Wind.

WTNUT

5 year old buck +
You have to love the outdoor writers that write about the wind. "Only hunt a stand when the wind is right". "If the wind shifts and you are in the stand, get down and leave that stand". You know you have seen more of them. Well SOME of that stuff works in flat lands. I will even say a lot of that stuff works in flat land. Throw in hills, valleys, mountains and river bottoms between two ridges and all bets are off. This afternoon the weather called for a west wind. I decided to hunt a river bottom stand on the east side of a hillside. The stand was on the edge of the river (think shallow river that you and deer can cross) with the hillside to the west and a five acre plot of brassicas on the east with switchgrass and tall sorghum screens to the east of that. The river is at about 800 feet and the ridge top to the west is at about 1,450.

Well, the wind was suppose to blow from west to east and the deer were suppose to come off the hill to my west and cross the river to the food plot. The wind did blow. It blew from the north, from the south, from the east, from the northwest, from the southwest, BUT NEVER ONCE FROM THE WEST! Did it bother me? No that is generally how it goes in hill country. All you can do is be as scent free as possible and stick in the stand. If I got out of my stand every time the wind was coming from the wrong direction all I would do is get up in my stand and get back down in maybe 30 minutes at best!

Wind, go to love it. P.S. No I did not get winded today. Luck maybe.


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Wind is very complicated especially when terrain and vegetation come into play. My approach is to really focus on scent control first. I shower immediately before hunting. Clothes are washed and kept in plastic containers and not donned until I leave the truck or camper. Rubber boots are a must. Much of our heat (and scent) come from our heads. I like carbon head coverings (more because they hold in scent than the actual absorption they are advertised for).

Wind is rarely constant. Prevailing winds are a general indicator only. Wind speed you see on weather sites is not measured at ground level.

One thing that can be very interesting is trying to make a wind map of your property. You need a compass for this and a GPS helps. You simply walk to grid points and puff baby powder (or something similar) with a particular prevailing wind. Then note the direction the wind is moving at that location.

While this is interesting and informative, it is very crude. It only applies with that prevailing wind and at ground level. Wind is three dimensional and differential heating and cooling create up and down drafts. This can create completely different wind currents from a treestand 15 to 25 feet off the ground.

Since I find it so difficult to "play the wind", I really focus on hygiene and scent control since I know how to do that well. The better I do that, the less important it is to do a good job of playing the wind.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I agree WTNUT. I have a stand that overlooks a small hidey-hole food plot that has a fairly reliable West-NW Wind. But right behind my stand is short little elevated rocky ridge that has about 20' of elevation gain and runs perpendicular to my stand. Last year I noticed deer were scenting me even when I knew the wind was directly in my face. Happened again this year. I think the wind is blowing behind me and hitting that little ridge and forming an eddy of some kind that sends my scent back into the plot.
 
I came to one conclusion out of 30yrs of bowhunting; I cannot fool a deer's nose. With that said I still work hard with personal hygiene and staying as scent free as possible but I focus on wind much more. This takes away many stand sites (like the stand Natty brought up, I probably wouldn't hunt there but would probably set up just over the top of the little ridge). What I've found is that I don't burn out stands anymore. I hunted the same spot 3 times in a row last weekend. On the 3rd morning I changed locations 5 times due to shifty winds and saw shootable deer in each spot (7 bucks and 10 does). This was ground hunting so changing spots was easy. In my past if had I used a stand and hunted the same spot 3 days in a row I probably wouldn't have seen much on the 3rd day.

I'm with you though in that I don't put a lot of stock in what I read or see on a video and instead reflect on my personal experiences to direct decisions. Most of those guys are writing about area's completely different than what I hunt anyway.
 
The only time I “play the wind” is when I am sitting over a food plot. I try and make sure my scent isn’t blowing to it. Otherwise, I think good hygiene is more important. I also have bedding all around my property and the neighbors property that it makes it impossible to know for sure where the deer are and what way they are coming. For me, I run cameras at a lot of my stand sites or areas around them. Year after year some of the sites routinely don’t see any shooter deer until a particular time of year and then the site gets hot for a couple weeks. So I don’t hunt at all until deer I want to harvest show up. As long as my entries and exits are planned out well I can see deer in just about any wind. So I play the numbers game. Eventually when a stand gets hot and you put in your time... you get a chance to harvest a deer that meets your goals regardless of wind. Bucks during the rut have one thing on their mind and it’s not wind direction and moving through the woods the way humans perceive deer to move. Consider the wind when you hunt but always go with your gut.
 
The entire play the wind thing has always baffled me. Because in my woods there are trees in every direction , and deer come from every direction possible. So no matter which direction the wind is blowing, it blows to where deer can come from. I mostly hunt from box blinds now, if it is windy, I close a few windows to stop the wind from blowing past me, it seems to help.

Sure I have a food plot I can see from my stand, but I have trails on either side of my stand, and behind my stand. If the wind is blowing in those directions, the deer will smell me on the way to the food plot and bolt.

I have been told to hunt the property lines, and let my scent blow in to the neighbors, I have a couple problems with that as well. Deer come from neighbors land too, to get to my land. And if you get one, and then it crosses the property line, you need to go get permission to go look for your deer, from the people you were just letting your scent blow too, and crowding the line on. I personally hate when people hunt the lines, you can almost be assured I will be walking back from my stand right next to to you during hunting hours, and bring up a “friendly” conversation, loudly, and carry on long enough for them to wish they weren’t so close to the property line. I don’t tell them to not hunt it, I just be overly friendly and go visit them and talk to them nicely during hunting hours, and let them decide they don’t want to hunt the lines anymore.


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Supposed to be real windy tomorrow in NW Wis. Not looking forward to that.

Chuck
 
Supposed to be real windy tomorrow in NW Wis. Not looking forward to that.

Chuck

It has been slow for me. Only saw a handful of deer so far. Pretty sure the wind won’t help my numbers at all.


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So far this year has me thinking I don't know as much as I thought I did about wind an deer movement.

Been played the fool twice,
have deer traveling through chiseled farm ground, when there is thick cover 20 yards away.
have deer using open grassland, dead ground as I had been thinking, only to be proven wrong again

Then to put the cherry on top

I go through all the process of showering, ozone clothes, rubber boots, brushing teeth, the whole gig.
Only to have deer pick me apart, not blow out, but know something is out of place

Only to have pops go out in his hunting clothes that have never been washed, old boots, no showers, no odor control what so ever.
Then have a nice 4x4 an 5x5 plus 3 does stand 40 yards dead down wind of him on Sat evening for half an hour without a care in the world.

Left scratching my head
Feels like a snakebit year, but have learned a few things in the process.
 
I "play the wind" almost every time I hunt, but it takes alot of work to make stand sites for it. In the majority of my stands everything takes place on one side of the tree and access comes from the other. Most of my stands just need some sort of west wind and I am fine. I usually have one of my kids or my Dad hunting with me so being "scent free" is not an option. If the winds change and swirl we keep the windows closed.
 
I try to create deadzones close to stands where deer will be downwind. I try to be as sent free as possible and believe that I won't be winded on a regular basis at distances of 50 yds and greater.

One way that made a lot of sense to me was hunt where the wind is almost perfect for the deer and almost wrong for me.

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Wind speed is a huge factor in predicting what the wind will be doing at a particular stand location, especially in hilly terrain. And I doubt that there is any general rule of thumb for what the line is between when a velocity allows the surface wind to do what is predicted and when it will be the exact opposite of what's predicted, or even swirling.
And the angle that wind hits ridges, draws, saddles and valleys also plays an important role.
I'm coming to realize that wind creating high pressure areas (like the windward side of ridges) is more predictable and consistent than the low pressure side (leeward side) of a ridge. But once again, velocity plays a big role. Very light wind and thermals follow prevailing wind more dependably than higher wind velocity. And the steepness, height, and intricacy of the terrain further complicates the inconsistency.
Prevailing wind (for a given day) that's blowing up a draw or valley (creating a high pressure area) will be more consistent than one blowing down that same draw (low pressure area). If that prevailing wind hits terrain features at an angle, then even more variations occur.

Here's 2 examples of actual hunting days where wind velocity created conditions that didn't seem predictable...

#1; There's a steep, East-West hillside and ridge behind the South side of my home. I had a stand just below the ridge on the North side. There's a trail that follows that ridge about eye-level to the stand. It seems obvious that the stand probably can't be hunted with a North wind, right? The wind would be blowing right at the ridge trail. But on days of higher velocity, the wind pillows against that steep hillside and creates an up-draft. Yeah, the wind is blowing toward the trail, but it actually stays well above the passing deer. Now, on a day with light wind, there is no high-pressure, pillowing effect and that stand is not huntable. The wind is not "competing" to force it's way up and over that ridge. I'm a huge proponent of milkweed floaters. There's no way to have really seen what was happening that day without observing those floaters. I'd release a few at a time, and they'd start out by blowing right to the deer's noses, but 10 yards before it got to them, they shot straight up and over the deer, as long as the wind stayed strong. If the wind subsided, the floaters stand blowing straight to deer level because there was no wind pillow.

#2; Large, North-South draw. Last week on day 1, the prevailing wind was blowing fairly strong from the East. I was hunting the far side of the draw (the East exposure side). It seems like the wind would be blowing East to West that day, just like the prevailing aloft wind right? But it was actually blow to the East with an up-draft. The velocity was creating an up-lift. It was being drawn toward that East side and up. It was almost impossible to be busted by deer that day because of the up draft. I'll bet there was a zone on the opposite side of that draw with swirling winds.
2 days later in that same stand, there was again an East prevailing wind, but this day it was very light so there was no low pressure condition in that draw. The surface wind was "true" to the prevailing wind. Same stand, same prevailing wind direction, but opposite surface wind direction. The reason that the surface wind direction changed was because of the velocity.

Hunters do pay attention to wind speed, but usually only for predictions of deer movement, but not so much for it's effect on the wind's surface behavior.

That website "Windy.com" has been quite helpful. I've watched what they call "surface" wind but it's actually wind just above the surface, probably above the highest ridges for an area. Their predictions seem right on the money, for both speed and direction. But a given direction at, say 100 feet above the ridges, is not necessarily what is happening in all the nooks and crannies and varied terrain. But when you look at their predictions and at what speed they move across the terrain, you can see patterns.
But I really believe that a highly overlooked factor in wind direction prediction by most hunters is the velocity of the wind.
 
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Never looked at windy.com but will. Only got busted once really this year "that I'm aware of". I have a box in a valley to help controlling scent do to swirl in the low ground. I typically won't hunt in the holes but it's a good pinch point with lots of activity. My son and I were sitting with the wind in our face. Mature do in front of us picked us up. No doubt because of something you discribe. Velocity was high. I'm sure it was hitting the hillside behind us and swirling back around in front. PM hunt with temps falling so the thermals were dropping and hurting us also.
 
I can't help but laugh when somebody says "just play the wind". This past weekend the wind was blowing in the perfect direction for the stand that I went to. 20 minutes later it was blowing from the wrong direction. 30 minutes later it was blowing from a totally different direction. This went on all afternoon. If I want to hunt on my property I just have to go and hope for the best. For the last couple of years I have been going to extremes to reduce my scent. To be honest I am still not sure if it helps or not but it is not that much more work or cost so I will continue doing it.
 
I can't help but laugh when somebody says "just play the wind". This past weekend the wind was blowing in the perfect direction for the stand that I went to. 20 minutes later it was blowing from the wrong direction. 30 minutes later it was blowing from a totally different direction. This went on all afternoon. If I want to hunt on my property I just have to go and hope for the best. For the last couple of years I have been going to extremes to reduce my scent. To be honest I am still not sure if it helps or not but it is not that much more work or cost so I will continue doing it.
By any chance were you hunting the leeward side (of that day's prevailing wind) of a ridge or other structure?
And what was the wind speed that day?
Those 2 aspects have a big influence on how stable the wind blows throughout the day.

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Agree with everyone here. I do think stand height is a huge factor as well. Above 22 ft i've noticed seems to be a game changer. Not that all tree's / locations allow this! Also, rising thermals in the morning for sure helps from my experience.
 
Well, I figured the wind out ha ha. Opening day of gun season was Monday. Sunday, I hung a stand. I hung it on the highest point on the farm. It is comparable to Mt. Everest (not in height, but in the fact that three valleys all rise to this one point). It is literally like being on the top of pyramid. It is big open woods, and very mature oaks on the top of that pyramid. I had deer around me every single second of the day and not a one every blinked. It was probably the best observation of deer I have every had. Well I will just quit hunting now because I am spoiled and can only hunt that tree from now on.


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I hunt on very flat ground, I try to play the wind. I keep my hunting clothes hanging out on screened in back porch and use the scent free soap before hunting. I also like my stands at least twenty feet high or more.
Don’t know if any of it really works but I have adult deer under me pretty much every sit.
 
I too put my stands above 20ft. Sucks in 25mph NW winds but what are you gonna do?

Chuck

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I'd like to hear more about what types of wind indicators that you guys use.
I contend that the surface wind often isn't really doing what we THINK it is, which leads to false assumptions about thermal wind patterns, scent control, etc.
I'd also like to hear how you guys determine wind direction BEFORE you even leave the house each day, or do you even look at it at all before you step outside the house or vehicle?
Surface winds at one location (like when we step out of the truck at our parking area), are often not reliable for predicting what is happening in an adjacent location (like where our stands are).
Prevailing winds aloft are what we need to pay attention to. Not that those aloft flows will match surface flow, but they will help show which areas should have surface winds that are stable versus those areas prone to eddies and unstable wind.
Terrain features have a dramatic influence on surface wind patterns. Analyzing how aloft flows contact terrain is a huge help in predicting how the surface flow will behave.

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