The Hunting Beast

Dan,

The hunt title "Bob's big 8" takes place on some public land with some north facing ridges bordered by some large pines to the south and either a road or river to the west. There is a big cut running north/south, and the stand was placed at the mouth of the cut. A couple of questions:

1. What wind were you hunting this on?
2. Was this during cruising time? I assume this is the case since you said it was like 11AM when it was shot. Know the date?
3. Do you think the buck was wind checking the points for does or or the pine plantation - probably will be answered by #1.

1. What wind were you hunting this on?

I believe the wind was blowing towards the valley...

2. Was this during cruising time? I assume this is the case since you said it was like 11AM when it was shot. Know the date?

Yes. I believe we hunted the 1st week of November. Not sure on exact date. But historically in that area the 4th of Nov. has been the peak.

3. Do you think the buck was wind checking the points for does or or the pine plantation - probably will be answered by #1.

Points mainly, but his direction of travel would of winded both the plantation and the points he was heading for

You could always just ask me, the guy who set himself up for a miss on that slob

Wind was out of the north, we approached stand site from the south which is how I like to do it. The date was 11-11 or 11-12 which I agree with Dan the typical best time is around the 4th but we caught thim late. No doubt that buck was cruising bedding areas, when we left we cut his track heading towards another point the does like to bed on.

Sweet Bob, didn't know you were on here. My name is Kendall by the way. I pulled the map back up to look at. So it looks like you guys approached from the south on the top of that point, through the pine plantation. The buck came from the east on the video - or at least that's how it looks. So the does were bedded out on the points in that north wind? This is good to know because I was thinking that the deer usually wouldn't bed on a north facing slope on a north wind. Also, looks like your scent would have been blowing down the cut on the east side and effectively blowing into the deer's nose on his route north if he was coming from the east side of the ridge traveling north.

I have a similar spot on some land here, and I'm wondering what wind to hunt it on. Seems like the wind that would allow a buck to check the points wouldn't allow me to hunt it effectively. These are east facing points on a big north/south ridge. In theory the deer would be bedding on them with a west wind, but this would not make it easy for a buck to travel along the west side of the points and scent check the tips.

I hope I'm making sense. If you get bored in Wis, come down to IN and hunt with me man.

fd