Hunting the Wind by Larry Weishuhn

Hunting the Wind

by Larry Weishuhn

We had been hunting for the past two days. It was warm, almost hot. Now there was a change coming. A brisk wind blew, likely because of an advancing cold front from the north. “Wind is out of the southeast! Guess that means I won’t be hunting my usual stand this afternoon. If I hunt there, my scent will be blowing right to where I expect deer to show up. So, I’ll head to the other stand I have set up by the big oak, wind should be OK and right to hunt there.” Said my hunting partner as we were about to leave camp following a quick lunch. Sound familiar?

Deer, particularly whitetails, as numerous other big game species might pay attention to what they see and what they hear but they confirm potential danger with their sense of smell, particularly those species that live in the woods and on the edge.

For years I have been one of those who firmly believed whenever possible to keep the wind in your face and the sun at your back. In setting up ground blinds, I very seldom hunt from raised blinds or trees because I love the eye to eye level when hunting wary animals.  I used to set up several around the areas where I wanted to hunt, so I always had an option to hunt there no matter what the wind. These were ground blinds consisting of logs, brush, possibly rocks so they appeared to be part of the natural surroundings. I always made certain I had a background that prevented me from being silhouetted, regardless of the angle.

I like to hunt relatively close to where I think deer will be. Yes, I can shoot accurately to several hundreds of yards and I shoot regularly out to 750 yards, but to me that’s simply shooting. This coming year I intend to spend a fair amount of time hunting my property and a few other Texas properties with a Taurus Raging Hunter in .454 Casull, topped with a Trijicon SRO red-dot sight and shooting Hornady’s 240-grain XTP Custom ammo. With that combination I feel comfortable taking shots out to about 125 yards, but my goal will be to be within 50-yards or less.

When hunting a ground blind, I seldom wear camouflage clothing, simply solid greens and browns, or red plaid. These tend to blend in well and if the sun in shining through leaves and limbs creates a natural broken pattern. If I do wear camo, I tend to wear a broken pattern that has both open and dark areas, like broken shadows.

As mentioned essentially deer live, or, die by ability to smell danger.

Over the years I tried pretty much every commercially-made and even home-brew scent eliminator, and none of them truly worked at doing away with human odor and those associated with us as humans. Frankly, I was convinced the only way to not have a deer smell me was to crawl into a big jar and close the lid.

At one point I started hanging sweaty shirts and smelly socks in the grounds blinds I intended to hunt to get deer in the area used to human odors. This worked great in those areas close to home where I could regularly change out my dirty clothes with “fresh” dirty clothes to keep the odor level up. But, many of the places I hunt are often hundreds of miles from where I live, regularly changing out smelly clothes was, is, impossible.

While attending a sports show in Ft. Worth, Texas I met Brett Andrews and his dad, Gary. They introduced me to a then unnamed non-scent product Brett had developed. To tell you the truth, my initial thought was “Oh yeah…another one!” But in listening to Brett there truly seemed to be science behind it, and no chemicals, only elements including activated-carbon and colloidal silver. Brett had my attention.

Before leaving Brett sent some of their new product home with me. For the next several days I used what would be called “TRHP Outdoor’s Scent Guardian” in many tests, from horrible smelling boots, to dead skunks I found on the road, to actually applying it to my clothing and me when hunting. After applying it to my hunting clothes, hat, gloves and even some other hunting gear, it seemed I became “invisible and non-existent” to animals. Deer, even old, wary does and bucks walked directly downwind on the same level I was on and never so much as even looked my way. Had there been human odors, or odors unfamiliar to them they would have stopped to smell and then spook.  To say the least, I was impressed.

I continued using the product for two years putting it to all sorts of “tests” particularly when hunting, including in extremely hot weather where I sweated profusely. Animals I encountered on the downwind side of me, acted as if I did not exist.

After that second year I was approached by Brett and Gary and asked if I would consider endorsing their product. I told them when it came to scent eliminator products I had been and still was the “world’s greatest skeptic”. However, having used Scent Guardian in all sorts of hunting conditions I would consider doing so. Since that time I have agreed to endorse Scent Guardian. For more information about that miraculous product please go to www.trhpoutdoors.com 

Photo Credit:  Larry Weishuhn Outdoors