How to Identify Changes in Wind Direction and Hunting Pressure

The best whitetail hunters in the world can do all the prep work possible to stack the odds in their favor, only to have their target bucks shift and leave them puzzled. Mother Nature, hunting pressure and many other factors can quickly wreck your hunting strategies.

As much as we like to strategize months in advance, we have to understand that big bucks will move to new areas immediately when there are major changes within their environment. Being a public-land hunter my entire life, I’ve been thrown many surprise curve balls when it comes to seeing bucks do things I’ve never expected or planned for. I used to have a plan A and a plan B for hunting whitetails. Nowadays, I try to plan for everything! Each season is different, and you have to be ready to adapt when there are changes in the whitetail world.

The Wide Seven

This past gun season, I targeted a wide, mature 7-point. I had yet to take a buck with an inside spread greater than 20 inches. The buck I dubbed “The Wide Seven” caught my interest in the middle of September, when I finally got trail camera pictures of him with fully developed antlers. His wide beams and long brow tines made him a unique prospect that I planned to pursue when the Pennsylvania hunting seasons opened.

I had one close encounter with him in archery season, but I failed to get a shot off. When rifle season arrived, I had the buck somewhat pegged. He was bedding on the edge of a hillside clear-cut, rarely leaving the edge of cover until after sundown. I hunted him the second day of rifle season and ended up bumping him out of one of his beds during the last hour of daylight.

Going into the third day of the season, a massive cold front with heavy winds and snow arrived. Based on past history with other bucks in the area, I knew the Wide Seven was going to shift to better winter habitat. The clear-cut he lived in had no thermal cover to hold off the cold wind and snow. So, on the third day of the season, I ended up still- hunting an east-facing bedding point that had scattered hemlocks about a half-mile away from the Wide Seven’s primary bedding area. This was a very common winter bedding ridge that most bucks shift to that live in this area. The east-facing hillside was a perfect location to get out of the heavy, westerly winds we were dealing with.

Cold temperatures with strong winds always cause bucks to shift to areas with a wind break. Bucks will almost always bed on the opposite side of the ridge from the cold winds. They also tend to bed in lower elevations during those nasty, wintery days.

I had some specific buck beds marked on my Spartan Forge app that would be the perfect spot for the Wide Seven to bed in, because of a steep break in the ridge that shielded the wind. Interestingly, the first bed I approached was the one the Wide Seven was laying in. I bumped him from the bed, but I was fortunate to make a successful running shot.

The Wide Seven is now on my wall and is one I am most proud of for predicting where he was going to shift to. I did not have any intel of him shifting to that area prior to when I shot him. In fact, I would bet my last dollar that he hadn’t used that part of his home range in several months. Yet, one major change in his environment caused him to immediately shift over a half-mile to a new area.

Pressure Shifts

There is probably no greater factor than hunting pressure that can have an instant influence on bucks making a shift. There is a buck my family and I have hunted for several years called the “Shed Buck.” My cousin has found his sheds on the same ridge two years in a row. However, this ridge is over six miles from where he spends the fall months.

We’ve learned that the day after rifle season opens, the buck makes a six-mile journey to his hiding area. We also believe he does this right as the sun goes down on the opening day of rifle season. The area he lives in gets a lot of hunting pressure in gun season. The Shed Buck has recognized the sounds of deer rifles as well as being able to notice when there is an increase of human activity in his core area.

Another unique thing that happens is this buck sheds his antlers each year during gun season. Once he’s pressured, his testosterone levels drop, and he goes into survival mode. At first we thought that this was just a winter shift, meaning that he has a designated wintering area six miles from his core rutting area. Ultimately, we learned in the last two years that he is showing up in his actual wintering area the day after gun season ends. He did this two years in a row that we know of, and likely during past years, too. We have no other reason to believe that the Shed Buck is making this instant shift when hunting pressure surrounds his fall home range.

It’s amazing how some mature bucks react immediately to hunting pressure. Here in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, I have observed numerous old bucks over the years that make strategic shifts to elude hunters. Despite it being entirely public land, we have a lot of bucks that reach four years old and older. The key to these bucks reaching maturity and surviving hunting pressure is how they react instantly when they become pressured. They know where to go and what to do to live another year. Some of the best primary buck beds I know of are in spots where bucks have an advantage with all their senses. They can see, smell and hear in these locations, which makes them near impossible to kill.

They know to shift to these bedding locations when they sense heavy hunting pressure. Whether I’m writing an article or doing a seminar, I always emphasize that the number one reason a buck will change his patterns is due to hunting pressure. Put it this way, if you were being hunted down by someone in your house, you’d change your patterns, too. It’s no different with whitetails, especially the big ones! You can throw all non-pressured behavior in the garbage once a buck senses pressure. He then becomes a completely different animal.

Wind Shifts

It is now becoming normal for deer hunters to pay attention to how bucks change bedding locations during wind shifts. I’m talking about when the wind suddenly switches its direction. All bucks like to have a wind advantage in their bedrooms, if possible.

Recently, I interviewed Bill Thompson, who is the owner of Spartan Forge Technology, which specializes in deer movement prediction. Over the years, Thompson and his team have done extensive research on deer movement, especially focusing on mature bucks. One of their main ways of collecting data is by researching and studying the movements of GPS-collared deer.

As you might’ve guessed, wind shifts have been at the top of the list for causing mature bucks to make an instant shift, according to the data they have collected.

“One of the most compelling findings in our research is how mature bucks respond to wind shifts,” Thompson says. “Our findings show that abrupt changes in wind direction significantly impact the behavior of mature bucks, prompting them to shift their bedding location more rapidly and decisively in response to the wind change.”

On some occasions, bucks will get up and face another direction while still laying in the same bed during a wind shift. They especially like to have the wind on their backs. However, many of these shifts can be several hundred yards or even further as bucks seek out entirely new bedding areas for wind advantages.

“I have seen where bucks have shifted long distances,” Thompson adds. “Sometimes they will go to an opposite ridge.”

Learning how bucks react to wind shifts can be vital for hunters having success, especially hunters who focus heavily on buck bedding.

“This insight into buck behavior can be incredibly valuable for hunters. Understanding that mature bucks are likely to change their bedding area swiftly in response to wind shifts can inform hunting strategies and improve the chances for a successful encounter,” Thompson says. “It emphasizes the importance of paying close attention to wind direction when planning a hunt and adjusting one’s position accordingly. This is why we put the historical wind patterns in Spartan Forge, knowing them and then positioning yourself or your stand slightly off the wind can be a great technique when targeting mature deer.”

Throughout my guiding and hunting career, along with running trail cameras, I have often wondered why I would get so many random, mid-day photos of big bucks on the move outside of the rutting months. After learning about how bucks get up on their feet and seek out new bedding areas during a wind shift, things started making sense to me.

Paying attention to when that wind is supposed to shift could be the best time to be in the woods, if you’re near the right bedding area. Knowing exactly when that wind is going to shift is the key, but wind shifts can also be a disadvantage if you aren’t expecting and planning for them. Being a successful whitetail hunter is all about constantly paying attention to all the little details in the whitetail world!

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