East Southeast wind

[hendo64]

Hello everyone, I have a queston. I am a rookie bow hunter with this being my 2nd year. just last saturday I was hunting and did not see any deer. I thought it was probably the heat as it reached 80 here in south central Iowa. on monday I was loading the ups truck that stops to pick up. I told the driver bout my bad luck(knowing he's an avid hunter). he then tells me that hunting that day was a waste of time. he said that when the wind is out of the east or southeast that deer will not move at all. when asked why he said it was the barometric pressure but that's all he could offer to explain this statement. can anyone out there please shed some light on this. I plan on hunting no matter the wind direction but would like to know if this is true.

[Woods Walker]

I do not favor SE winds for ANYTHING, hunting OR fishing. That's not saying that you shouldn't go, but those days are tougher.

[buckhunter21]

I guess I have never noticed a difference with this type of wind...You just hunt different stands.  Interesting concept...

[JPH]

I suppose that to some degree he has a point b/c here in IA, a ESE wind often means that a front is passing through. As a "general rule" deer will be more active before and after a front passes.
 
But as far as hunting that wind being a "waste of Time", I think he's full of it. Some of my best stands are hung for those winds and I have had some awesome encounters from them.
 
I hunted on Saturday as well. I found the wind to be more of a SSE than a ESE. I saw a lot of deer in the a.m. but nothing big. I got skunked on me evening set, but I attribute that to high temps and a nearly full moon.

[OHhunter]

I also have great stands I can only hunt, during a ESE winds.  I see plenty of deer from them. 

[Squirrelhawker]

I'm no meteorologist but any wind, SE or not, will have to be moving the appropriate high or low pressure air masses in order for the barometer to move either way. For me and perhaps for many others, I am usually scouting and setting up with the prevailing (in my case westerly) winds in mind. If I want to set up more than one stand in the same immediate area they are set up with the next more probable wind in mind. This method obviously isn't carved in stone but is my common train of thought and MO.

[msbadger]

Funny you should ask that...just talking the other day about how much more we'er seeing the sse winds here and it's normally a wnw wind......I've been adding more stands in the area to cover this shift......As far as deer not move well not the case here they still need to bed and feed during the day so usually near plots but ...besides the normal down hill in the morning and up in evening they do more cross wind moving and some times switch to up in mornings and down in evenings......
   My thoughts on why is on a west wind they can see and smell whats coming but with the sun coming up it has the effect of pushing the cold air infront of it...ever have that dawn chill run through you...where your sitting comfy in the dark of the morning then as the sun crests the horizon you start to feel a creeping chill fall over you? ...giving deer the added bennifit of being able to smell danger from the back......Deer here usually walk wind to their back to smell danger as well as see ....they bed that way as well......give them a couple of days of a sse wind and they'll change up....at least thats what I've noticed