I apologize ahead of time for such a dumb question. But what exactly are thermals and can someone please explain them to me?
In general, thermals rise in the morning and fall in the late afternoon or evening. So as the morning warms thermals rise.(Heat rises) Afternoon it cools hence the thermals fall.
Ohio, it is not a dumb question. Many people are not informed about thermal activity and how it affects their hunting (I have a ton to learn myself). I will give you a real life example. In the scenario below I was hunting a particular buck. I did not know where he was bedded but I thought based on some scouting and some advice from Gri22ly that he was bedding on one of the eastern most points. As you can see the wind was from the North to Northwest and was lightly blowing off and on at 5mph. About 2 pm I cracked some antlers together and that buck came running right to me and I felt fantastic because the wind was in my favor as he began to circle me. That buck was within 20-25 yards of me in and out of cover for over 2-3 minutes. I could not get an ethical shot off so I decided to wait until he walked above me on the terrain. I felt like I was perfect because the wind was in my favor. BUT, what I didn't really understand at the time was the thermals were working against me. He circled uphill of me and as the wind would die down, he started to get really anxious and got on full alert. I still felt good because of the wind. Wrong. He circled a little bit more uphill of me and hung out in some security cover (needed him to walk 2-3 more yards and I would have arrowed a P and Y public land buck). Once that wind died down again he literally walked backwards and then spun and ran for the hills. The thermal currents took my scent uphill because it was still hot and warming at 2pm. If I had been hunting 30-60 minutes before sundown the scenario might have worked out in my favor as the thermals would have been falling down the hillside. blue arrows=wind red arrows=rising thermals black line=buck travel route yellow=my stand As the sun hits the forest floor the thermal wind currents will rise from low to high, causing your scent to be pushed up a hillside. As darkness creeps in, about 30-60 minutes before sundown the thermals begin to fall down the hillside, causing your scent to be pushed down below. The deer use that to their advantage to smell you from a variety of positions. They use the wind and thermals together to utilize a real safe zone of travel.
Thermals can be very tricky for sure. Something we like to do is.. When we have a stand that is down in the bottoms where the wind is likly to swirrel, we wait for a very still and cool morning to sneak in there to hunt that stand and let the thermals take care of our scent. But any stand in the bottoms is very risky no matter what.
I found this write up regarding the wind on the internet if your interested. http://wiredtohunt.com/2011/03/03/u...ccess-thermals-and-other-wind-considerations/
Ohio, here is one heck of a thread involving deer bedding, thermals.... http://www.thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7329
How with all this being said, I hunt in the upper portion of mid ohio......it may as well be the plains because it is so flat.....any thermal advice for a not so hilly terrain?
even the slightest incline in tourain will have thermals rising and falling in the mornings and afternoons
So what do you do if you're hunting on the side of a hill looking down into a bottom that deer usually move through of an evening? Can you really fight thermals?
