How Wind Affects Buck Deer with Dr. Robert Sheppard
Day 5: How to Use the Wind to Your Advantage to Take Deer with Dr. Robert Sheppard
Editor’s Note: Dr. Robert Sheppard (www.bobsheppard.com) of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is a longtime avid deer hunter who approaches his deer hunting with the same intensity, quest for knowledge and scientific application of what he’s observed and learned, as he does the patients in his medical practice.
 Often a strong, blowing wind and a driving rain are definite advantages to successful hunting. One morning I went to my stand when the wind was at 20 knots, and a driving rain was falling. On the way to the stand, I spotted a buck 1/2-mile away, standing in a bean field. I had three options for trying to take the deer.  I could walk straight across the bean field and spook the buck for sure. I could circle upwind, and he’d pick-up my scent. Or, I could make the 1-1/2-mile hike downwind below the deer and try and come-up behind him. Although the stalk would be longer, and a greater chance existed for him to see and hear me, the stalk really was the only chance I would have to hunt this buck. With this option, I also knew with a favorable wind, the deer wouldn't be able to smell me, since the rain was falling so hard, and the wind was really blowing.  Also the sound of my movement would be masked by the storm. Because everything in the woods was moving, I’d fit-in naturally, while moving through the forest. When I approached the buck, he was about 50-yards away, facing the wind. For some unknown reason, he turned and walked right into the woods where I was and presented a 20-yard target. I bagged him.  In my opinion, hunting with a favorable wind is the most-critical ingredient to bagging a buck, once you’ve determined in what area the deer probably is.
To learn more about successfully hunting deer, purchase John E. Phillips’ books, “The Masters’ Secrets of Hunting Deer,” “The Science of Deer Hunting,” “How to Take Monster Bucks,” and “Masters’ Secrets of Bowhunting Deer” at www.nighthawkpublications.com/hunting/hunting.htm. |
