cancer but he died anyway.

I used to do Copenhagen for many years. Both my Doc & Dentist kept warning me to quite. They both said it's not "if" but "when". When I first started using it was about $.39 per tin or may have even been less, and when I finally took the advise to quite, it was over $10. per tin!
 
I don't know if it's dumber to revive an old thread or start a new thread on a topic that has already been discussed.

I flipped a coin, so here we are. There some good input from everyone above, too.

I'm just chiming in this time to say that, unlike some others who have quit smoking, I've recently (over the past few months) started smoking a pipe. Well... 14 pipes actually.

I love tobacco. Smoked cigarettes and cigarillos in the past. Always inhaled. The cancer risks are very real, which led me to quit. Recently, however, I did quite a lot of research on pipe smoking and I discovered that, statistically speaking, pipe smokers have a longer life expectancy than non-smokers. This isn't attributed to the pipe smoking, of course, but rather to something "undefinable" about people who smoke pipes. This was from a US Surgeon General's report that was based on decades of research, on tens of thousands of subjects.

This and other information was enough to get me very interested in the "hobby" of pipe smoking. I say "hobby" because that is truly what it is. It's not a habit, and certainly not an addiction. Weekdays, I have a couple of bowls in the evening. Weekend days, maybe 3 to 5 bowls, depending on what else is going on. This type of pipe smoking presents incredibly low risks. Risks that I am more than willing to take for the enjoyment of tobacco.

Did you know there are over 6000 types of pipe tobacco available? It just blows my mind how huge this industry is for such a small percentage of the population.

Anyway, this upcoming hunting season will be my first as a pipe smoker. I'll be smoking everything from Latakia-bombs to straight VA flakes to high-end aromatics like Nording Hunters Blend; Labrador.

I'll post back here if I make any observations about successes or failures. Would love to hear from other pipe smokers, too!

P.S. I concur, regarding SAIL green. Not my cup o' tea. (Same goes for Borkum Riff, Amphora, Captain Black, et. al.)
 
I don't know if it's dumber to revive an old thread or start a new thread on a topic that has already been discussed.

I flipped a coin, so here we are. There some good input from everyone above, too.

I'm just chiming in this time to say that, unlike some others who have quit smoking, I've recently (over the past few months) started smoking a pipe. Well... 14 pipes actually.

I love tobacco. Smoked cigarettes and cigarillos in the past. Always inhaled. The cancer risks are very real, which led me to quit. Recently, however, I did quite a lot of research on pipe smoking and I discovered that, statistically speaking, pipe smokers have a longer life expectancy than non-smokers. This isn't attributed to the pipe smoking, of course, but rather to something "undefinable" about people who smoke pipes. This was from a US Surgeon General's report that was based on decades of research, on tens of thousands of subjects.

This and other information was enough to get me very interested in the "hobby" of pipe smoking. I say "hobby" because that is truly what it is. It's not a habit, and certainly not an addiction. Weekdays, I have a couple of bowls in the evening. Weekend days, maybe 3 to 5 bowls, depending on what else is going on. This type of pipe smoking presents incredibly low risks. Risks that I am more than willing to take for the enjoyment of tobacco.

Did you know there are over 6000 types of pipe tobacco available? It just blows my mind how huge this industry is for such a small percentage of the population.

Anyway, this upcoming hunting season will be my first as a pipe smoker. I'll be smoking everything from Latakia-bombs to straight VA flakes to high-end aromatics like Nording Hunters Blend; Labrador.

I'll post back here if I make any observations about successes or failures. Would love to hear from other pipe smokers, too!

P.S. I concur, regarding SAIL green. Not my cup o' tea. (Same goes for Borkum Riff, Amphora, Captain Black, et. al.)

I want to pipe smoke eventually, but I feel like I have to be over the age of 65 to pull it off.
 
I had a good buddy get cancer in his jaw from that sh*t you're endorsing.

They cut half his face off trying to stop the cancer but he died anyway.

Yes and people have died from cancer due to smoking and your posting in a thread about smoking so what's your point?
 
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