I’m sure I have posted about this before and wrote an article for Varmint hunters magazine years ago but I had an incident yesterday that reconfirmed it and thought I would share.
Daylight finds me setting in a brush thicket watching a well used trail about 20 yds away. The full moon is still up not going to set for a couple hours. While the temp was not bitter cold my soda froze on the ground beside me.
Being the sissie that I am I built me a fire. Something I nearly always do whether it’s cold or not. The fire I build is very small. It would easily fit in your hat but it lets me warm my hands and covers my scent.
Right after the moon set I saw a small 8 pt buck meandering down the trail from my right. He had nowhere to go and wasn’t in any hurry to get there. He wasn’t a shooter for me even if I had a buck tag which I don’t.
Eventually he got far enough left to hit my smoke which was laying right on the ground. You can bet that my scent was right there with it. He never raised his head or showed any sign of alarm. He just meandered along about his business.
I have seen similar situations many times and am firmly convinced a small fire is better than anything you can buy to cover your scent.