Just curious if people are for or against while hunting in backcountry. We had fires every night only time I went elk hunting. Something about a fire that relaxes you and also a sense of safety. My buddy and I were talking about not making fires this year. Saves time and makes you go to bed right away after eating. Also eliminates smoke smell. We aren't completely for or against it. Just talking about the numerous things that keep our brains turning until fall. I think of this while I have a nice fire going in my backyard and feel like I might miss it out west. Although it wouldn't have to be every night.
I think a fire is good . It relaxes me also. If I crawled into my bag after I ate my brain would be doing 200 mph s about the next days hunt and everything that went on that day. I am sure those animals are use to a good Smokey smell anyways. Just my opinion .
We needed the fire to cook most nights. I think even if we didn't need to, we would have made one many of the nights. There were a few though that we easily could have just gone to bed.
I think the smoke smell on you and your clothes is much more natural than body odor. Taking scent eliminating spray and taking a shower every night in the back country is unrealistic. Therefore I think having a fire definitely has advantages for scent control. I agree with the relaxing and comforting feeling as well.
I heard of people trying to use campfire smoke as a cover scent but I don't know if it actually works. They argued that smoke smell can be a natural smell in the wild, more so as people have fires in their yards and it doesn't cause a threat to the deer.
This could change once I'm hunting but I don't plan on having a fire. The plan is to set up camp/spot, cook my meal on jetboil, then go to bed. If I am fortunate enough to kill an elk, I'd like to have a good ole campfire meal my last night there.
We don't typically have campfires in our elk camps. Most of the time our hunters are ready to hit the sack after an all day adventure in the mountains. It get's dark around 830-9 and we're usually up around 4. So after 3 weeks of that, a fire is the last thing on my mind. We don't keep clients from starting a fire but that rarely happens.
We've never built one when we pack in. The places we stayed at the truck we will usually have one. It's to much trouble to me when I've packed in 5-6 miles. I just pull my little stove out and cooked dinner. Much faster for me to do that. Usually as soon as I'm done eating I'm headed to bed anyways.
Do not fear smelling like smoke, matter of fact when you don't have the option of a shower I would rather smell like smoke than unwashed smelly human. I have spiked out when working fire in the past. I was spiked out for 14 days with no access to a shower and one would think that working hard all day in pants and long sleeve shirts a guy would smell like a goat espically after 2 weeks. Working in the smoke and char and ash actually helps deodorize your clothing.
It's all carbon, which proves a point that the science behind carbon products like Scentlok actually works... And the activated carbon does a better job than campfire carbon.
Dubbya, I don't want to go down that path. I do know smoke works in the situation I witnessed, I am not prepared to agree beyond that.
We hunt from a base camp. We dont have fires tell the wives and grandkids show up. We also have a shower set up on our trailers. When we use a spike camp we dont mainly out of being died tired.
