Help me Understand the Wind During My Hunt

[d_rek]

I hunted a low marsh bedding area yesterday that is kind of walled in by ridge that surrounds it's North and East sides. The ridge line presents a 60-80ft elevation change, relatively gently sloping on some spots and steeper in others. The ridgeline itself is mostly open hardwoods, with little understudy. There is a thick transition area of woody brush and scrub saplings before the woods transition to marsh.

Wind was a gentle, but steady, 5-10mph out of the NW according to NOAA. I confirmed this by feeling wind in my face on my S/SE approach to the bedding area and also using a talc powder wind checker (sorry, I couldn't scrounge up any milkweed this year) while walking to my spot. Weather was warm 79F at 4pm and sunny with little or no cloud cover. It cooled off to 65F by the time I made it back to the car at 8pm.

I setup on the east side of the marsh bedding because I found two very fresh rubs and some very fresh scrapes, all immediately adjacent to some crabapple trees that were loaded with fruit.

I setup in a tree approx 16-18ft before my head was bumping the low canopy from the scrub saplings, though I figured I had good enough cover above and behind me to break up my outline.

I hadn't been sitting on stand for more than 10-15 minutes when the wind started to swirl at my immediate location. Now instead of blowing from the NW it was blowing from E and SE, pushing my scent more or less directly into the bedding area?!? A few minutes later it would blow north again... then east... then SE... and more or less every direction on the compass.

Interestingly enough I had two deer approach from what I would have considered more or less dead downwind coming from due west: A doe that browsed to within 15 yards and then picked me out of the tree before spooking and blowing (not a scent bust, she looked up and saw me in the tree) and then a small 4pt buck that came from just south of where the doe appear. He walked 360 around my tree and didn't bust before casually browsing on dropped crabapples and leafy browse for a while. After about 10-15 minutes he headed off to my north and quite suddenly started to blow. I dropped some quick powder and it told me wind was coming from the north, so that was odd...

I have a pretty idea of how thermals and wind are supposed to work... at least in the mostly flat farmland I hunt. This is a new area that has some unique terrain and am still struggling to understand how wind is affected by the elevation changes.

Anyway here's a picture of the setup with a topo overlay. Thanks for your advice and input!

Regards,
d_rek

[mheichelbech]

There are practically an infinite number of impacts on the wind by topography and sometimes it's the velocity of the wind that matters. Also it happens a lot that the wind goes different directions at different heights. The wind at your treestand could have been blowing one way but wind at the deer level the opposite. This is why guys avoid areas with swirling winds....or they find a velocity at which it is huntable (lots of milkweed and testing).

I think it's the lower wind velocities combined with thermally active areas (areas like you just described) are the worst for unpredictable currents

Your only solution may be to continue trial and error until you either figure out conditions you can hunt it without getting busted or a treestand location you can use without getting busted.

[Waymore]

It's possible the doe scented you but didnt blow. Not sure why she would have looked up at you unless you moved. Were you in your saddle? I know your in Michigan. I would check any ditches in side of road. There should be milkweed everywhere. If your a golfer I see a lot of golf courses. Let me know if you need any and I could mail some to you

[d_rek]

It's possible the doe scented you but didnt blow. Not sure why she would have looked up at you unless you moved. Were you in your saddle? I know your in Michigan. I would check any ditches in side of road. There should be milkweed everywhere. If your a golfer I see a lot of golf courses. Let me know if you need any and I could mail some to you

I was in my saddle, but only 16-18ft up - about 10ft lower than I normally would be but I had some low canopy from some adjacent trees that prevented me from getting any higher. I'm pretty sure she saw me. I watched her come in and when she got on my 4 oclock I had been staring at her and she looked right up and just about jumped out of her skin.

I live in a rural area but haven't for the life of me been able to find any. Been creeping up and down the backroads trying to locate some. I found what I was pretty sure was some milkweed but there were no pods on it?

But... Haha... you're the second person to offer me some milkweed! I'll take you up on it. I'll PM you.

[hambone]

You will learn more about your scent stream once you get ahold of some milkweed. So far, in Missouri, since the Sept. 15th opener, we have only had a couple of days with an actual wind. I don't like hunting marginal winds very often, but days pass quickly and windows of opportunity close even faster, so...Pooling scent and thermals have been killin me.

[PK_]

The red spot is right where the wind is going to swirl on almost any wind direction. The wind was steady in your face on the approach because you were up on the hill. Once you drop to the bottom the game changes and setting up near a steep section is real tough. And the point of the hill that wraps to your NW is just making matters worse.

It's a tough little area but on a NW I would think getting a little to your SW right near the point (if you want to call it a 'point') of the marsh, you would probably get a bit steadier wind.

[Divergent]

X2

[northeast beast]

Living in rural ny I can't find milkweed ....but
..I found something very similar and it was a big eye opener watching how the wind moved that wannabe milkweed....you will learn a lot about wind relatively fast once you start using the milk or something similar. Be sure to take someone up on it if they are offering..very big game changer for me

[Ognennyy]

Others have already pointed out the difficulties associated with the terrain around your stand location. Also consider what day you were hunting. On Tuesday the pressure pretty much bottomed out everywhere in the North-East / North-Central US. Low pressure systems are very unstable with the wind often changing directions everywhere, not just in hilly country.

[d_rek]

Others have already pointed out the difficulties associated with the terrain around your stand location. Also consider what day you were hunting. On Tuesday the pressure pretty much bottomed out everywhere in the North-East / North-Central US. Low pressure systems are very unstable with the wind often changing directions everywhere, not just in hilly country.

Interesting. I hadn't really thought about that relative to hunting. Thanks for the insight!