Deer travel in relation with wind

[BHC]

This past yr I did a little experiment. Logged all deer activity, but soecifically how they traveled in regard to wind direction. After reading a lot about it last summer I was almost convinced to hunt stand with what most would consider the wrong wind direction... Because those spots would only be at their best when the wind was blowin "up the funnel"..
Well when season rolled around, I decided to take a different approach. I would note wind direction, but disregard it when it came to stand selection. Then I logged the general direction deer travelled, in comparison to the general wind direction..
By the end of Oct I was almost convinced. I should assume every single deer will travel to some sort with his nose to the wind to reach a given destination. Not most but every single deer I saw from sept 22- Oct 31 was walking into the wind.
I got picked up on a couple times inside 40yrds, but jus a good scent control regime kept me pretty hidden... I even shot my biggest buck to date after walking with the wind directly in his face out into a food plot. Shot him at 20yrds down wind.
But once Nov approached I could not find any patterns. All travel was random. Bucks and does.... The wind seemed to play no role in how deer moved..

I'm semi convinced that before the rut starts kicking in, this is a good strategy to employ...

 

[Mike Belt]

I've seen more deer travel with a quartering wind (and usually over their backs) than I have directly into the wind. Much of their traveling and using the wind may be dictated by the type of terrain and cover they're passing through at the time.

 

[BHC]

Yea I've read where they travel so they can see in front, or a buck may travel a ridge with a quartering wind scent checking for does... I've seen all scenarios, jus found it interesting how every deer I saw mature or not prior to breeding interests kickin in, was traveling into the wind... I dunno if it was just coincidence or what? It was quite a few deer.. Maybe a summer thing.. Maybe something they do when the main thing on their minds is food... I'll be anxious to see if the same holds true this yr...

 

[Nealmeally]

I've seen more deer travel with a quartering wind (and usually over their backs) than I have directly into the wind.

Same here.. I've seen several mature bucks and does travel with the wind at their back. My biggest buck from last season, the wind was blowing from him to me and had been all evening. He walked 100 yards from some thick stuff right to me. He sure didn't "wind" me, no way he could...

I pay more attention to wind direction when I'm walking in to my stands than when I'm actually in them. Cause I've seen just as many deer not use the wind as I've seen use it when they are up and moving.. Of course I pay attention when I'm on stand to the wind, especially certain stands. Some more than others though. And I won't hunt some stands on certain winds.. It all goes with knowing the terrain and keeping up with deer travel routes over the years also..

Some of my best spots you never know where the deer are gonna come from anyways. Yeah I get winded out of these spots some but I keep hunting them and they always produce. I think some folks dwell on wind a little too much sometimes.. I take chances more than I should probably with the wind from time to time. And I've had those chances pay off more than once. I just keep me and my clothes clean and play the odds..

 

[BSK]

I've seen more deer travel with a quartering wind (and usually over their backs) than I have directly into the wind.

Same here.. I've seen several mature bucks and does travel with the wind at their back.

Exactly. If the wind is steady all day, and a deer wants to bed in the same area, it HAS to spend at least half of its travel time walking with the wind to get back to its starting point. Otherwise a deer could only walk in one direction all day. However, I do believe mature deer learn to play thermals and terrain-driven winds to their favor, and with experience learn where those micro-winds will work to their favor. In essence deer will use the wind to the favor whenever they can, but there are going to be large stretches of their travels where they must travel with the wind.

I pay more attention to wind direction when I'm walking in to my stands than when I'm actually in them.

Excellent advice. More hunters need to think about that.

Of course I pay attention when I'm on stand to the wind, especially certain stands. Some more than others though. And I won't hunt some stands on certain winds.. It all goes with knowing the terrain and keeping up with deer travel routes over the years also.

Some of my best spots you never know where the deer are gonna come from anyways. Yeah I get winded out of these spots some but I keep hunting them and they always produce. I think some folks dwell on wind a little too much sometimes.. I take chances more than I should probably with the wind from time to time. And I've had those chances pay off more than once. I just keep me and my clothes clean and play the odds..

Again, excellent advice. In the areas I hunt, deer are using terrain and habitat driven movement patterns, where wind is less of a factor in how they move. Often I hunt high deer concentration areas where the deer could be coming from anywhere and going anywhere, and in those set-ups, I just keep my scent level as low as possible and hope for the best.

 

[Shed Hunter]

I've seen more deer travel with a quartering wind (and usually over their backs) than I have directly into the wind.

Same here.. I've seen several mature bucks and does travel with the wind at their back.

Exactly. If the wind is steady all day, and a deer wants to bed in the same area, it HAS to spend at least half of its travel time walking with the wind to get back to its starting point. Otherwise a deer could only walk in one direction all day. However, I do believe mature deer learn to play thermals and terrain-driven winds to their favor, and with experience learn where those micro-winds will work to their favor. In essence deer will use the wind to the favor whenever they can, but there are going to be large stretches of their travels where they must travel with the wind.

I pay more attention to wind direction when I'm walking in to my stands than when I'm actually in them.

Excellent advice. More hunters need to think about that.

Of course I pay attention when I'm on stand to the wind, especially certain stands. Some more than others though. And I won't hunt some stands on certain winds.. It all goes with knowing the terrain and keeping up with deer travel routes over the years also.

Some of my best spots you never know where the deer are gonna come from anyways. Yeah I get winded out of these spots some but I keep hunting them and they always produce. I think some folks dwell on wind a little too much sometimes.. I take chances more than I should probably with the wind from time to time. And I've had those chances pay off more than once. I just keep me and my clothes clean and play the odds..

Again, excellent advice. In the areas I hunt, deer are using terrain and habitat driven movement patterns, where wind is less of a factor in how they move. Often I hunt high deer concentration areas where the deer could be coming from anywhere and going anywhere, and in those set-ups, I just keep my scent level as low as possible and hope for the best.

I've seen more deer travel with a quartering wind (and usually over their backs) than I have directly into the wind.

Same here.. I've seen several mature bucks and does travel with the wind at their back.

Exactly. If the wind is steady all day, and a deer wants to bed in the same area, it HAS to spend at least half of its travel time walking with the wind to get back to its starting point. Otherwise a deer could only walk in one direction all day. However, I do believe mature deer learn to play thermals and terrain-driven winds to their favor, and with experience learn where those micro-winds will work to their favor. In essence deer will use the wind to the favor whenever they can, but there are going to be large stretches of their travels where they must travel with the wind.

I pay more attention to wind direction when I'm walking in to my stands than when I'm actually in them.

Excellent advice. More hunters need to think about that.

Of course I pay attention when I'm on stand to the wind, especially certain stands. Some more than others though. And I won't hunt some stands on certain winds.. It all goes with knowing the terrain and keeping up with deer travel routes over the years also.

Some of my best spots you never know where the deer are gonna come from anyways. Yeah I get winded out of these spots some but I keep hunting them and they always produce. I think some folks dwell on wind a little too much sometimes.. I take chances more than I should probably with the wind from time to time. And I've had those chances pay off more than once. I just keep me and my clothes clean and play the odds..

Again, excellent advice. In the areas I hunt, deer are using terrain and habitat driven movement patterns, where wind is less of a factor in how they move. Often I hunt high deer concentration areas where the deer could be coming from anywhere and going anywhere, and in those set-ups, I just keep my scent level as low as possible and hope for the best.

I personally don't think deer plan their movement from wind, but it would be something interesting to study. I know there is a US wind map. If something like that could be detailed and specified to a group of deer with GPS collars home range, then you could combine the two maps to see what the relations of deer travel to wind are--if any.

Like I said, no idea if that is currently technologically possible, but it would be an easy study to do.

 

[TheLBLman]

When traveling downwind, I think older deer are more likely to simply RUN from Point A to Point B, as opposed to moving more slowing when traveling into the wind.

Also believe that we're often mistaken about the direction of the wind, at least at the location of the deer. Wind direction (maybe more accurately we should say air movement) changes frequently and very differently even comparing two spots a few yards apart.

 

[BHC]

Yea I agree. My info was based on predominate winds.. Also I realize it's stupid to think. Deer always travel with or against the wind. I think it's jus not quite that simple... You may see a deer cruise through a thicket with the wind at any direction. Maybe that's simply because he feels comfortable there and has never encountered a human in there..? Maybe he's traveling a cross wind, so that he can approach a field from down wind, or at least circle down wind of the field.
I definitely don't know the answers, I just thought a lot about it last season, and found it interesting pre- pre- rut every deer was traveling with the wind in its face, be it slightly quartering or straight on. However once bucks began chasing does it was all directions from various set ups.. Even does...
I find it interesting how many hunters will say always hunt 50-75 yards down wind of scrapes, but you don't typically here the same for isolated mast trees, or food plots/ag fields.. Or even the down wind edge of a popular bedding area... It generally just becomes hunt funnels with the wind to your advantage for that funnel..
I too have found scent control and strategic entries are more important to me than the wind direction on stand... I rarely " play the wind" anymore. Last yr I did not play it a single time. I hunted where I thought my best chances were, and tried not to over hunt anywhere. I don't think I hunted a single stand more than three times...

 

[BHC]

The question is if deer always use the wind to their advantage throughout their daily lives, yr around. Can hunters use that knowledge to kill more mature bucks?
I'm not sure.. There may be to many variables/ individual deer personalities.. But maybe if you know a property well enough, and see situations that tend to replay or at least similarities.. Maybe then one could figure something out..
I really like to watch where wounded deer go after being shot. Or listening where they crash off too after spooking them..I think more can be learned quickly about how deer travel by figuring out where they go, and how they get their when they are scared...

 

[Winchester]

Some good points. I agree older deer definitely use the wind when possible and likely even more than we know when dealing with thermals and back currents. I also agree the Nov/rut will see older deer do things and make mistakes they wouldn't any other time of year, wind included. Ive actually had a lot of luck with a cross or quartering wind, especially earlier in the season when a old deer is very less likely to be sauntering along with the wind at his back.

 

[Boll Weevil]

This has been a good thread to follow and I wish I had more to offer on the orignal poster's comments but I've just never paid much attention to how they travel vs. wind. I've just always been more concerned about what my stink may be doing in relation to the deer vs. what the deer were doing in relation to the wind.

I'll definitely take more note of it this season.

 

[Nealmeally]

Having spent some time hunting small properties, I think that the wind has more to do with the deer's destination then it does with their travel routes.

I agree with this, especially with mature bucks. I believe some bucks actually get pinned down because of wind direction, more so if they've had pressure put on them.

I've jumped some big bucks in spots that I would never thought they'd be laying. But once I survey the situation and try to figure it out and why they were bedded there, it usually goes back to the wind direction. They simply didn't go any futher because of the wind direction at that time.. Smart and wise and mature enough not to go into an area they couldn't smell, so they lay down and wait it out.

Of course I think some bucks bed in areas during the rut or just before the rut where heavy doe trails are. They use the wind direction to determine where to bed downwind of these trails. I think this is more common in fully mature bucks. Bucks that have bred some of the same does year after year and KNOW when and where these does are gonna be.

I also think some of the mature does are wise like mature bucks and sometimes come into areas that they know a mature buck is staying. Mainly because they know it's time to be bred and would rather get it over with than run all over the place with a buck on her butt.. The older, the wiser...

Just my observations and opinions..

 

[BSK]

In other words, they tend to use the wind to their advantage in their bedding areas and some bedding areas only get used at any given time for specific wind directions. For example, with a East wind, a buck may regularly bed on a overgrown fence line with the woods at his back (East) and facing the open field. He can smell anything behind him and see anything in front of him. However, in order to get to that optimal vantage point, he may very well have to travel with the wind in order to avoid crossing an open field in the daylight.

Excellent example, and I agree.

 

[Mike Belt]

I believe bucks use their eyesight as a defensive mechanism much more that given credit for. Dependent upon the timing of the season (disregarding a shift in seasonal prevalent wind directions) they may travel through a particular area differently. A prime example would be a buck traveling through a timbered area adjacent to an agricultural field. Prior to the rut he may travel through that area deeper into the woods with the wind blowing from the field towards him. As the rut nears he may travel through the same area much closer to the field's edges visually seeking does in the fields but with the wind blowing from the interior of the timbered area toward the field edges.

Where sight is advantageous I believe they may have more of a disregard for wind direction.

 

[TheLBLman]

Where sight is advantageous I believe they may have more of a disregard for wind direction.

I agree. Let a mature buck see a doe, downwind, and they will often head straight to her, perhaps assuming it's "safe" there since the doe is not alarmed.

 

[fairchaser]

JMO, but I would think deer move around by all their senses. If they are keyed in on a certain food source, they would approach the food source using the wind (smell), sound and sight to their advantage. I don't think they would circle around the entire field to get the right wind unless they needed to gain more comfort. If they had encountered danger then they may scent check the danger area first. If anything in their approach raises their predator/prey hackles, then they do what is needed to get comfortable or turn away. They would move the most efficiently from one point to another along the route that gives them enough safe variables to feel unthreatened.

 

[bowriter]

Sight-deer often confirmation of what they see before they totally spook.
hearing-deer often need confirmation of what they hear before they totally spook.
Scent-Deer know immediately what they smell in term s of danger. They need no further confirmation.

Therefore, of the three senses, smell is by far the most critical in terms of how a deer reacts. That is not to say, the mere scent of human sends even mature bucks into an escape mode. Nothing could be further from the truth. With the exception of the deep woods or swamp deer, the reaction to human scent may vary from a cautious but calm avoidance to dang near ignoring the scent.
The more contact deer have with non-predatory humans, the less they freak out. It has reached a point where I hunt, in almost a backyard situation, that I pay absolutely no attention to wind direction at all. I have watched deer come from some distance downwind and walk right by me. I have also seen them calmly circle around me.
This is just about the opposite I saw when I hunted large, non-agricultural timber tracts or big woodlots and river bottoms of the Midwest.

 

[BSK]

The more contact deer have with non-predatory humans, the less they freak out. It has reached a point where I hunt, in almost a backyard situation, that I pay absolutely no attention to wind direction at all. I have watched deer come from some distance downwind and walk right by me. I have also seen them calmly circle around me.

This is just about the opposite I saw when I hunted large, non-agricultural timber tracts or big woodlots and river bottoms of the Midwest.

A perfect example of how adaptive of a species whitetail deer are. They never cease to amaze me in their ability to differentiate where spatially a particular stimulus is and is not a danger. I've watched an individual deer completely ignore human scent where human scent is a normal, everyday occurrence not associated with a threat, but absolutely freak out when contacting the same human's scent 100 yards away where it does not normally occur, hence might be a threat.

 

[bowriter]

Bryan- In 1984, I wrote an article for Bow and Arrow Magazine entitled "Only the Unusual", in which I pointed out how deer become adapted to "usual" occurrences such as rifle fire on rifle ranges and farmers on tractors. I sighted a situation where a hunter started feeding deer from a trough in the woods. he filled it every day and wore a heavy dose of Aqua Velva shave lotion when doing so. Then, ten days before the season opened, he removed the trough. On opening day, wearing half a bottle, he was surrounded by deer.

 

[Hunter 257W]

This discussion sure flies in the face of the current commonly accepted advice of staying out of the woods except for hunting season and using only an ATV to approach trail cameras for fear of leaving a bit of human scent in the area, doesn't it?

I prefer to believe that deer do accept human scent and go about their business if they are exposed to humans on a consistent basis with no harm inflicted on them.