this will be unpopular so fire away (im ready) , but i think scent control is a waste of effort. Playing the wind is crucial, but i cant see that scent control gimmicks have ever made a difference if the wind is wrong and complete lack of scent control (cologne, pet odor, gasoline) have hurt when the wind is right. Put up multiple stands hunt them on what you feel is the best wind and live with the results..all you can do. Spend all the money you would have spent on scent destroyers, tree bark soap, acorn after shave, ozonics, scent loak carbon activated onezies, etc on more deer stands.
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Is wind really that important?
- Thread starter fairchaser
- Start date
DeerCamp
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We definitely love us some Gimmicks.
We do wash our hunting clothes in a scent killing / scent free detergent... and the wifey loves to spray with scent killer.
But how much benefit we get is anyones guess.
Height helps!
Only scent killing product I've seen make any difference is an ozone-producing apparatus (Ozonics?) you put in the bag or Rubbermaid box your hunting clothes are in. You smell the ozone all day.
Sprays and even washing clothes in scent-killing detergent don't do it.
Sprays and even washing clothes in scent-killing detergent don't do it.
Headhunter
Well-Known Member
I can show you many spots, spots I have hunted for many years. Yep, I like to think I can predict where the deer will come from, that is "I think I can". Some spots a deer has "almost never" came from a direction, or used an area, it appears to be impossible for the deer to walk there (deer are as good as goats IMO at getting around). And even though I never pay attention to the wind (meaning weather forecasts), I do my best to use it when I get to a spot, there have been so many times that mature bucks show up, use areas, they do exactly the opposite of what you think they will, etc. that I have decided it is a crap shoot. I wish could predict 75 percent of the time where a deer will come from. I have seen deer upwind spook for whatever reason and I have seen mature deer come on a beeline from dead downwind and killed several. Deer for sure use their noses and I would hate to know the number that I never see because they smell me or where I had been.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
All you can do is stack the odds in your favor. I hunted a spot the NW wind was perfect for yest afternoon. Thinned lane of pines headed right to a thick bedding area to the north. I figured deer would come from the north. Wind was perfect... until the deer came from right where I was expecting... then it began to swirl out of the south right to them. One caught a whiff at 50y, just enough to go on alert, but not enough to completely spook them. They turned 180 deg and headed right back into the thick bedding.
I did everything right, set up was perfect, deer read the script and did what they were supposed to do... but as the sun set, wind got squirrely and screwed me.
tellico4x4
Well-Known Member
Bottom line I think, is all you can really do is play the percentages & hope for the best.
FLTENNHUNTER1
Well-Known Member
Same here when I hunt my property. I also would like to add, I have a dedicated sanctuary that is a main holler that runs through the center of my property. If the wind is blowing towards the holler I do not under any circumstance hunt upwind of the sanctuary. I will choose a stand away from the sanctuary or as Fairchaser stated hunt from the ground that day. On days with high wind towards the last few days of my hunt, I use this to my advantage to still hunt. Most of the time you cannot move anywhere on my property from late Oct. on due to leaves crunching. I call it cornflaking...drives me nuts. I can hear a squirrel from 50 yards or more; I would imagine a deer can hear me from 500 yards away or more.
By knowing their travel patterns , now deer will throw you a curve once in a while but knowing their morning and evening travel patterns is how I set it on a particular stand . Some stands deer may move in many different patterns so there is basically no pattern . But with that said the point is not to get busted by your scent allowing those deer to warn other deer . If you know most deer in a particular area bed in this thick cutover on your property then you surely wouldn't want to set up with a wind direction blowing to that cutover. They will exit another route . If your set up is watching a food plot you surely wouldn't want a wind blowing toward the food plot would you ?
