Hunting in the wind

[BAK]

I was just browsing through that thread on hunting with wool and couldn't help noticing how many times hunting in wind was mentioned as almost an occasional occurrence.  I can hardly think of a time when I hunt that the wind isn't blowing at least 10 and usually always at least 15 mph.  And I know there are many days when i go out it's gusting over 20.   It's just a way of life here.  Are many of you able to hunt a lot without wind?

[Roy from Pa]

Pa here gets windy but  not all the time.
I hunted Iowa a few years back and the wind never stopped and it drove me crazy.

[KentuckyWolf]

I lived in South Dakota for a while. There the wind never stops. A calm day was wind of at least 10 miles per hour. You adapt and get use to it. The animals do to.

Back in Kentucky it’s different. 10 miles per hour is a bit windy here. If it’s very wind the deer and turkeys don’t move much. It also get to be dangerous to be on stand in high winds….lots of branches, widow makers, than could come down.

[strick9]

It would seem that I deal with 17 1/2 wind directions on just about every hunt. 

[KentuckyWolf]

In Kentucky the wind changes often.
If you don’t like the weather…wait a day.

Wind blowing from five different directions within the same hour make scent control and cover scents important. Playing the wind can be next to impossible some times.

[Sam McMichael]

Georgia has times when it is quite windy, and other days that are very calm. One thing for sure where I hunt, it will usually be very swirly.

[1Arrow1Kill]

I'd say it is windy (above 10mph) 3 out of 4 hunts in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan where I hunt.  Lake Michigan seems to allow West winds to really build before coming inland.  Hate those dead calm days as I hunt the ground and every noise and movement seems to be detected by whitetails.  Like others, wind swirling seems to plague me often in the forest.  That's why a strong-ish, steady wind is my favorite hunting condition.  Don't mind a little drizzle either.

[Stringwacker]

I remember going to Kansas for the first time and being blown away (literally) by how much the wind blows. It was totally foreign to me....at least in the sense of its continuous nature.

Here in the (very) deep south, the wind certainly blows but it's normally with a frontage passage and then it goes back to a 'light & variable" nature. Afternoons, as it gets closer to dark, the winds become dead still more times than not.

I've often thought I would love to hunt the windy states more often as it would seem to make it easier to avoid detection in both movement and smell.

[JamesD]

Oklahoma where we hunt is a “windy state”. Very few days in the stand with winds less than 10 mph. Often the wind is a steady 15, gusting to 20 or 25 mph. I think there might be a grass is greener mind set by each of us. I see where many on this thread have wished for steady winds. We don’t find them that easy to hunt. We actually look forward to the light and variable  wind days. Those are the few times that we are able to use setups where thermals in certain locations will over ride the wind and allow us to work parallel wind situations, or have scent streams that rise and go over, or drop and pull away from trails as whitetails come by.

[5deer]

 

[katman]

Anything over 15mph here in sc coast deer don't move well, we open the bar at camp early, lol.

I recall a trip to WY and we were shooting at camp to satisfy the elk guide. Wind was steady 15-20 and gusts to 30, I asked the guide if the wind always blew like this and he said "What wind". Yep it blew all week.

[KentuckyWolf]

I remember going to Kansas for the first time and being blown away (literally) by how much the wind blows. It was totally foreign to me....at least in the sense of its continuous nature.

Here in the (very) deep south, the wind certainly blows but it's normally with a frontage passage and then it goes back to a 'light & variable" nature. Afternoons, as it gets closer to dark, the winds become dead still more times than not.

I've often thought I would love to hunt the windy states more often as it would seem to make it easier to avoid detection in both movement and smell.

Yes. On windy days the last hour of daylight is usually dead calm here in Kentucky . It can be windy all day…..my wife can even be questioning my sanity in going out…I always tell her it will settle down…9 times out of 10 it does.

[ozy clint]

I prefer some wind. It gives you a wind direction to work with, provides noise cover etc.

Calm days are for fishing.

[JohnV]

I lived and hunted in SE Iowa until this past year and like you had to deal with the wind.  If the wind was blowing enough to whip me back and forth in my stand, I would climb down and call it a day. 

[GCook]

Filled two tags Saturday evening with wind 29mph gusts to 35.  Arrow drift was about 6" on one shot.  In retrospect it was a very irresponsible shot.
But dead calm is worse as they can hear you breathe and see you blink.

[Trenton G.]

It's normally fairly windy in northern Michigan, and one can count in getting wind from every single direction in any given hunt. It's extremely frustrating at times when you're getting a good northwest and then it just decides to switch around to southeast for 5 minutes. When I hunted out west this fall I absolutely loved it! Sure the winds were usually 15+ mph, but they never swirled. It was great being able to set up a stalk and not really have to worry about the wind switching and messing everything up.

[buckeyebowhunter]

I'm with you guys, it's usually windy here. I hunt two different parts of the state however, and the wind is different in each.

In the farm country in central Ohio we get a consistent wind, very rarely swirls but it is definitely hard to hear them coming and a lot of times there will be a deer right in your lap without you ever knowing so you've got to be careful with how much you move.

In the south/eastern part of the state we have more hills and the winds swirl much more, I get winded a lot more in my hill country spots. They are harder to hunt but I like the big woods and the hilly country. I prefer it to the farm lands and fencerows I hunt in central OH. But both are fun.

On super calm evenings I feel like the deer don't move much until after dark.

I'm pretty much limited to weekend hunting, so hunting certain areas based entirely on the wind is not really an option. I like to use a mobile setup and drop milkweed on my way into the area I plan to hunt and pick my tree based on the milkweed drifting and potential travel routes of the deer. If the wind is blowing hard and directly at the bedding areas I usually just go home.

[dnovo]

Around here I have lots of steep hills. I try to stay on top because the wind kills you down in the bottoms in most places. I like a nice steady light breeze. A hard gusting wind the deer hole up and while a calm day is nice, the thermals get you every time and the deer sure know how to use. Anything over 20-25 mph I’m getting out of my tree.