Playing the wind..a different view
09-16-2008, 02:27 PM
#31
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Blossvale, New York
Posts: 21,199
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
Well, I hate to break it to this guy, but it isn't his theory. Many of us that have hunted suburbia figured this out 25 years ago. Just get a little altitude and they'll pass by. Oh, once in a while one turns tail, but mostly they just get edgy, smell, look around and tense up. After a few minutes of not finding the source or maybe a car drives by or a bicycle yuppie out on the street goes by, they'll relax. I guess I really figured it out when I started bowhunting the Adirondacks every year 30 years ago. You get back in the woods in country, away from farms and crops... well buddy they better not smell you. They won't even stand around to find the source. They'll do an about face and put 100 yards between you and them before they settle and slink away into Never Never Land. Same thing goes for country where there's a lot of logging going on. I still laugh at the one club I was in in Georgia. They clear cut a Section every year for 3 or 4 years in a row. Guys in the club used to almost fight over who was going to sit in the chopper when they shut down for the day. Gas, oil, smoke, tobacco.... whatever, the deer were used to it day after day and it didn't bother them. They'd flood to the most recent cut area to feed on all the acorns knocked down and tree tops they couldn't otherwise have reached. In farm country you can smell like a diesel engine and get away with it. In farm country you can smell like cow poop(which I've used for a cover scent) and get away with it. In yuppie land where they stand and watch joggers, bikers, kids and dogs everyday.... there isn't a lot of worry about odor if you're 20 feet up.
Some of the guys theorys are geographically misplaced. Suburbia deer don't make a circuit every 3 days. Usually they make the same circuit 2 times a day. They don't have a lot of choices. Deer are so plentiful they don't need to troll for does. All they have to do is get out of bed. You go to the deep Adirondacks and the deer may never get back to point A. They're really nomadic at times.
Some of the guys theorys are geographically misplaced. Suburbia deer don't make a circuit every 3 days. Usually they make the same circuit 2 times a day. They don't have a lot of choices. Deer are so plentiful they don't need to troll for does. All they have to do is get out of bed. You go to the deep Adirondacks and the deer may never get back to point A. They're really nomadic at times.
Makes sence to me!! I can see deer tolerating smells a little more when they are near them all the time.
09-16-2008, 04:38 PM
#33
Join Date: May 2005
Location: StL, MO
Posts: 745
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
ORIGINAL: davidmil
Well, I hate to break it to this guy, but it isn't his theory. Many of us that have hunted suburbia figured this out 25 years ago. Just get a little altitude and they'll pass by. Oh, once in a while one turns tail, but mostly they just get edgy, smell, look around and tense up. After a few minutes of not finding the source or maybe a car drives by or a bicycle yuppie out on the street goes by, they'll relax. I guess I really figured it out when I started bowhunting the Adirondacks every year 30 years ago. You get back in the woods in country, away from farms and crops... well buddy they better not smell you. They won't even stand around to find the source. They'll do an about face and put 100 yards between you and them before they settle and slink away into Never Never Land. Same thing goes for country where there's a lot of logging going on. I still laugh at the one club I was in in Georgia. They clear cut a Section every year for 3 or 4 years in a row. Guys in the club used to almost fight over who was going to sit in the chopper when they shut down for the day. Gas, oil, smoke, tobacco.... whatever, the deer were used to it day after day and it didn't bother them. They'd flood to the most recent cut area to feed on all the acorns knocked down and tree tops they couldn't otherwise have reached. In farm country you can smell like a diesel engine and get away with it. In farm country you can smell like cow poop(which I've used for a cover scent) and get away with it. In yuppie land where they stand and watch joggers, bikers, kids and dogs everyday.... there isn't a lot of worry about odor if you're 20 feet up.
Some of the guys theorys are geographically misplaced. Suburbia deer don't make a circuit every 3 days. Usually they make the same circuit 2 times a day. They don't have a lot of choices. Deer are so plentiful they don't need to troll for does. All they have to do is get out of bed. You go to the deep Adirondacks and the deer may never get back to point A. They're really nomadic at times.
Well, I hate to break it to this guy, but it isn't his theory. Many of us that have hunted suburbia figured this out 25 years ago. Just get a little altitude and they'll pass by. Oh, once in a while one turns tail, but mostly they just get edgy, smell, look around and tense up. After a few minutes of not finding the source or maybe a car drives by or a bicycle yuppie out on the street goes by, they'll relax. I guess I really figured it out when I started bowhunting the Adirondacks every year 30 years ago. You get back in the woods in country, away from farms and crops... well buddy they better not smell you. They won't even stand around to find the source. They'll do an about face and put 100 yards between you and them before they settle and slink away into Never Never Land. Same thing goes for country where there's a lot of logging going on. I still laugh at the one club I was in in Georgia. They clear cut a Section every year for 3 or 4 years in a row. Guys in the club used to almost fight over who was going to sit in the chopper when they shut down for the day. Gas, oil, smoke, tobacco.... whatever, the deer were used to it day after day and it didn't bother them. They'd flood to the most recent cut area to feed on all the acorns knocked down and tree tops they couldn't otherwise have reached. In farm country you can smell like a diesel engine and get away with it. In farm country you can smell like cow poop(which I've used for a cover scent) and get away with it. In yuppie land where they stand and watch joggers, bikers, kids and dogs everyday.... there isn't a lot of worry about odor if you're 20 feet up.
Some of the guys theorys are geographically misplaced. Suburbia deer don't make a circuit every 3 days. Usually they make the same circuit 2 times a day. They don't have a lot of choices. Deer are so plentiful they don't need to troll for does. All they have to do is get out of bed. You go to the deep Adirondacks and the deer may never get back to point A. They're really nomadic at times.
1. Many, many deer have picked us off by winding us, and yes...they turned tail and booked it. I cannot understand it, because it has been a common sight to watch deer watch folks walking behind us (upwind) and then walk into my scent stream and...poof! Unfortunately, there are 3 very nice bucks that come to mind that I certainly wish would have assumed that my human scent was coming from the house in back of me. I can honestly say the wind has screwed me much more in urban settings than in my farm country hunts.
2. Without any doubt whatsoever, several of our spots do have the deer on a "circuit" in which they will be in our small dot of brush for a day or two and then be gone for days, only to return again. It has held true for does and bucks alike, and we have trail cams to verify a few different bucks were in and out of locales in early season. Perhaps they are looking for variety in diet, I don't know...and in some cases I don't even know where they could be going, but they go.
09-16-2008, 06:25 PM
#34
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Blossvale, New York
Posts: 21,199
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
ORIGINAL: RobinAim Low
[
You are making some strong assumptions that what you have experienced is factual everywhere. I can positively tell you, that where I hunt in urban areas:
1. Many, many deer have picked us off by winding us, and yes...they turned tail and booked it. I cannot understand it, because it has been a common sight to watch deer watch folks walking behind us (upwind) and then walk into my scent stream and...poof! Unfortunately, there are 3 very nice bucks that come to mind that I certainly wish would have assumed that my human scent was coming from the house in back of me. I can honestly say the wind has screwed me much more in urban settings than in my farm country hunts.
2. Without any doubt whatsoever, several of our spots do have the deer on a "circuit" in which they will be in our small dot of brush for a day or two and then be gone for days, only to return again. It has held true for does and bucks alike, and we have trail cams to verify a few different bucks were in and out of locales in early season. Perhaps they are looking for variety in diet, I don't know...and in some cases I don't even know where they could be going, but they go.
[
You are making some strong assumptions that what you have experienced is factual everywhere. I can positively tell you, that where I hunt in urban areas:
1. Many, many deer have picked us off by winding us, and yes...they turned tail and booked it. I cannot understand it, because it has been a common sight to watch deer watch folks walking behind us (upwind) and then walk into my scent stream and...poof! Unfortunately, there are 3 very nice bucks that come to mind that I certainly wish would have assumed that my human scent was coming from the house in back of me. I can honestly say the wind has screwed me much more in urban settings than in my farm country hunts.
2. Without any doubt whatsoever, several of our spots do have the deer on a "circuit" in which they will be in our small dot of brush for a day or two and then be gone for days, only to return again. It has held true for does and bucks alike, and we have trail cams to verify a few different bucks were in and out of locales in early season. Perhaps they are looking for variety in diet, I don't know...and in some cases I don't even know where they could be going, but they go.
09-16-2008, 07:02 PM
#35
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Michigan/Ohio
Posts: 11,682
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
Hunting and the wind is like Texas Holdem to me.
I have won a few local tourments here, and I do so by playing the odds. I never bluff, when I think I have the best hand I bet to take the pot right than and there.
I hunt the stand setup fora wind direction and time of year. It's the only way I know, I try like hell to keep the odds in my favor. I just hope to get lucky
Hunting is all about odds, hunting the wrong wind lowers your odds. The Odds in MI are 1 in 5166 to kill a P & Y with a bow. The odds are hard enough, I do not need to make them worst.
Pressure plays a key role also, but that is for another thread.
I have won a few local tourments here, and I do so by playing the odds. I never bluff, when I think I have the best hand I bet to take the pot right than and there.
I hunt the stand setup fora wind direction and time of year. It's the only way I know, I try like hell to keep the odds in my favor. I just hope to get lucky
Hunting is all about odds, hunting the wrong wind lowers your odds. The Odds in MI are 1 in 5166 to kill a P & Y with a bow. The odds are hard enough, I do not need to make them worst.Pressure plays a key role also, but that is for another thread.
09-16-2008, 08:16 PM
#36
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Pingree Grove, IL
Posts: 1,204
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
ORIGINAL: GR8atta2d
I was at a show this weekend and spent some time talking to a guy, who had a little different outlook on the wind.
He hunts smaller wood patches and farms. he said if he waited on the perfect wind he'd never get to hunt. He said these deer on small farms that have people in and out of the fields most days, are more tolerant of human smell. (A topic that GMMAT and I have discussed before and kind of agree with). With suburbia creeping in and the constant intrusions in the deers shared enviroment, by farmers, walkers, joggers, the neighbor kids etc, he just doesn't pay the wind that much attention. he sprays down with the scent eliminator of choice and hunts!
He said big woods, the mountains, sure, you better pay attention to the wind!
His biggest therory and reasoning for this forget the wind attitude, was this. He'll hunt the same stand 3 days in a row. It's his theory that a traveling pre-rut buck will make his complete rounds every 3 days. So once a stand site is chosen you must hunt it for 3 consecutive days. Wind be damned.
It could be easy to dismiss this theory, as hopeful rhetoric,but like I said it was a show, and his collection of mounts rivals GregH's.
Just a different outlook by a very very successful hunter.
I was at a show this weekend and spent some time talking to a guy, who had a little different outlook on the wind.
He hunts smaller wood patches and farms. he said if he waited on the perfect wind he'd never get to hunt. He said these deer on small farms that have people in and out of the fields most days, are more tolerant of human smell. (A topic that GMMAT and I have discussed before and kind of agree with). With suburbia creeping in and the constant intrusions in the deers shared enviroment, by farmers, walkers, joggers, the neighbor kids etc, he just doesn't pay the wind that much attention. he sprays down with the scent eliminator of choice and hunts!
He said big woods, the mountains, sure, you better pay attention to the wind!
His biggest therory and reasoning for this forget the wind attitude, was this. He'll hunt the same stand 3 days in a row. It's his theory that a traveling pre-rut buck will make his complete rounds every 3 days. So once a stand site is chosen you must hunt it for 3 consecutive days. Wind be damned.
It could be easy to dismiss this theory, as hopeful rhetoric,but like I said it was a show, and his collection of mounts rivals GregH's.
Just a different outlook by a very very successful hunter.
I have tried the theory in three locations with mixed results. On a farm that has heavy pressure from neighboring hunters it didn't seem to work and the deer spooked.
On my main property it has worked and I rarely use a lot of scent spray. I have had deer pick up scent from what I could see and look around but not run off. This property is close to a county preserve and has a lot of human interaction with minimal threat to the deer.
The other property had virtually no human interaction and the deer were not tolerant at all of any outside scent. I even had one bolt on a fresh drag of Cold Blue that had no human contamination.
In the end I only see the theory working in areas with heavy human and deer coexistence from my experience.
09-17-2008, 07:36 PM
#37
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: North Lima Ohio & Clarion Pa
Posts: 6,453
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
ORIGINAL: WKP Todd
Saying something like "Bucks will travel a circuit every 3 days" is like saying "Everyone in the world loves Grape Jelly". Not true at all. I'm not sure, but I would guess this guy doesn't hunt very many mature deer saying things like they don't pay attention.
The only time I disreguard wind in "some way" is during the peak of the rut. I'll hunt pinch points with trails coming from all directions because you never know where a big buck may be coming from. On these days, I'll hunt a stand with a not-perfect wind.
Also, the only time I will throw everything out the window is if a hot doe is known to be in an area. That's when you set-up camp and wait for her to bring a big-boy past!
Saying something like "Bucks will travel a circuit every 3 days" is like saying "Everyone in the world loves Grape Jelly". Not true at all. I'm not sure, but I would guess this guy doesn't hunt very many mature deer saying things like they don't pay attention.
The only time I disreguard wind in "some way" is during the peak of the rut. I'll hunt pinch points with trails coming from all directions because you never know where a big buck may be coming from. On these days, I'll hunt a stand with a not-perfect wind.
Also, the only time I will throw everything out the window is if a hot doe is known to be in an area. That's when you set-up camp and wait for her to bring a big-boy past!
09-17-2008, 07:51 PM
#39
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: North Lima Ohio & Clarion Pa
Posts: 6,453
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
ORIGINAL: buckeye
gr8 I sent you a pm on bowhunting.com the other day, when you got a free moment
gr8 I sent you a pm on bowhunting.com the other day, when you got a free moment
09-18-2008, 04:32 AM
#40
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location:
Posts: 21,043
RE: Playing the wind..a different view
It always seems the mature buck will bring no attention to himself if at all possible where a young one will blow and run like hell.
Bucks deff. run in cycles. Here it is much more than 3 days though. I hunt 300 acres but there are thousands of prime hunting acres surrounding it. Harvesting, mast dropping, hunting pressure,andof course does allplay a role in cycles.
Thanks, again.