GregH

Guys, as you may or may not know, I do not use any scent killing products. I believe that no matter what you do, the nose of a whitetail is going to smell you if the wind is in their favor. I keep my clothes clean and only use them for hunting. No restaurants, gas stations or bars will see my hunting outfits. That being said, here is how I "hunt the wind".

I print out Ariel photos of my hunting spots and tape them to a piece of cardboard and mark all of my stand locations. On the bottom corner somewhere, I number the stand locations (ex. 1-10) and write the degrees of huntable wind direction for each stand. I visit an aviation weather web site that lists the wind direction for my area in degrees. Degrees being the degrees of a compass.

For example, Stand #1. 260 to 285 degrees. (WSW to WNW).

By using the exact degrees of wind direction instead of the more vague WSW to WNW wind directions, I am able to be more precise on the exact huntable wind directions for a given stand.

When I get up in the morning or before a hunt in the evening, I check the web site and study the forcasted wind direction for the time I'll be hunting. Then I check my "map" and pick a stand that will work for the predicted wind.

There are a lot of factors that come into play when doing this, such as...... what if the wind switches? I will leave that stand and go to another that will work or, if it's too late, go home. One thing is for sure........ if you let the wind betray your presence, you will not get the deer to come by you. You will also alert the deer to the fact that you are there and possibly cause them to go on high alert in the future or even worse, to avoid the area altogether. It is not worth the risk of hunting a wind that is wrong for a stand.

Another possibility is that you may be able to hunt a wind that is seemingly wrong for a stand if the wind is blowing OVERthe deerto a place of no concern. I have a couple of stands like this.

One last thing. I always take precautions to get to and from my stands undetected. This means visually, audibly and by scent. There are no shortcuts when it comes to fooling a whitetails senses.

Hunt by degrees! What degree are you willing to go to to get the buck you're after! [:-]

virginiashadow

Great advice, thank you Greg.

early in

That's great advice Greg, if you're hunting private land where youdon't have to worry aboutother hunters messing up your plan.

Justin

Greg - do you account for wind direction when planning your entrance/exit routes from your stand, or just your actual time in the stand itself? Also, if you don't use any scent killing products at all, how do you minimize the amount of scent you leave behind traveling to/from your stands, and while being in them as well?

I know we've discussed several times that you hunt certain stands on numerous occasions throughout the season. To me, it seems like there would be a pretty definable scent trail to/from these locations as well as around them if you're not using any scent killing products at all while hunting them. I picture it as drawing a line on a piece of paper every time you walk in and out from these spots. After enough of these trips that line gets pretty thick.

Rob/PA Bowyer

Great advice but what if you hunt a stand that allows the deer to come from any direction.

My favorite stand, one that has produced very well for me is in the center of a funnel. Deer can and do come and go from every and any direction. The perdominant wind is from the west which is most favorable however, the last 3 bucks I've taken from this stand have come from the east but I arrowed them west of me (upwind). The stand is on the edge of a woodlot, overlooking agricultural fields and foodplots. The woodlot is connected to another woodlot (bedding area) by a hedge row. The deer seldom walk the hedgerow but walk the crp field that holds the foodplot. When in the stand you face west, upwind. Like I said tho, the deer do come from the east/southeast (downwind) many, many times. Although the wind from the west is favorable, it's constantly swirling and if you waited for a perfect wind, you'd never really hunt the stand and it'd be hit or miss at best.

I like Greg make sure my hunting close are as free from scent as possible but that also means I use Scent Killer (it cost pennies as far as I'm concerned and if it takes gasoline scent off my hands, it'll take scent out of clothes.) Any edge when the wind changes even if it's 1 % is good enough for me. I will never be scent free, I can only hope I reduce my scent enough not to alarm the deer out of the area. I honestly think that's the case as well. I've had deer downwind suddenly scent me but not blow and go. Not necessarily mature bucks but any deer around me is a good thing. Without what I feel are my scent practices, a blow and go is never a good thing regardless of the age class of animal downwind from me.

Hunting the wind is the number one priority, and if you have those stands that allow no other scent practices, kudos to you, that wouldn't fly so much in my favorite stands. Other stands, I could get away with not worrying about my personal scents because they have dominant wind patterns that rarely change but in my honey hole, it's being anal about scent control or you couldn't hunt it.

Schultzy

Good stuff there Greg!! I couldn't agree more on what you said.

The land you hunt is it fairly flat? Reason I ask is the woods I hunt Is fairly hilly and most of the time what the wind is doing in one spot will not be doing in another. It really makes it tough and frustrating but thats hunting I guess.

Its kinda funny now with all the scent control products and clothes hunters think they don't have to hunt the wind nearly as much anymore. No dought it will cost them a big mature buck at sometime or another. It could be as simple as a doe picking up your scent and heading into a different direction, game over then being most likely the next buck that comes through will most likely take her same trail and not the one she was intended to take.

JoeRE

The land I hunt is very broken - a lot of bottoms and bluffs. I could hunt only the high ground but that would be eliminating some of the best areas I hunt. If I knew the wind perfectly I wouldnt use scent elimination either I think, but the mist common wind where I hunt is variable. It swirls and eddies over all those elevation changes (sometimes up to 200'). I hunt the wind in a similar way to Greg, but use an all out scent elimination strategy because I can be 100% certain part of the time on many of my stands, the wind will be 'wrong'.


I should add entry and exit are by far the most important parts of my hunt.

GregH

Again...

In addition to this, I also take several different paths to and from my stands to prevent this "line" from occuring. I also DO NOT touch anything with my bare skin. I prepare my trails to and from my stands by pruning a clear path.

TexasBowHunter

The land I have to hunt is in what we call the hill country and when you get in the fingers that I hunt SWIRLING is a big issue. I too would not be able to hunt if wind direction was the only factor to take into consideration as it changes constantly in thses fingers. Don't get me wrong there is usually a prodominate wind direction but once it hits the hills it starts swirling in the worst kind of way, The area I hunt is on the northwest side of a hill that runs southwest to northeast, once the wind(prodominately out of the southwest during bowseason)tops the hill it starts going crazy through the fingers I hunt. I still hunt the wind but I also check it while on stand, I also have the same problem with deer coming from any direction even though I try to put myself in a situation that they would have a hard time coming from behind me.
I wash my cloths in scent free soap and I use scent killer sprays.....I admit it I am a user!!!!!
If it can help me even in the least, I use it and it seems to work better than nothing at all when the wind is not predictable....

GregH

I rarely hunt a stand where deer can come from any direction. I try to find places where the can come from 2 - 3 directions. Otherwise it is too easy to get busted.


I never sit in the center of a funnel. It is usually too easy to get busted and ruin the whole funnel. I sit in the mouths of the funnels at either end, depending on the wind.