The Wind and Deer Hunting
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2024
- It seemed like a good day to talk about the wind as it relates to hunting. And personally i think the wind is one of the most over looked fundamentals of hunting?
The Hunting Public: / @thehuntingpublic
Great video. The most powerful sense a deer possesses is the sense of smell. It is absolutely critical to consider scent. I enjoyed the way you presented this essential skill for a hunter of deer and many other game animals. Well done. MH
Finally, a southern ole boy I can relate to.....
Wasn't boring at all.
Appreciate it bud
Excellent information, early on in my hunting career my Grandfather would teach me the basics. One of the most important ones was not letting the dear "Get your scent" there are a lot of things to pay attention to but the most important was which way the wind was blowing. Not only when you were in your stand but getting into your stand, making the approach to your stand. My Grandfather smoked, a lot..but if he was going hunting he did not. He also hung out his clothes on the porch the night before he went hunting so any smoking smells were gone and like many old hunters before TV, Computers, and such he believed in the Almanac and paid close attention to it for many things including hunting. Again, a well-done video with information we all need. God Bless and thank you.
Seen the big one last year!! both of US were chain smoking and joking sitting in tree stand. SURPRIZE!! lol he was and US funny to watch all the confusion between all involved . Maybe this time ??
Great video Tom don't forget the moon. I walked in to my stand on opening morning to find the area overrun with people. I slipped discreetly back to the truck and checked the moon phase. Thursday at 1 pm moon straight up.five days later I approached my stand at 11:30 am. Less than an hour later I was rewarded with a 140 class whitetail at less than 30 yds. Similar situations take place almost yearly. I kill more bucks between 12 and 2 than any other time of day.
You are never boring! Thank you!
And thank you very much for that Ed.
Always a pleasure to spend some time with you.
Thanks
Use weather underground myself, sitting here watching you and waiting on Wednesday when I get a south wind to hunt my stands, never hunt with wrong wind
Great topic Tom - I was a late bloomer as a hunter (only started two years ago at 33 here in NZ). Asking an old hand hunter, the one bit of advice he gave me was "The wind is everything. Understand it, know it and don't work against it". Ever since then the wind has dictated all my hunting - a single gust against the prevailing wind direction, sitting on a knoll with a perfect sight picture has ruined a few hunts for me!
Always look forward to your videos. You always try to present good information in an understandable manner. I hope as your channel grows and as time goes by, it doesn’t change too much.
Thank you very much for that Scott. And I'm hoping the same. There's one channel that I used to really like that became very successful but then his content changed. His toys got more and more expensive and eventually his content turned into stuff I just couldn't relate to anymore. I looked up his channel one day out of curiosity because I hadn't watched any of his videos in a long time and he had just come out with a video fussing at some of his subscribers that kept asking him to do his old style videos. He never figured out that his content no longer had anything to do with what his channel was originally about.
I'm trying to learn how to make better videos visually. And I want to do some other things this coming spring like some fishing and gardening videos. But I always try to keep the lesson from that other guy in the back of mind. If the channel does grow and becomes successful then great. I can use that to hopefully make better videos to better help others. But I know that I'm going to have to work hard to make sure it doesn't change me or what the purpose of this channel is, which is to hopefully help others.
I have a pic of the biggest whitetail I ve ever seen in camera . I know there’s some big ones out there too. The smaller bucks are up front feeding by the camera and there’s a bullwinkle in the background . I posted the pic on one forum one time and they all went crazy 😊. Far as I know he s still back there . I seen him another time next to the turnpike . The turnpike guys were pushing him down and looking at him and he was enormous . I was 300 yds away and thought it was a horse at first . He was so out of breath judging by his trot and his butt was a full blown horshoe shape . I could tell he was a monster because I ve seen deer in the same place all my life . Those are the only two times I ve seen him in 5 years . Two weeks ago I saw 3 roaming in peoples yards after dusk which told me rut is good . I ve only harvested 4 nice bucks in 30 years . The rest were decent and does . I hear stories and see pics where first timers get lucky or have a great spot but it never goes that way with me . A lot of times they ll show up when I’m looking at the phone and sitting perfectly still . Mostly for me I like to be in the woods anymore . Killing an animal isn’t such a high priority and I like to keep them around and watch them get old .
I learned more from 1 year of bow hunting than I could in a lifetime of rifle hunting. I no longer set up I move. After my cousin broke his leg falling from a stand and suffered for hours. I never went in a stand again. And because of it i become much more proficient at hunting. I hit the woods, keep my face in the wind move slowly, quietly with my eyes peeled and can usually have a deer down within 2 hours. Btw to more wind the better, deer are eaiser to find and eaiser to sneak up on if the wind is blowing 30 mph. They hide in nasty places and keep their face in the wind you can poke them in the head with a short stick. It's hard but still possible even if there's more than 3 bedded down. I learned this walking fire roads squirrel hunting, i jumped many that let me get as close as 20 feet, did they let me get close or did they not notice me until I made a noise. I learned the latter. If you walk through the woods with you face in the wind move slowly and quietly you will walk up on a deer. I've actually went bow hunting I had a kill and loaded up within 15 minutes before. It's not hunting any longer its killing. Deer have keen senses use those against them.
I love still hunting myself. I generally avoid it during rifle season for safety reasons but it is fun. And wet leaves combined with a breeze also help.
That was great we deal with swirling winds constantly in monroe county
I'm glad you enjoyed it Mike. And I have to say that has been really interesting for me studying the wind. When I go into a place scouting now I spend as much time trying to figure out the wind as I do the deer and it has made a world of difference for me.
Your. Right. Listen. To a man. That knows. What. He’s. Talking about.
I think you're right.
From no experience I would expect that the work of the hunter is to understand the wants of the prey.
I'm still a novice, but working hard to better understand and use prevailing wind and thermals on the land I hunt about 20 miles north of you. My priority has been on the wind at the destination stand, but I now realize from your video that I need to pay just as much attention to the wind on my approach. I'd really like to see a video about your experience with ladder stands, climbers, and ground blinds, and what "improvement" they make in killing deer.
Rob that's a great idea for a future video, thank you very much for that. And I'll give y ou the short version now. The advantage of a stand is it gets youh off the ground so you can see better and the fisrt rule of deer huning is if you can't see it you can't shoot it. A perminate stand or ladder stand is the best because they're quiet but climbers give you flexibility and are handy on public land or large tracks of private. And that pretty much covers my thoughts on stands but that's going to be a great topic in the future. And I'm glad that video got you to thinking about your approach. That's something I really started thinking about over the last few years. And if you get a chance check out my video "Big Buck Scouting Trip". It's one of my early videos and not very well done but I think the end of it shows just how important your approach can be?
New here . From NE Ohio . Deer can pop up anywhere but I always like the wind in my face . I don’t like sitting in a stand or tree for very long but pretty much have to while hunting with a bow. With a gun I ll walk around a bit . He’s right about understanding the area and distances with a bow . One time I shot low and there was a streak of white hair about 3 ft long because it was 10 yds further than I thought or nipped a branch . After measuring I should have shot in between first and second pin and made an unnecessary mistake . This brings me to my next point that hunting buck with a bow can be challenging . Doe s are no problem but a nice big buck is too smart many a times unless it’s rut and they are roaming . I also prefer to use a rifle or shotgun but we re not allowed to use rifles in Ohio and shotguns and muzzles are only a few days a year .
I’m in northeast Ohio to I wish we could use rifles for deer all year long
Happy Thanksgiving!
Best Wishes! M.H.
And a late happy Thanksgiving to you Mike!
I never thought a video about wind could be intresting i was wrong 👍
Loving the videos Mr. Tom. Just an idea about a future video. Speak to the way you hunt. What's stands you might use. I know alot of the public guys are going to saddle hunting. Just an idea. Or how much harder public land hunting compared to private land. Example a perminant box stand over a field vs carrying in a climber every hunt on public.
That's a great suggestion TJ and think I that would make a great video? I have no idea when I'll get it done but that's a video I hope to make pretty soon.
Furthermore, I had some like fishing in my life. First off, nothing beats a fat and bloody worm for bait. Second, have patience. Third, view it as relaxing time. Which I do. It is some exercise. I enjoy being in the woods and hunting. Whether I get a deer or not.
The wisdom is simple, though it can be quite a hike to implement it. You have to be down wind from the deer. If you are upwind, they will smell you and the no scent shampoo and no scent soap and the scent hider product you sprayed on. That being said, don't forget to wear ear protection. You will see a deer more than you will hear him.
So, I tried implementing the wind direction thing with the public hunting land I use. The biggest section, you can enter from many locations, including the north. And the wind was blowing out of the south. But that big chunk is so pressured. Using my reticle to estimate range, I can get a shot between the trees to about 70 yards. But I saw nothing but birds. Heard nothing but leaves falling.
So, the other chunk I like to hunt is not so heavily pressured and it is the one area I have seen a doe (I did not have a USFS doe permit for that season.) It only has one entrance at the southeast corner. So, if the wind is blowing out of the south, I need to follow the trail near the barbed wire fence until I get on the north side of the place and them move west. If the wind is blowing out of the north, I can enter and just cut across the bottom section of this property. It still does not mean I will get anything. But I am trying. Next step, save pennies and pay an outfitter.
Good info. Will we be seeing any kill shots?
I had a trip planned for my birthday hunt but its blowing wind over 30+ km steady so its no use going out for me. i have to wait for a less windy day. No way Im going to attempt to take a long poke with high gusts over a blowing steady high rate. Owell. Let them get bigger for afew more days hahaha
Good info! It's definitely easy to forget about the wind. If anyone is interested,.look up former special operations sniper Ryan cleckner on TH-cam. He does long range shooting but can teach you how to see and read wind.
Happy Thanksgiving😇🦃🇺🇸
And to you to Dana! Even if I am late wishing it.
Thank You Brother, all of us have been on Filipino Time at one point or another🙏
You watch the wind by releasing puffs of milkweed
Hi Tom Thank you for the information on fundamentals of wind and setting up a hunt Iam new to deer hunting. I have a question do you use cover scent while you are hunting? Does it make a difference? If it does what one do you use/recommend?
I do not use cover scents or scent blocking cloths. I was originally going to make this video about just that, scent blocking cloths and cover scents, but I realized I couldn't talk about those without really talking about the wind so I just decided to make this about the wind and not even mention those. I'm not going to say either hurt and I personally know some really good hunters that use both but if you play the wind right you don't need either. I know cover scent can also be applied to your feet just to cover your scent where you've walked but I personally don't think that works? We leave a scent trail behind us even where we haven't walked just from scent molecules settling around us. We leave scent just from breathing and deer can detect that. It doesn't always bother them depending on the deer and the situation but they do detect it, especially mature bucks and does. But once we realize that we can start thinking about how to approach different areas and what areas we need to stay out of. In the clear cut I mentioned I hunted a road bed and deer are used to human scent on that road bed because that's where all of the hunters walk but I wouldn't want to walk through there bedding area right now. I also said that large buck was taken on the 3rd hunt in that clear cut, but something I didn't go into just because of time was that it was raining on my second hunt there so I used that time to scout that clear cut and I found that buck's scrape line out in the middle of it. He never knew I was there and when my friend Joey shot him he was on that scrape line. I never spooked him because I had been so careful with the wind but also because of where I walked and didn't walk until I had rain to wash my scent out. I hope that helps?
Most important lesson new hunters can learn is how powerful a deers nose is. Most estimates are that a deers nose is 30% better than a blood hound. So in effect we’re hunting a super blood hound with horns that can whiff you 1/2 mile before you ever get to them. Plus they can smell where you’ve been for days.
When I learned to respect the deers nose more I started seeing and shooting more deer.
I made this video hoping to get that message across to the younger hunters. Hopefully it at least makes some of them aware of just how important respecting a deer's sense of smell is?
👍
What, you don't count on your scent control clothing preventing the deer from smelling you?? Seriously, the wind can not be over emphasized, it can make you or break you.
After almost 60 years of hunting you are totally correct about wind being one of the most important thing because they will usually smell you before they see or hear you.
👀👍💯
In my experience smell is the last thing a deer relies on. I've been as a close as 5 yards to deer and they never knew it and I hunt on,the ground with out a blind. To,me its more about blending in and being dead still and very quiet,,, I hunted in a holler and a doe was right in,front of me she was aboit ten,yards up from,me she walked down a bit and looked right over me looking across the holler never seen me never. Smelled me I was sitting in front of huge pine tree. ,
Learn the raw basics. Technology can and will fail you.
I like the way you said that Robert and I have to agree. Something that I've been thinking a lot about lately is how important it is to learn the fundamentals of whatever we're doing and once we get those down there really isn't much we can't do.
Gidday mate, from New Zealand.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katabatic_wind
You have steeper and bigger valleys than most areas of the inhabited world, I think ?
Regardless, thanks for drawing attention to this.
Do wooded hillsides mitigate the speeds ?