Predominant wind.

Lots of good info. I don't use any store bought sent killing products either. I do however smash hedge apples with my rubber boots and with a gloved hand rub the juices all over my boots. This really seems to cover my trail to and from the stands. I won't hunt a stand if the wind isn't totally in my favor period. If the wind switchesI either move or leave. Lastly, get off them field edges guys and get back in the timber where the deer live. You will notice movement every few hours not just that magic hour in the morning and evening.

Just curious Rob, is there any thing wrong with a stand here or food plot here?

I don't want to high jack Greg's thread but I did have a stand there in a white pine. It over looks a bean/corn field and to the N/E there is a recreation area where people tend to walk and play frisbee golf. I've taken my best buck to date out of that stand as well as the coyote I have mounted. It's too thick to shoot there now and that's where I was talking about dozing a food plot.

Here is a couple pics from that exact spot.



This photo below shows the overgrown field. Today, deer walk under all that vegitation and you cannot shoot into it.

Great advice about the degrees and such....and you are right that even if you do use scent killer, deer can and will detect you if the wind is just perfect for them, but I have had plenty of deer directly down wind of me, and they never detected me. So tosay it doesn't work at allwould be false.

I guess I may do it different if I had theproblem of picking stand #1-10 based on the wind, but 95% of us hereare'nt that fortunate.

I agree with most of what you have to say but for a few dollars a bottle I know it doesn't hurt to spray down before and once you get to the stand.

I ALWAYS play the wind but during the rut bucks can do strange things and come from strange places. I think it is at these times the little extra (spraying with scent killer) may give you that extra edge you may need.

My protocol is very specific. I shower before every hunt. My clothes are washed in scent away laundry detergent dried and put directly in scent bags and then into rubber made containers. From there it goes directly into my 8x10 shed that holdsonly my hunting clothes and supplies. I wear scent-loc clothing, usually 2 layers. I never wear my hunting clothes until I get where I hunt and I take it off and put all my hunting clothes back into the scent bag at my vehicle before I climb back in it. If its cold I wear only what I need to the stand or somewhere close to my stand and put on my cold weather gear to avoid sweating. I always spray down the outside of my clothes with scent killer before and once I get to my stand. I only wear my first layer or base layer once before I wash it because this is the layer that gathers the sweat. I have various different first layers that I wear so I'm not doing laundry every day. Am I anal about scent control? YES! But I'll always go the extra mile when it comes to scent control.

One of the biggest things I've noticed is the smell of my rubber boots inside. I put scent away powder insideand then spray the inside down with some type of scent killer. I really soak them and then put them on my boot drier. I do this after every other hunt. It's made a world of difference.

Am Ivery specificabout scent control? YES! But I'll always go the extra mile when it comes to scent control.

But no matter what I do, I ALWAYS, ALWAYSplay the wind.

Interesting.

I have always been an "impact" hunter. I hate making impact. I hunt the edges of almost every place I hunt. It is my opinion that if I hunt there, and have the wind flowing into the field, I will spook less deer, see more,, and eat better. I have found that the low impact helps with the buck sightings.

Sure, buttypically abuck that's been called will use the wind to find and see the source. If you know the routes and the times they use them then I'd say your good to go. If you call them, they'll be down wind coming in.

OK. but typically the number of bucks I call make up less than 5% of the bucks I shoot.

A lot of the bucks I call are close enough that they come straight in rather than circle down wind.

Did you know that a lot of bucks travel with the wind at their backs and use their sight to see where their going?

Surely you don't think that I make this stuff up in order to sound cool, do you!!??

Rob i HAD a very similar place as yours but mine was in the woods. it has since been mined out [:@]I called it the wagon wheel. I/my standwas the hub and the deer/bucks came in on the spokes so to speak. It was one of those places that you just never knew where they would come from. Believe it or not that sight was where my user name came from (bloodcreek/crick) is what i called the place.

No you couldn't block it. To my east, upwind is my food plot in amoungst a crp field that is roughly 80 yards wide. Beyond that, corn or beans depending on the year. Behind me is the main woodlot(downwind) but I'm in the corner. Years (25) of watching and patterning these deer have me in the tree I'm in and placed my plot where it's placed. The hedge row that joins the two woodlots (the other being small and the beddding area which I also have a stand up against which would be the far end of the funnel and I hunt it when the winds right BUT, the deer come from 360 degrees around you). The entire funnel (small woodlots, corn/beans, hedgerow emcompasses 100's of yards in reality. The deer focus/funnel down the CRP that my stand overlooks BUT, again the deer can and do come/go from any directions at any given time. The predominant wind direction comes from west/ southwest and blows my scent through the corner of the woodlot and out over a back corn/bean field from which the deer could come from. Mostly they come from/to the bedding area to my right/ N/W.

I think this stand comes down to what Greg said.

The 3.5 year old I put in the 04 contest came from that back cornfield. I heard him walking in the woodlot behind me, directly down wind. I called him into the crp field and shot him. I've had them come from the, from my left, from my right, from downwind and upwind. They wonder through that exact area thusly why the stand hangs where it does. Scent control is a must for this stand IMO.

I'll try to get an aerial up to show the example.
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