Those are wise words. There are also many ways to success.

Yes, my hunt is done if that happens. I will not rely on ANY magic pixie dust to completely mask my oder in unfavorible conditions. To me, it's not worth the risk.

If I smoked, farted, ate garlic sandwichesor DIDN'T practice a religious scent control regimen (which includes spraying down).....I'd be a helluva lot more worried about it than I currently am. If I'm already there.....I'm staying. I might not stay al long as I normally would......but I'm confident enough in my regimen to keep me in the tree for (__________) long.

Just as it gives some of you confidence ,I feel it gives you a sense of false confidence.
I have stated before I have no problem getting out of the woods if the wind changes or is swirling wrong.
It just might be a better day for fishing.

If I could have my choice in winds I want 20 to 30 mph. Every thing in the woods is in motion and your scent trail is swept out of your area. High winds are a deers worst enemy and great days to hunt.[:-]

I agree with the high winds helping with motion and scent but I hate hunting those days because the deer seem to hole upquite a bitonce it starts blowing 20+ and if you do see some they look like they don't know wheter they are coming or going half the time.

I agree with this. I like moderately windy days and they always seem to produce sightings.

As far as the false sense of confidence goes, I think that depends. Ifthey giveyou the confidence that in addition to playing the wind the best that you can you are keeping your scent further under control thansprays aregood and being used properly. If they make you feel like you can "cheat" a little with the wind and push some situations that you wouldn't otherwise hunt, then yes, that is a false sense of confidence and could cost you a current or future opportunity.

I won't discount playing the wind......but for every time I hear something like this.....I hear 3 stories of guys who shot deer that came from 180deg of where they were expecting them to come from.

It makes sense to be careful......granted. But if it's "iffy"........I've never killed one on an "iffy" day from my sofa. I've killed probably 1/2 of my deer in places I had no idea which way they might come from....but KNEW I was in a good spot. Sometimes you just have to decide......"Am I gonna hunt this spot, or not?". The best spot I have......I could not tell you which way a deer might come from on any given day. Actually.....MOST of my spots are like that.

The ONLY wind I won't hunt.....is when i know it's blowing towards their bedding area.....and it's really warm. If I relied on all thes rules and held steadfastly to them......I'd hunt very little.

Guys I have to say that it's not false at all. It actually does cut out some human odors. I use the acorn or earth scent, I don't know about the nuetralizer I don't use it, but I do use the earth mask. It's the same as rubbing pine needls on your body before you go in if you are hunting in and around some pines, it works. Im not saying totally makes you invisible to the nose, but it does help cover scent. I mean smell it, it does have an earth odor.

You guys that want to take the chance that a scent killing product is going to prevent a deer from scenting you in unfavorable conditions, go right ahead.

I personally do not take any chances with a whitetails nose, it's not worth the risk to me. If the wind is not perfect for me, I'm outta there!

I think part of the issue is also we are not talking about the same things. As Jeff likes to say, there are no absolutes.

We all know the caliber of bucks that Greg is pursuing, so when he gets out of his stand it is so he does not blow out a mature deer that has a very low tolerance for human presence of any kind.

An area that has "deer coming from any direction" is likely one that is used by a lot of does and immature deer. You may be able to get away with a little more when dealing with the young critters.

Also, I know when I'm hunting my suburban spots I have a lot more leeway with scent because human scent is all around them all the time. So if I can get my scent to the point where I smell like I'm 100 yards away in someone's back yard, I've got a fighting chance. However, if the wind is blowing my stinky breath and other scent directly to an older deer, it doesn't matter how much scent killer I've used the jig is up. I've seen it happen. On more rural properties I can't even get away with what I do in the suburbs, so the wind becomes even more critical.

There are also varying degrees, literally, of how much you play the wind. In the Marsh Bucks video they said that they will hunt most winds at a critical time as long as it is not blowing directly to where the deer is coming from. Now, these guys know exactly where that buck is bedded and exactly where he will be coming from, so that makes it much easier, but it also makes what would be a seemingly unfavorable wind still huntable.

So, it's all about the deer in question, the location (sorry Greg) the deer are in, and the situation you are hunting. There are times when you are better off not being out there if you want to get an older deer. At the same time, you are not going to shoot them from the couch.