Hunting in calm wind conditions & scent pooling.

[lungbuster]

Here are my observations on thermals on calm, no wind days. mornings it is dropping until the sun gets high enough to hit the ground and warm it, so you will get some scent pooling around the base of your tree in the morning before the sun gets high enough (normally the first 1/2hour after sunrise). In the evenings you will get rising thermals until the sun gets under the horizon, then the thermals start taking your scent down again and as dan said earlier you need to pick your stands according to how the thermals will make your scent flow around the terrain. Hunting bottoms or flat areas on no wind days is especially tricky because you will have a good rising thermal starting out the evening, but right about prime time it will start falling and pooling because there are no topographical features to make it flow away from you.

[Dewey]

On days with fairly calm winds I like to have some sort of water barrier behind me. As the evening thermals kick in the cooler water draws my scent behind me and prevents some of the scent pooling in front of me where I expect the deer to come from.

[Stanley]

Here are my observations on thermals on calm, no wind days. mornings it is dropping until the sun gets high enough to hit the ground and warm it, so you will get some scent pooling around the base of your tree in the morning before the sun gets high enough (normally the first 1/2hour after sunrise). In the evenings you will get rising thermals until the sun gets under the horizon, then the thermals start taking your scent down again and as dan said earlier you need to pick your stands according to how the thermals will make your scent flow around the terrain. Hunting bottoms or flat areas on no wind days is especially tricky because you will have a good rising thermal starting out the evening, but right about prime time it will start falling and pooling because there are no topographical features to make it flow away from you.

Great points.

[Stanley]

On days with fairly calm winds I like to have some sort of water barrier behind me. As the evening thermals kick in the cooler water draws my scent behind me and prevents some of the scent pooling in front of me where I expect the deer to come from.

Another good, old Indian trick.

[dan]

BUMP

[Stanley]

This thread really illustrates what I was talking about on my original post. The thread had a lot of discussion about scent control and is also an interesting read.



viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22676&hilit=boots

[oldrank]

Ive been busted one to many times from scent pooling. Good thread and will look at my setups a little different after reading this one.

[mheichelbech]

Regarding water pulling your scent...how much does it take? Will a flowing creek have the same effect or a lake moreso? Would basically a wet ditch be enough to have some effect?

[headgear]

Hard to say on the creek, it might depends on how much water you have there. I've felt and seen (milkweeds) a pull from small ponds and even just a large wet area with no open water. You might have to test it out to see if there is any effect.

[mheichelbech]

That is what I love so much about this site! Seeing what others come up with makes me think and gets questions going and even if no answer you find out how to find out! It's too bad politicians can't work together this way.

[Jackson Marsh]

Regarding water pulling your scent...how much does it take? Will a flowing creek have the same effect or a lake moreso? Would basically a wet ditch be enough to have some effect?

I've seen this happen while elk hunting. We were standing at the base of the mountain along a creek bank (maybe a 6 foot bank) and while on the top of the bank the thermals where pulling the milkweed up the hill, but when I walked down the bank to the stream, the milkweed was flowing downhill with the water. This was not a large stream, more like a very small trout creek.

[Stanley]

Regarding water pulling your scent...how much does it take? Will a flowing creek have the same effect or a lake moreso? Would basically a wet ditch be enough to have some effect?

Anytime there is a temperature differential there will be an air current flow. The ground colder than the air or the air colder than the ground. These current flows are most noticeable on calm no wind days. The horizontal wind often supersedes the vertical air currents. So a lot of vertical thermal currents wont come into play on windy days. For instance if you are hunting next to a pond the wind will blow your scent across the pond overpowering the thermal current.

[dan]

Regarding water pulling your scent...how much does it take? Will a flowing creek have the same effect or a lake moreso? Would basically a wet ditch be enough to have some effect?

The biggest thing to know about water body thermal currents is that they are often very hard to detect with powder, string, or feel. Often the wind is going a different direction. Without Milkweed and checking when calm you often don't notice it. Wind may over ride it, but if it gets calm, the thermal current will take over till the wind picks back up.

Its not always this way, bigger the area of water ( or actually the bigger the heat difference ) the more the pull.

[Southern Man]

We have tobacco barns down here... everywhere. In the fall they "fire" tobacco, meaning they have a smoldering fire of slabs and sawdust on the floor of the barn. It smokes, no flame, and if you're not used to seein it, you'd think the barn was on fire.
A couple years ago I hunted a farm that had a tobacco barn on the back side. On days with no wind, the smoke would pool everywhere in the woods. Even on light winds (variable) it would settle in the low spots but just generally lay around. Also, it wouldn't just lay around the sides of the barn but spread out for a good distance from the barn. It would thin as it got farther away, but it was still there. On days with wind, it would stream away from the barn in the direction the wind blew, but also spread out wider, the farther it got away from the barn. It was a great visual effect of how scent works on calm days and a good learning experience. The smoke from the barn fires is extreme with the amount of smoke and I've often wondered about buying some of those old smoke bombs you see around the 4th of July and set them off in the woods just to see how scent would spread and travel in different wind conditions and thermals.

On other thing on the barn fires, the smell. It has a distinct smell (not like a cigarette) it actually smells really good. BUt on the calm days, even tho you couldn't see the smoke, you could smell it. And the intensity of the smell varied from place to place. In the lows spots (draws and such) it was stronger. On windy days, not near as much smell (unless you were downwind) but it was stronger on the high spots.

[binney59]

We have tobacco barns down here... everywhere. In the fall they "fire" tobacco, meaning they have a smoldering fire of slabs and sawdust on the floor of the barn. It smokes, no flame, and if you're not used to seein it, you'd think the barn was on fire.
A couple years ago I hunted a farm that had a tobacco barn on the back side. On days with no wind, the smoke would pool everywhere in the woods. Even on light winds (variable) it would settle in the low spots but just generally lay around. Also, it wouldn't just lay around the sides of the barn but spread out for a good distance from the barn. It would thin as it got farther away, but it was still there. On days with wind, it would stream away from the barn in the direction the wind blew, but also spread out wider, the farther it got away from the barn. It was a great visual effect of how scent works on calm days and a good learning experience. The smoke from the barn fires is extreme with the amount of smoke and I've often wondered about buying some of those old smoke bombs you see around the 4th of July and set them off in the woods just to see how scent would spread and travel in different wind conditions and thermals.

On other thing on the barn fires, the smell. It has a distinct smell (not like a cigarette) it actually smells really good. BUt on the calm days, even tho you couldn't see the smoke, you could smell it. And the intensity of the smell varied from place to place. In the lows spots (draws and such) it was stronger. On windy days, not near as much smell (unless you were downwind) but it was stronger on the high spots.

Never heard of a tobacco barn but I would immagine smoke would be a good cover scent. I am not a big cover scent guy myself but if I was to use one I think I would opt for smoke since it has anti-bacterial properties to it and it is common in the fall in Northern WI (lots of camp stoves and wood burners). Have you experimented with it at all as a cover?

Great info on how water can influence thermals and pull scent. I never thought about that but it makes perfect sense. I have some areas that I have not paid a lot of attention to that could become more valuable looking at it with water factoring into the equation.