Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire deer hunting advice wind vs opportunity hunt or not???

OK here is my ???

I own 77.5 acres up against 2000 acres of national forest that is mostly land locked. I have good food plots in now of wheat and brassicas. Since gun season most all the deer are nocturnal. I just got my plots in this September as I have not owned this property this long.

I am waiting for the deer to begin to come back to the plots in daylight. There are some does coming right at dark now. The bucks are not coming out in daylight. I have limited days to archery hunt. On days that I can hunt my question is, Is it better to hunt on bad wind days where the wind is blowing directly into the national forest or is it better to wait for good wind days.

My thinking is hunting on bad wind days will cause the bucks to remain nocturnal until the season is over. What are your thoughts? I know you can't kill one from the couch but educating deer in bad wind may cost me in the long run.

They might not whiff ya if ya set up high enough.
Come out on the same trails the does are using .
You can set up on one side or the other of em more than likely

You aint got nothing to lose and everything to gain

And what you dont kill this year will go and grow more than likely.

Some times late season you gotta get bold and just say fugg it.
Specially if they have already been hounded and educated this year.

You ever been busted by em nailing ya looking up in trees for ya???
Or do you use the same general trees.
Try switching up a little if so.
Also spray the schitt outta the tree with cover scent as you climb up its height.
Lots of scent dispersal area. might cover some more of your scent for those additional yards and minutes that might payoff for ya by tricking a nose for a moment.

Used ta be a scent made local around here
Interdigital hoof scent.
Lay down a drag rag of that would keep a bucks nose on the ground.
You aint gonna trick the nose on a deer in bad wind
But sometimes you can fool it enough to work.

Is their evergreens in the area.
Cut a bunch of those boughs and put all your clothes in a box with em
Break up the branches and grind the green into you clothes
Sap running outta em onto your clothes is good also.
This is all schitt i used ta do as a bow hunter.
Except i was on the ground using trees as my blind, stand up 3 or 4 hrs behind one bow hung , draw and pie off behind tree for the shot
The interdigital hoofcscent trail laid down iacroos other deer trails in the dark leading to my spot worked many times



Either way .
Like you said
You cant kill em from the couch.



Good luck!!!

You already know the answer; if these deer already have a phD in hunter pressure, don't push their buttons further with your scent blowing into their sanctuary/bedding,cover areas.

If it ain't right, then stay on the couch.

I'm not a 100% kool aid drinker in the buck nocturanal hypothesis. If you've been letting the does off with a free pass, then poontang will be a stronger draw than a little/moderate pressure on those bucks.

A fruit loop buck with estrous juice on his nose will follow a doe into a wide open food plot or a 4-way intersection of cars.


I don't pressure does, I really don't hunt does, i keep them calm as a bomb and the resident bucks and the traveling horn dog bucks will be none the wiser either.

Always obey the wind, youre better off. You'll never beat a deer's olfactory.

I pretty much have to hunt when our seasons are open.

I cater my reply with respect to you asking from an archery aspect.

If youre able to hunt with a firearm, then I'd throw in a lot of leeway,
Get well away in a standoff set up from the entrance trails of this cover/natl forest boundary, set up in a flanking ambush mode with some likely cross shot ops even if the wind is blowing into the direction of his cover, if youre 100 yards down from his most likely approach, you scent vector might be channelized into just a narrow stream and never infiltrates enough laterally to cross his approach path.

By chance do you have a decoy or 3-d deer model that you could place in the food plot? Or some turkey dekes as confidence building decoys for out there? These bucks might be scoping that plot from several yards deep back into that natl forest cover.

Then, ..."you have everything to gain and nothing to lose"

Can ya hunt that NF???
IF so try pushing in their 75 to 200 hundred yards
They might be on the hoof earlier and heading towards that food plot after the does and dark. You might get a shot at one in daylight.

Pretty hard this time of year hunted pressured deer that have basically patterened hunters and might be associating plots and open areas with learned danger.
Some times ya gotta do schitt outta the ordinary and totally against everything you think. That the deer wont expect either.
Hanging around the outer fringes of bedding areas might give ya a daylight shot, specially if the does get past ya on a travel corridor to a food source, the bucks might be hanging back a little.

But like slumlord said if their are hot does and they are relaxed .
You never know what might go down with a buck that has lost its mind chasing poontang.
Im with slumlord in wanting to be around relaxed does.
Educated does are your enemy big time.
Bucks wanna be around does
Educated does hold em where they hole up.


Good luck man!!!!


And if ya kill something.
Remember......

On here....

Pics or it never happened!!!


Lol!!!

Never hunt a stand if the wind direction isn't right. Learned that many years ago.

You can always put up a stand, or still. hunt the nf land as a back up if wind direction is not right for your property.

Some truths here. *Some*... I used to live or die by the wind, now, not so much. Success? Far better with the latter. THE KEY IS THE RUT. Early season hunting with poor wind is a loser.. Hard rut? Go forth...but with a *caveat...
A guy can't kill a deer from the couch, so that would depend on how much time you have available to avoid wind-spooking deer. If time is limited you have to get out there to have any success, or you have to hunt elsewhere.

A rutting buck will often follow a doe into human scent if she somehow overlooks it. I've had it happen with fine bucks. Hot does do dumb things too--estrous is the key. Really old does are the real challenge, young does less so.

We also do not pressure our does. In fact, we stay away from our back property and bedding area the whole season and inconveniently enter the 23' high stand from an open area that will be free of deer until dark. The first reason for this is obvious. The second reason is that we try our damnedest to avoid pushing deer to other properties. So far, so good. Wife killed a dandy old buck this year. He lived here during the rut and likely had for at least five years. Our place is in essence, a sanctuary for the entire season.

If the wind is unfavorable and I have to hunt it due to limited time, I bag my clothes with fresh cut local fir or pine boughs. They are potent. Do what you can to mitigate scent.

I have a couple of different thickets with stands on edge transitions at three different compass directions.

There deer are always there, just have to pick the right side of where theyre going to enter and exit it that morning or afternoon.

You will not fool their nose.
Plan accordingly.

Broomd

Pushing deer onto our neighbors is a bad bd bad deal I've had to contend with. I have a nephew inlaw and he has made the neighbors' hunts easy.

Tried laying it out for him a couple of times. He's taught himself everythinf he knows from watching "deer thugs" and drury and waddell and on and on.

Neighbor lady at church will give me the goods (its her land) "so and so willy and darrell got a nice 10 pointer, blah blah"

Yup, nephew was down in there poking around doing his Elmer Fudd stomp around tactic. Good job dumbfück

+1.....Excellent post.

The rut is just getting kicking here and I skipped 2 days because the wind was all wrong.

Always hunt the wind. I’d move to the NF if your property has the wrong wind. Don’t educate the deer.

Three rules to fooling a buck:
1. Wind
2. Wind
3. Sight and sound

Numbers 1 and 2 trump 3 by 5x

This^^^• No way I would let them smell and pinpoint my ambush location. When does come in season a buck will either risk going after it in broad daylight or just at last shooting light.

Hunting bad wind will 1) not get you a decent shot anyway and 2) the does will thereafter and forever seek you out.

You would have nothing to gain AFAIC.

You might talk to some honest Ozonics users and get their take, however.

I was going to suggest this but Dave beat me to it.

Crosswinds can sometimes used to good advantage but you aren’t going see any if your scent is blowing toward the area where they’re coming from.