I have seen Jim's place from the Hwy[8D] I almost got to hunt there twice

Jim Sunday will take a walk on the perserve of our farm, and head to Cabelas

The wind is fickle. It shifts, dies, blows, &swirls all the time. It's a real pain in my arse most days. I like the idea of breaking down the direction to very precise increments and the method I use while similiar is probably not quiteas accurate. On the main two farms I hunt we have a fllag pole and my dad and I super impose a degreedcompass on a zoomed in aerial photo of the farms precisely where the flagpoles are. It makes it easy to look at the flag and then the map and geta good idea of the precise line the wind is on (at that moment any way) and you can then correlate that to the rest of the farm with a scale (straight edge). The flag works when it is nice and windy but we rigged up super light mono we put wind catchers on for when wind is light.

Then I pick a stand and go get set up and later the wind shifts 180 and messes me all up.

Thats cool Jim! I don't have that many options on the 130 acres I hunt. I usually have about 7 different stands set up through deer hunting that I jump around to for different winds. Them 7 or so stand setups is plenty though for my brother and I.

Very true, I didn't realize that I had stated that it was possible to eliminate 100% of odor... but then again, this game is all about the odds. Correct?


To me, there isn't really anything scientific about "hunting the wind," there are too many variables. You stated that if the wind gets a little "iffy" then you look for a better option. Isn't that what everyone would do? I'm trying to find the significant difference between your way of hunting th wind and the majority.


I was referring to when you check the wind in the morning, at which point do you decide it's a no go? It's very possible that your meteorologists are much more accurate up there than down here, and for your sake I hope so. I'm not sure how they can get the wind narrowed down to exact geometry when they struggle hitting 30 degree increments. JMHO.


Easy, "Guru"... I've read all your stuff and tried to apply it to several situations, however, I don't think mother nature is predicatable enough to get scientific with "hunting the wind." So if you can't get down to the degree, then you're not doing anything any different than hunting the general wind direction. I don't mean that as an attack, there's just no difference.

On the other hand, I really do like the idea of being able to visualize the wind direction on an aerial photo. That I will apply.

As for Don Higgens... we got along great. But I'll take the blame if that's what you're trying to imply.

In allot of cases I don't think so Dubbya. It seems that some of the hunters who use scent killer products and also some that don't use it are willing to take that chance instead of playing it safe. I believe its more common with the hunters who use the products. Some though don't have a choice if the wind is bad or iffy (lack of land to hunt).

You may be correct schultzy, but I don't think Greg was making a connection between using the scent elim products and changing setups when the wind gets iffy as that was in a subsequent post.

Greg, how much land do you hunt?

Boy, you can tell the guys on HNI that have a "history" with each other .....[&:]

I hunt alot of farm country deer here in PA and in IL and I try to use every scent elimination product for one main reason........wind swirls. These areas are generally populated by farmers working the fields, joggers, dog walkers, other hunters, duck blind builders in IL, you name it so the deer are used to smelling humans. What I want to try to duplicate if a wind swirls or a deer gets downwind unexpectedly is as LITTLE human scent as possible.

Why would I want to just SLAM him in the nose with human scent when I can MAYBE create the illusion of a person at a distance or a quick faint scent stream that was faint enough to just make that buck stop and think about it rather than turning inside out the second my BO fills his nostrils?

In my mind I'm planning with my scent control for the unexpected, wind swirlsor deer coming from a goofy direction, and I know if they get downwind they're gonna smell me if the wind currents are travelling downward. I'm just hoping that I can send as little as possible his way.

Deer would never stop running where I hunt if they flat out spooked everytime they smelled a human being. I just don't in a worse case scenario want to paint the picture that a big stinky hunter is about to jump on his back.

Hunting the wind smart is pretty much a given but it still doesn't change the fact that brief wind changes and swirls happen all the time and deer do get downwind.......I sat a stand last year in IL on a perfect hard west wind. Sat there all evening untilabout 1/2hr beforebefore sunset when the wind unexpectedly switched in a big gust or 2 from the east blowing straight into the area I expected to see a buck. Then a couple minutes later as I was contemplating getting down it turned right back around hard west again.
Not 5 minutes later here came a nice 135ish" 8pt from the exact area the wind switched to.

Is it proof that being as scent free as possible helped? Not sure, but I do know that an east wind there is going to carry the farmer's scent that direction as well as anyone else out on the working part of the farm. So MAYBE my scent was ignored because if it was smelled it was faint enough to not be percieved as a threat.

If I went in there without showering that day and smelling like a turd [:'(].........maybe I don't see that buck?

Until we can see deer we don't know are there AND read their minds at the same time I'm going to personally try to stay as scent free as I possibly can.

Unfortunately sometimes anal-lytical means PITA in a "normal" persons world.
You can define "normal" however you choose?
However, I personaly define "normal" as "common-sense", which some people have and others don't.[>:]
Or...
Some people have a hard time expressing themselves "correctly" when they write questions, which can equal PITA.
I interpret "correctly" as "common-sense".

FYI - I came onto this forum after Dan Higgens or some of the others that were "good for the forum" (I see Atlas Man's name occasionaly)
and can see why some people would say F.I., as I have "reeled-in" my interaction due to the PITA's in the neighborhood.
I am now in the habit of stopping to look at who posts before I select a topic to read.

No wonder I'm such a "Sarcastic Bastard" when I reply to a topic???!!![X(] I suppose it just gets me bye!

Lastly, I will use the info. in this post to better my knowledge for hunting the Elusive Whitetail Buck! That's what I take from posts.

I was the one who stated "100%". I also stated that I take ZERO chances with a whitetails nose. So for me, it is not all about the odds.

1) A lot of people say this isn't rocket science and you don't think that hunting the wind is scientific. Did you hear me say that it was??

2) I would think that most people would but all one has to do is read GMMATs post on "Forget the wind, just hunt" to see that this is not what everyone would. So the answer is ....No.

3) The weather web site has been practically spot on for the areas that I hunt "up here".

1) I never claimed any of this to be scientific.... those are your words.

2) I didn't imply that you were soley ( or remotely)responsible for Higgens departure.

3) You seem to be putting words into my mouth and making a lot of assumptions about what I've said and for that sir, you may take your place at the end of the line.

Finally, the things that I post on here are to help others get an idea that they can expound on and help to achieve their goals. These are the very things that have helped me achieve success in hunting mature bucks. I believe that it's working. Why pick it apart and say it's not very scientific? I never said it was.

How successful have you been? Why not share some of your techniques? I'd be very interested to hear them, especially the scientific ones.