When it's rut time, and the bucks are moving, which is basically when I put my best effort into hunting, sometimes I just ignore the dam wind and hunt a stand if it's seeing buck traffic. This time of year, at least in sw Pa, with cold fronts moving in and out, you'll pull your hair out trying to play the wind perfectly. I don't have 52 stand sites, so sometimes, I just gamble. Mostly because if a buck winds me from one direction, I may kill another approaching from the other direction 10 minutes later. And sometimes, during that time of year, you'll see bucks that are just passing through, and don't even bed anywhere near that area. The biggest trick is playing it safe with the does. If you keep them on your good side, the bucks will hang around. But sometimes, if a travel corrider is hot, you gotta hunt it. It's only a deer. It ain't the end of the world if one winds you. Another will come by at a different time, from another direction.

Exact scenario in my "honey hole". Deer do and can come from anywhere. When I hear "hunt the wind" I LMAO. 2 of the last 3 bucks I shot came from directly downwind and around me and in all honesty, I'd consider that the best wind, it's the predominant wind, SSW. [&:]

I've tailored most of my stands so that they have some type of natural barrier near them that would severely limit deer movement. An example of one would be where I have a stand in a narrow creek bottom. My stand is 20 yards from the creek. The creek is W of my stand and runs N & S. 30 yards behind me, up a bank to the E is a crop field. With a W wind my scent is blown out over the crop field and away from expected deer movement. If there is deer movement to the E of me they will either be in the woods or tight to the edge of the field because they don't like the car traffic on the far E side of the field. Plus, being high in the tree lets my scent blow even further out into the crop field. It's worked good for me so far. I have other stands that are very similar. My scent either blows over the top of the deer or directly behind me, away from the deer.

All my stands are in the middle of something. They can come from all ways. So I just spray scent killer on maybe even a little deer attractant and walk into the wind to my stand. Let luck take it from there.

Since I started using wind direction indicating puffers.....I've realized one thing. Dead down wind means very little, sometimes. Thermals are amazing things. IMO....if a buck is trulyDDW of you....you'll never know it.

Valid point, above.