You can always be successful from up wind..... ON Chilli nights.<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

Anyone who spends enough time in the woods and has a deer blow on them if they are honest with them selves will know it was caused by one of two things, either they were scented or they were seen! A deer will never smell you if you are down wind, I do not care if you eat garlic and curry sandwiches for a week as long as you are quiet and still you will not be busted.

Yes I have had deer come in from the upwind side and not been busted, but I will bet money that there was something about the wind or air currents that carried my scent away from them. Ignoring the wind is a mistake.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club

Most of the time, you might as well go home as hunt upwind of deer. But, I think that during pre-rut and the rut, you can get away with it if you are really careful with your scent and use attractant scents. In '99, hunting public land in Illinois, I found a spot like the one you describe. It was on a point, on the edge of a small cliff. The wind blew right to a big bucks bedding area from the only woods with trees big enough to hunt it. I had no choice but to come from upwind and hunt upwind of this buck. So, I was EXTREMELY careful with my scent, I loaded the area with doe-in-heat scent, AND I used a cover scent. This buck came in just after first light to a film canister, and the rest is history. My guess is that if I found this situation 10 times, probably I get this buck 3 times, and 7 times I scent spook it. But sometimes it works if you play your cards right....