ORIGINAL: GMMAT
Nobody's saying "ignore the wind".Admittedly....I've only been hunting whitetails for the better part of two seasons.....but I've learned afew things:
1) Deer are skittish by nature
2) I can never tell what makes a deer calm one minute and alert the next
3) I know I can't do this from 200 yds away....with something I can't see
Translation....How do we know what makes a deer spook if we don't see it? We can surmise....but we're still guessing. Could have been a coyote. Could have heard something we didn't. Could have smelled something totally foreign. And yeah....could have smelled us.
Your scent could also go in the direction you're hoping for it to.....and get behind you and swirl back to where you don't want it to go.
Again....I give you hardcore guys a lot of credit for your tenacity.......but I just don't know how much of a "science" this "playing the wind" can be whittled down to.
I also LOVE it when a TV hunter tells his audience the deer caught his scent. LOL....how do they KNOW? Maybe he caught your camera man picking his nose? Maybe a glare off the camera lens? Maybe they caught your scent off your entrance trail? Maybe they smelled where deer earleir had been alerted and left scent? Maybe a wolf came through there, last night? Etc...etc...etc...
I don't know what to say.... I know that you've only been hunting for two years and I know it took me many years to experience and see what makes deer spook. In my experience, the number one thing that makes deer spook is
HUMAN SCENT!
It's a well known fact that the deers best sense is their smell. In the 40 years that I've hunted them, I've seen deer do some incredible things with their sense of smell. This is how they survive. Why would anyone down play a deers best defense mechanism. With all that has been published about their scenting capabilities and first hand observances from experienced hunters..... it baffles me that anyone would question the deers ability to detect and avoid danger with their sense of smell. The wind is a scent carrying agent and the deer use it to their advantage. That's gospel!