Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. Everything is right as you
Speaker 1: planned it. You executed this stock to the t, you
Speaker 1: snuck in on a bedded mule deer, and now you're
Speaker 1: just waiting for your shot. Right now, this is that
Speaker 1: point where your mind starts to go to visualizing success mode.
Speaker 1: You've pretty much already taken a picture of this deer.
Speaker 1: You're visualizing packing that out, maybe cooking some steaks over
Speaker 1: the open fire that night. And as soon as you
Speaker 1: think everything is good, the wind swirls or switches, the
Speaker 1: buck catches your scent and just bolts off. I would
Speaker 1: probably say that if I think back to blown stocks,
Speaker 1: no matter what I'm hunting, or blown opportunities, I would
Speaker 1: probably wager that of blown stocks or opportunities are due
Speaker 1: to shifts in the wind. Now, wind can make or
Speaker 1: break your hunt. It can be your best friend or
Speaker 1: your worst enemy. And if it's not on your side,
Speaker 1: you probably aren't going to be successful because it's very
Speaker 1: hard to fool the nose of an elk or deer
Speaker 1: or other big game animal. So this week I'm gonna
Speaker 1: help you understand how to read and predict the wind,
Speaker 1: especially in the mountains, and then get a good grasp
Speaker 1: on thermals. I also want to go over the idea
Speaker 1: of scent control and how to execute proper stocks or
Speaker 1: even tree stand locations and setups based on your knowledge
Speaker 1: of thermals and wind currents. But first I'm gonna share
Speaker 1: a high country mule your hunt with a bow where
Speaker 1: the thermals caught me once but not twice. It's early
Speaker 1: August and Central Nevada opening weekend of mule deer season.
Speaker 1: And now the area we're hunting is high mountain, pretty
Speaker 1: high altitude. Some of the spots were at or over
Speaker 1: ten thousand feet in elevation, so it's it's pretty big
Speaker 1: mountain hunting. Now, the dear bachelord up this time of year.
Speaker 1: They're in velvet and the days can really heat up.
Speaker 1: But in the high desert, especially at that altitude, you
Speaker 1: might be talking about near freezing temperatures at night or
Speaker 1: high thirties mid forties at night, and then can be
Speaker 1: a hundred degrees in the middle of the day, so
Speaker 1: huge temperature swings. Now this time of year we also
Speaker 1: get pretty erratic wind currents, some lightning storms, and just
Speaker 1: some pretty crazy weather. On this particular hunt, a friend
Speaker 1: of mine, Ben, came over from Australia and it was
Speaker 1: his first mule deer hunt. So my plan was to
Speaker 1: kind of be his eye is in ears and do
Speaker 1: the scouting and the glassing until he got a buck,
Speaker 1: and then I would hunt for myself. He made some
Speaker 1: pretty good stocks on deer the first part of the
Speaker 1: first day. We got out there early, did some scouting,
Speaker 1: located quite a few bachelor groups a deer, and he
Speaker 1: was just looking for a nice, mature, representative mule deer.
Speaker 1: I think it was maybe the second or third day,
Speaker 1: somewhere in there he ended up closing in on a
Speaker 1: buck in the evening, making a great shot and taking
Speaker 1: his first mule deer. So now it's pretty much my turn.
Speaker 1: I'm up to bat and I decided the first day
Speaker 1: that I was hunting, I kind of was figuring, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll maybe go after the same group of deer that
Speaker 1: he got his out of, because they were still kind
Speaker 1: of hanging out in that same location where we were camped.
Speaker 1: The deer were pretty much at the top of the mountain.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty pretty solid climb up there, pretty
Speaker 1: good elevation, so I started off midday. I had seen
Speaker 1: where the bucks went that morning and just decided, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get up there midday and try to get
Speaker 1: into position. So I made my stock, but unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: wind was really weird and just blowing the wrong direction
Speaker 1: from the way that I started hiking up the mountain
Speaker 1: in the valley. It was one thing, but when I
Speaker 1: started getting up towards the top, the wind and kind
Speaker 1: of shifted, so I dropped over the backside down the
Speaker 1: kind of mountain, a lot of extra leg work to
Speaker 1: try to circle around the deer and get the wind right.
Speaker 1: As I climbed back over the top, the winds are
Speaker 1: still kind of acting a little strange, but I've got
Speaker 1: good wind in my favor. The deer are up above
Speaker 1: me and the wind is kind of blowing pretty much
Speaker 1: up the mountain, so I decided to come in from
Speaker 1: one side and parallel into the deer, the best option
Speaker 1: for the wind plus the cover that I had, so
Speaker 1: I started crawling in, crawling in there, all bedded well.
Speaker 1: The crawl is taking a while. There's very very little cover,
Speaker 1: so I have to move slow. I have to position
Speaker 1: myself so none of the deer can see me. There's
Speaker 1: probably like eight or ten bucks in the group at
Speaker 1: this time, including one or two really nice bucks that
Speaker 1: I was targeting, and then a couple other smaller bucks that,
Speaker 1: you know, if they were in range, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if I would have taken or not, but I figured, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna try to get in there as close
Speaker 1: as I can and then see what happens. Well, as
Speaker 1: the day drug on, I kind of had to keep
Speaker 1: changing my stock based on the wind. I finally got
Speaker 1: to within position, and then the deer decided to start
Speaker 1: getting up and feeding. The good thing was is I
Speaker 1: was where I kind of expected them to feed too,
Speaker 1: So I'm set up, crawled in, laying there, and the
Speaker 1: deer start moving my way. At this point, I'm just like, okay,
Speaker 1: I stalked in. I'd say I think I got to
Speaker 1: about a hundred and fifty hundred and sixty yards. Now
Speaker 1: I kind of ran out of cover, but the wind
Speaker 1: was still good and they were feeding below me. The
Speaker 1: only problem was I knew time was not with me
Speaker 1: because this is in the afternoon now, and I knew
Speaker 1: as soon as that sun started to go away, it
Speaker 1: would switch the thermals and my wind would start going downhill.
Speaker 1: So I just needed them to feed up above me
Speaker 1: the whole time. Okay, stay please stay high, Please stay high.
Speaker 1: A couple of the smaller bucks. There's still nice bucks.
Speaker 1: But when you're in a group with some really good bucks,
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, I can wait for these better bucks.
Speaker 1: I think everything's gonna be fine. So actually, some of
Speaker 1: the smaller bucks started feeding above me, which was perfect,
Speaker 1: but then two of the larger bucks started feeding down.
Speaker 1: At this point, I'm like, man, I'm gonna get busted
Speaker 1: here because they're kind of starting to surround me. So
Speaker 1: I decided to just hold off and wait because the
Speaker 1: wind was still good. The deer above me were kind
Speaker 1: of more in front of me, and the wind wasn't
Speaker 1: going to them, So I was just waiting, waiting, And
Speaker 1: now the sun had dipped, like to the point where
Speaker 1: the thermals were about to switch. The bigger buck was
Speaker 1: still ninety yards out feeding, but he was coming my direction.
Speaker 1: He started moving and he got right into a position
Speaker 1: where I'm like, okay, I arranged him. He was sixty yards,
Speaker 1: but he had some tall stage there. I just needed
Speaker 1: him to take a few more steps out he would
Speaker 1: be pretty much in the open. The direction he's going,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be about forty five yards, I thought, perfect,
Speaker 1: that would be my shot. So he's moving toward it,
Speaker 1: moving toward it. I'm like, oh yeah, this is great,
Speaker 1: And then I felt it. The thermals switched went right
Speaker 1: down to that buck. I mean, I was aaro knocked,
Speaker 1: sitting in position, ready to draw back, just waiting for
Speaker 1: him to take a couple more steps. As I felt
Speaker 1: those thermals switch, I knew it was over. That one
Speaker 1: buck caught my scent, ran off. All the other deer
Speaker 1: watched him, and then they ran to him. That deer
Speaker 1: was snorting, stomping, looking my direction. I think the other
Speaker 1: deer never winded me. But as those thermals changed, I
Speaker 1: got busted because that deer went below me. The thermals
Speaker 1: dropped and ruined what was an all day stock and
Speaker 1: and seconds away from a sure deal. Now it's fast
Speaker 1: forward to the next morning. I decided to hunt a
Speaker 1: little bit different area give those bucks a break, and
Speaker 1: I'm glassing as the sun's coming up. I gotta think
Speaker 1: about it. I was actually looking, I guess south, and
Speaker 1: there was a patch of aspens in this thick sage
Speaker 1: pocket on this ridge, and I saw a nice four
Speaker 1: by four buck, along with maybe two or three other bucks.
Speaker 1: So I'm watching them. I'm thinking, Okay, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: play this safe. The thermals busted me the night before,
Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna wait until they get into a
Speaker 1: position where I can get constant wind and have the
Speaker 1: advantage for a longer amount of time. So at this point,
Speaker 1: because they were on the shaded side of the hill,
Speaker 1: if I were to come in from the top, the
Speaker 1: wind would be blowing down to them because that was
Speaker 1: pretty much the way that the prevailing wind was going.
Speaker 1: And then if I was to sneak in from the bottom,
Speaker 1: then as soon as the sun hit it that my
Speaker 1: scent would go up to the deer and blow it.
Speaker 1: So instead of rushing in, even though they were in
Speaker 1: a good spot where I had good cover and could
Speaker 1: probably get to them, they happened to be below this
Speaker 1: big rock that I thought would be perfect, I decided
Speaker 1: to wait and watch now. The deer bedded, and I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: this is good it It just was not stable enough winds,
Speaker 1: and I knew that thermal shifts were coming, so I
Speaker 1: just waited. Sure enough, the deer ended up getting up
Speaker 1: and walking up to the top of the ridge and
Speaker 1: then down as soon as they crusted over the top.
Speaker 1: I knew this was my play because the sun was
Speaker 1: hitting that south face and the thermals would be going up.
Speaker 1: Plus the prevailing wind was coming up from the other direction,
Speaker 1: so even as I'm walking in, I would have good wind,
Speaker 1: and then if they were below me, the thermals would
Speaker 1: be perfect. I pretty much tried to run over there
Speaker 1: to get over there as fast as I could so
Speaker 1: I could catch them just over the edge or near
Speaker 1: the top so they didn't get too far out of
Speaker 1: where I was going. I also knew that there were
Speaker 1: some trees on the other side, but I was hoping
Speaker 1: that they would continue kind of feeding instead of just
Speaker 1: going straight to those trees to bed. So I did
Speaker 1: what I would consider just the running gun method of
Speaker 1: get to where they were as fast as possible, which
Speaker 1: I think is about a mile or so away, and
Speaker 1: then once you get there, take off your pack, slow
Speaker 1: everything down and hunt and look and and be smart
Speaker 1: about it. I get to that spot as I peek over,
Speaker 1: I just start slowly glassing. I get down to where
Speaker 1: they had crossed, and I didn't see him, So I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I did see their tracks, and they were
Speaker 1: kind of angling around, and there was just this one
Speaker 1: spot I knew I couldn't see, which is this little
Speaker 1: band of rocks that I couldn't see over, So I thought,
Speaker 1: this has to be where they're at. I slowly crept
Speaker 1: up to that area to where the rocks were, just
Speaker 1: peeking and doing what I call scrolling, whereas his new
Speaker 1: terrain is given to me, just looking with my eyes
Speaker 1: and binoculars, and sure enough spot the antler tips of
Speaker 1: a buck down below. Perfect take off my shoes, actually
Speaker 1: set up my camera to take like time lap stills
Speaker 1: of the stock, and I just crept down to the edge.
Speaker 1: Now the buck was feeding with his head down, so
Speaker 1: I got right to the edge, raised up when his
Speaker 1: head was out of sight thirty yards just good like
Speaker 1: the sun was just starting to hit this hill and
Speaker 1: it was just almost like a burst of in moving
Speaker 1: up towards me. I got down knocked my arrow, drew
Speaker 1: back as I was kneeling, slowly, stood up, bent down
Speaker 1: at the waist, shot and the deer is I think
Speaker 1: thirty five yards right off the ledge of the rock
Speaker 1: rim I hit the buck perfect. He wheeled around, crashed
Speaker 1: down the mountain, maybe thretty yards. I tried radioing my
Speaker 1: buddy Ben to come help me pack out, and then
Speaker 1: worked my way down to the buck to get him
Speaker 1: cut up and get all the meat cooled down before
Speaker 1: the sun got too hot, because it was gonna be
Speaker 1: on the sunny side of the hill. And it was
Speaker 1: just pretty awesome because the day before the thermals had
Speaker 1: busted me. But by being patient and just knowing what
Speaker 1: was going to happen if I stalked too early, I
Speaker 1: was able to capitalize and let the thermals that day
Speaker 1: work in my favor and lead to some success. In
Speaker 1: order to be a successful hunter, you have to trick
Speaker 1: three things on the animal that you're hunting. Their eyes,
Speaker 1: their ears, and most importantly, their nose. Animals can smell
Speaker 1: so much better than we can. I mean it's in
Speaker 1: the thousands of times better. They can smell us from
Speaker 1: longer distances, from lighter wind drifts, and what it is
Speaker 1: is it's probably most animals main defense. Now, many animals
Speaker 1: have some kind of weakness. Antelope, you know, they don't
Speaker 1: hear as well, but they see really good. Elk, they
Speaker 1: also don't really mind noise so much, but their eyesight
Speaker 1: is better than their hearing. Mule deer, they hear and
Speaker 1: see really well. But all the animals can smell really well,
Speaker 1: and you can trick the eyes, you can trick the ears,
Speaker 1: but you cannot trick their nose. In most instances. The
Speaker 1: only way to trick their nose is to not be
Speaker 1: in a position and where your scent can reach them.
Speaker 1: So you can trick the nose, but you have to
Speaker 1: use the wind to trick their noses. So this week
Speaker 1: we're gonna just call this Understanding Wind one oh one,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about all the facets of
Speaker 1: how wind moves and things to think about in your stocks,
Speaker 1: and then that way you can apply that to the
Speaker 1: situations that you have, because it is the thing that's
Speaker 1: going to get you busted more often than not. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna start out really basic. I first want to
Speaker 1: just describe some of the terminology that I'm going to
Speaker 1: be using, So that way, if you have no clue
Speaker 1: about understanding wind, you can at least build this picture
Speaker 1: out based on kind of my definitions. They probably are
Speaker 1: very similar to dictionary definitions, but these are just gonna
Speaker 1: be like terms that I use and what I'm meaning
Speaker 1: by that. So let's start with prevailing wind. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the prevailing wind is just the wind direction
Speaker 1: that's called for, the predominant direction that the wind has
Speaker 1: come from. Now, when we talk about wind, you might
Speaker 1: hear the term like northeastern or northern northerly. So what
Speaker 1: we're talking about is it's the direction of wind. Is
Speaker 1: always where the wind is coming from. So if you
Speaker 1: were to face the wind blowing in your face, that's
Speaker 1: the direction the wind is coming from. It's not the
Speaker 1: direction that it's blowing too. So, uh, A north wind
Speaker 1: is if you're turned your body is facing north and
Speaker 1: northwest wind your body is facing northwest. A south wind
Speaker 1: your body is facing south. Now, that's the easiest way
Speaker 1: to think about it, and I know some people get confused.
Speaker 1: They might hear a southern wind and thinking, oh, it's
Speaker 1: blowing towards the south. Well it's it is, But a
Speaker 1: southern wind is blowing from the south to the north,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. So then we've got wind speed
Speaker 1: in there, so that's the average speed in which the
Speaker 1: wind is blowing. So you might hear a five mile
Speaker 1: per hour wind, so that's the average over a certain
Speaker 1: amount of time that the winds blowing. Then you have gusts,
Speaker 1: so that's when the wind a short first or a
Speaker 1: max speed of the wind. So wind might be blowing
Speaker 1: it four miles an hour and then gusting it eleven um.
Speaker 1: Now it might be gusting and not really have gusts,
Speaker 1: So it also kind of tells you how turbulent the
Speaker 1: wind is as well. It might be blowing fifteen and
Speaker 1: gusting up to sixties. So that's very erratic wind speeds
Speaker 1: and very more more violent wind patterns. Those are often
Speaker 1: attributed to storm fronts and things moving in. Then we
Speaker 1: have thermals. Now, thermals are huge um as far as
Speaker 1: understanding for mountain hunting and even tree stand hunting and
Speaker 1: other types of hunting, because it's pretty easy to understand
Speaker 1: the wind it's blowing, it's moving a certain direction, but
Speaker 1: your scent can also be affected drastically, and the wind
Speaker 1: can also be affected drastically by a thermal. So thermal
Speaker 1: is just the rising current of warm air. So as
Speaker 1: airs heated, it rises, as it's cooled, it drops, and
Speaker 1: so we'll get a little bit more into that, but
Speaker 1: that's just the understanding of a thermal. We're just talking
Speaker 1: about the rising current of warm air or the switching
Speaker 1: of air temperatures. And if I say swirling wind, this
Speaker 1: is when it seems to whirl around in many directions
Speaker 1: or changing wind. It's it's where there's a sharp change
Speaker 1: in the prevailing wind or the direction that the wind's going,
Speaker 1: or it could even be there might be a strong
Speaker 1: prevailing wind, but in a certain area the wind swirls
Speaker 1: where it it doubles back on itself. You might the
Speaker 1: wind might be blowing from the north, but all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you get into an area and the wind swirls,
Speaker 1: and you've got your your current, your scent coming back
Speaker 1: all different directions. And then we have also jet streams,
Speaker 1: which don't necessarily affect what we're talking about as much,
Speaker 1: but that's just high upper atmosphere fast cold air currents.
Speaker 1: So when you're you can kind of see that sometimes
Speaker 1: when you're out hunting, where you look up high in
Speaker 1: the sky and the clouds are moving one way, and
Speaker 1: then down below where you're at, the clouds are moving
Speaker 1: off opposite directions. So that's the jet streams going one way,
Speaker 1: but then the lower air current is going a different direction.
Speaker 1: To fully understand how wind moves, it's a thing of
Speaker 1: fluid dynamics. So if we're talking about it, wind moves
Speaker 1: essentially like water. It's it's a fluid. That's why we
Speaker 1: talk about wind in currents the same with water. Water
Speaker 1: moves and currents. Electricity also moves in currents, but wind
Speaker 1: and water have effects like terrain affects. Wind and water
Speaker 1: very very similarly. So you're prevailing wind would be like
Speaker 1: a river flowing in a certain direction. Now, I think
Speaker 1: the best way to understand and describe how wind moves
Speaker 1: because you can't I mean wind, you can't see wind.
Speaker 1: You can see the effects of wind, but you can't
Speaker 1: actually see wind. However, you can see water and you
Speaker 1: can see the effects in water. So for me, the
Speaker 1: best way that I describe wind currents and the way
Speaker 1: that it's affected by topography in the mountain is think
Speaker 1: of it like a stream. The flow or current of
Speaker 1: the river would be the prevailing wind or the current
Speaker 1: of the air movement. Now, I'm really big into fly fishing.
Speaker 1: I've fly fish to my entire life, and so I'm very,
Speaker 1: very familiar with the way water moves in a river. Now,
Speaker 1: if you aren't, it's familiar with it. If you just
Speaker 1: go to a river and look at the way the
Speaker 1: water moves, it will help you understand the way that
Speaker 1: wind moves through the mountains. Let's just start by understanding
Speaker 1: the way water and wind both move and talk about
Speaker 1: some of the functions and things that might get you
Speaker 1: if you're trying to plan based according to the wind.
Speaker 1: Let's think about a river first. Now you've got your
Speaker 1: your water flowing in one direction, but what else is there?
Speaker 1: So there's maybe some rocks in this river. So we
Speaker 1: aren't even gonna go with a fast river. We'll just
Speaker 1: go with like a fairly slow moving trout stream, pretty level,
Speaker 1: not a lot of drop. And then in this trout
Speaker 1: stream there's a you large boulders and some banks, and
Speaker 1: then there's some different hype boulders. So there's some bowlders
Speaker 1: that are sticking up out of the water, and then
Speaker 1: there's some bowlers underneath the water. So let's think about
Speaker 1: how the water is reacting to these boulders. So what
Speaker 1: are some things that we're gonna see, Well, we're gonna
Speaker 1: see what are called eddies. Now, if you're fishermen, or
Speaker 1: especially if your fish dry flies, you're really familiar with
Speaker 1: eddies because what that is is the river's moving one way,
Speaker 1: but in an eddy, the current circles and actually goes
Speaker 1: back upstream the opposite direction. So if I'm throwing a
Speaker 1: fly into a cut bank, i might be in the
Speaker 1: current and my fly line is gonna float down, but
Speaker 1: my fly sitting in the eddy will be going upstream
Speaker 1: or the opposite direction. The water is circulating in these eddies.
Speaker 1: Same if you're rafting, if you ever gone in an
Speaker 1: inner tube or whatever, and you hit this spot where
Speaker 1: you kind of aren't going downstream and you aren't going upstream,
Speaker 1: you're just holding You're holding in an eddy. So what's
Speaker 1: happening is as the water moves around the object, it
Speaker 1: kind of creates this turbulence. Now, in that turbulence downstream
Speaker 1: because of the currents moving, if you kind of really
Speaker 1: think about it to look at it, it it almost creates
Speaker 1: like a V shape where the water goes around the rock,
Speaker 1: and then that turbulent current pushes down until it hits
Speaker 1: again below it at some point, and then along that
Speaker 1: turbulent area that causes the water to swirl back, and
Speaker 1: as it swirls back, it pushes back up against itself
Speaker 1: and then toward whatever was creating the eddies. So it's
Speaker 1: actually causing the water currents to go back against the
Speaker 1: grain of the main current, the main flow of the river.
Speaker 1: Now you can also think about maybe there's something in
Speaker 1: the river so like that happens. Say you can see
Speaker 1: that behind a big rock. You can also call it,
Speaker 1: like um, a pillow in a bed. If there's a
Speaker 1: rock that's just where the water is just going over
Speaker 1: the top, So it's just pouring over the top of
Speaker 1: the rock, it's hitting down right below, and then there's
Speaker 1: that smooth water behind the rock where the top might
Speaker 1: be real turbulent. It's creating a pillow, but then after
Speaker 1: that it's just smooth water, and on the edges is
Speaker 1: turbulent as well. Now think also about something where there's
Speaker 1: a deeper rock and the water is going over it
Speaker 1: and it creates like a wave that pushes the water
Speaker 1: up and then back down but it's not necessarily turbulent.
Speaker 1: It's just changing the flow of that river instead of
Speaker 1: just being flat and smooth, it's creating a wave in
Speaker 1: the river itself. So now let's translate that to the
Speaker 1: mountains and understanding the wind. When I think about planning
Speaker 1: a stock or thinking about what the wind is going
Speaker 1: to be doing, where I like to kind of step
Speaker 1: back and look at the mountains and the topography and
Speaker 1: then visualize, now, what would happen if there's a massive
Speaker 1: flood like the direction that the wind's coming. What if
Speaker 1: we just pushed billions and trillions of gallons of water
Speaker 1: through this mountain like a flash flood, what would happen?
Speaker 1: The topography of the earth would act very similar to
Speaker 1: rocks in the stream. So you're gonna have your main
Speaker 1: current one way, but over each area of topography, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get variations in that current. Things are going to happen.
Speaker 1: On the edges, you're gonna get more turbulent, possibly swirling winds,
Speaker 1: And then below that bed or pillow in the slack
Speaker 1: of that area, you're gonna get smoother water. Now in
Speaker 1: um valleys and canyons, you're gonna get faster currents, but
Speaker 1: on the top of as plateaus drop off, it might
Speaker 1: create that wave effect where it goes up a little
Speaker 1: bit over a rise and then back down. So you
Speaker 1: have to kind of really just visualize it as the
Speaker 1: topography is very similar to the rocks in the stream,
Speaker 1: and that's how it's going to affect the wind. Now,
Speaker 1: I say that to say when you're hunting, it's really
Speaker 1: good to understand where wind might swirl based on the
Speaker 1: type of setup that you're gonna have, but you also
Speaker 1: really just need to key in on the types of
Speaker 1: um topography that around, but really keeping the wind in
Speaker 1: your face and planning your stock towards the prevailing wind.
Speaker 1: On days where there's very little wind, the winds change
Speaker 1: a lot, and you're gonna notice that there's a little
Speaker 1: more swirl and a little more change in those areas
Speaker 1: that cause turbulent winds. Or even if you have good wind,
Speaker 1: there's places where you can sneak up and the wind
Speaker 1: is gonna be swirling or a little less consistent, like
Speaker 1: going over ridges around the where that wind would be
Speaker 1: turbulent blowing around the mountain, kind of wrapping around the mountain,
Speaker 1: so it's blowing one direction you think it's good, but
Speaker 1: as you turn the corner, the winds kind of wrapping
Speaker 1: around that formation of the mountain, causing swirls in the wind.
Speaker 1: So your wind might be coming back the wrong direction
Speaker 1: from the prevailing winds. And I hope that that makes sense.
Speaker 1: But if you if you want to understand it more literally,
Speaker 1: just go to creeks and rivers and just watch the
Speaker 1: way that the water moves and then think about that
Speaker 1: when you're out there as you see winds, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of make mental notes of that stream analogy, and
Speaker 1: then apply it to places where you find some more
Speaker 1: swirling winds, and you'll start to pick up places that
Speaker 1: are more turbulent for the wind depending on the wind direction.
Speaker 1: Now we're gonna talk about thermals. So thermals are extremely important,
Speaker 1: and I think that people know about thermals, but I
Speaker 1: don't think that everybody fully understands the importance or impact
Speaker 1: that thermals play. The times of animals move most are
Speaker 1: mornings and evenings, so that's the time that you're probably
Speaker 1: spotting them, the time that you might be making most
Speaker 1: of your plays, or mornings and evenings, and that's the
Speaker 1: time that the wind is most likely to change. However,
Speaker 1: you can predict to the change if you have a
Speaker 1: really good understanding of thermals. So here's how thermals work.
Speaker 1: Let's start in the morning. It's dark, the temperatures have dropped.
Speaker 1: It's always colder at night because there's no sun out. Now,
Speaker 1: as the sun comes up, you've got your prevailing wind,
Speaker 1: which will be going one direction, whatever direction. Let's say
Speaker 1: it's coming from the north, Okay. So we've got our wind,
Speaker 1: and it's just a light wind. It's not it's just
Speaker 1: a light breeze coming from the north. So if I
Speaker 1: was to hunt starting out in the morning, I would
Speaker 1: want to be walking from south to north. That way,
Speaker 1: my face is in the wind. So here's the other
Speaker 1: thing that we have to think about. Is this thermal Now,
Speaker 1: as the sun rises in the east, okay, it's gonna
Speaker 1: start heating up the ground. As it heats up the ground,
Speaker 1: we're creating this air change. So hot air rises just
Speaker 1: like a hot air balloon. If you if you lit
Speaker 1: a fire under a balloon, that balloon shoots up into
Speaker 1: the sky. The same thing that eagles soar on or
Speaker 1: or glider planes stay in the air, is there riding
Speaker 1: thermals or rising temperatures of heat in the air. The
Speaker 1: same thing happens every day when you're out hunting, and
Speaker 1: it happens where it can actually change not only the
Speaker 1: prevailing wind. It doesn't necessarily change the prevailing wind, but
Speaker 1: it changes the direction of your immediate where you're at.
Speaker 1: So as the sun heats up, now the thermal start
Speaker 1: to rise. What that causes, it causes you're sent to
Speaker 1: draw up the hills with the heat. Now, a thermal
Speaker 1: can be good and it can be bad in certain instances.
Speaker 1: Once it heats up to a certain point, if there's
Speaker 1: very little prevailing wind, it might just draw your sense
Speaker 1: straight up into the sky, in which case it really
Speaker 1: helps you and gives you an added benefit. Now, the
Speaker 1: opposite thing happens in the evening. As the temperature starts
Speaker 1: to cool, then the thermal start to fall. The cool
Speaker 1: air starts filling back in after the heat of the day,
Speaker 1: and that draws your scent downhill. It draws it downhill
Speaker 1: or down valley. Now, in valleys, they're actually more susceptible
Speaker 1: to temperature changes, so they're actually affected more drastically by thermal.
Speaker 1: So the therm will may overpower the prevailing wind at
Speaker 1: any given time. What this causes. It causes struggle in
Speaker 1: the air currents, It causes turbulence in the air. It
Speaker 1: causes swirling winds and unpredictability. Now, the time that the
Speaker 1: thermals change and the time that where that your scent
Speaker 1: will go kind of depends on the day, the temperature,
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. It could be cloudy one
Speaker 1: day and change the time. You might have more time
Speaker 1: to beat the thermals than you do the next day
Speaker 1: when it's sunny out, so as the hill heats up,
Speaker 1: you also have to think about certain faces are going
Speaker 1: to get sun before others, so on those ones your
Speaker 1: scent might be going up. But now on the opposite
Speaker 1: side of that, even in the morning, as it's still cool,
Speaker 1: your scent or the thermal will be drawing down those
Speaker 1: cool canyons, So it might be rising on one side
Speaker 1: but pulling down another. This is something extremely important to
Speaker 1: think about because there's so many times where I'll be
Speaker 1: planning a stock or trying to get into position in
Speaker 1: the morning, and if I go on one side of
Speaker 1: the hill, it's no good. But if I drop around
Speaker 1: the other side, I can kind of hedge my bets
Speaker 1: and hope that the thermal will switch on that side later,
Speaker 1: allowing me to maybe get into a position or to
Speaker 1: get into a better spot for later on. And when
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about you know, if you're thinking about the
Speaker 1: way animals operate, you might kind of see some patterns
Speaker 1: of it. Seems like elk, especially dear in the morning,
Speaker 1: they might be in one spot on the mountain and
Speaker 1: then they you'll see that they move up in the morning,
Speaker 1: and then they kind of move down in the evening. Well,
Speaker 1: you think to yourself, oh, that's really simple. They go
Speaker 1: with the thermals, So I should be fine. If I
Speaker 1: just get above them in the morning, I'll be good
Speaker 1: because I'll be moving up, and if I get blow
Speaker 1: them in the evening, they'll be moving down. So theoretically
Speaker 1: that sounds great, yes, But here's what is generally happening
Speaker 1: that I found is that in the morning, before the
Speaker 1: thermal switch, the way is often going down because it's
Speaker 1: still that cold there. So what's happening is you would
Speaker 1: get above them, your scent would be going to them,
Speaker 1: and then the thermal switch. So what they're doing is
Speaker 1: they're actually moving up generally before the thermal switch, so
Speaker 1: you'd be below them trying to catch up, and then
Speaker 1: your thermal switch and then move up to them. So
Speaker 1: it really puts you in a bad position. Either way,
Speaker 1: You're racing against the clock, which isn't very predictable. So
Speaker 1: what I like to do is I like to try
Speaker 1: to anticipate where the thermals are, play the prevailing wind,
Speaker 1: and then know that you have a limited amount of
Speaker 1: time on either side for it to rise and fall,
Speaker 1: whether it's morning or evening. When you're planning a stock
Speaker 1: or an ambush or an execution of getting in close
Speaker 1: to an animal, you have to really factor in and
Speaker 1: pay attention to. Okay, in your area, where's the sun
Speaker 1: gonna hit, when's that thermal gonna change? Where can you
Speaker 1: go to get away from that thermal? Is there a
Speaker 1: way you can stock where you'll stay, keep the prevailing
Speaker 1: wind in your face, and then when the thermal changes,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna disrup up your stock. Now might mean
Speaker 1: that you have to wait until the winds get more
Speaker 1: stable later in the day. Midday they're actually the most stable.
Speaker 1: The thermals get to a certain point, the ground might
Speaker 1: be heating it at regular rate. You know, it just
Speaker 1: depends on where you're at and the type of whether
Speaker 1: you're encountering, but it's probably most stable in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day. You just have to have a scenario
Speaker 1: where you can plan that stock in the middle of
Speaker 1: the day, which isn't always the case because they might
Speaker 1: go into cover, they might go into timber, you might
Speaker 1: not have as many options, especially with elk, you know,
Speaker 1: you might they might be calling and active in the
Speaker 1: morning and then shut up. So you really have to
Speaker 1: just factor in what are the thermals gonna do, when
Speaker 1: are they going to switch, what's the prevailing wind gonna do,
Speaker 1: and where areas that I should avoid if I can,
Speaker 1: because I'm going to get disturbances and air based on
Speaker 1: the current and the topography. It's a lot, but that's
Speaker 1: if you just start thinking about it critically like that,
Speaker 1: you're really gonna start understanding it and you'll understand it
Speaker 1: more when you have that in your mind and you're
Speaker 1: out in the field paying atten chinto that. So now
Speaker 1: let's throw that into the hunting application. When I am
Speaker 1: out in the field, one thing I am always doing
Speaker 1: is I am constantly checking the wind. Do you know
Speaker 1: I think checking the wind is like you know, you
Speaker 1: can lick your fingers stick it up in the air.
Speaker 1: The cool side is the direction that the winds coming from. Well,
Speaker 1: that does tell you where the wind's coming from. I
Speaker 1: like to try to understand both the thermals the wind
Speaker 1: direction and then areas of turbulent wind visually. So here's
Speaker 1: some things that I carry to check the wind. I
Speaker 1: always have a lighter in my pocket, like just a
Speaker 1: standard bick lighter or whatever. One of the reasons for
Speaker 1: that is, I mean, if I'm ever off or separated
Speaker 1: from my pack and other things, I can start a
Speaker 1: fire and I have firestarter on me. But I use
Speaker 1: it probably more often than not to check the wind,
Speaker 1: especially in the mornings and evenings when I'm moving in
Speaker 1: before daylight. I can use the lighter to really gauge
Speaker 1: which way the wind's going and how erratic the wind is.
Speaker 1: You know, in the night, when you can't really see
Speaker 1: anything else. It's a great indicator for wind direction because
Speaker 1: I try to I don't want to blow things out
Speaker 1: before the game's even started, before I can even see. Now,
Speaker 1: as I'm moving, people that hunt with me, you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: you are I mean, I'm I'm checking the wind like constantly,
Speaker 1: So you think, well, what tools do I use to
Speaker 1: check the wind? For the most part me as I'm walking,
Speaker 1: I know certain pieces of certain types of grass and
Speaker 1: other things that are great indicators of the wind. So
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like pulling things off, whether it be
Speaker 1: the tops of some grasses, uh, some grass itself, like
Speaker 1: constantly as I'm walking, moving and dropping and just seeing
Speaker 1: how the winds are moving, almost constantly. Now. The other
Speaker 1: thing that I like to carry is just like a
Speaker 1: puffer bottle, which is a wind checking device that's got
Speaker 1: like baby powder in it or something. They've got all
Speaker 1: different ones. I've made my own with just like baby powder,
Speaker 1: talcum powder kind of stuff. It's a little bit better
Speaker 1: than the grass, but I use the grass more regularly,
Speaker 1: or even just like picking up dirt and letting it
Speaker 1: fall and watching it. It's just the powder is a
Speaker 1: little bit lighter, but it's in limited supply, like you
Speaker 1: can't just be using it all the time. So as
Speaker 1: I'm moving, walking, whatever, if I see something, I'm checking
Speaker 1: the wind. Before I even see something, I'm checking the wind.
Speaker 1: I'm always checking the wind. I'm constantly cognizant of what
Speaker 1: the wind is doing. How it's moving, and if you're
Speaker 1: constantly getting those data inputs over the years, you're going
Speaker 1: to develop like this is just this innate sense to
Speaker 1: understand wind, wind movements, wind directions, and thermals. But it
Speaker 1: takes years of doing that. So one habit you want
Speaker 1: to get into is just checking the wind. And I
Speaker 1: think when people hunt with me, they that's one thing
Speaker 1: that they pick up right away is just how often
Speaker 1: that I'm like checking what's going on with the wind,
Speaker 1: because it is the thing that will bust you. And
Speaker 1: it's the hardest thing to predict. Like you can really
Speaker 1: understand wind currents and you can still get swirls in
Speaker 1: the wind, erratic chin changes. It's something that you can't control.
Speaker 1: But having a vast understanding of it and then really
Speaker 1: constantly not doing something stupid when you can make a
Speaker 1: better play is gonna tip the scale into your favor. Now.
Speaker 1: The third thing that I like to do, um, so
Speaker 1: I've got the puff bottle. And the good thing about
Speaker 1: the puff bottle is that that powder is lighter than
Speaker 1: grass or dirt that you're using. So what it does
Speaker 1: is it kind of allows you to see the thermals
Speaker 1: as well. If that smoke kind of rises, then you've
Speaker 1: got an up thermal. If it starts to drop, or
Speaker 1: if that smoke starts to spin, you can kind of
Speaker 1: see that, Okay, the winds are changing. Now. The third
Speaker 1: thing that I like to do is I'll keep like
Speaker 1: a feather in my pocket and I'll pluck like a
Speaker 1: few pieces of the down of the feather off and
Speaker 1: let it go in the wind. Because if there's a
Speaker 1: really good up thermal, it floats, and you can watch
Speaker 1: the way that the current in that wind moves over
Speaker 1: a longer distance than the smoke or the grass or
Speaker 1: anything else, especially in lighter winds. So what that does
Speaker 1: is you'll see in the mornings when you do that,
Speaker 1: as the thermal is going up, drop that feather and
Speaker 1: it almost shoots up into the sky. It goes up
Speaker 1: to a knob, and then instead of going over the hill,
Speaker 1: it goes around the side of the hill. So you think, okay,
Speaker 1: the sides are going to be more turbulent, because that's
Speaker 1: the way that my sense going. But if I walk
Speaker 1: this direction, okay, my sense tracking that path. So what
Speaker 1: I like to do is understand those longer distance movements
Speaker 1: in the current, what they do as they go over
Speaker 1: the top of something. If I've got a dear bed
Speaker 1: and blow me, you know, how is that wind changing?
Speaker 1: And am I going to get caught into a bad situation.
Speaker 1: Once you have those wind checks, he kind of understand
Speaker 1: the wind direction. It basically comes down to not having
Speaker 1: the animal down wind of you, you know, keeping the
Speaker 1: wind in your face. But it's not always possible. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's I like to think of it like this. There's
Speaker 1: so many animals that I hunt that if I get
Speaker 1: a consistent wind, it's no problem. You know you're going
Speaker 1: to be successful that day. But very rarely do you
Speaker 1: get these consistent winds or do they animals go into
Speaker 1: a position where you can sneak in with the wind.
Speaker 1: They're looking one direction. It's very hard to gauge, so
Speaker 1: you might have to come in like perpendicular to the
Speaker 1: direction that the wind's going, and that's where these turbulence
Speaker 1: and wind, these wind swirls come into play. You can
Speaker 1: kind of pick and choose the direction that you're gonna
Speaker 1: go based on the area that's gonna have the most
Speaker 1: consistent wind. If you can't have it perfect every time,
Speaker 1: which is very rarely. Now you might understand the thermals,
Speaker 1: and you just gotta make your moves based on predicting
Speaker 1: what's going to happen next. If I'm going after these
Speaker 1: elk and I'm I'm trailing them in the winds in
Speaker 1: my face and I'm blow them, I gotta know that
Speaker 1: at some point that thermal is gonna switch and cause
Speaker 1: the opposite reaction. So just having a foresight into what's
Speaker 1: going to happen later is really going to help you
Speaker 1: plan your stock and try to be two steps ahead
Speaker 1: instead of one step behind. As soon as you're one
Speaker 1: step behind the jigs up, the game's over, you're done.
Speaker 1: And now there's there's many times you know you might
Speaker 1: not have everything just right, and you might not have
Speaker 1: the time to wait for things to be just right,
Speaker 1: or you know, where you're at, it's just not gonna
Speaker 1: be right. So sometimes you just have to deal with
Speaker 1: the hand that you're dealt. You gotta go into it knowing, okay,
Speaker 1: there is a possibility of getting winded, but you just
Speaker 1: kind of have to step up, be bold, and then
Speaker 1: constantly adjust, like get in there, start making your moves,
Speaker 1: keep checking the wind, and then keep adjusting your play
Speaker 1: as you're going along and get what I would consider
Speaker 1: the best opportunity out of a lot of bad options.
Speaker 1: You're still probably gonna get winded in many scenarios that
Speaker 1: you aren't expecting it. But if you have a little
Speaker 1: bit of foresight and really just keep taking the best
Speaker 1: option available, you're going to be more successful over a
Speaker 1: long period of time. Now, there's a couple of things
Speaker 1: that just kind of go against the grain some random
Speaker 1: ways that they don't smell you. There's been times where
Speaker 1: I think, oh, man, the wind is wrong, and now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, there's this deer here or what ever,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, how are they not smelling me? What's
Speaker 1: happening in those instances probably either there's very light wind
Speaker 1: and it's not catching your scent, like it's not moving
Speaker 1: your scent fast enough where your sense dropping to the
Speaker 1: ground before it's getting to that animal, or the thermals
Speaker 1: working in your favor where it's pushing the scent up
Speaker 1: and over the animal. There's a few times where I've
Speaker 1: seen say, dear bedded below a ledge, and I think
Speaker 1: that that can be one of the easiest ways to
Speaker 1: be successful. If I think back how many times I've
Speaker 1: gotten shots just like right off of a ledge, they
Speaker 1: can't really hear you the sites obstructed. I've even stalked
Speaker 1: with the wind straight at my back, but I'm high
Speaker 1: enough above the deer that I know with a strong
Speaker 1: wind it's gonna be turbulent enough that my scent probably
Speaker 1: won't get to something right below me. So those are
Speaker 1: those are the few instances that you can kind of think, Okay,
Speaker 1: the wind sucks, but it's in such a good position
Speaker 1: right now it's worth risking or trying because there's no
Speaker 1: other approach, and I'll probably get lucky with a good
Speaker 1: thermal coming up from the bottom and prevailing wind going
Speaker 1: the other direction. It might just shoot it right over
Speaker 1: the top of the deer. If they're further down, or
Speaker 1: it's a light wind and no thermal, or a down thermal,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna work. But there are certain instances where
Speaker 1: you can kind of buck the wind and have it
Speaker 1: in your favor. Now, I hope that that gives you
Speaker 1: a little bit more understanding of just the way that
Speaker 1: wind currents work and thermals work. If you have any
Speaker 1: more questions on it, you know, feel free to reach
Speaker 1: out via social media, especially or remy at the Meat
Speaker 1: Eater dot com, and then we'll try to answer some
Speaker 1: questions at the end of some episodes, and then also
Speaker 1: in our Q and A s every you know, three
Speaker 1: or four weeks or whatever. I know, these are kind
Speaker 1: of like crazy times right now, a lot of things
Speaker 1: up in the air. Everybody's getting little antsy and itchy
Speaker 1: and what have you. You know, just just keep doing
Speaker 1: your part. I really appreciate everybody that's listening to these podcasts.
Speaker 1: You know, if you got if you can subscribe to it,
Speaker 1: give us a comment or rating. Really appreciate that. You know,
Speaker 1: while we're all in this little bit of limbo, we're
Speaker 1: starting to get itchy and feel penned up. You know.
Speaker 1: I'll be doing some cool stuff over on my Instagram,
Speaker 1: So if you got if your board and want to
Speaker 1: check that out, feel free to jump over there and
Speaker 1: just like check some stuff out, interact with me. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate that. Now, talking about interacting. Before I did this,
Speaker 1: I I get so many questions that I just kind
Speaker 1: of can categorize as I'll answer that question all at once,
Speaker 1: and it has to do with wind especially. I get
Speaker 1: a lot of people they might be not Western hunters,
Speaker 1: but mostly tree stand stationary hunters and they're talking about
Speaker 1: scent control products like should I use send control, this,
Speaker 1: that and the other thing. Here's the standard message that
Speaker 1: I say with that, And I think when you talk
Speaker 1: about wind and thermals, this is going to come up
Speaker 1: if I'm talking about scent control. So what that might
Speaker 1: be is might be like um carbon clothing, certain sprays,
Speaker 1: scent eliminator sprays. If you're hunting in a stationary stand,
Speaker 1: that makes a lot more sense because you cannot with
Speaker 1: the wind. Now you've got to think like how mountain hunting,
Speaker 1: spot and stock hunting works. It's generally quite physical, and
Speaker 1: you're moving. As soon as you start moving, your body
Speaker 1: creates heat that creates sweat. That sweat creates scent spraying
Speaker 1: your stuff down. Having scent proof clothing is gonna last
Speaker 1: for a very very very short period of time, So
Speaker 1: essentially it renders itself ineffective as soon as you start
Speaker 1: moving around, which you need to be more mobile and
Speaker 1: be able to move. So the best scent control you
Speaker 1: can have is using the wind, right, I mean, think
Speaker 1: about even if you're in a situation where you've got
Speaker 1: a deer coming up and you could just magically pop
Speaker 1: into that spot fully sprayed down with all the scent
Speaker 1: control stuff, that animal will probably still smell you. You You
Speaker 1: just have to have the wind right where it might
Speaker 1: give you the edges. If it's a slight swirl and
Speaker 1: a not a direct wind, it might give you that edge,
Speaker 1: but if you're moving around, it kind of renders that
Speaker 1: edge ineffective. I have noticed that earlier in hunts when
Speaker 1: you're when you're clean, you've just got freshly cleaned clothes,
Speaker 1: you aren't as sweaty. It's harder for animals to wind you.
Speaker 1: As the week's progress, as your backpacking, you know, your
Speaker 1: clothes start to stink and they can smell you easier
Speaker 1: and rightfully, so you can smell yourself easier. Um, but
Speaker 1: I don't think that scent control products are as effective
Speaker 1: in Western hunting like that. It's just more waste of
Speaker 1: money at that point. Now, if your tree stand hunting,
Speaker 1: it can be effective, but you also want to play
Speaker 1: the wind more than trusting in some scent control products.
Speaker 1: If you have the option to buy another tree stand
Speaker 1: or send control stuff, I'd probably just go with another
Speaker 1: tree stand and get it in positions based on the winds,
Speaker 1: and then if you can add a little scent control
Speaker 1: stuff to that great. I know there's a lot of
Speaker 1: products out there that do help and do work, and
Speaker 1: I've used them as well, but I think for most
Speaker 1: Western hunting applications, you know, I used to I used
Speaker 1: to carry scent spray and right before every stock spray
Speaker 1: down UM and I'll do that every once in a while.
Speaker 1: It's not a bad idea. It might give you a
Speaker 1: little bit of advantage, but there's a certain point in
Speaker 1: it when I just don't know if I've seen the
Speaker 1: actual difference because I'm keeping the wind right and using
Speaker 1: the wind more than anything. So if I just use
Speaker 1: the wind as the tool, I don't really have to
Speaker 1: worry about carrying that other stuff or wonder if it's
Speaker 1: working or anything like that. I'm just using the wind
Speaker 1: and that's my main tool. So I hope that that
Speaker 1: helps everyone. Like I said, feel free to um find
Speaker 1: me on Instagram if you guys want to see some stuff.
Speaker 1: Maybe i'll throw out from the story today. I'll maybe
Speaker 1: do like a rehash of that story that I told,
Speaker 1: maybe throw up some pictures for that and my story
Speaker 1: on there might be kind of cool. I know it's
Speaker 1: fun to see like some visuals for the audio story
Speaker 1: that goes down, so I appreciate it. Hey, everybody, stay
Speaker 1: safe out there and keep the wind in your face.
Speaker 1: Later no