I've got some Talcum Powder in a bottle but it doesn't work near as good the Smoke in a Bottle.

What's the best substance to use in a small bottle as a wind detector.

Try chalk powder, like you put in a chalk box. It works well for me.

Flour is great as long as you can keep it really dry.

I personally would rather just buy their product than to try and reinvent the wheel. I thought that talcum powder was the general go-to ingredient but maybe I was wrong. (I have been once before.      )

Chalk dust works great-it's cheap and comes in different colors.

I use corn starch

The fluffy stuff off of milkweed. Put it in an old prescription bottle with a hole drilled in the cap. It will dispense sort of like tissues.

QuoteOriginally posted by DarkTimber:
I use corn starch

X2

I also use the milkweed.

Corn starch.

I've tried lots of different stuff. I've never been able to come close to the way smoke in a bottle drifts on the slightest current of air.
I gave up and ordered enough for my buddies and I for the rest of my life  

Many moons ago, I use to aquire Dryer Lint, and dye it orange,(nothing fancy).Let it dry completly.Roll it into a cigar shape, and stuff it into a 35MM film canister, with a X cut on the top lid.Pull one end of the lint up into the X cut,and your good to go.Works very well, and you are also recycling       Lint floats on the thermals real well,just a little pinch will do!(Less is Best),dont float too much!

Works well even in fog,for a little more yardage,and doubles as a dry fire starter source.

A cotton ball works good.  Just pull it apart into small "strands" and it will "float" a good distance, esp. when you're up a tree.

Plenty of milk weed around here. I usually have some stuffed in my shirt or pants pockets.

Salmon egg fly yarn (OK, the yarn used to make salmon egg flies) works very well and it comes in fluorescent colors.  Pinch a few strands off and let them float.
ChuckC

I used cornstarch in my homemade wind tunnel experiments (long story, believe it or not it was a computer in there) and I found it would work very well.  Talcum powder is too heavy.  Chalk is also an excellent choice.

Baking POWDER in a squirt bottle has worked really good for me.

For you guys that "pinch off" cotton, milkweed, etc, do you have to worry about your scent being carried with your material?

I don't think so.  If they are close enough to smell your scent on the cotton, they have probably already smelled you.

I tried to knock off Smoke in a Bottle, figured it was ridiculous to spend $6 on a little bottle of powder. Nothing I tried worked as well as theirs. Broke down and bought $100 worth at the ATA Show this year. I've got a lifetime supply now and supported another small business in the process. They really do have the best product I've tried. LOVE it!!

I really like mine and am still working on the same bottle that Robin gave me years ago. Not sure how much is left, but I'd bet it goes at least one or two more seasons.
 

QuoteOriginally posted by DarkTimber:
I use corn starch

X2. Works great!