Hey all. Well my opening day came and went without success, and again this morning. I had seen about 8 different doe but all were out of range as you will see in a moment.

In pic one you will see that the Red is my ground blind, blue is the stream, green dots are deer path of travel, and purple is the wind.

This area i am hunting is there area of travel. they come from the right of the pic which is their bedding area and are obviously traveling to the left, their food source.
In this first pic i couldnt get a shot since they were eyeing my blind hard but since i was in ASAT head to toe didnt see me, but i couldnt move(i have since fixed this and made the blind much better) as you will see from the wind in was coming at my face and whenever this happens they travel in the way indicated by the dots.

But in the next pic, when i had the wind going exactly the opposit direction i had one sneak right up to about 15 feet behind me and the blind( again with my ASAT she had no idea what i was and couldnt smell me, but i had turned when i heard her stamp the ground and that spooked her)

i didnt think any would come from that direction and so close to the edge of the stream since it drops about 6 feet to the bottom. The only thing i can think of is that with the wind change she wanted to see everything coming at her from up the hill and across the hardwoods. and on the other days with a normal wind they do opposit. Does this sound right? Thanks and if i dont get back right away it's cause my PC is acting weird.

P.

I have a spot like that!!! The only way I can hunt it is from a stand at the to of the hill... Even when they are down wind, I get busted less often as my scent goes a ways before it drops down to their level...

There is a reson they love those areas!!! They can use he wind as it tends to swirls and eddies down along the creek.. Get some smoke bombs and a can to light em off in... you'll learn how the wind works in the area...

In my area, I use a ladder and a climber and hunt from the top of the hill maybe 5 ft down the slope from the top of the slope... Its my only way to hunt it regardless of wind direction... These are my best stand sites for does and killer during the rut!!!

Slasher,
Thanks for the info bud, i did use a homemade smoke bomb and i'm getting a good read on the wind, although it doesnt eddie as much as i thought it would, i definitly have a prevailing wind and when it changes it just goes the opposit direction...well most of the time anyway.

Anyone have any more info? still listening. Thanks again.


P.

Deer don't always walk down the trails and it's pretty natural for a deer to follow a creek bank... keep an eye open both up and down the creek.

In the morning they should be going from left to right. Going back to bed after out eating all night. This time of year it is also tough to hunt a specific food source as there is just so much food available and as Charlie said they will meander and not alweays follow trails.  I would build one more ground blind close to this one and use it to hunt different winds and for morning and evening sits. Shawn

Charlie, Shawn,


Good advice thanks so much. i have since made 3 other blinds to compensate for the wind and travel directions. Thanks again for all your help guys.


P.