ORIGINAL: SwampCollie
Landon I think what duke is getting at is the same thing that you and I know is true from hunting with hounds and doing man drives and even just from watching that buck last week..... deer like and prefer to travel into the wind.
So its really not at all as easy as just hunting the downwind side of the bedding area near where you think they are feeding.... because there is food everywhere where we hunt.... deer can go in any direction and find plenty of food.... and pressured as they are..... they are definately going to go into the wind.
I think that is pretty much what duke is getting at.
Na.. Swamp.. that's not what I'm getting at.
I must've really not explained this one correctly enough.
Food is everywhere where any deer hunter lives.. since deer are browsers.
What I'm trying to get at.. is you can use the wind to your advantage more than just walking into the woods and getting into a stand with the wind in your face.
Here's an example.
Picture a fencerow strung out across an CRP field. No other woods around. An older buck will move on the DOWNwind side of that fencerow 99% of the time. Why?
For my theory.. he wants to use at least 2 of his senses in order to survive.
Thus.. gaining the advantage of winding the fencerow (which he can't see readily into) as he walks parallel to it.. and gaining his sense of sight as he scans the CRP.
What I'm talking about is using the wind to your advantage when predicting which trail a buck would take out of his bed.
The same holds true in woods.. swamp.. etc.
I hope this better explains it.
I don't believe whitetail try to travel into the wind. Especially bucks of older age. At least.. not most of the time.