How I Pick My Stand - A Quick Tip

[Tim]

I've never been one of those scent freak hunters who watch every little exposure to foreign odors.  I do, however, keep my clothes in a Tupperware container, use scent free shampoo for the next 3 months and choose a deodorant that gets the job done without all the glamour.  

The one thing that I do and do religiously is watch the wind and here's how I do it. I have 6 properties that are located in between where I work and live, so most weekdays I'm able to hit the woods on my way home. Just prior to leaving my office I pull out a folder that has an aerial photo of each of my properties.  I than click on the weather channel on my phone and take a quick look at the "hour by hour" wind directions. This provides me breakdown of what the wind should be when I arrive at my stand and what it should be the last few minutes of shooting light.  Some of my stand locations are known for squirrelly winds, so I take that into account.  

Now, rather than kicking around the idea of what stand to sit the process becomes very black and white.  One key point, rather than looking for the wind to be totally in in my favor, I look for wind directions that are "just in my favor", providing the deer a little false sense of comfort as they move through the woods.          

Here's a few of my aerial photos to give you an idea of how quick and easy this method of choosing a stand can be.

     

[Froggy]

Pretty neat...great tip !

[A.S.]

good stuff Tim!

do you have an app that tells you which bow to carry on a given wind direction??    

[Tim]

There is a great website out there that Barry Wensel turned me onto a few years back, Scoutlookweather.com.  This is very similar to my old school way of doing things.  A great resource.

There's one in every crowd! .... Allen gets the award!      


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[KentuckyTJ]

My routine is very similar Tim. Good stuff.

[snakebit40]

Great tip Tim! I found out the hard way Saturday morning just how squirrelly the wind is at one of my stand locations. I'll be moving that stand asap.

[Pat B.]

I remember talking about just barely having the wind your favoer, just....

I also watch the wind and feel like it's about the most important thing you can do.. You can get by with lots but if they smell ya the jig is up..

[snakebit40]

One app I put on my phone is the mossy oak weather app. I map all my stands and then it gives me a scent cone, only problem is it won't give you future wind directions, but that's where weather.com comes in.

[maxwell]

What's an app??  Allen I'm the one with trouble deciding which bow to shoot.

[JMG]

Great tip Tim!! Already have the app on my phone. Scoutlook even gives you a scent cone at the time you want to hunt. Its been a very helpful to me making the decision on what stand to hunt, (that's prior to me having a broken ankle), hahaha

[Zbone]

Couldn't find Scoutlook.com, but found   http://www.scoutlookweather.com/

 http://www.wunderground.com/  is another good weather site...

[Tim]

Thanks Gary....I corrected the thread.  Scoutlookweather.com

 

[Dave Pagel]

I am surprised with the detail.  I can almost find the exact trees my stands are in.  The scent cone is an interesting feature.

D.P.

[Burnsie]

Just downloaded it, pretty cool so far.

[Whip]

I've just started using the scoutlook website for weather forcasts and like it so far. Haven't tried the phone app yet though. Some of the reviews I read weren't too favorable.
Are you guys that are using the phone app liking it?
For now I do more like Tim. I also have printed out a spreadsheet with each stand listed and  columns for each wind direction. A glance down the column for the wind tells me at a glance which stands I can think about.

[GregD]

Could you go back and mark your stand locations for me so I can get a better idea of how you are using the wind?

[Dan Adair]

Even though it got snapped up by google, Wikimapia.org is still a valuable resource (although much lessinteractive and useful)  I know it learned me a thing or two about my hunting spots.

[NYArrow]

This is the best local & regional radar w/ looping. I use it to take a glance just before going out.

 http://www.intellicast.com/

[irishhacker]

Originally posted by snakebit40:
One app I put on my phone is the mossy oak weather app. I map all my stands and then it gives me a scent cone, only problem is it won't give you future wind directions, but that's where weather.com comes in.

The mossy oak weather app is the same thing as the scoutlook weather app.

You can see future wind directions too.
Take a look in the scent cone section where the date and time is.
There is an arrow to the left or right that lets you navigate time.
There is also a drop down list so you can quickly navigate to the time you wish to see the wind direction for.

[irishhacker]

Originally posted by Whip:
I've just started using the scoutlook website for weather forcasts and like it so far. Haven't tried the phone app yet though. Some of the reviews I read weren't too favorable.
Are you guys that are using the phone app liking it?
For now I do more like Tim. I also have printed out a spreadsheet with each stand listed and  columns for each wind direction. A glance down the column for the wind tells me at a glance which stands I can think about.

I have been using the phone app for 3 years now.. I love it.
I can't say anything negative about it!

Last year I upgraded to the ScoutLook Deer Log version.
It is the same as the normal ScoutLook app except it also lets you log all your deer sightings and kills. It automatically puts in the time stamp, moon phase, and weather details. All of the sightings are organized by stand locations as well. This is the best way I've found to create a historical picture of deer movements in your own area.