Guys, as you may or may not know, I do not use any scent killing products. I believe that no matter what you do, the nose of a whitetail is going to smell you if the wind is in their favor. I keep my clothes clean and only use them for hunting. No restaurants, gas stations or bars will see my hunting outfits. That being said, here is how I "hunt the wind".

I print out Ariel photos of my hunting spots and tape them to a piece of cardboard and mark all of my stand locations. On the bottom corner somewhere, I number the stand locations (ex. 1-10) and write the degrees of huntable wind direction for each stand. I visit an aviation weather web site that lists the wind direction for my area in degrees. Degrees being the degrees of a compass.

For example, Stand #1. 260 to 285 degrees. (WSW to WNW).

By using the exact degrees of wind direction instead of the more vague WSW to WNW wind directions, I am able to be more precise on the exact huntable wind directions for a given stand.

When I get up in the morning or before a hunt in the evening, I check the web site and study the forcasted wind direction for the time I'll be hunting. Then I check my "map" and pick a stand that will work for the predicted wind.

There are a lot of factors that come into play when doing this, such as...... what if the wind switches? I will leave that stand and go to another that will work or, if it's too late, go home. One thing is for sure........ if you let the wind betray your presence, you will not get the deer to come by you. You will also alert the deer to the fact that you are there and possibly cause them to go on high alert in the future or even worse, to avoid the area altogether. It is not worth the risk of hunting a wind that is wrong for a stand.

Another possibility is that you may be able to hunt a wind that is seemingly wrong for a stand if the wind is blowing OVERthe deerto a place of no concern. I have a couple of stands like this.

One last thing. I always take precautions to get to and from my stands undetected. This means visually, audibly and by scent. There are no shortcuts when it comes to fooling a whitetails senses.

Hunt by degrees! What degree are you willing to go to to get the buck you're after! [:-]