In the Wind

The wind can be a hunter’s best friend or worst enemy. I learned this lesson the hard way during my first hunt on public land. The wind was misbehaving. A close friend and I had backpacked deep into the Pennsylvania state forest for the beginning of the archery deer season. For the hunt, we set up in thick cover. Blueberries and Mountain Laurel on a saddle in the lee of a small ridge point. It was a morning sit, and we thought that the thermals would be moving uphill as the sun warmed the ground. We were slightly uphill from some heavily used trails heading to a bedding area. It seemed like a good position.

When I first began hunting, I thought that understanding the wind would be as easy as it sounds: open a weather app and look at the wind direction. Then move so that the deer would be up wind of my location. It is not that simple. As I spent more and more time outside during the season, it became clear that there are many other factors that can affect how air moves.

Back in the state forest, we thought the wind blowing in our face from the east would help to conceal us from the deer. We were wrong. When the air hit the point of the ridge, it swirled around and blew our scent directly towards the nearby bedding area. The air was moving like water around a rock in a stream. Despite the prevailing wind direction, the “wind eddy” manipulated the air flow around us. We had a sinking feeling that our ambush location would be betrayed. Sure enough. Before we even saw the deer, we heard the telltale whistle. We were busted.

Previously, I had never contemplated how the wind could be altered by the terrain that it moved over and around, though it made perfect sense. Air is fluid and constantly adapts to the objects that it has to navigate. Though we had to sacrifice the success of our opening day hunt, it was an unexpected and easy way to discover the wind can be much more complex than it initially appears.

The second interesting element of the wind that deceived me came on an unseasonably hot day during the peak of the rut. During my early season scouting, I had seen large rubs, heavily used trails and scrapes in a twenty acre area that had been clear cut about five to ten years ago. The southern border was lined with hemlocks growing out of a drainage that had a fast-flowing creek at the bottom. I thought my plan was perfect. I checked the weather, and like they had been all week, southern winds were bringing in the warm weather. I could set up a few yards into the thick beech saplings, cut a few shooting lanes and have the perfect spot to catch a buck cruising on the south side of the clear cut.  

When I arrived, the air that was supposed to be coming from the south was tickling the hairs on the back of my neck and blowing my scent directly into the trails that I was watching. What was wrong? I was facing directly south. The forecast said south wind but the wind was coming from behind me. It must be the quick stream in the hemlocks! It was cooling the warm air and creating a draft down the small hill in front of me. I was going to have to change my plan if I wanted to remain undetected.

I moved into the hemlocks and used my climbing stand to get above the underbrush at the edge of the clear cut. According to prevailing wind direction, I was in a terrible place directly downwind of the deer trail. But with the cold stream at my back, my scent was rapidly pulled away from the action. Though it didn’t end with meat in the freezer, I got to see an amazing natural phenomenon: four mature bucks chasing one doe right in front of me.

Though it’s possible to fool their eyes and ears occasionally, it is impossible to fool an animal’s nose. Learning how to use the wind properly on any hunt is a challenge that requires knowledge and practice.