Wind in bottoms

[Allegheny Tom]

I’m always disappointed I can’t find many podcasts or content about hunting bottoms, it’s always hill country yada yada yada… bottom hunters go it alone nobody to relate to.

Everything’s so situational… we get some occasional steelhead fishermen along the river, and many about 300 yards downstream. So let’s say Im up 25 feet, Im wearing Scent Lok, my gear and boots are pretty clean… maybe a little whiff isn’t much different than that fisherman way downstream and maybe they let it slide. I will say I’ve been on two hunts this year where Im setup low like 15’ in Scentlok and have had multiple doe groups and smaller bucks walk right through the area absolutely unquestionably dead down wind… did they let it slide because my scent profile was lower… or some other reason? I don’t know but Im giving it a go because I need any edge I can get in that dang valley. If my scent has gone from a 6 to a 3 I’ll take it.

There are dozens of variables and gray areas on the whole topic of wind and odor. There are basic tendencies and trends but when it comes down to it, nobody can say with certainty how an individual deer will react to the odor of an individual hunter and under which variable weather conditions. Every human has a different level of unique odor and every deer has a unique personality and specific level of tolerance for human intrusion, and ALL that can change from one day to the next.
Bottom line is nobody really knows for sure how a thinking animal will respond to any given set of circumstances.
Some guys say you can't fool a deer's nose but that is a very vague statement. Once again, a lot of gray area with that statement. Weather, distance, time, deer personality, and individual human odor all mixed together.
Just play the wind...Yet again so many variables
I believe Eberhart ignores the wind but I don't believe that he never gets odor busted. I do believe the intensity of those bust are more minimal than someone not practicing odor reduction.
Take this game as far or as little as you want. Be an odor fanatic, or be a wind fanatic, or employ both. If that's too much trouble or expense, then do neither or some variation.

 

[BTaylor]

I have hunted bottoms my whole life but they are a different type of bottom than you are dealing with there. Here it is flat. Over a couple hundred thousand acres topo changes are not much over waist high up. Air movement is never consistent unless the winds gets up 15-20 and that shuts movement down. Less than that and it is going to be shifty to downright swirly. Best I can formulate, canopy make up and height changes has to be the influencing factor but that is a WAG that I have never been able to figure out any way to utilize.