The Rut and Hunting the Wind?

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UTGrad

UTGrad

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Dec 1, 2007
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Cookeville, TN
During the rut, do you abandon wind direction strategy to hunt your best stands regardless of wind direction?
 
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I will push it a little more, but not totally disregard it. Interesting enough I have seen bucks running or moving with the wind during the rut. Buck I killed a week and a half ago was moving with the wind, and he was a mature deer.
 
If a buck is actually chasing I don't think it matters what wind is blowing. If he is out cruising, scent checking for doe , you better have the wind in your favor. So not knowing which is going to happen your odds go way up if you always account for the wind. Just my opinion
 
backyardtndeer said:
I will push it a little more, but not totally disregard it. Interesting enough I have seen bucks running or moving with the wind during the rut. Buck I killed a week and a half ago was moving with the wind, and he was a mature deer.
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Seen the exact same thing, had a big boy with 4 does 2 weeks ago just out of bow range going with the wind and in front of the does leaving them behind while he was feeding
 
The idea older/mature bucks never walk with the wind at their backs is ludicrous. What happens to them when the wind blows from the south for 6 straight days? He can never walk north. They would end up in the Gulf of Mexico. Bucks will play the wind in their favor as much as possible, but there will always be situations where they have to move with the wind at their backs.
 
If bucks only go upwind we wouldn't never see the same deer, they might circle a area if they remember something happened there, i just try to stay clean and let it happen
 
The only absolute I've seen with how bucks interact with the wind is that there are no absolutes. Just when you think you've got them pegged they'll do something that completely upends what you think you knew. In my experience does are much more sensitive to the wind, and even they sometimes surprise me with how careless they can be.
 
BSK said:
The idea older/mature bucks never walk with the wind at their backs is ludicrous. What happens to them when the wind blows from the south for 6 straight days? He can never walk north. They would end up in the Gulf of Mexico. Bucks will play the wind in their favor as much as possible, but there will always be situations where they have to move with the wind at their backs.
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That's why, when you hunt facing the wind, the mature bucks always sneak up behind you. You didn't know?
 
UTGrad said:
Come on guys, I need someone to tell me it's ok to hunt my favorite stand Saturday even though the wind will be wrong lol.
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Of course forecasts are sometimes not right either. I have had accuweather and weather.com tell me the wind is out of the north for my location when it was actually not. My back field, the ideal wind is south, that puts the wind at my face and blowing back towards my house, BUT I have killed a lot of deer with the wind blowing across me ne or nw, really just depends on where the deer come from on that given day.
 
I don't hunt the wind. I call way too much and that buck is just gone circle me anyways. Call me stupid if you want idc. I'm in deer every hunt. I have way too much confidence in my scent regimen. I make my own spray and spray my whole washer and dryer plus the lent collector then run an empty load with ALL SF detergent and ALL SF dryer sheets. I put my clothes in a bin with cut up cedar afterwards. Have another bin in my truck I put whatever I'm wearing and carrying for the next hunt in there and they don't come out until I'm parked at my destination. I just know what works for me
 
I have 1 stand In particular that is at the base of a steep hill on a big creek bottom. Doesn't matter what the forecasted wind is said to do. It never follows suit in that bottom. Always swirling. And the deer literally come from every direction. When I want to hunt it. I just hunt it and don't look at the wind.
 
If I relied on wind direction exclusively I would never be in the woods. I have hunted out of state the past week and had swirly winds almost continuously.
 
Ski said:
I was sitting this morning on the west side of a scrape trail. Pulled out some milkweed and it floated directly to the trail. Was forecast to be east wind. I didn't get a deer but I sure got snorted at lol
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I trust an east wind forecast less than I trust a fart after eating spicy chicken wings and drinking beer all night
 
deerfever said:
If a buck is actually chasing I don't think it matters what wind is blowing. If he is out cruising, scent checking for doe , you better have the wind in your favor. So not knowing which is going to happen your odds go way up if you always account for the wind. Just my opinion
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Not always.. Had a big wide mature bruiser several years back chasing a doe right towards me. He hit my scent cone at full speed and slammed on the brakes with his front legs, turned and bounced over the hillside like he had seen a ghost.. Later that afternoon my buddy bumped him walking to the stand about a half mile away and he swam across the river never to be seen again....

I have been super paranoid about scent control ever since.. I will push the envelope during the rut though and will hunt interior stands for the first time around 11/8 if the winds are favorable.
 
Bgoodman30 said:
I have been super paranoid about scent control ever since.. I will push the envelope during the rut though and will hunt interior stands for the first time around 11/8 if the winds are favorable.
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I've just come to the conclusion that I'm going to spook deer and get busted when they whiff me. Unless you're sitting in an enclosed blind 300yds away from the deer then you're in danger of being winded. I hunt aggressively in the thick with the deer so getting winded is just part of the hunt. But I see lots of deer and kill my fair share so it's an acceptable nuisance for me.
 
Ski said:
I've just come to the conclusion that I'm going to spook deer and get busted when they whiff me. Unless you're sitting in an enclosed blind 300yds away from the deer then you're in danger of being winded. I hunt aggressively in the thick with the deer so getting winded is just part of the hunt. But I see lots of deer and kill my fair share so it's an acceptable nuisance for me.
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Yeah same here sometimes I get frustrated and just want to say screw it.. The only way no not get busted on this farm is to have your wind blowing over the road or the river..
 

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