cal516

I hunt the wind religiously but I have a question. I saw 4 bucks this morning and three of them came from downwind of me. They were chasing does or at least on the scent of one. Do you change the way you hunt during the rut? Is where the deer are coming from a wild card? The same thing happened last season when I shot a 9 point. He came from behind which is generally not from the direction they travel.The reason I asking is because the wind the next few mornings are not what I would consider favorable but it will very very cold and I want to be in the woods. I have other places to hunt but this area has a heavy buck population What are your opinions?

early in

Deer can come fom any direction during the Rut, so I don't see wind direction being as important as at other times of the year.

Lunkerdog

Not all air currents are necessarily North, South, East or West. Here's a couple of things to consider.

To keep it simple, in a thermal current condition the air currents can carry your scent up and over animals. In an inverse current condition your scent can be pushed to the ground making you very vulnerable to detection by animals.


Thermal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Temperature Inversion definition of Temperature Inversion in the ...



Inversion (meteorology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iowa whitetail

the wind is really important during the rut cause bucks use it to smell for a hot doe and walk the down wind side of everything.

kenified06

In the woods the bucks chase the does round and round, back and forth, up and down. Sitting in my blind Ive seen deer come from every possible direction there is. Only thing I do is just spray the crap out of myself with scent away and hope for the best. I still play the wind when hunting a field though where im watching bucks follow does out to feed. Only other thing I know to do in the woods other than get as scent free as possible is hunt like 20 plus feet up a tree which I would never do. When I was a kid I used to just go out in the woods build a hut out of branches and sit... I killed a buck every year I sat there growing up and didn't know crap about wind. I will note that I kill 80 percent of my bucks in the woods between 9 am and noon!

rockport

I try to use the way bucks use the wind in my favor. I try to make it so the wind is his favor for finding does and in my favor for shooting him.

He is a terrible example of my drawing but you get the point. This is one of my setups.

Yellow is cut crop field, blue is my stand, green is timber,black is wind,red is bucks scent checking for does feeding in crop field.

d80hunter

The deer are easily distracted during the rut. Bucks and does are unpredictable so be prepared for anything.

Night Crawler

If I played the wind game this time of year I would go crazy. I just use a little doe pee on some cotton up in my stand to dstract the smell. I have never gotten a blow job this time of year...I have gotten some strange looks but never blown.

FlDeerman

When I check wind I use a small piece of cotton(cheap and biodegradable),sometimes as it falls it will change direction as it gets close to the ground and show you where the thermals are.
I was up a tree once and I blew out my cotton and it went behind me,then I looked down and it was about two feet off the ground and moving straight out in front of me,so I leaned over and dropped a little doe-in -heat scent at the base of the tree.About an hour later a small buck came in with his nose almost to the ground.

cal516

This is what I was thinking happens. By the time I get in my stand a lot of the bucks have already made it back to their bedding areas which is why I saw a majority of them coming from downwind of me. The does are still browsing or doing whatever does do and therefore still upwind from me (except for occasional bucks that I get lucky and see).....There was one buck in particular that was walking and checking around that came downwind from me. He saw me in the tree...grunted didn't blow...and then trotted off.....Like someone else said, there is a lot of distraction going on so a lot of them really don't pay any mind...

I guess the bottomline is that you can't see them unles you are out there..... luck and timing is everything at this point.... And that was why I wanted to start this discussion to see what techniques guys use.