How to Capitalize on Marginal Wind While Hunting

Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases.

Summertime temps were torrid, and the big buck was a regular at the artificial water source I’d put in. Fall temps further boosted his need to drink. The mercury drop pulled moisture from the vegetation, which meant the bruiser needed to quench his thirst more often. In early September, I planted a small winter rye food plot to sweeten the pot.

After planting the plot, I set an Ameristep ground blind 30 yards from the water source and a Millennium treestand 18 feet up a cottonwood, adjacent to the ground blind. Though the stands were less than 20 yards apart, having both allowed me to hunt this plot with north, west and east winds.

Too often, whitetail hunters spend too much time creating the perfect kill location but can’t hunt it regularly because they don’t set up the area for multiple wind directions. A wind change, especially the first south after days of norths, or vice versa, often sparks buck movement. If you can only hunt your best location on one wind, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Big bucks don’t daylight often. During October, some may only day-walk two or three times. My last card pull showed the buck had watered twice in the previous four days, and though both slurp sessions weren’t during legal shooting light, they were right on the brink of it.

Success

On October 24, a south/southeast wind blew, and afternoon temps were over 80 degrees. Though a south component isn’t ideal for the ground blind, it had enough east to roll the dice. If the 10-12 mph wind held, my scent would slide past where the buck was likely bedding.

Scouting cameras told me the buck’s primary travel route to the pond would bring him straight south, making the wind just right enough for him to feel confident but just wrong enough for his olfactory system to fail him.

Mother Nature did her job. That night, I ran a SEVR-tipped Easton through a 170+ inch Colorado buck. This was the second buck in as many years that fell to a “just-right-for-me” and “just-wrong-for-the-deer” wind direction.

---