Wind direction Question for HSO'ers

[wannafish2]

Ok, so a friend and I are having a debate, and I want you well informed hunters to give us the answer.

On the hunting shows they are always talking about different stands and how they can't hunt one because "the wind isn't right"...What the heck does that mean? For example; if the feeding area is North, and the bedding area is South and there is open timber in the middle and you have a stand there....what wind direction do you look for?

And....when considering the wind, are you assuming the deer will travel across the wind?

I have had deer come from all directions, in all winds, had them blow and stomp when they were upwind of me.....still can't figure it out.....my friend and I await all your input...Thanks!

[TruthWalleyes]

If deer are going to be coming at your from all 360 degrees, With any wind at all, the deer will likely smell you from one direction...

So, On these hunting shows, the deer are most likely coming from one direction, and if that stand, your scent will be blowing directly where they are coming from....

If you are right in the middle of a good spot, and they can come from any direction...They probably will from all directions except down wind of you.

If deer are only coming from one direction (a draw, or fenceline...) You don't want your scent to be blowing in that direction.

If i'm facing the most likely direction that i will see a deer...then the wind is preferribly in my face.

[bogwalker]

We smell to a deer the way a skunk smells to us. Not the same odor of course. You always want your scent / odor, blowing away from the deer.

[hockeybc69]

Bog,

He is asking what is the right decision for picking a stand. And he has the exact question I have thought of many many times. Re-read his question closely.

In the right situation, its a very valid question.

[Steve Foss]

Ok, so a friend and I are having a debate, and I want you well informed hunters to give us the answer.

On the hunting shows they are always talking about different stands and how they can't hunt one because "the wind isn't right"...What the heck does that mean? For example; if the feeding area is North, and the bedding area is South and there is open timber in the middle and you have a stand there....what wind direction do you look for?

And....when considering the wind, are you assuming the deer will travel across the wind?

I have had deer come from all directions, in all winds, had them blow and stomp when they were upwind of me.....still can't figure it out.....my friend and I await all your input...Thanks!

OK, let me take a whack at this.

Feeding area to north. Bedding area to south. Travel zone in between is open timber. You want the deer to pass in front of your stand on the way to bed at one point in the day and on the way to food at another time of the day.

So you scout to see where the deer actually go (north/south route), and you set stands up east of that route and west of that route. So you have stands in the right position for any variety of east and west winds. Northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest, those should be fine, too. East winds mean you'll hunt the western stand, and vice versa, and so on.

But if I'm in that situation with light and variable winds, or if they are straight north or straight south, I'm much more likely to get busted at either of these two stand locations.

Even if the deer are heading toward me from the north with a north wind at their back, as soon as one or two get downwind of my stand (assuming I don't want to shoot one of them, which happens a lot), I'll get busted for sure.

Deer obviously pay close attention to the wind, since it bears the scent molecules they need to smell things. But in this case I believe they'll be moving from feeding to bedding and bedding to feeding along generally the same routes regardless of wind.

Now, if a person can use two more stands, I'd also put one up just north of the feeding area so you can hunt that feeding area during a south wind, and I'd locate one just south of the bedding area so you can hunt that area during a north wind.

That way you get a chance at the deer no matter what the wind direction. And by scouting and knowing what times they generally make their moves, you'll know when to get into which stand.

Stand location is easier for gun hunters, since they have a 200 yard or so margin of error. Much tougher to get a bow stand in the perfect spot.

Hope I understood your question right. That's the way I'd do it. The likelihood that I'll get busted sooner or later no matter how smartly I choose stand location is high, because deer don't know anything about following lines on a map. As for being busted by deer upwind of me, it's happened to me as well. I just figured they smelled the trail I left on the way in and went into hyperalert.

It just is what it is.

[wannafish2]

Thanks all. And Steve, thanks for the info, you've answered my question very well. By the way, you helped me win $1. awesome! You seem to be very well informed and well written.

[TNFL]

This evening, I set up on the edge of a swamp with the unpicked cornfield directly upwind from me.

I was thinking they would come upwind at an angle out of the woods to the left and I would be down wind of them. That's what I was thinking until 2 does came up behind me to the right traveling directly into the wind. All but one deer I've seen this year were traveling with their nose directly into the wind. Only one of them sensed me and waited forever before moving a different direction. From now on I think I'd face with my back to the wind.

[Pinusbanksiana]

My question for steve is this, in the big woods of up north, how do you define a bedding area from a feeding area? No agriculture, all timber.

[Jameson]

I haven't hunted up north for a few years, but for us the feeding areas were typically aspen clear cuts and bedding areas were evergreen areas.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Wannafish. Pinusbanksiana, my experience basically echoes Jameson's. Aspen leaves from new growth make up a large percentage of a deer's diet up here, and they'll center their lives around logging cuts until those cuts are too old (aspen leaves too tall to reach). But while it seems like nonstop forest except for the logging cuts, all forest is not created equal, and there's also a lot of bog and swamp in many areas. Bedding often is in evergreens such as young stands of Pinus banksiana , but my favorite logging cuts are those with swamp/bog on one side and a forested ridge along the other. I've found deer beds in both locations around those cuts. Any forested strip of ridge or high ground that extends out into a big swamp/bog are good. And forested high ground that is fairly narrow and separates two bogs/swamps makes for a great bottleneck/travel zone. Beaver ponds also are common up here, and they are well known deer magnets.

There is no logging at all where I'm hunting this year for miles around. It's private land bordering national forest, and it's a lot harder to get a sense of deer movements. I saw one doe along the edge of a powerline cut running through the private property, but don't have a doe tag. Only buck I've seen so far (two days of hunting) was a forkhorn ghosting his way through the thick forest that's intermingled with a series of exposed ledge rock.

My belief is that deer in this type of habitat don't make as distinct a daily movement pattern between bedding and feeding zones, because what food there is is in and among the woods and ledges. Makes for an interesting hunt. There are other private homes within a half mile of where I'm hunting, but I see no evidence the deer are moving from the woods into those lots to feed on grass or gardens or bird seed, although that happens pretty often here. I think it's because several of those folks leave their dogs out at night.

For putting meat in the pot, give me an ag area every time. For enjoyment of the hunt, give me the boreal forest.

[TruthWalleyes]

This evening, I set up on the edge of a swamp with the unpicked cornfield directly upwind from me.

I was thinking they would come upwind at an angle out of the woods to the left and I would be down wind of them. That's what I was thinking until 2 does came up behind me to the right traveling directly into the wind. All but one deer I've seen this year were traveling with their nose directly into the wind. Only one of them sensed me and waited forever before moving a different direction. From now on I think I'd face with my back to the wind.

Or get a swivel chair