Editor’s Note: Dr. Robert Sheppard of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is the supreme student of deer and their habits. He approaches deer hunting scientifically and enjoys nothing more than gathering information about deer. This week he’s sharing with us how winds and thermals affect deer and how that impacts your deer hunting.

I was hunting a narrow strip of woods 60-yards wide and 400-yards long that separated two, large hardwood bottoms between a cleared field and a river. Because that small strip of woods ran north and south, the only way to approach the land without having my scent mess up my hunting site was for me to walk in from the west, which was the river side, or the east, which was the field side.

On this particular morning, I walked into this strip of woods from the east with a west wind in my face. Any deer moving through the woods wouldn’t pick up my scent if they were walking either toward the south or the north. I got into my stand just at daylight and had been sitting for about an hour when I spotted a nice 6-point buck coming from the south side of the woods, moving north. The deer walked to within 15 steps of me and never picked up my scent. I let my arrow fly and struck the deer just behind the shoulder. Immediately he bounded away and over the side of the bank. I found him dead on the edge of the river. I’m convinced that if the buck had smelled me, I never would have had the shot. So, the wind was my friend, since I could hunt with confidence, knowing how the wind was blowing.

The deer’s best defense against any predator is his nose. Many tree stand hunters will tell you that although a deer may be able to see you, he may walk up, look straight at you and then walk on past, as if you don’t exist, if he doesn’t smell you. This same group of hunters may tell you of instances where they’ve shot more than one arrow at the same deer, and he’s never moved.  But you rarely will find an instance when a deer has smelled a hunter and presented anything but a hindquarter shot. Often a deer may be able to see or hear you – but you still may be able to take your animal. However, if he smells you, I’ll lay odds that you’ll never get a shot.

Many people believe bucks always walk into the wind to enable them to smell danger ahead.  However, this belief defies reason. For instance, 90 percent of the time, the prevailing wind in Alabama blows from the northwest. If deer always walk into a prevailing wind, then Alabama whitetails will walk to Chicago. Actually, deer walk anywhere they want and smell everything upwind of them. If a hunter stands upwind of a buck, the buck often will smell the hunter.

To learn more about deer hunting, go to John E. Phillips’ books and learn the tactics small property owners have used successfully by checking out John E. Phillips’s book, “How to Hunt and Take Big Buck Deer on Small Properties” at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OOC2T0Y#, available in Kindle, print and Audible versions. To receive your free book on “How to Make Venison Jerky,” go to https://www.emailmeform.com/builder/form/Ece3UZVcOo52cKPJcL

Tomorrow: How to Determine Wind Direction to Hunt Deer Better