Playing the wind?

BHC

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The way I see it there are two ways to hunt based on the wind.. 1. You can hunt with the wind in your face or just not blowing in the general direction you expect the deer to come. With this method you have to almost assume deer just travel and smell what they smell, with them not using it to their premeditated or instinctual advantage at all. 2. You can hunt deer based on them always using the wind to their advantage, traveling into the wind, walking a cross wind to scent check scrapes or a field, etc. Be it for breeding, feeding, or caution using this method you basically assume their is usually a wind driven reason a deer is moving in the direction he is. This method is likely only used by hunters in pursuit of mature bucks for the most part. With this method you likely can rarely hunt with the wind in your face and is probably used by the fewest hunters..

So which do you use and why what's you opinion on how a deer uses his nose in regard to the wind?
 

BSK

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I've always questioned the concept of deer only traveling into the wind or even quartering into or crosswind. If that were the case, deer would only have a 180 degree possible direction of travel. What if the wind blows from the same direction for several days? Deer would end up a long way from home after awhile!

From the GPS collar data I've seen, deer don't appear to alter their daily routines due to wind direction. That said, I do believe deer will choose travel routes that provide the best micro-scale wind advantages, such as terrain features that produce very localized differences in wind direction. I also believe deer play predictable daily changes in small-scale thermally driven air flow.
 

BSK

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As for hunting the wind, if you're lucky enough to hunted in mixed fields and woods, where deer movement is more predictable (deer stay out of the open habitat), and if you hunt flatter terrain, playing the wind and travel bottlenecks is much easier.

However, if you hunt hilly hardwoods, "playing the wind" is extremely difficult, as the terrain will greatly alter wind flow near the ground's surface. In combination with rapidly changing thermals as the sun's position changes throughout the day, the airflow across steep terrain often means the wind can blow from every direction near a stand site during a 3-4 hour sit. In that situation, staying as low-scent as possible is your best bet, as well as trying to understand how terrain and thermals direct localized airflow.
 

BHC

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I see what you mean BSK, about deer traveling one direction like that. But I believe it a defense used more by mature deer, and mature deer have a idea of where they are headed and use the wind as best they can to get there. It may mean if they cannot move into the wind they wait until dark or hold tighter to cover. It may not be upwind from A to B, however they may enter a hollow into the wind walk perpendicular with the wind and then circle down wind of an open field to enter so technically the direction of travel wasn't upwind, but they walked into the wind before stepping into any new types of cover or into the open?... What's your thoughts?
 

catman529

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I try to play the wind but it always changes from pre-dawn to sunrise and then to later in the morning. Up in a tree I am not too worried about it I guess. From the ground I know they can smell me a lot better
 

Vermin93

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I read a deer hunting book two years ago that was written by a deer researcher in Virginia. His research indicated that deer most often travel with the wind quartering off their left or right hind quarter. He essentially says that deer most often walk with the wind rather than into the wind. He said the reason for this is because they can use their eyes and ears to detect danger in front of them and their nose to detect danger coming from behind them.

I have no idea if there is any truth to his analysis or not. Just relaying what his findings were and what he wrote in his book.
 

Mr.Bro

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Vermin93 said:
I read a deer hunting book two years ago that was written by a deer researcher in Virginia. His research indicated that deer most often travel with the wind quartering off their left or right hind quarter. He essentially says that deer most often walk with the wind rather than into the wind. He said the reason for this is because they can use their eyes and ears to detect danger in front of them and their nose to detect danger coming from behind them.

I have no idea if there is any truth to his analysis or not. Just relaying what his findings were and what he wrote in his book.

Dont know about the traveling part but i have noticed this to be true in bedding areas.The deer quite often bed where they can watch the open ground and depend on their noses for detecting danger from the thicker areas.
 

WestTn Huntin man

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BSK said:
As for hunting the wind, if you're lucky enough to hunted in mixed fields and woods, where deer movement is more predictable (deer stay out of the open habitat), and if you hunt flatter terrain, playing the wind and travel bottlenecks is much easier.

However, if you hunt hilly hardwoods, "playing the wind" is extremely difficult, as the terrain will greatly alter wind flow near the ground's surface. In combination with rapidly changing thermals as the sun's position changes throughout the day, the airflow across steep terrain often means the wind can blow from every direction near a stand site during a 3-4 hour sit. In that situation, staying as low-scent as possible is your best bet, as well as trying to understand how terrain and thermals direct localized airflow.
I hunt Hilly Hardwoods a lot. I've always wondered how anyone could hunt the wind with so many changes and shifts.I get to my stand quickly and use different routes as much as possible.I also try to get high enough to be above many of the shifts and out of line of site.
 

pseshooter300

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I hunt these big steep mountains here in east tn and big ridges and deep hollers. I have yet to ever figure out how to hunt hunt the wind here cause for example yesterday was out turkey hunting wind was at my back a minute later it was hitting me right in the face. It swirls all the time in carter county in those mountains. I just try to watch my scent as much as I can
 

BSK

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Mr.Bro said:
Dont know about the traveling part but i have noticed this to be true in bedding areas.The deer quite often bed where they can watch the open ground and depend on their noses for detecting danger from the thicker areas.

If there is anything predictable about deer's use of wind, this would be it--how they often use terrain to play the wind when choosing a place to bed, choosing a spot that puts the wind at their back and using the eyes to see downwind.
 

BSK

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pseshooter300 said:
I hunt these big steep mountains here in east tn and big ridges and deep hollers. I have yet to ever figure out how to hunt hunt the wind here cause for example yesterday was out turkey hunting wind was at my back a minute later it was hitting me right in the face. It swirls all the time in carter county in those mountains. I just try to watch my scent as much as I can

And that's your best bet pseshooter300, especially with bow-hunting (needing close-range shots). Wind flow is highly unpredictable in steep terrain, and changes constantly, almost minute to minute.

I've conducted some simple experiments using milkweed seeds as "floaters" released from my stand and then mapping out their downwind travel route (I can generally follow them by eye 50 yards downwind). With a floater released every five minutes of a 3-4 hour sit from stand sites below the highest ridge-tops, eventually "downwind" becomes every direction.
 

BSK

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BHC said:
I see what you mean BSK, about deer traveling one direction like that. But I believe it a defense used more by mature deer, and mature deer have a idea of where they are headed and use the wind as best they can to get there. It may mean if they cannot move into the wind they wait until dark or hold tighter to cover. It may not be upwind from A to B, however they may enter a hollow into the wind walk perpendicular with the wind and then circle down wind of an open field to enter so technically the direction of travel wasn't upwind, but they walked into the wind before stepping into any new types of cover or into the open?... What's your thoughts?

If a deer wants to go from Point A to Point B, but the wind is blowing from Point A to Point B, the deer is still going to make that movement. However, the deer will probably attempt to use every small fluctuation in airflow produced by terrain-drive eddies and temporary thermals to their advantage as they make that movement from Point A to B, meaning that each time they want to go from A to B they may use a different route, depending on the prevailing wind direction and how that wind is altered by near ground conditions.

Although I don't think mature deer "suddenly" begin using the wind to their advantage once they reach maturity, how predominant airflow (wind direction) is altered by sometimes tiny variations in terrain is something that has to be learned by experiencing it. A mature deer has had more life-experience finding/learning these small-scale localized patterns, hence has had more years to learn how they can move across the landscape from pocket to pocket of favorable local wind features. In fact, some of the best mature buck hunters I know look for the gaps between these protected wind feature pockets.
 

woodsman87

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I am trying to get myself out of this "hunting the wind" funk I am in. I had way more fun when I just went hunting and shot any buck I saw. Now I am in this mode where I believe I am out thinking myself. I hunt Giles and Lincoln county, and it ain't nothing but steep hills and hardwoods with cow pasture and a few small food plots and thickets.
Just reading this thread made me realize that I am out thinking it. And I just need to go on the good weahter days, give the deer a break on the windy or hot days. And I still need to play the wind some, but not like I have been. It is unpredictable in these hills and hollows.
 

WestTn Huntin man

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I will stalk hunt head on into a hard North Wind. It's not fun until I see or shoot deer.That and a rainy day are the only successful stalks I've had.
 

BSK

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woodsman87 said:
I am trying to get myself out of this "hunting the wind" funk I am in. I had way more fun when I just went hunting and shot any buck I saw. Now I am in this mode where I believe I am out thinking myself. I hunt Giles and Lincoln county, and it ain't nothing but steep hills and hardwoods with cow pasture and a few small food plots and thickets.
Just reading this thread made me realize that I am out thinking it. And I just need to go on the good weahter days, give the deer a break on the windy or hot days. And I still need to play the wind some, but not like I have been. It is unpredictable in these hills and hollows.

The amount of mental energy required to be highly successful at pursuing mature bucks in hilly terrain is one of the prime reasons I no longer focus on it! I would much rather have fun while hunting. ;)
 

Mike Belt

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When a deer is on his feet I don't think their movement for the most part is random. I believe they have a pre-determined destination in mind and they meander towards that destination swaying left or right off that main course of travel dependent upon food sources or terrain features along the way. With my way of thinking there is absolutely no way a deer could travel and get to where they were headed by traveling solely into the wind. In fact, based on observed deer movement seen over the years, over half the deer (particularly bucks) have been moving with the wind quartering from their backside. This would lead me to believe that they use their eyesight in travel more than we credit them, particularly in more open, flatter terrain. The kicker here is the word "observed". You never know if you didn't see any deer whether it was because there was no deer movement through your area while you were there or whether they winded you before seeing them and altered their course. This may also explain why sometimes a buck will stand cold dead still for such long periods of time looking ahead and around their direction of travel before resuming movement when that direction of travel is consistent with wind flow.

Hunters should pay strict attention to wind flow direction while hunting but relative to where they expect to see deer movement in relationship to their stand location as opposed to how the deer are actually traveling with a given wind flow direction. A deer can travel with the wind over his back and still be downwind of your location.

...and yes, I think you can over-think hunting.
 

BSK

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Mike Belt said:
When a deer is on his feet I don't think their movement for the most part is random. I believe they have a pre-determined destination in mind and they meander towards that destination swaying left or right off that main course of travel dependent upon food sources or terrain features along the way.

Exactly. And the more experienced the deer, they better they are at meandering towards terrain features that produce localized wind-flow they can use to their advantage.
 

BHC

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What do you guys think of this regime to intense or spot on?


Scent Control Regime

1. Clothing
-wear carbon suit
-wash under garments every hunt(anything that touches skin),and others as needed
- store clothes in a sealed container
- place baking soda in container to absorb any remaining scent
- dress w outer garments at stand
- spray down with scent eliminator every hr on stand
- where rubber boots
-change socks and under garments each hunt unless able to wash them between hunts
-place baking soda in boots to absorb any scent also sprinkle on under garments
- never expose clothes to inside of house,vehicle, or food.

2. Body
- prior to hunts eat as little greasy or unhealthy food and drinks (coke beer, etc.)as possible
-always use bathroom before heading to stand to try and rid as many toxins as possible
- begin taking chlorophyll tablets 2 weeks prior to season
- shower the night before and the morning of the hunt jus before heading to stand with unscented soap and shampoo
-use scent eliminating deodorant
- if you break a sweat in the stand rub the area of concern down with neosporinin or hydrogen peroxide.�
- always brush teeth, floss, and use mouth wash 3 times a day during the season
-While �on stand rub down with hydrogen peroxide on exposed skin every hr or so as hunt goes on
- sweating I believe also helps rid the body of toxins, so vigorous sweating on days prior to hunts likely helps
 
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