'Just Off Wind' Doesn't Work for Me

[Double Draw]

I have heard a lot about the 'just off wind' from Dan and others. I understand its merits. I recognize having the wind blowing directly in your face probably won't get you the mature one. The problem is after chucking many hundreds of pods of milkweed over the past year (hunting and scouting), mostly single piece by single piece, I have come to the conclusion that on most days the wind direction from moment to moment varies almost 180 degrees. This is not just true in swirling wind areas that are tricky to hunt but nearly anywhere I have been. Unless the wind is above 15 mph it seems it is far from steady, directionally speaking. Someone please tell me how to practically make the 'just off wind' work. Thanks!

[RidgeGhost]

You're only supposed to throw the milkweed when the wind is blowing where you want it to!

Kidding aside, you have to take some risks to get the reward. I'm usually looking for a wind that's off by 22.5 deg. Like a NNE for a N wind bed. Up to a NE wind for a N wind bed.

[dan]

Terrain has a lot to do with it, and picking the right spots based on what thermals will do... We all have occasional swirls, but putting the stand in the right spot has a lot to do with the results. With that said, I get fairly consistent "just off winds" on most of my hunts where a just off wind is needed.

[headgear]

I've been there, sometimes the wind just won't play nice and you have to back off a bit to make things work. Can't say every hunt I have been on has been 180 degree winds, maybe you've just been very unlucky?

[tim]

Nothing is 100% it’s gonna happen but I hunt this way always. I wanna be in the game if I get busted then I do but I want the chance

[backstraps]

Ive actually had good results with being "just off wind" If youre setup in the right location via the wind tunnel, off wind works more often than not for me and I am almost all hill country.

Most times too, if I am not setup correctly where my off wind "IS" working, then I am not close enough for a bow shot on the buck.

All that being said, I have seen wind speed play a big factor and little to no wind is the worse for consistency

[Tufrthnails]

I feel your pain bud I got screwed by it as well several times last year and in FL prevailing winds for the day are sketchy at best, but what I am learning is patience is my best friend. Early and late are the most consistent for me. So not getting into my kill spot at 3 pm and waiting a few hundred yards until that magic time has upped my sightings tremendously. I hunt a notoriously high pressured low density WMA a lot local to me and only once did I not see a deer during a sit last year there. Which is insane considering I have went entire seasons there without seeing a deer from my stand, which that isn't to say I haven't killed anything those years because I hunted hogs also.

[matt1336]

Some beds and areas are just hard to hunt. There’s a reason why he’s bedded there. Perhaps you bump him from that bed and hunt another bed that you think he might use? Or you bump n dump him. Do some more digging here and you’ll find a way

[magicman54494]

one thing that I noticed about the "off" winds is they are usually short lived so the right wind saves you from being busted. Some spots just naturally have swirling winds and bucks love to bed in these spots. These spots are very hard to hunt.

[dan]

If there is any kind or rill to the land, or stagnant water, I set up for two winds, the wind when setting up so it does not blow at the bed, and for what the thermal will be when the sun sets... Water thermals are less predictable, but still somewhat... Hill thermals though, that is the only thing you can bet the truck on. Sun set and thermals drop down hill... Period. You can't beat dropping thermals in hill country, you have to set up for it no matter which way the wind blows... You also have to look at the shape of the foliage and what wind will do. Cant set up well on edges cause wind will follow edges and rill over them, can't set up in an opening, you have to shoot to it, cause wind swirls like in a toilet bowl when it hits a small opening in timber...

Don't just check wind direction with milkweed, if you do, your loosing the most important pert of it... Learn what the wind does with milkweed. You should be looking at changes in flow and asking why... One of my best assets is looking at a spot and knowing what the wind will do. A great teacher named milkweed taught me that over several decades.

[Double Draw]

Thanks all for the help. I will keep at it. I am in swampy, public land that has very little elevation change on about 4000 acres (25' total change or less). The wind is the key for this property. I know it is important everywhere but especially here. There is one location I have been in consistently where, if the wind is below 10 mph, give or take, the wind always comes from the north. It is the strangest thing. Even on a straight south wind the wind comes from the north. Not sure what makes it do that but I have seen it many times. I know I am still learning on thermals and the water is irregularly dispersed on the property which may be why the wind is strange. Thanks again.

[JoeRE]

The combination of wind and thermals can be very frustrating sometimes. I do think "just off" can be a little deceptive to those who are new to it. "Just off" is often 45 degrees off to me because air currents naturally wander a bit. I agree it is a somewhat rare time and place that air current move in exactly one direction for more than a few minutes and maybe you can play something closer than 45 degrees off. But those spots can be really lethal setups when you find them. You also need to understand barriers that can block air currents so that anything on the far side of them doesn't smell you. Sometimes bodies of water can act like that (they draw in thermals in the evening meaning anything on the near side has your number but anything on the far side can have a harder time to smell you). Also in hill country ditches act as air current barriers sometimes. Everything smells you on one side of the ditch but nothing does on the other. Your milkweed goes straight toward the critter then hooks a right or a left half way there and you know they don't have a chance...makes you feel pretty good!

There's always something more to learn...and everyone still gets it wrong sometimes no matter what their experience but after a few years of hard study it is possible to get more right than wrong regarding wind. A season or two isn't experience when it comes to how complex wind and thermals are, keep at it for five or ten more and then pass judgement on how well a just off wind works. That's how long it took me to feel like I was getting more right guesses than wrong

[Buckshot20]

Man the trees will funnel that air around a lot. Thick to open will cause tumbles.

I was checking wind on a power line last year. The wind was dead out of the South and milkweed showed dead north. The wind would come over the treetops and tumble back like a tunnel. Once I got inside the woods it changed and had more south east. It turned south east because of the cypress swamp inside the block of pines. I kept a quarter wind in my face that night and killed my buck.

[Perfectionitz]

Thanks guys, this post has been really helpful, because I’ve been struggling with the off wind thing too. I definitely got too aggressive last year and think I will be hanging back off the transition a bit more and shooting into the first open area.

[oldrank]

For me I am not so concerned about a wind swirl that blows into a bedding area for a few seconds. I set up with an advantage for the predominant wind. I am far more concerned about what is happening at prime time when everything calms and thermals switch. There is so much human activity in the woods I hunt I doubt a small wiff here and there is anything new to a bedding buck. What I see is he is exiting that bedding area when the thermals switch and usually the main exit lines up with where my milk weed is going to go if I sit that trail. Trying to sit right on that trail is a no-go. I have to move off to a side where I can drift my thermals just off....hence "just off wind".