Do you make sure you have a stand location for every wind direction

I made a spreadsheet listing all the stands I have for this fall, what the advantages and disadvantages are, and what the preferred wind direction is for each stand.

It turns out after reviewing my spreadsheet that all of my stand locations have a preferred wind direction of either East, NE, North, and/or NW. I really don't have any solid stand locations currently that are set-up to hunt for a south or west wind.

The seven stand locations are on 3 completely different properties in different areas. It just turned out that way by bad luck.

Prevailing wind here? meh. Doesn't seem to me that the wind is out of one direction more than another around here.

Is it one of your goals to have a stand location for all wind directions? Or do you you just hunt when the wind is right for one of your stands?

 

I try to cover all wind directions if possible. I take a week off in November before the Minnesota gun season starts, and I used to assume that during this week when the rut hit in Minnesota I would for sure have the typical N or NW wind, but the last few seasons had I not had a stand ready for S winds, I wouldnt have hunted my preferred areas much. Global warming huh?

 

I have stands for all wind direction and have 3 stands on each of my favorite plots so I can sit there with any wind

 

I only hunt a stand if the wind is right not only while on that stand but entering and exiting to.
With the small properties I hunt in short, YES!

 

I do. But it's a climber.

 

Obviously I would love to have all wind directions covered as well. But I'm not hunting fields or tracks of land where it's easy just to change it up.

I'm trying to only hunt solid stand locations this year and make each sit count.

So, having said that, would you be alarmed with my situation?

5 of the 7 stands I have are on public land. I've spent a lot of time this spring finding and setting these stand sites up. If I knew of more good stand sites that was for a south or west wind... believe me I would be jumping at them. I'm just a little bummed by this. What are the odds?

 

So are mine. :D


I'm made sure that the access and stand location is correct for the same wind direction and that I don't have to cross over the deer travel points to get to the climber tree.

I suppose if I was desperate I could cross the deer trail(s) and hunt on the other side so a south or west wind was correct. But as Tony said.... not exactly what I am after here. It's all about the factor.

 

I do have stands for all wind directions. Like Peak said, they also have to have the right wind direction to walk into them.

 

I've really never had a problem with crossing over deer trails. I try not to walk upwind of where I think deer are but I don't much worry about crossing trails. (mostly because it would be impossible not to do so.)

I will put this tidbit out there, which may help someone.... I see a lot of hunters walk through the woods as if they are blind. I mean they have their hands waving all around touching and grabbing every branch, twig and weed top around. Even with gloves you're going to leave a lot of scent when you do this. If at all possible don't use your hands. (really, watch some hunters walk through and pay attention to this. I'd say 4 out 5 hunters do this. It's weird.)

 

Great point, I have a LW climber and Stand with 4 climbing sticks.

 

Yes. I hunt 50,000 acres of public land. On any given day I can set up based on any wind condition. Granted I might not have hunted the particular area and don't know the deer movement, but at least I can give it an honest shot with my stand location based on the wind/topography.

 

This year is the first time that i will have stands set for every wind direction. My biggest problem is that there is only one way in and one way out of the property i hunt so it is almost impossible to not cross any trails to get to some of my sets. I will spray myself down multiple times with scent killer while walking in and stay downwind of as many trails as i can. My goal for this year is to talk to the neighboring property owner to see if he will grant me permission to cross his farm to get in. If that doesn't work out my only other option will involve something similar to a covert navy seal amphibious deer assault due to the large creek that cuts off three sides of the property.

 

Great topic!! I guess I would be classified as a weather condition geek when it comes to deer hunting. The people that hunt our property in Southern Iowa have been keeping track of nearly every hunt that we have been on for the past several years and putting them in our journal. I have recently created an online journal that we have been using, that allows us to search and sort through all of our hunts and pinpoint observations by location or weather condition.

Wind direction, as we all know is a huge component when trying to decide where to hunt. I think a lot of people who are new to deer hunting (especially in the Midwest) make the mistake of thinking that just because temperatures are dropping in the fall the winds will be out of the North most of the time.

When I saw this thread I decided to go through our stats and see what they show. We learned the hard way, several years ago, that having stands placed for every wind direction is a necessity.

Here is what we documented for wind directions on days we hunted for the 2010-2011 season in Southern Iowa:

(Wind Direction - # of Days)
N - 5 Days
NNE - 0
NE - 3
ENE - 3
E - 3
ESE - 5
SE - 4
SSE - 2
S - 7
SSW - 2
SW - 7
WSW - 4
W - 11
WNW - 6
NW - 8
NNW - 6

I think most people hunting in the Midwest are going to see variations like this. I also went back a couple more years, just to make sure it wasn't just last year that had that much variation. I think the numbers show that last year was pretty normal. Here is an abbreviated version for the last few years:

N - 13
NE - 5
E - 8
SE - 8
S - 27
SW - 10
W - 27
NW - 17

I think it is fair to say, if you don't have a setup for every possible wind direction you could end up missing out on a lot of hunts or taking a chance on ruining a stand by hunting it with the wrong wind.

I know I am very biased, but keeping track of all the weather conditions possible can greatly add to your chances of success. When you can look at wind speed and direction along with temps, barometric pressure, moon phase, cloud cover, precip and some other conditions patterns and trends start to show up.

Keeping a journal is a great way to learn something from everyone of your hunts or if you hunt with some other people you can use their experiences and observations to help you too.

Dan
www.stepaheadoutdoor.com

 

I usually have one for every direction, but usually end up weak on the NW end of things. New property this year may solve that.

 

Brad, How big are the 3 properties you are hunting?

 

I have stands for all wind directions and I only hunt them when the wind is right.

 

I have locations for every wind direction, but some can be hunted and entered upon with a variety of wind directions as well.

 

Not yet but, I am trying to achieve this also. I have three locations now. The problem I have it almost all of my deer trail run north to south. I have very few that run east to west. I feel I will be fine on east and west winds for the most part but, my north and south winds are not going to be as easy to figure out. I am trying to figure this out but, its been difficult to do. I would like to have at least four total this year an add more next year. The problem is my land lay out.

 

Two are in the Kettle Moraine State Forest so they are fairly large. But there is private land in the area that limits access from different directions. The other is a small private farm property (~60 acres with little woods).

 

Not yet but, I am trying to achieve this also. I have three locations now. The problem I have it almost all of my deer trail run north to south. I have very few that run east to west. I feel I will be fine on east and west winds for the most part but, my north and south winds are not going to be as easy to figure out. I am trying to figure this out but, its been difficult to do. I would like to have at least four total this year an add more next year. The problem is my land lay out.