OK here is my ???

I own 77.5 acres up against 2000 acres of national forest that is mostly land locked. I have good food plots in now of wheat and brassicas. Since gun season most all the deer are nocturnal. I just got my plots in this September as I have not owned this property this long.

I am waiting for the deer to begin to come back to the plots in daylight. There are some does coming right at dark now. The bucks are not coming out in daylight. I have limited days to archery hunt. On days that I can hunt my question is, Is it better to hunt on bad wind days where the wind is blowing directly into the national forest or is it better to wait for good wind days.

My thinking is hunting on bad wind days will cause the bucks to remain nocturnal until the season is over. What are your thoughts? I know you can't kill one from the couch but educating deer in bad wind may cost me in the long run.

Deer will ALWAYS believe their nose. If they can smell you, no dinner until after dark.

they wont quit coming in they just wont get close to where they winded you at. you will need to move. better to just hunt the wind


i always liked clover for tempting deer

Enclosed blind at all?

Can you not hunt the national forest?

Late season, when the weather is really bad, deer are more hungry and more diurnal.

I have been thinking about leaving my more stinky clothes, on a dummy, next to where I put my bait pile, by my stand. I expect that after a short time of immature deer only eating the bait, that the mature deer will decide it's safe and start eating during the day.

The same should work in your feed plots.

Keith

I'm sure you are running trail cams. But LOT of the time deer will move late in the day this time of year. 10 am -2 pm ) During rising moon or 3-4 days during full moon. BUT you can't fool their noses. It's how they survive.

I doubt it. They don't get old from being dumb.

Wait until the wind is right. Not even worth risking it if the wind is iffy, especially if there’s a big one in there that you’re after. I used to put countless hours in the stand chasing bucks. Now I watch the wind, pressure, temp and moon and decide when to hunt, and have became more successful with less stand time.


John

Hunt the deer instead of the plot...

But deer do become habituated to certain sights and sounds. If something that looks and smells like a human is always there, when a human replaces it, it should not spook the deer. Deer also take behavioral cues from other deer. I almost always see the youngest deer coming into feed first, with the older deer following a few minutes later, if nothing spooks the younger deer. If there is a good number of younger deer constantly using the area, the older deer will most likely not think it's a dangerous place for them either.

Keith

Setup multiple stands to give you multiple choices based on different winds. I believe in hunting the right winds, but increase my opportunities by having different stands for different winds. On top of that make every effort to reduce scent and try to be minimally invasive while entering and exiting stands. One advantage of multiple stand locations is it gives you options to prevent overhunting a stand which will also drive them nocturnal. Even nocturnal deer move in the daylight maybe not far but they move. Hunt the transition areas to the plot and not the plot. Over time you will learn your property and find where those deer feel safe and move in the daylight. I learned long ago the sure fire way to not kill a deer is to stay home.

Do you know where the primary bedding areas are because that would dictate what wind directions are bad directions. I am like you, I hunt 60 acres and get limited days where I am free to hunt. So I tend to hunt no matter the wind direction. If I had more land and more time to hunt then the wind would matter more to me.

You dont even know if it works in your food plots. Lol
Why dont you just go to a deer farm and shot one if you want one that's not scared of you. Or would that take the fun out of "the hunt".

I have some friend's kids who want to come here and hunt, who have little experience and little time to be here and I want them to be sucessfull to help get them into hunting. I promised to help them if they passed their hunter certification.

Keith

Wear bright blue clothing, never bathe, smoke a cigarette, pee off the stand, fart loudly...

None of that matters if the wind is right and you are in a stand. In my short time deer hunting this has been made perfectly clear. Last year over 2 days in a stand I had well over twenty deer within 7 yards of my stand on a good trail. I'd talk to the does as they walked by. Most would look right at me as I did and then flick their tails and just keep walking by.

Another location, same setup, wind was swirling just a bit every fer minutes. I had deer snorting and running at seventy yards. Wind wasn't totally awful, just not perfect. Watching birch smoke it was perfect for a few minutes and then would swirl just a bit. Wind didn't have to be bad when a deer walked up, they'd smell a bit of leftover scent, know something wasn't right and wait ten minutes even until the wind swirled again and confirmed their suspicion. When they smell a hint of something they don't like it's game over. It's life and death for them, so they will wait you out. Time means nothing to them.

Same kind of setup, different conditions.

In my opinion that's all anyone really needs to understand about whitetail hunting.

Check out Roger Raglin video. One of the things he would do was stuff old cloths ( pants, shirt, boots, hat) and make a mannequin and put it up in the stand a couple months before season. Claimed deer got used to it.

Hutchy nailed it.....

I should add, deer will also get used to you and your daily activities. Many huge bucks are shot in gun season by farmers who decide to throw a gun in their truck/tractor in season. Deer get used to seeing daily movements such as feeding cows, doing chores, checking fences, feeding hay etc.
Hunt when you can hunt and hunt the wind when you can.

What are your goals for the season?

If you're after a trophy buck, I would only hunt when conditions are right because of the information you and others gave above.

If you're after meat, or trying to help a young hunter get his/her first deer, I would go just about any time.

Your average 3+ year old deer is about 387413298471309284 times smarter than your average 1.5 year old deer.