Roe wind

Bavarianbrit

Well-Known Member
I had it posted in the off topic thread sorry,
I was working all day yesterday on high seat building and forgot the time then saw it was time to go out into a high seat to check on the population of roe bucks, I had no time to shower and was a little whiffy but so what? I am sitting at the corner of a wood with an open field to my right, the wind was cold coming hard from my left across to the field. at 8.30pm out come a buck and happily grazes for a good 20 minutes at 40 metres distance directly where he should have winded me and he showed no effects, he leaves the field and at 9pm out comes a doe and one kid normally skittish and they kept grazing at 60 metres till I left the high seat and continued while I quietly left the area.
So why are we all so picky about using Scentlock clothing etc maybe it is just all marketing B/S? I very rarely get any roe to react to my prescence near them.
Martin
 
My reckoning is that roe deer who live close to man and see people on a regular basis are not worried by smell at all. But roe that are regularly hunted and the only humans the smell are hunters get very spooky v quickly.
 
If you were in a high seat, your smell went above them. As I understand, that's the primary reason to use one!

If you weren't in a seat, I'd guess that either there was a house close by upwind of you (so your scent was mixed in with the human smells from that), or the wind did something between leaving you and reaching them. On hilly ground, or fields surrounded by tall trees, there can be quite abrupt changes in direction over very short distances .

I tend to think that scent is very important indeed. I think a very large proportion of blank outings are because you get the wind wrong early on, and without realising it, clear the ground in front of you as you go.

I've watched for melt away in front of dog walkers, hikers etc as they amble past, then reappear within minutes.
 
It was way out in the country only fields around all flat terrain, I was in a 3 step high very low "high seat" puzzles me.
 
Any naturally occurring smell that covered yours? I don't use any scent lock when I hunt but try to find the strongest smelling stuff in the area and use as a cover scent. Here in Montana sage brush is everywhere and rubbing the leaves on your clothing will make the critters oblivious to your scent. I've used alfalfa hay when near fields or wild clover, lots of strong smells in nature. Have even used manure from livestock in the area.
 
Scent lock in my opinion is a waste of time and money. It does not cover any scent coming from your head or hands (unless gloves are worn) and if you are down wind and don't move most deer will not notice you. Even if you are not down wind, at times Roe will approach, usually young animals, to take a look. We had a young Roe doe walk straight towards us last Wednesday morning and got to within 20yds.
 
It was way out in the country only fields around all flat terrain, I was in a 3 step high very low "high seat" puzzles me.

Might just have been high enough if you had a fairly steady wind with no turbulence. Think of the way a smoke plume can spread in a very defined layer.
 
As Mungo rightly says above wind does not blow straight. All sorts of things affect how wind blows - at a large scale high pressure / low pressure systems cause the main wind, but on a local basis the sun has a lot more effect. Clear blue sky, sun warms the ground which warms the air in contact with it - that bubble of warm air then eventually breaks away causing a column of rising air - a thermal. As the thermal rises cold air will rush in to take the space. So on an open field you can easily have air moving in all directions. Thermals can be very gentle, or violent gusts with dust devils etc.

When flying my paraglider you can smell thermals coming off the ground. It's also how noise is carried by moving air - you can easily hear birdsong from the ground when you are at 5,000ft in a thermal. Fly out of thermal, birdsong goes, fly back in and there it is again.

Also think that the air moves over ground features such hills, trees etc in the same way as moving water does over and around rocks in a river.

How is does this affect stalking - understanding how wind goes across the terrain and the impact of thermals can sometimes allow to sneak in - thermals -watch the thermic cycle and move during the gust - any smell / noise is carried well away.
 
As Mungo rightly says above wind does not blow straight. All sorts of things affect how wind blows - at a large scale high pressure / low pressure systems cause the main wind, but on a local basis the sun has a lot more effect. Clear blue sky, sun warms the ground which warms the air in contact with it - that bubble of warm air then eventually breaks away causing a column of rising air - a thermal. As the thermal rises cold air will rush in to take the space. So on an open field you can easily have air moving in all directions. Thermals can be very gentle, or violent gusts with dust devils etc.

When flying my paraglider you can smell thermals coming off the ground. It's also how noise is carried by moving air - you can easily hear birdsong from the ground when you are at 5,000ft in a thermal. Fly out of thermal, birdsong goes, fly back in and there it is again.

Also think that the air moves over ground features such hills, trees etc in the same way as moving water does over and around rocks in a river.

How is does this affect stalking - understanding how wind goes across the terrain and the impact of thermals can sometimes allow to sneak in - thermals -watch the thermic cycle and move during the gust - any smell / noise is carried well away.

Here you go - some pictures.

First a Thermal:

1400521_orig.jpg

And then eddies and Turbulance

paragliding-school-21-638.jpg

One point on thermals is that as the air rises it cools, condenses and forms puffy white clouds. These block the sun, so the the thermal stops, clouds go and the whole cycle repeats itself. If there is any sort of true wind the clouds disappear down wind in streets and you have a very regular cycle that you can almost set your watch by.

The other one not to forget is catabatic wind. We often stalk at dusk. During the day the lowlands heat up and air tends to flow up valleys and hills / mountain sides. At dusk the cold air on the hill / mountain tops starts to descend. If you are near the coast you will have a similar effect with the sea breeze coming during the afternoon and the then an offshore breeze during the evening - the sea breeze effect can go a long way inland - as far as the M4 from the South coast or in Scotland up to the mountains - had exactly this the other evening - set out with the wind from the North (on the North Coast of Scotland), then went still and then the wind switched quite suddenly from the South. And of course this happened as we were watching a heavily pregnant doe and hoping that the buck would pop out.
 
The wind down south away from the hills up north, are totally different. I have a 10,000 acre permission where the wind tumbles over the hill and there is a serious risk of 180 degrees back draft. Amazing. I have seen it also with the muirburn. I agree with Malc, there is no masking our scent, one whiff and they are gone. But the more shooting pressure the smarter they get !
 
What I have developed also is the habit of only breathing through my nose with my mouth remaining closed while on a high seat as I expect that more scent is being released from my mouth area.
Martin
 
The wind does funny things sometimes it works in your favour sometimes not. I've shot deer in what I thought was a downwind direction and had deer wind me in what I thought was upwind of me. There is a place where I think the wind tumbles over a cliff and the turbulence and eddies seem to spook deer in every direction. I never trust an east wind, it is gusty and always seems to revert to the prevailing south west at some point during a stalk.

I agree with the previous poster, one sniff of you and they will be off. The only exception this might be the roe rut. I was once watching a doe from downwind (I always think this is a good idea as a doe is a buck magnet in the rut) and turned round to see a young buck 15 yards behind me. Had he not been blinded by passion he would have been right in my scent.
 
I was in the next high seat last night, directly at where the roe were coming out of the woods last week and at 8.30pm out came a young female without any teats showing, she grazed under me now and again getting up and then down again into her rest mode and purring all the time with content.
A lovely hour then passed while I watched it all.
I had to clap whistle and talk to her to get her to move back into the woods at dusk to be able to get down from my perch.
 
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