Scent smoker set up?

[Big_Holla]

I had one 1 1/2 old buck wind me this year and I'm thinking there were a combination of things I did & didn't do to cause it. I was in the Big Holla overlooking a trail that came down off the hill to the East, there for an all-day sit. The morning I hunted there was no wind and it was forecasted to be SSW for the rest of the day. As noon approached the wind picked up some and was blowing mostly out of the SW and I thought I would be OK to continue to hunt it. I had only pre-smoked my stuff the night before. I also was having trouble keeping from coughing so I had a pocket full of Ricola cough drops I was force feeding one after another. I spotted the buck walking N along that ridge top and I didn't cover my face up with my face mask, thinking I would be good. Well he stopped on a dime where I figured he should be hitting my wind. He started to get nervous and trotted up further onto the ridge top to the E and stopped a few times to look back and check the wind again. He never blew and he never really raised his tail but he sure didn't like what he smelled and turned to head back to the S further away. That night I went and got some Claritin D to clear my frickin nose up. The next several days after until I killed my buck I was able to stop with the cough drops and continued to do the pre-smoke as well as morning smoke and didn't have one deer react negatively after that.

 

[finelyshedded]

I only had one encounter that had a deer(mature doe) head bobbing and snorting at me this season. She didn't wind me as the wind was steady from her to me but I jumped her and her two yearlings off this flat in the morning darkness only to have her slip back by "looking" for me. Due to being set up down hill from this oak flat I rely on me spotting them first and being ready to shoot cause I'm just slightly higher than eye level when they're in tight or out to 50 yards. I only hunt when the is perfect out of the NW,N or NE. She finally left after her being pissed off cuz she couldn't get me to flinch or move so she eventually walked off.
It was a very frustrating 14 or so hunts later that I was able to start having some up close encounters with some deer. The day Ron killed his buck,Nov 4th, I had deer all around me all afternoon with the wind blowing from 3 different directions and not once did I have a deer booger or even come close to busting me. There were 7-9 bucks and 4 antlerless deer near me that day and I had a 25 yard shot op at a solid 130" 10 and a couple one teens 8's at 15 yards that day as well.
The next day in the morning I had a 3 point spike walk by me twice on my down wind side at 18-20 yards and never suspected anything and the deer I killed never made it to my downwind side.
Not one deer knew I was around and I'm still sold on the "smoke" screen approach!