Prevailing winds, open points etc and Rolling Hill country

[futuredoc]

I'm going to try and hunt a new piece of public land this year. It's near a little farm I have permission to hunt and with gas prices on my crappy resident's salary I will have to bundle trips likely. It's some rolling hill country with good elevation change, mostly upland hard wood with mixed pine from what I can tell with the aerials. I have a few questions as I will have to make scouting trips count. How do you guys go about finding the prevailing winds for a particular area? I looked at weather underground and best I can tell the wind blows NW, W and SW a lot in November and late October when I'm going to be hunting. I'm thinking of trying to focus on east facing ridges for hopefully a good chance at finding bedding areas. I've noticed that a lot of the ridges with great topographic relief; however, don't appear to have much cover out on the ends. Do you guys dismiss these for the most part even if the terrain looks promising, or go look and make sure no blowdowns etc are on the ridges? I assume if the ridge is wide open, then it probably won't be great for hunting. What about thickets at the bases of the ridges in the hollows? Is this mostly night time activity seen down here?

thanks for the opinions,


Kendall

[dan]

i WOULD CONCENTRATE ON THE POINTS... The ones with good cover will likely have the best bedding. But you should take a look at all of them. I would not hunt below the points "at the bases of the ridges in the hollows" The deer bedded above you will wind your thermal scent stream.

[Singing Bridge]

...How do you guys go about finding the prevailing winds for a particular area? I looked at weather underground and best I can tell the wind blows NW, W and SW a lot in November and late October when I'm going to be hunting. I'm thinking of trying to focus on east facing ridges for hopefully a good chance at finding bedding areas. I've noticed that a lot of the ridges with great topographic relief; however, don't appear to have much cover out on the ends. Do you guys dismiss these ...

I determine prevailing winds based on history for the location, what I have logged on my hunts, as well as looking at weather underground or other data sets to get a baseline idea of what the prevailing winds are. I follow that up by factoring in thermals based on terrain and the time of day.

Aerials can be deceiving- there may be better cover on that point off the ridge than it appears. I would definitely scout it if it was not going to disrupt my hunting- if it was going to cause too much of a disturbance I would assume that it holds bedding and set up to hunt accordingly.

[headgear]

futuredoc I would take note of what Dan and SB said and get out there asap for a quick scouting mission and see if you can't make out any bedding or last years rubs in or around the points. Then stay out until the time is right.

[Bucky]

IMO - prevailing winds mean very little in hilly country. The thermals are more important (unless you are hunting high on top/flats, where things are more predictable than prevailing winds are important). The best way to learn is take something to check wind, I like to use milkweed if you can find it or simply a piece of bright colored yarn (pull tiny strands and watch them float in the air currents, I throw them often in a new spot to try and get a better idea of what my wind is doing in new area throughout my hunt (rising vs falling thermals). You will be amazed at how wild the air currents can be on the side of a hill (likely lots of swirling). If you can tolerate it, I recommend hunting "high"... both on the side of the hill and up in the tree (20ft+ if cover allows, you will still be winded but not as much). Hunting low (valleys) with a bow is a often a crap shoot...

My favorite spots are the tops of drainages ditches (upside down V on your topo with lines of demarcation stacked close together are sweet spots in the hill side) close to a point or another topographic feature on a hill side that narrows down the travel area of deer to less than 50-75 yards (sometimes a field edge etc, if the narrowing is realatively flat with a mast crop (acorns) that is even better. If you have not, check out the book Mapping Trophy Whitetails - does a good job of explaining hill country funnels with pictures and discussion of air currents/how to hunt them.

If you can find a spot where multiple ridge points come out of the bottom and meet on top is another killer spot (more of rut spot usually)... when bucks are traveling from bedding area to bedding area.

[dan]

Good stuff Bucky... I do think prevailing winds are important when considering spots from a far though... But your right about it being fairly unpredictable in hill country. Prevailing winds just give you a general direction (on top) but even up top it will be different than what it is two hills over cause the wind will alter based on hitting obstacles like hills and thermal currants...

[Black Squirrel]

Also, won't the prevailing winds, kinda tip you off to where the buck will choose to bed and travel? I.E. the leeward side.

[dan]

Also, won't the prevailing winds, kinda tip you off to where the buck will choose to bed and travel? I.E. the leeward side.

Exactly.