Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting anyway to hunt the wrong wind???

ok fellas i know i'm trying to break the oldest rule in hunting. but, both patches where i can get my 9 yr old to maybe see and kill his first deer are looking south where a north wing will blow our scent right to our intended targets. as to the title of my post is there anyway to cheat the wind or the deer's noses to maybe hunt those stands even when the wind is less than favorable? i only ask this because he has maybe 1 or 2 more times to go with me before season closes and both times the wind will be coming outta the north straight to the patch where the deer should be located. didn't know if we maybe washed our clother,again, in some dead down wind scent free soap and sprayed down real good maybe we could get away with it??? what say y'all please? i wouldn't normally even ask this and would hunt another stand but we only have so many shooting houses.
thanks,
Big Ed

Height of stand and warm air rising. If your stand is high enough and the air is warming it can "possibly" keep your scent above their nose. Long shot but it's worked for me in a few places.

You may get by with it the first time and get a shot because the wind does change directions or is not blowing according to the weather forecast. We hunt box stands also and I've witnessed other club members hunting box stands with a bad wind and still kill deer. You're not going to trick a deer's nose no matter what you wash your clothes in.

While not fool proof (I'm not sure anything is with deer), we've been able to hunt some bad direction winds using a ground blind, keeping windows closed on the side the wind is hitting. Positive they don't keep all the scent in, but I've had deer downwind not seem to notice. FWIW...

I’ve used a buck bomb or even 2 on a bad wind. Let one can dispense into the air in front of the blind and another I would hit a quick mist in the air every 10 minutes or so out the window. Basically try to over power your scent. Use a scent for the right time of season. Ever calm is a great scent to use. I’ve had young bucks bed within bow range of my blind using Ever Calm scent on a rock in front of my blind. Clean clothes, shower clean with scent soap.

I've heard good things about those Ozonic devices. Never used one personally.

Edit
If you have more time next year, a farmer told me of a trick his friend used to nail a big buck. The guy put a dummy in his stand with various lubricants and other work related scents from farm work. The deer got used to it over the summer. He then went hunting with his work clothes on, and the buck didn't notice anything different.

Some deer are more scent conscious than others. You can get away with a lot more scent issues around more urban scent accustomed deer than you can with deep woods deer. I've had big woods bucks walk up to my track, do a 180 and I never saw that track again the rest of that deer season. As was mentioned earlier, getting up way higher than any 9 year old should be will either blow over the top of the deer or be more dispersed Winds swirl and deer don't always walk nose into the prevailing wind or all the deer would be up in the North West somewhere. You can probably catch a few cross wind, so late in the season you might get sniffed, but it won't wreck the spot long term. A 9 year old just wants to be out there with dad for the experience and a deer should be a bonus.

Deer in farm country here don't react to human scent like deer do in non-farm country. Heck, I smell like diesel fuel, chainsaw gas/oil, cows, horses and cow schidt most of the time, in fact I have been known to step in barn yard schidt on purpose before going to a stand. About the only thing gives me away is Hoppe's #9.

if i am in a enclosed stand i don`t worry about wind ,i just keep the windows and door shut and that does make a difference.

I get away with it all the time on my farm, they are used to me there, but no where else. A mature deer get's down wind of you, they're GONE.

There are some serious scent killers on the market that really work. I have had bucks fighting around my stand and I was only 8' off the ground, had does bed down at the base of my ladder stand with my back pack that had been sprayed with the scent killer. I have had coyotes cross my trail that I had walked in on, 6 in a row, they never smelled my track because I had sprayed the bottom of my boots. Lots of stories in the family, lots.

^^^^^ This.

I think you'll find that it's not going to make much difference where the wind is, if you're hunting a food source from a box blind you're likely to see deer. Now you may not see mature bucks in legal hours unless it's during the rut, but I wouldn't worry about the wind.

I never really understood the whole hunt the wind thing anyway. I mean they say you must hunt down wind of where you expect to see the deer, ok got it. Then they also say mature bucks always travel up wind. Hmmm, ok, how exactly do I get down wind of him again?

I just do my best to eliminate as much human odors as I can and I mostly hunt from a climber up real high when I'm setting up on a good buck. When I'm meat hunting, I hunt a food source and don't pay wind much attention. I might close the window or 2 on a box blind but that's about it. Sure I get busted occassionally but it's usually because they were in close and saw me move. Never ceases to amaze how close they can get on me without knowing they are anywhere around.

If it is cold enough a small heater helps to disperse your scent upwards if the wind is not too bad. I have tested this with smoke and also the deer themselves, works well sometimes. Used Fox Urine as a cover scent when bow hunting it seemed to help, put it on a rag or wick not your clothes as it is hard to wash out and really stinks. Same for skunk but that seemed to alert the deer as the scent itself is an alarm or warning scent.

A friend swears by the silver thread under layer clothes and a scent remover spray, I think they are a waste of money. The enzyme scent killers do work but there is always some scent around.

Wrap yourselves in plastic. Just make sure your son promises not to fart............

Evercalm or Tink's smoking sticks have worked but not a guarantee

Best for future hunts is to condition the deer to your scent using a technique like the one above. Not that I hunt stands or conditions like that out west, but it's common sense/scents. Good luck to you.

If it means your 9 yr old will get to hunt or not I say hunt it even if the wind is bad.

As others have said, you cannot fool a deers nose but some deer, does and young bucks, are not as sensitive to human sent. Also, as others have said, deer living on working farms or more urban areas are accustom to human scent.

I have on multiple occasions had deer circle me and come right up to almost kissing close while wearing GI surplus charcoal camo. I know they didn't smell me, they just saw something out of place in their world.
had one doe circle me 5-6 times then come up and stick out her nose less then 12 inches from me. I could see her eyelashes close. I whispered "hey baby" and she just bout shucked her hide getting away. went out 20 yards and started circling again.

oh yeah, whats a box stand? something like a hollow stump?

Face the other direction.

I was able to kill a doe last week directly down wind of me. I sprayed down with scent killer and used Evercalm. She knew I was there and was trying to see if I would move. She made it to 60 yards before I shot.

She wasnt going to stay very long. A small buck came through before she did and grazed 20 minutes in my food plot. Im guessing he had other things on his mind. He didnt pay me any attention

Thanks men for your thoughts and suggestions. I bought some evercalm deer herd scent from the local co-op and ordered some nose jammer aerosol to kinda squirt in the air periodically. Yeah he has been with me approx 10 times this yr without getting a shot so he is kinda burnt. It doesn’t help the couple times I went without him i did see deer in range so he doesn’t know what to do. It’s even getting so ruff that he mentions killing a deer to God during his nightly prayers. They say all things happen for a reason but I cant figure out why we just couldn’t make it happen this yr. maybe Sunday evening will be the day.
Thanks again for y’all thoughts,
Big Ed

There's been a lot of good advice so far.

If both of you wear tall rubber boots it can make a huge difference as you won't leave a scent trail when walking to your stand.

No box blind that I've ever seen is tight. Scent gets out. Those that think that scent even a minor whiff of it, will not bother deer have never watched deer react. They just go to the blind and see a few younger deer or deer that are hungry and just don't care for the most part. Sit off to the side like we do, at times, and can see others stands in the distance and watch...

You cannot fool a deers nose. You really can't fool a pigs nose. Period.

Now that I'd said what I've seen I'd love hearing from folks about ozonics maybe. I've NEVER seen any kind of scent spray work period. Same with cover scents.

Even rubber boots leave a scent trail. Now whether the scent of the boot matters to a deer I can't say. I do know if you let the dog out after I go to hunt, the dog will be with me in a few minutes no matter HOW I walk IE path. We have tried that a lot. Just to see.

i'm not concerned about the walk in but yeah we both wear knee high lacrosse boots. and yes we will be in either a ground blind or a 6' hi off the ground 4x4 box stand both with the wind at our back if the wind blows like the weather channel says it will.
thanks again for the thoughts,
Big Ed

all I can say is best of luck. I"d go somewhere under a tree or such to try to at least do cross wind if at all possible.

But as I've said it simply depends on how spooky they are. You simply cannot hide human scent. There is no way possible. Heck you'd even have to stop breathing if you were to want to try. LOL.

My dog and pigs have taught me so much more than any reading about what should or shouldn't work.

Tiger and I sit under trees in the open quite often. And he is moving a bit at times looking, but if we are ok on wind he always sees deer first before they see us and he goes into stealth mode expecting me to shoot. Quite the dog.

i too wear knee high muck boots, i only go to my best gun stands once before rifle deer season,thats when i take a bombadier J8 out there to knock swamp grass down in the tamarac swamp ,a month before season starts ,baiting is illegal here in Minnesota. maybe states that allow baiting deer act different because people are there more often at those sites there baiting deer ? i just know big old swamp bucks are elusive and a enclosed stand has worked well for us,but we are still careful with our scent on the walk in too.the other great thing about a good enclosed stand up here in the north country is your enclosed stand is its warm in the stand ,less movement and noise too.here in Minnesota with winter on its way we never know year to year if its 40 degrees or -20 below during our rifle season so a enclosed stand gives a hunter a advantage.

no pete quite the contrary. the more you go in and out with a gas atv and make a bunch of noise they become nocturnal. the only reason i wanna try the enclosed blind/stand is my boy is kinda figity ha like most every 9 yr old boy and likes to whisper too much for my liking. but, hey most of the time he likes to go out and sit in the stand with me so i ain't b!tchin' about a lil whispering and some movement. we are gonna try one of those stands already mentioned and i'll let y'all know what happens. i hope he gets a shot at a 3yr old big cull that had a long fork on one side and broke off mainbeam on the other. that one would be a good first deer. and yes we are sitting over a green patch planted with wheat,oats and rye along with a corn slanger spinning the sweet yella gold at 4pm.
thanks again,
Big Ed

My brother-in-law used to work for corrections down in Florida training bloodhounds to track escapees. According to him a persons scent can drift and settle off to the side of a trail. He would have a dog on a leash and it would drag him through all kinds of thickets and briars etc.

While rubber boots help it’s not 100%

I don’t ever hunt the wind. It usually finds me first.

Muck boots have fabric of some type on top that will retain scent... worse than straight up rubber boots. FWIW.

I used to worry far more about wind than I do now. Part of that is that I gave up bow hunting, but in truth, that just opened my eyes more.

The thing that always stuck in my head-- even when I was new to bow hunting-- was that no matter what, every stand is upwind from somewhere. Yes, you're playing the wind for a particular scenario where the deer comes from one direction and goes another. However, you are ruling out a plethora of other scenarios. As I got further down the road, I realized that deer come from all directions-- upwind, downwind, crosswind. I found as many exceptions to my rules as I found instances that fit.

Take my best stand as an example. It sits west of a saddle, overlooking a small ravine. Another hollow is to my south and west. To my north lies an open pasture. It's a busy place. The deer like to bed at the bottom of all this. They move back and forth over the saddle. They come up the other hollow and hang out in the cedar thicket nearby. You just never know what's going to happen. They may come from upwind, downwind-- you name it. To date, we've shot deer from all twelve quarters in all sorts of wind conditions. This is a 15 foot buddy ladder stand that's been there since 2003.

How do I hunt it? The big thing is not worrying about the wind. I used to agonize over whether it was going to be a problem. I finally realized there were as many times that the deer were coming in from downwind as upwind. All this happened long before I gave up bowhunting.

In 2009, I built my luxury blind at the far end of the pasture from this stand about 300 yards away. With binos, I can watch what happens at that stand while I'm in snug in the blind. Again, the action is for the most part seemingly random.

What do I do to accommodate the wind? I used a modicum of personal hygiene and liberal amounts of sodium bicarb:


Baking Soda -- The Shamanic Method


This seems to lower my scent enough that the deer don't mind. They may smell me, but it must seem that I'm further off than I am. Do I get busted? Not a whole lot. Deer will frequently come up close to the stand and notice me, but without the overwhelming man-stink tipping them off, they seem rather nonchalant about my presence.

I use to bow hunt with a recurve bow. I was looking to shoot at deer under 20 yards. I found that wearing all wool really helped with my scent scaring the deer. Unless a front is coming through here , if you sit a deer stand 3 or 4 hours the wind is going to blow in almost every direction during that time.
If I wore cotton blends they smelled me and spooked. I did wear lacross burleys for boots.

+1

In the morning the air is heating up & rising - hunt the hill tops.
In the evening the air is cooling & sinking - hunt the bottoms.

That said I hunt a very lightly used area, the deer are used to smell from the owners of the property performing normal day to day tasks.

well for me my enclosed box stand that has been built by myself ,and put in my nasty Tamarac swamp 20 years ago still shoots the better big bucks and my Muck boots get the job done too,unless its really wet then i wear hip boots. many of you guys hunt baited stands in other states it is not the same as hunting naturally i as do in Northern Minnesota " i hunt 10 miles from the Canadian border" these big bucks live and bed naturally . these old bucks are very nervous bears , cats and timber wolves live back here too in these tamarac swamps also. i am talking about old dark horned stinky bucks that field dress 175 lbs .- 250 lbs. here in the north land in many different weather conditions and tempertures > its just the same. you need a track machine to get back here,a regular 4 wheeler won`t make it i have tried and got stuck every time. matter a fact this year my son wore hips boots to get to this old stand and shot a very nice 8 pt. buck with his 257 Weatherby Mag. and i had to go get the J8 Bombadier to get this old buck out in one piece,we never field dress them back there either and that dead buck was about 1/3 of mile back in this nasty old very wet tamarac swamp. NO its not the same as many of you guys are bait`n deer, many of you guys don`t have bears,cats and wolves either or nasty cold snow weather.

I hunt and never worry about wind direction or how hard it’s blowing. I stopped using and scent control about 8-9 years ago and have not a deer blow at me sense I stopped using it. I used to get busted all the time.no bait,no buck lure,no cover scent, just hunt where they live and hunt often.i hunt buy the moon. 3-4 days before the moon peaks and 3-4 days after I’m in a tree.pre rut is when I can find them easier.