Figuring Out Tricky Wind Conditions For Deer

There are two types of wind conditions I dislike when deer hunting. One is when there is no wind.

Everything is dead silent, and deer in such atmospheric conditions are very tough to hunt. They don't move much and are spookier than usual. I much prefer a bit of a breeze, preferably from any direction other than the east.

The second type of wind condition is the swirling, first one direction and then the other, and these wind shifts make it difficult to determine where to sit for a morning or evening hunt.

Hunting when the wind swirls is difficult indeed.

Tonight's wind was of the latter variety. It began out of the east, and then it swirled to the west, tracked back to the south, and then it returned to an easterly breeze without much steam behind it. Choosing a place to hunt can be a coin flip or roll of the dice: either one can deliver good or bad wind conditions. A swirling wind early may settle down just before darak or it can continue to swirl while the deer continue to not move.

I decided on a ground blind simply because I could get inside, close the windows, and none of my scent would be carried to the deer. If a deer came that I chose to shoot, i'd crank open the window just enough for a clean and accurate shot.

Now, my stand choice tonight was where I shot a nice buck a few years ago, and tonight the deer were very hard to find. A few could be seen moving through the tag alders, but only two or three antlerless deer showed themselves. The lingering effects of the firearm season still have deer jumpy.

I kept watching the soft breeze, and it would blow from my ground set to where the deer would come from, and then the wind would switch the other way. This back-and-forth wind switching kept the deer edgy, and as a result very few animals moved in my hunting area.

Different locations provide similar results when the wind gusts.

A friend of mine sat in an elevated coop in a huge pine, and saw several deer but the breezes at ground level where shifting from one quarter to another.

He saw a decent buck and several does, but nothing was within bow range and none were shooters. It was as if the fickle wind was playing tricks, and he kept his shooting windows shut and sat back to watch the few deer that were moving.

Another friend sat in a pit blind, and although the deer tore up the area the day before, there was very little action tonight. The hunter never saw a deer of either sex, and the only living creature spotted was a ruffed grouse pecking around in the brush.

Such nights of swirling winds do occur periodically, and there is precious little a hunter can do about it. Hunting is something that involves an investment of time, and hunters who aren't willing to put forth the time and effort required, will have poor hunting.

Get used to swirling winds or stop hunting.

I don't dislike such nights of swirling winds. They are a part of our lives, both for deer and for me. They must deal with it 24 hours a day, while I deal with it for just three or four hours daily.

The winds may swirl, and they may bluster, and the deer may or may not move. The best advice I can offer is to put in your time, accept the variable winds and gusty breezes, and work hard to puzzle out several hunting locations that will work for all the various wind direction one may face during the various deer hunting seasons.

Take a stab at hunting the various wind directions. Know that sometimes you will get winded, and other times the deer will pass by without catching your scent. The more a person hunts during such swirling wind conditions, the more we will learn about trying to determine the best place to hunt each day.

I made a wrong guess tonight, and when the wind swirls, it's easy to guess wrong. I didn't see any big whitetails, and only a couple of small ones, but each day afield offers hunters new insights into what makes deer tick.

Once you get it all figured out, and are 100 percent accurate each time you hunt, e-mail and let me know your secret. So far, guessing the swirling wind directions and how they affect deer travel has been a tough puzzle for me and 99 percent of other hunters to figure out.

You guess right sometimes, guess wrong often, and none of it seems to make any sense. The one thing I know is that deer are never shot from inside a house or from the couch. We must spend time afield to stand any chance of hunting success.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors