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NEVER hunt a south wind???

Gator said:
If only you were stating facts. Deer move great when it warms slightly up north when it's been very cold. For you deep south guys its probably a fairly accurate statement.
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I said it’s relative.


At what point do deer start moving when it’s warmer in bitter cold? Where’s the point at which the effect disappears? When does it reverse? What data do you have to support your opinion?

obviously, there are exceptions to trends that may prove useful to someone somewhere one time. But I’m willing to bet that for 95% of folks in 95% of their available hunting time, this trend holds. Do you have people who hunt -10* weather? Sure.
 
raisins said:
If it has to do with temperature, then he should state that and not the south wind (which is just correlated with the true cause). Wind patterns are also very region-specific. The dominant wind in my area is W to SW. Also, the predicted wind is obviously not the micro-wind (word?) as influenced by topography. In the hills, a south wind is extremely common and might be predicted or even measured (at some airport?) as a west or other wind. Basically, you've just talked me out of buying that book :)
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the OP gave his opinion.

the good doctor makes expressly clear in the book that it is relative temperature change that dictates the uptick in daytime movement. That CORRELATES with southerly wind.

you guys crack me up
 
kyler1945 said:
I said it’s relative.


At what point do deer start moving when it’s warmer in bitter cold? Where’s the point at which the effect disappears? When does it reverse? What data do you have to support your opinion?

obviously, there are exceptions to trends that may prove useful to someone somewhere one time. But I’m willing to bet that for 95% of folks in 95% of their available hunting time, this trend holds. Do you have people who hunt -10* weather? Sure.
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You claim its a fact when it's clearly not, it was your opinion from your experience mostly in the deep south.
 
raisins said:
If it has to do with temperature, then he should state that and not the south wind (which is just correlated with the true cause). Wind patterns are also very region-specific. The dominant wind in my area is W to SW. Also, the predicted wind is obviously not the micro-wind (word?) as influenced by topography. In the hills, a south wind is extremely common and might be predicted or even measured (at some airport?) as a west or other wind. Basically, you've just talked me out of buying that book :)
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He talks about the south wind, but probably 2/3 of the way through the book he explicitly states that temperature is the issue, that there is no independent wind-direction effect, and that where he is at there are almost no South-wind cool days.

Personally - that wouldn't necessarily lead me to ignore south wind spots completely, especially pre-cataloged ones, just in case the odd day presents itself. And in any case, within the greater structure of how I choose to live my life...there are gonna be days when hunting a south wind is the right move. I wouldn't get that locked-up on that one point that I kinda feel he intentionally exaggerates to drive home a point.
Gator said:
How does one go about killing over 1000 deer? Must of killed one every other sit...
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That's kind of his point.
 
It's been a while since I read the book but, from what I remember Dr. Sheppard doesn't say that deer don't move on a South wind, he just says that his data (and its a LOT of data) show deer move better on a North wind. And as @mattsteg points out above Dr. Sheppard actually relates the movement to temperature and weather fronts, which is a pretty universal idea in whitetail hunting. He just uses the wind as a convenient way to determine when those variables are right.

I don't remember anything from the book that was controversial or outside of the norm for what most people think about whitetail movement. He just backs those ideas up with several lifetimes worth of data and condenses it down to simple ideas that can increase a hunters odds of killing a deer.
 
We smacked a 33” bull the first day. 657 dressed. Read all about it in my “Not one moose hunt but 2” thread under hunting other game


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Great points guys. Dr. Sheppard also points out that where he hunts is FLAT, and I am hunting hill country which further alters the equation. I agree it is very situational, but some of his wording is very emphatic! Here is an excerpt:

"I personally played this scenario out hundreds of times before I began to analyze the data in our mega hunting database. It became clear that hunting a south wind was dismally unproductive. After wasting thousands of hours hunting under these conditions, I begrudgingly gave it up. Today, if I check the wind direction to plan a hunt and find that it is south, I simply make other plans. I do not hunt when the wind is from the south, southeast, or southwest. Period."

"Basically if the spot requires you to approach it from the north and demands that you set up and hunt it utilizing a south wind, then it is for most practical purposes unhuntable...should I locate a spot that requires a south wind to hunt it, I simply mark it off my list and never even enter it into the database. I know that the statistical odds of taking a deer here are so near zero that it isn’t worth the effort to climb the tree."

- Dr. A. Robert Sheppard

Note: This conclusion is derived from actual data he collected and thousands of hours in the field compounded by hundreds of hunters and thousands of deer killed with all kinds of weapons. I believe that he had this observation, just that it may be more relevant to his situation. Overall, this book is EXCELLENT and I highly recommend you pick it up on Amazon and give it a read, especially if you bow hunt.
 
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drew13 said:
Quick side note - I finally got Dr Sheppards book thanks to the guys on here like @Nutterbuster and @kyler1945. Being a very analytical person who works in IT with large datasets, I love this book so far. Thanks for the recommendation, guys.
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What is the exact name of the book and where can I get a copy
 
Wow never hunt a south wind! Well I guess my season is over that's my prevailing wind 99% of the season! Guess I'll just keep hunting south winds!
 
FWIW I did a bump and dump last night/this morning on a nice buck. Had him inside bow range at 7:15 am with a south wind and 84 degree highs in middle TN in the middle of big woods, I should have tagged out this morning but I made a mistake...deer are deer everyday of the week, even in October
 
If I didn't hunt south winds I probably wouldn't hunt. My job requires us to do a vacation draw in January. I pretty much pick whatever days will give me the most days in the woods. Hard to predict the weather 9 months away, and it's hard to keep me out of the woods regardless of weather on those days. Btw some of those days for me started today. Off until November 6th. family obligations will keep me out of the woods until Tuesday morning though.

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Definitely relative. Here in my area of MO I kill almost all my deer on SW, S or SE wind. If you did not hunt those days you would rarely get to hunt.
 
tree_ghost said:
FWIW I did a bump and dump last night/this morning on a nice buck. Had him inside bow range at 7:15 am with a south wind and 84 degree highs in middle TN in the middle of big woods, I should have tagged out this morning but I made a mistake...deer are deer everyday of the week, even in October
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Did you bump him on accident or on purpose? Yea it’s smokin hot in Nashville right now
 
BackSpasm said:
Did you bump him on accident or on purpose? Yea it’s smokin hot in Nashville right now
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it wasnt my intention to do but I don’t mind when it happens. I like to scout midday and I always keep the wind in my face. I’m always covering new ground so I’m not fixated on one buck. If I mess it up being aggressive then on to the next one. I’m to impatient to sit on my thumbs all season.
 
BackSpasm said:
I’m finally reading through Dr. Sheppard’s book on whitetails as recommended by[mention]Nutterbuster [/mention] [mention]kyler1945 [/mention] and many others

He states that after over 1,000 deer killed personally and countless hunts, Dr. Sheppard will NOT hunt any south wind (S, SE, SW) I started thinking, knowing that south winds are usually associated with warmer weather/later movement. That I can’t think of a deer I’ve actually killed on a south wind, but this approach seems extreme.

What about you guys? Obviously the deer aren’t vanishing on those south wind days, but are they still worth your time? Please weigh in.
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OK I have not yet read this, but I am really scratching my head on this. One of my best spots hunts best on a SW wind...
 
From Halloween to mid November, anyone that chooses to not hunt just because there is a southerly wind should have their head examined.
Yeah, hunting might be better with a Northerly wind, but if there is a doe near estrous in the area, the bucks will be moving.
And not all South winds are unseasonably warm. SEASONABLE is the operative term here. A few degrees above the normal average for the date because of a South wind will not shut down deer activity.
 
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