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Dead calm is killing me

S

sojourner

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
1,715
Another morning with dead calm (no wind whatsoever) the majority of the AM where I hunt. In the past, I would always say can’t kill em from the couch. But over time I have experienced zero sightings with dead calm weather. And I believe I am boogering up my area.

Up this AM for an all day hunt, but now it will turn into a late AM till 30 minutes past sunset hunt. Bummer!

Just venting.
 
I have hurt myself with same thing this year. Jeff sturgis released a video that identified one of the reasons I was hurting myself.
Those particular mornings I hurt myself. I would go off of previous nights forecast which stated X wind direction for morning and that was all I paid attention to. What Jeff explained and is blatantly obvious now is that the wind foreshadows.
I was hunting that morning for a sw wind, but I was not paying attention to when the wind was shifting. What the wind actually said was that from 2 am to 9am it was changing from nw to sw. Meaning at any time during those hours you can get winds from any of those directions. In my case that was getting me busted.
Also also morning thermals (which I was basing location on) were not truly kicking in till well after first shooting light. And when I say well after I mean hours after. I was not paying enough attention to cloud cover and what time temperature would begin to rise...
My $.02
 
Same here! I have almost stopped hunting especially in the morning if I don’t have a predictable steady wind. Because of that strategy this has been the first year where I see deer every single sit. I haven’t once been busted, either by sight or smell.

Now I’m sitting here wondering whether I should go out or not because I have someone else with me and I know they want to go out. I think what I’m going to do is go into a spot that I typically wouldn’t want to hunt, climb a tree and just hope I can learn something by observing.


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Instead of not hunting try to find spots that set up well for calm conditions. For example, I have two stands that are on a bottom along a creek. Winds are horribly inconsistent but, on dead calm mornings, if I set up on the creek bank, I can rely on the thermals pulling my scent down the creek.

I killed my best buck 4 years ago, made a poor shot and lost what would have been my biggest buck last year, and saw my only mature buck so far this year from one of these two stands and they were all on dead calm, cold mornings.
 
GCTerpfan said:
Instead of not hunting try to find spots that set up well for calm conditions. For example, I have two stands that are on a bottom along a creek. Winds are horribly inconsistent but, on dead calm mornings, if I set up on the creek bank, I can rely on the thermals pulling my scent down the creek.

I killed my best buck 4 years ago, made a poor shot and lost what would have been my biggest buck last year, and saw my only mature buck so far this year from one of these two stands and they were all on dead calm, cold mornings.
Click to expand...

What he said. Plus, sloughs, ponds, rivers, open or planted fields. They all are either warmer or cooler than surrounding tree covered areas. Thermals will Pull towards them, and your scent will either settle or travel on them, or be pulled upwards if they’re warming. Either way, you can get fairly consistent thermal action even on dead calm mornings.

You’ve rightly identified the issue. But you can find spots that work if you’ve got some terrain changes.
 
I’ve seen plenty of deer on calm mornings. Sometimes get busted when they get close, sometimes they don’t have a clue I’m there.


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Thanks all. I do throw the milkweed out. Last two hunts, as the day progressed, the milkweed floated about my head Nd gently fell 15 feet to the ground.

I do notice the thermal effect during sunrise/sunset and cloud cover. I will have to start working on finding good places next to water for calm days. I mostly hunt swamp and there is water most everywhere.

In any case, now getting a 4 mph wind, so I am heading out.

Thanks for the input.
 
sojourner said:
Thanks all. I do throw the milkweed out. Last two hunts, as the day progressed, the milkweed floated about my head Nd gently fell 15 feet to the ground.

I do notice the thermal effect during sunrise/sunset and cloud cover. I will have to start working on finding good places next to water for calm days. I mostly hunt swamp and there is water most everywhere.

In any case, now getting a 4 mph wind, so I am heading out.

Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...

Well, wind went to zero. I did some scouting, found a good ambush point with great sign for a step ladder (Infalt style, no climbable trees). Rain tonight. Great to remove any scent. My step ladder in the same general section of woods.

I pruned just enough to get the step ladder in. Walked back out to truck, then hiked to where I last left my step ladder. lo and behold, it is missing. It looks like someone took mystepladder.

In any case, I view this as an input to learn more about best places to hunt during dead calm (if they exist) and to find a cheap 6 foot step ladder to set up on the ambush spot I found.

Thanks all.
 
Deer movement is usually fantastic with calm winds, especially with high pressure. I've killed a lot of deer with my bow when wind direction was indiscernible. Some locations hunt better for scent dispersal than others, I'd say keep looking for spots that work, you'll find some.
 
I have decided that 8ish mph is my sweet spot for most of my setups. Anything lower and I get swirling or inconsistent directions.



................................................................................All climbing methods, platforms, saddle designs, and/or use of materials possibly mentioned in the post above are not peer reviewed for safety, and should only be used as an example of my own method. Do your own research and testing before becoming confident in any DIY solution to support your life.
-IkemanTx
 
IkemanTX said:
I have decided that 8ish mph is my sweet spot for most of my setups. Anything lower and I get swirling or inconsistent directions.



................................................................................All climbing methods, platforms, saddle designs, and/or use of materials possibly mentioned in the post above are not peer reviewed for safety, and should only be used as an example of my own method. Do your own research and testing before becoming confident in any DIY solution to support your life.
-IkemanTx
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I would rather have 8mph+ or dead calm so the thermals are predictable. It's the 2-3 mph days when the wind blows 3 different ways and the thermals pull another way that suck.
 
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