High wind hunting

[Forestryguy]

With the forecast calling fro high winds tomorrow and the seeking phase starting up or on going, how are you hunting tomorrow morning and during the day? I will get in a stand later in the afternoon, but not with the high winds.

Sunny, with a high near 41. Breezy, with a north wind 17 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.

I am thinking of still hunting public in areas that are out of the wind. Or, should I just get in a travel corridor and wait a seeker out?

 

[Rich77]

I shot a great buck on nov 4th 2011, the wind was gusting 40 by the time i climbed down around 10:30 from the wind blowing so bad. I made it to town and the wind was supposed to ease to 20 mph by 3. I was back at th farm at 2.
I had a plan of sitting a natural blind in the timber until the wind died down but i just eased in the timber and still hunted my way 30-40 yards before seeing the deer i was after, 25 yard shot later and my bow tag was filled.
I wont leave the timber any longer in high winds. Find something on the ground to break up your outline and keep on hunting.
Im a big advocate for all day hunting in november and wind, rain, hot temps, im staying. I may not be in a tree but im hunting one way or the other.
Goodluck, dont let the condition deter a hunt, just dont blow a chance by setting up in unfavorable wind direction or trying to get away with something that will do more harm than good.
Goodluck! they are starting to move and im more than excited for this weekend

 

[bret]

I shot a great buck on nov 4th 2011, the wind was gusting 40 by the time i climbed down around 10:30 from the wind blowing so bad. I made it to town and the wind was supposed to ease to 20 mph by 3. I was back at th farm at 2.
I had a plan of sitting a natural blind in the timber until the wind died down but i just eased in the timber and still hunted my way 30-40 yards before seeing the deer i was after, 25 yard shot later and my bow tag was filled.
I wont leave the timber any longer in high winds. Find something on the ground to break up your outline and keep on hunting.
Im a big advocate for all day hunting in november and wind, rain, hot temps, im staying. I may not be in a tree but im hunting one way or the other.
Goodluck, dont let the condition deter a hunt, just dont blow a chance by setting up in unfavorable wind direction or trying to get away with something that will do more harm than good.
Goodluck! they are starting to move and im more than excited for this weekend

exactly! well said

 

[Forestryguy]

I plan to be out, all day. First day I have taken off work to hunt, and it is my birthday, hopefully the Halloween juju works out. The private that I have to hunt is not that great for a North wind, and is only 80 acres, I don't want to burn it out to fast by being on the ground near bedding. Which a lot of it is just that. I will be mulling it over the whole night, of where to go. My curse of trying to be a perfectionist.

Would you concentrate on bedding or travel areas?

 

[Daver]

I plan to be out, all day. First day I have taken off work to hunt, and it is my birthday, hopefully the Halloween juju works out. The private that I have to hunt is not that great for a North wind, and is only 80 acres, I don't want to burn it out to fast by being on the ground near bedding. Which a lot of it is just that. I will be mulling it over the whole night, of where to go. My curse of trying to be a perfectionist.

Would you concentrate on bedding or travel areas?

I happen to think that the next several days are when bucks are most vulnerable to being called in than any other time of the season. I plan to be downwind of known bedding areas in the AM, with a grunt tube in one hand and the bow in the other, so to speak. Even though bucks will now somewhat commonly be on their feet during the daylight and will start making mistakes that they normally do not...they also are smart enough to often walk downwind of bedding areas and let their nose "find" something to then cut in on.

In this seeking phase, they can often be turned on a dime with a grunt tube and brought right to the base of your tree to investigate. This is also a great time to bust out a decoy if you have one too for the same reasons. The nice thing about a decoy is you don't have to be "on the spot" so much, often if you can see them, you can get them to travel up to a couple hundred yards to check out a decoy. So you can set "back" a ways further with a decoy if you are having wind trouble and rely on a sighting and then work them in from a distance.

Also, fencelines and timbered draws that "connect" doe laden areas are good spots now too. You may not see as many deer this way, but bucks will still use available cover to hide their travels somewhat. You can almost always find a fenceline that you can play the wind right on too and these are also normally good sites to get in and out of clean.

I don't think there is one right answer here, but AM hunts "in the timber" on the downwind side of bedding areas and PM hunts near food sources that does have been using is how I intend to roll over the next few days.

 

[Rich77]

Daver just took the words out of my mouth, hit the nail square on the head.
Sat morning i will be in "THE" tree. We only go into this area a select few times in november to hunt other than that it is. Left alone all year as its 80-90 yards south of a big bedding area. It couldnt be a more perfect spot. A large ditch behind the stand keeps bucks searching the downwind side of this bedding area directly infront and more importantly upwind of the stand.
Morning hunts often find the does back in their beds or trying to get there using the most direct route. Mature bucks that have played this game a few times somehow know to just cruise downwind of these areas just "sniffing" around if you will. Avoid the huge doe trails in favor of being downwind if them, sometimes it seems like you end up in some thick nasty stuff but that is the cover mature deer use to move around in daylight until they find a hot doe and they will often push them into this thick brush to tend them also

 

[Daver]

Daver just took the words out of my mouth, hit the nail square on the head.
Sat morning i will be in "THE" tree. We only go into this area a select few times in november to hunt other than that it is. Left alone all year as its 80-90 yards south of a big bedding area. It couldnt be a more perfect spot. A large ditch behind the stand keeps bucks searching the downwind side of this bedding area directly infront and more importantly upwind of the stand.
Morning hunts often find the does back in their beds or trying to get there using the most direct route. Mature bucks that have played this game a few times somehow know to just cruise downwind of these areas just "sniffing" around if you will. Avoid the huge doe trails in favor of being downwind if them, sometimes it seems like you end up in some thick nasty stuff but that is the cover mature deer use to move around in daylight until they find a hot doe and they will often push them into this thick brush to tend them also

Rich - it sounds like we are headed to the exact same place Saturday AM. Actually, I will likely let my son go to the #1 spot, but one of us will be there for sure and if a history is a guide...it will be a hot spot.

The large ditch on the downwind side of our killer stand is key because our scent tends to go over the top of the deer below, helped by AM thermals.