I'm not paying attention to wind direction ...

[Scioto]

Doing an experiment this season - I'm not going to pay attention to wind direction. This is largely the result of my stand set-up on my lease and for some days the forecast prevailing wind direction just won't be ideal, but I'm still going to hunt a stand regardless. This will be my second year hunting the ridges and hollows of West/central Hickman County. Wind forecast for Saturday as of this morning is for southerly wind and kicking into the 10-15mph range by late morning/early afternoon. However, I don't think it matters. It's going to be swirling regardless, so the direction at any given time is going to be wrong even if the prevailing looks to be right for a stand. Will just try to be as "de-scented" as possible, hope for the best, and shoot fast.

 

[chris1976]

It is rare that you get a constant one direction wind. Just plan your hunt on prevailing winds and jump in a tree!! Good luck!!

 

[Deer Assassin]

my question has always been

how do you know what direction the deer are coming from


sunday morn had 2 come in in a direction i have never seen them come from and it was down wind too

i just go hunt

 

[infoman jr.]

That sounds like an experiment I wouldn't undertake, but good luck!

 

[BSK]

This will be my second year hunting the ridges and hollows of West/central Hickman County.

In that rugged ridge-and-holler terrain, unless you're on a ridge-top, it's difficult to find any single hunt when your scent doesn't end up blowing in every direction.

Will just try to be as "de-scented" as possible, hope for the best, and shoot fast.

Smart move. I still try to play the wind as much as possible, but for any stand off the ridge-tops, I need to be as "reduced scent" as possible. The way moving air swirls around terrain, in conjunction with fluky thermals, my scent is going to end up going every eventually.

 

[Tennessee Lead]

my question has always been

how do you know what direction the deer are coming from


sunday morn had 2 come in in a direction i have never seen them come from and it was down wind too

i just go hunt

X2!

 

[Scioto]

my question has always been

how do you know what direction the deer are coming from


sunday morn had 2 come in in a direction i have never seen them come from and it was down wind too

i just go hunt

X2!

My attitude exactly.

 

[TheRealSpurhunter]

On my place, you see deer from any/all directions, and all my stands are on one side of the property due to access issues. I have no choice but to just hunt. :(

 

[shaggy]

You can see 'deer' from any direction in any wind but seeing a 'mature deer' is a different story. I have only had a few stands where deer didn't come from only one direction, tva lines, huge fields, etc. Most of the time you are in a spot for a reason, you know their travel route, where they are most likely to enter a field, etc. I will take my chances and hunt my stands based on the wind and where 70-80% of the deer, and mature deer, will come from.

 

[WRbowhunter]

I have sections of woods I hunt where the deer can and will come from any direction.Then I have sections that you better play the wind or you are just wasting your time unless you just like to hear deer blow at you. Of course this is bottom land and not ridges and the such.

 

[deerhunter10]

Good luck... I hunt ridges and stuff and yes they are unpredictable but I play it the best I can. You can beat there eyes and there ears but it is very hard to beat there nose. Good luck

 

[Shed Hunter]

The guys I hunt with dont hunt the wind. They kill a lot of mature bucks too.

 

[Mike Belt]

West Tn doesn't have the ridges like east Tn but we still get a lot of swirling winds. I always check the day's hourly predictions (multiple times) before deciding on a stand selection only to find that they were wrong. Even when they hit it right seldom are those winds constant and in between them blowing as predicted they may swirl or blow completely opposite directions at times. You can't plan on that. All you can do is try and stay as scent free as possible and possibly hunt higher than need be. There aren't many places I hunt that I can say 100% positively the direction the deer will approach from.

 

[THEdonkey0515]

Ive never have paid attention! I just pick what stand I wanna hunt that morning or afternoon and get in a tree lol. I guess right or I dont! never look to see were the wind is blowing from or watch the news to find anything out about the wind I just hunt and let it play out on its own.

 

[Snake]

Some stand sites deer come from different directions but if you know were they bed and that they will mostly come from that direction then you will be wasting your time to hunt it with a wrong wind JMO !

 

[BSK]

The record-books are full of big bucks killed by novices who were just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Yet the most consistently successful hunters I know are all fanatics about attention to detail. The two most common element they are fanatic about is wind direction and/or scent control.

 

[Mike Belt]

Every year the deer keep reinforcing and driving home that I have no idea where they're bedding. I suppose it depends on the terrain features where you hunt and there may be areas more likely than others, but they drop off their feet anywhere and any time they want; often in some of the most unlikely places.

 

[BSK]

Every year the deer keep reinforcing and driving home that I have no idea where they're bedding. I suppose it depends on the terrain features where you hunt and there may be areas more likely than others, but they drop off their feet anywhere and any time they want; often in some of the most unlikely places.

I can guarantee you that's true.

 

[Boll Weevil]

...but they drop off their feet anywhere and any time they want; often in some of the most unlikely places.

I emphatically agree and also believe it's more pronounced on properties where pressure is light to moderate vs. heavily hunted.

 

[fairchaser]

Most of the time when people "hunt the wind" they walk into their spot with the wind in their face and set up looking into the wind hoping any approaching deer will not smell them because the deer are approaching them with the wind at their backs. Deer rarely walk into areas they can't see with a tail wind especially mature bucks. When people don't pay attention to the wind, they often see deer they would not have seen with their previous method. The deer approach with the wind a little wrong for the deer and a little wrong for the hunter. Now, if you can develop this into your strategy you may have something.

 

[BILLBENDER]

I pay attention to the wind but it is more important on some of the ground i hunt as opposed to others. The farm I own has a pretty defined area the deer come from and there is only certain winds that work. I actually tried this method of forgetting the wind on this farm just to see and sighting were very slim. I always seem to have better luck on certain winds. I have other places that deer come from everywhere so hunting a defined wind is hard. I do believe playing the wind is important and should be used as a tool to be successful. I also believe that sometimes we get to hung up on things and would be better of just going hunting.

 

[BSK]

...but they drop off their feet anywhere and any time they want; often in some of the most unlikely places.

I emphatically agree and also believe it's more pronounced on properties where pressure is light to moderate vs. heavily hunted.

Agreed and good point Boll Weevil.

 

[BSK]

Most of the time when people "hunt the wind" they walk into their spot with the wind in their face and set up looking into the wind hoping any approaching deer will not smell them because the deer are approaching them with the wind at their backs.

When I think of "playing the wind" perhaps I'm thinking of it differently than others. When I'm playing the wind, I'm in a stand downwind of where I expect the majority of movement to occur. That could be hunting on the downwind side of a convergence of multiple ridges and/or points, hunting a ridge or saddle during a favorable crosswind, or hunting a hillside stand during an uphill breeze when I believe the majority of movement will be downhill from my stand position. None of those set-ups are foolproof. Deer can still move downwind of me. But the MAJORITY won't.

 

[airdawg11]

I agree mature deer want to walk with the wind in their face so they can smell does or danger ahead. That can be one of the reasons you may see a deer come in from a different direction based on the wind the wind. Now the original post about not paying attention to the wind- one thing that could help you when hunting ridges is keep in mind in the morning as the air starts to warm, scent and heat will rise, so hunt about 3/4 up the ridge. In the evenings when the air is cooling scent and air will fall, so sit towards the bottom of the ridge. Deer actually seem to travel this way in hilly country. Hope that helps!

 

[156p&y]

Let us know how it turns out. That experiment is not for me. I generally try to just set up on terrain features or borders that pushes deer upwind of me and if it's wrong I move. I will say this it is much harder to do in deep hardwoods in the ridges.

 

[B&C Buster]

Keep in mind if u use scents or calls, mature deer will almost always try to circle downwind, so your scent control is most important IMO.

 

[Scioto]

Most of the time when people "hunt the wind" they walk into their spot with the wind in their face and set up looking into the wind hoping any approaching deer will not smell them because the deer are approaching them with the wind at their backs. Deer rarely walk into areas they can't see with a tail wind especially mature bucks. When people don't pay attention to the wind, they often see deer they would not have seen with their previous method. The deer approach with the wind a little wrong for the deer and a little wrong for the hunter. Now, if you can develop this into your strategy you may have something.

^^^^^ This

 

[MUP]

When I think of "playing the wind" perhaps I'm thinking of it differently than others. When I'm playing the wind, I'm in a stand downwind of where I expect the majority of movement to occur. That could be hunting on the downwind side of a convergence of multiple ridges and/or points, hunting a ridge or saddle during a favorable crosswind, or hunting a hillside stand during an uphill breeze when I believe the majority of movement will be downhill from my stand position. None of those set-ups are foolproof. Deer can still move downwind of me. But the MAJORITY won't.

This is how I think of it as well, along with considering thermal draft in conjunction with the wind direction.

 

[Mike Belt]

BSK...Exactly right! I think that's the best game plan any of us anywhere we may hunt can strive for. I seldom consider wind direction for approaching my stand simply because if the deer are downwind on my approach they're going to be downwind of my stand as well. I also seldom see deer traveling directly into the wind but rather a quartering wind and as often as not, quartering over their backs. In either scenario if your stand location is downwind of where you "anticipate" deer movement happening you're covered.

 

[Scioto]

Mike Belt, please explain how one would be positioned when observing a buck traveling with a wind "quartering over their backs." For example, if the wind is blowing from S and my stand is positioned so I'm facing W, is that buck traveling E to W or W to E?