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Stand Placement & Wind

jjohnson

Well-Known Member
I honestly don't think there is a day that goes by where I'm not visualizing my hunting grounds and imagining where the best stand locations are going to be. YES I HAVE A SICKNESS!
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So I have a few questions. You always here put the wind in your face. But is that really your best chance at seeing a mature deer. I've always hung my stands on ridges where the wind will take my scent off the ridge or where I don't think any deer will be coming from. Yes I've always seen deer and lots of deer. But not the kind of deer that I want and know are on these farms.

Like most of you I want to kill the "big boys". I just don't think monster bucks are dumb enough to run some of these ridges and put themselves in these vulnerable places. I believe they move just over the ridge inside the cover and do so when and only when the wind is in their favor. Which virtually makes them unkillable.
During the rut when a buck is scent checking a field, he is on the downwind side of the field cruising through the nastiest cover he can find. Or a doe bedding area he's doing the same thing. To hunt these areas properly it always seems like I'm gonna be messing something else up.

I believe you want the wind almost wrong for you and almost perfect for the deer. These are spots I'm looking for. It just seems like year after year I grill myself, trying to find these killer spots and then when season arrives, I retreat back to my safe zones.

I would also like to hunt further into the woods. I just always think I will be screwing myself one way or another with wind direction. I know morning hunts let you get away with more but once those currents shift and set in your gig is up.

Is there any tips or tricks that any of you use? What stand locations do you like best and which are your "killing stands" not "hunting where I might get lucky stands."

I guess that's why I love this game so much because it's so tough to kill the real monsters.
 
It is a classic dilemma. Go in early and aggressively, possibly screwing it up for the rest of the year and boogering the only booner on your property. Or, hunt the edges/funnels and try to get lucky with a love sick buck come November.

I would almost always prefer to hunt aggressively if I had enough properties to hunt that I could give it my best shot each time, knowing full well that it will likely be the only crack I get.

Almost all of the big deer I have taken have been killed on the 1st time into the area.
 
Honest to god I have hunted "wrong" winds for the last 2-3 years. I have seen some giants. I never get it done, because sometimes I just suck
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But I have been picked off only a few times.

Heres an example of how i have had my best luck say there is a north wind, I am on a north south trail. I am about 25 yards off of it at a bend or something, SO my wind is parralell of these deer. I do hunt from the ground and although a lot of the time it is the death of me, it enables me to do it.

I have shot my last two bucks like this and a handful of does. It does make things interesting and with being on public land, the big deer seem to be more patterned by which way the wind is rather than anything else.
 
i agree with gundog.... i do the same exact thing..... in the last 3 years that i have been doing this ive only been bust once.... i think the wind direction is very important but i think there are some ways around it if you do it right.....
 
Thanks guys let's keep them coming. I believe stand placement and luck are the two most important aspects of bowhunting. I like the parallel wind idea and setting up on a bend or some other obstacle.

It's funny you can think and think and then when somebody says something you go duh? I have the perfect spot for that.

DOR, I agree this is the classic dilemma. Every year we see some slobs killed by IW members thought it would be a neat thread to hear everyone's input.
 
I've become a true believer in what Bill Winke always preaches...Entrance and exit routes...they are incredibly important as to 'not' educate the deer.
If they dont know they are being hunted...they are much easier to kill.
Consider it...I have started to....And it has helped .
 
[ QUOTE ]
I've become a true believer in what Bill Winke always preaches...Entrance and exit routes...they are incredibly important as to 'not' educate the deer.
If they dont know they are being hunted...they are much easier to kill.
Consider it...I have started to....And it has helped .

[/ QUOTE ]

also a tru believer in this also.
 
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