Funneling a buck down an anticipated path—without overly alarming the animal—opens the door to shooting opportunities. (Shutterstock)
November 04, 2024
By Josh Honneycutt
A big whitetail buck pushes into a dense bedding area and settles down with a doe in estrus. Barring an ornery rival coming through and disrupting the courtship, the lovestruck buck and his new mate aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Chances are they’ll stay within a 100-yard radius of one another for the next 24 to 48 hours or maybe longer. So, what’s a hunter to do? The best answer is to take advantage of the deer’s keen sense of smell to steer the buck into an ambush, letting the wind do the heavy lifting.
THE NOSE KNOWS Deer largely communicate with scent, so their astounding sense of smell shouldn’t surprise anyone. Despite minor discrepancies among various studies, it is estimated that whitetails have nearly 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, nasal passages and throats. Some are on the outside of the nose and are activated by moisture, which is probably why deer lick their noses so often.
This means that whitetails have a much greater capacity to detect and identify scents than humans, who only have 5 to 6 million olfactory receptors, and even bloodhounds, which are blessed with some 220 million. These receptors perceive and translate scents and, through nerves, send them as electrical impulses to the deer’s brain, influencing its behavior. From mating to food selection to fight-or-flight responses to threats like marauding predators or competing males, most of the actions a deer takes are reactions to scents.
NEW VS. CLASSIC Fortunately for hunters, a deer’s olfactory prowess can be used against it by resorting to “wind bumping,” which, when done correctly, will funnel unwitting bucks toward awaiting shooters, creating opportunities hard to come by otherwise.
Advertisement
A classic deer drive, the more traditional approach, involves a group of hunters working together to move deer out of bedding areas or cover. Some of the hunters act as drivers and spread out while advancing through the woods to push the deer toward other hunters posted up on the outskirts of the cover. The goal is to prompt the deer to move slowly toward the potential shooters, thus providing them easy chances.
Wind bumping differs a bit. It forces deer movement by intentionally letting the wind blow a single hunter’s scent into an area where the presence of deer is suspected.
During the rut’s lockdown period, a doe may monopolize a courting buck’s attention for 48 hours or more. (Photo courtesy of © Mikael Males/Dreamstime) “Wind bumping forces movement just like a [traditional] deer drive, but it’s done more strategically and with fewer people,” says Aaron Warbritton of The Hunting Public, a collective that produces popular hunting videos. “The idea is that deer will smell a hunter and exit the area in a semi-calm fashion while other hunters set up along the escape route to ambush the buck. It works especially well on mature bucks.”
Advertisement
Some hunters might consider the differences between wind bumping and a traditional deer drive subtle and question the former’s effectiveness. The latter has been around far longer, so it must be better, right? Well, let’s not rush to that conclusion. Warbritton believes that wind bumping is better than a traditional deer drive in certain instances. “Sometimes it catches deer off guard,” he says. “They are all accustomed to smelling people and escaping. What they are not accustomed to is a hunter waiting along their usually secure exit path.”
TRUST THE PROCESS Proper execution starts before the hunt by setting ground rules for the participants to follow. First, choose the person that will serve as the “leader” or “director” overseeing the hunt. Then, designate the “pusher” (often the leader) and shooters and come up with a safe game plan that won’t lead to anyone shooting toward other hunters, houses, roadways, etc. Carefully chart the course to follow, pointing out the specific positions for the shooters, and stress the need to stick to these.
Place shooters where they will have good shot opportunties but their scent won’t be detected by whitetails. Consider the deer’s likely escape routes before settling on the shooters’ stations, remembering that natural barriers like rivers, bluffs and other topographical features can serve as great blockers that help funnel the animals.
When devising a wind-bumping plan, use topographical features like water as barricades to force deer where you want them to go. (Shutterstock) Plan the pusher’s travel route on site, confirming the wind direction to ensure his or her scent will carry toward cover. Double-check that the plan won’t risk anyone shooting or walking into unsafe areas, and always take neighboring hunters into account to avoid putting them in danger.
Be sure to have the pusher go through general bedding areas where more deer are expected to be, but don’t overlook pockets of cover surrounded by open or less dense areas. And don’t rush through the cover; it’s best to let things unfold slowly. Should you encounter adverse weather conditions like rain or a strong wind, use them to your advantage. The sound of rain and wind-caused rustling of vegetation limits a deer’s hearing, sometimes causing it to leave a bedding area earlier. And rain will soften leaves and twigs on the ground, making for a stealthier approach that’s less likely to spook deer and send them running for the county line.
UNLOCK THE LOCKDOWN A lot of deer hunters claim the peak of the rut is their favorite time to chase whitetails, and some even consider it the best period. But it really shouldn’t be, since that’s when the bulk of the does enter estrus. While hunters lucky enough to be in the right spot can experience a frenzy of action, others often face some of the most boring hunts of the season.
When a whitetail doe enters estrus, it’s usually receptive for about 24 to 48 hours. On top of that, some might smell right to courting bucks but not allow them to mate for several more hours on the front and back ends of that window. This will keep bucks put, with a much stronger desire to copulate than to cover any ground. They might even bed in dense bedding areas or in obscure, out-of-the-way locations that are far from other deer, not to mention hunters.
All these things make hunting the lockdown period of the rut most difficult. Fortunately, wind bumping can help mitigate some of the negative elements of this critical stretch in the whitetail’s breeding ritual, which considerably curtails a buck’s movements. Hunters who remain skeptical should at least consider the technique as an option when whitetail bucks are hard to come by during the rut. Warbritton and company have killed a number of deer using this tactical approach.
Shooters should post where they can safely fire at an approaching buck without posing a danger to the “pusher” or other hunters. (Photo courtesy of © Michael Blackstock/Dreamstime) “One could drift scent in there to the bedding area and attempt to catch the deer as they escape,” Warbritton says. “It works, but you should expect it to fail at times. Nevertheless, wind bumping has helped us harvest several good bucks.”
BOOST YOUR ODDS There are several things hunters can do in conjunction with the wind bumping technique to improve their odds for a successful hunt during the rut.
Hunting close to cover certainly helps, and so does camping out along the downwind fringes of bedding areas. Also try pushing deeper into bedding areas and hunting places you’d never hunt at other times. Sitting and waiting in transitional stretches between bedding areas can also pay off. Consider watching food sources close to bedding cover, too, and keeping an eye on oddball pockets of cover, such as brush piles, fencerows, sinkholes, small woodlots, standing crop fields and others. You can also get close to bedding areas and use calls and decoys.
Additionally, consider using a hunting app to keep things organized and everyone in your hunting party in the know. I’m a HuntStand ambassador, and this particular app offers many features that work well for wind bumping. For starters, you can use the HuntZone wind direction indicator to plan routes and stand locations. Some app layers can be used to determine if it’s safe to shoot in certain directions or not. There’s also the Friend Locator tool, which enables you to keep track of other hunters. And you can use a marked-up Hunt Area to stay on top of the game plan without worrying about straying from it.
Consider adding wind-bumping to your rut plans. It may not work every time, but what deer-hunting tactic does?
SCENT PREVENTION These products can help you remain incognito in the woods.
While the success of wind bumping hinges on deer detecting the scent of an approaching hunter, it’s also imperative that the scent of the designated shooters in the party remains concealed. This can be accomplished with the following types of products.
Photo courtesy of Hunter Specialties Soaps and shampoos like Scent A-Way by Hunters Specialties (hunterspec.com ), Scent Killer by Wildlife Research Center (wildlife.com ) and others mitigate the scent from your skin and hair.
Photo courtesy of Blocker Outdoors Antiperspirants and deodorants, such as Scent Shield Cold Fusion X Factor by Blocker Outdoors (blockeroutdoors.com ) and others from companies like Code Blue Scents (codebluescents.com ), keep stinky armpits and the unnatural masking odors of regular deodorants from sending deer packing.
Photo courtesy of Dead Down Wind Laundry detergents made by Dead Down Wind (deaddownwind.com ), Scent Assassin (scentassassin.com ) and other brands can remove unwanted scents from hunting apparel and do not add UV brighteners that could make clothing more visible to deer.
Photo courtesy of Deception Outdoors Sprays like Scent Eliminator by Deception (deception.us ) and Field Spray by Nose Jammer (nosejammer.com ), which chemically block or remove the hunter’s scent, are yet another effective concealment tool that can be applied to clothing, gear and treestands.
Photo courtesy of KUIU KUIU , which uses Silvadur anti-odor technology to treat its textiles, Scentlock Technologies (scentlok.com ) and others produce scent-blocking or scent-reducing hunting apparel that adds another layer of defense against deer sniffing out human scent.
Photo courtesy of Feradyne Outdoors Ozone machines, like Scent Crusher’s Ozone Base Camp Generator (feradyne.com ) and the HR600 Ozone Generator by Ozonics (ozonicshunting.com ), are the latest scent-control innovation and are great for treating clothing and gear to minimize scent dispersal in the field.
This article was featured in the November 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
