Pretty good video on thermals. The fog timelapse shows how they can be a finicky bitch.
Hunting the Thermals
- Thread starter Big_Holla
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That was very telling with the fog. In Arizona hunting Elk I didn't pay much mind to thermals and payed religious attention to the wind. Playung thermals on a highly mobile hunt is a pain because you actually have to understand the terrain, where the sun is going to hit first or last, and you can't check it to verify your assumption like you can wind.. So I just figured that I would just keep the wind in my face and it'll be ok. Boy was I wrong. After 8 days of not seeing elk I decided to play the thermal game. I see elk everyday after that.
That video could've very well been made in the hollow right behind my house. It looked identical with the ridges and saddles in the illustrations. And I've sat on the hillside watching the fog do that very same thing.
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing that.
Makes me wonder if I should even go back there on those calm days.
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing that.
Makes me wonder if I should even go back there on those calm days.
For the most part I completely agree. In the last several years I have done just that and had decent success having a real good buck within range at some point during each season. The last couple of years and last year in particular I started paying more attention to those odd direction winds. Two years ago I had set up on a good trail that led into/out of a bottom. Wind was in my face out of the SW while there and as it got closer to dark I had a deer start blowing from what I considered upwind. Was thinking it must have been spooked by something until I released a milk weed and it slowly drifted right in the direction of the blowing. I never did see the deer which I thought was good as it didn't turn tail and bound off tail raised but I can't help but think was it HIM (whoever him woulda been
) ?! Did the smoke cover up my stank and HE walked away un-alarmed?!This past season I stumbled onto and spent some time watching The Hunting Public and thought it was cool they used milkweed too LOL! Well they used it a lot more than I did and soon I started releasing those little tale tellers into the air very often from every stand I sat. What surprised me was how often that swirl you thought you felt on the back of your neck was really the real deal, a thermal that went right back into where you were looking. Some stands you would feel that, release your milkweed and sure enough it starts heading toward the trail you were watching but then suddenly change and come back in your direction and keep going. Other stands I found those thermals took the milkweed directly where I didn't want them to go and in one situation was stronger than the prevailing wind I felt 20 ft up. I have abandoned a couple stands this year because of that, also based on deer becoming alert as they passed by. Days when the wind was a few MPH or more were the most consistent. It was when things were still or the wind would suddenly quit is when things changed. Frosty mornings with no wind it often seemed you could hunt anywhere as those thermals seemed to climb and go up from every stand I sat. Once it started warming, say after 9-10 am, is when you would notice they would begin to fall sooner. Later in the day is when the prevailing wind seemed to take over.
Lol, horrible assumptions. 50% of my 24yrs. hunting has been in either PA (piss on your tiny steep Ohio "hills"), or Athens/Vinton county. But, Im not a trophy hunter , so carry on you big buck killing SOBs.
Man I thought this thread was about long underwear
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Junior Member
Yep , you got it !For the most part I completely agree. In the last several years I have done just that and had decent success having a real good buck within range at some point during each season. The last couple of years and last year in particular I started paying more attention to those odd direction winds. Two years ago I had set up on a good trail that led into/out of a bottom. Wind was in my face out of the SW while there and as it got closer to dark I had a deer start blowing from what I considered upwind. Was thinking it must have been spooked by something until I released a milk weed and it slowly drifted right in the direction of the blowing. I never did see the deer which I thought was good as it didn't turn tail and bound off tail raised but I can't help but think was it HIM (whoever him woulda been
This past season I stumbled onto and spent some time watching The Hunting Public and thought it was cool they used milkweed too LOL! Well they used it a lot more than I did and soon I started releasing those little tale tellers into the air very often from every stand I sat. What surprised me was how often that swirl you thought you felt on the back of your neck was really the real deal, a thermal that went right back into where you were looking. Some stands you would feel that, release your milkweed and sure enough it starts heading toward the trail you were watching but then suddenly change and come back in your direction and keep going. Other stands I found those thermals took the milkweed directly where I didn't want them to go and in one situation was stronger than the prevailing wind I felt 20 ft up. I have abandoned a couple stands this year because of that, also based on deer becoming alert as they passed by. Days when the wind was a few MPH or more were the most consistent. It was when things were still or the wind would suddenly quit is when things changed. Frosty mornings with no wind it often seemed you could hunt anywhere as those thermals seemed to climb and go up from every stand I sat. Once it started warming, say after 9-10 am, is when you would notice they would begin to fall sooner. Later in the day is when the prevailing wind seemed to take over.
Sgt Fury
Sgt. Spellchecker
I hunt the swamps and oak/pine flats here in south jersey (flat land) and never had to worry about thermals until I started hunting Ohio (Vinton, Athens and Hocking counties). After one season of getting snorted at from the opposite wind direction, I got one of those wind checker bottles with the talc...hard lesson learned! The wind was going out about 20 feet, then circling around and going right down the hollow...where the deer were snorting from.
I hunt the swamps and oak/pine flats here in south jersey (flat land) and never had to worry about thermals until I started hunting Ohio (Vinton, Athens and Hocking counties). After one season of getting snorted at from the opposite wind direction, I got one of those wind checker bottles with the talc...hard lesson learned! The wind was going out about 20 feet, then circling around and going right down the hollow...where the deer were snorting from.
Yeah, dem fuggers do that alot. Like it was posted earlier, I just swear somebody else is down there. LOL
Growing up in the hills will school you on thermals and knowing how they work in the areas you hunt definitely saves heartache and frustration. If I based my sit this morning on just the predicated wind direction, I'd have stayed home. But I know this spot well and I know the thermals well, so here I sit in a spot that's set for a N wind, in a predicted S-SE at 2 mph wind and I have a 3 mph N wind in my face. Why? To my S is open pasture that gets morning sun. To my N is a drainage. The sun warms that pasture and it's now creating a "vacuum" that's pulling cool air from the bottom N of me so hard, it's actually causing a little breeze in my face sitting in the blind. The buck I'm here after, is coming from the N, so it's a calculated risk, but I'm banking on the thermals pulling consistently until 9-9:30 when I need to leave anyway.
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I have one spot that is good for that. Jons sitting in it right now looking for his first trad kill. 
I wanted to report back on the last 60 days of hunting as I paid particularly close attention to the thermals this year. Hunting the thermals has always been a tool in my toolbelt, but more so at the macro level. I knew certain spots had certain consistencies and certain nuances, but with all the attention on thermals these days, I gathered more data at the micro level this year. What I learned is simply this: Not all thermals are created equal. Here's what I mean by that.
I have a stand we call The Maple Set. It's about 30 yards off a ridge top field, but 30' in elevation below the field. Another 25 yards away, and 25' in elevation below, is a shelf that sees a lot of E/W travel. With bedding nearby and the shelf below, it's too risky to hunt in the afternoon, so it's strictly a morning set. With the field being eye-level with the stand, I hung the stand knowing we'd hunt a N wind (field to stand) and the rising thermals would protect you from deer on the shelf below. But... that's only true on sunny mornings when that spot sees the sun. On a blue bird morning, that's one of the first spots to see sun and your scent rises out of there like someone turned on an exhaust fan. But hunt it on an overcast, "heavy air" morning and your scent sinks towards the bottom like an evening hunt.
It's one thing to understand thermals at a high-level, but it's critical to understand how the nuances impact your best stands. Not all thermals are created equal.
I have a stand we call The Maple Set. It's about 30 yards off a ridge top field, but 30' in elevation below the field. Another 25 yards away, and 25' in elevation below, is a shelf that sees a lot of E/W travel. With bedding nearby and the shelf below, it's too risky to hunt in the afternoon, so it's strictly a morning set. With the field being eye-level with the stand, I hung the stand knowing we'd hunt a N wind (field to stand) and the rising thermals would protect you from deer on the shelf below. But... that's only true on sunny mornings when that spot sees the sun. On a blue bird morning, that's one of the first spots to see sun and your scent rises out of there like someone turned on an exhaust fan. But hunt it on an overcast, "heavy air" morning and your scent sinks towards the bottom like an evening hunt.
It's one thing to understand thermals at a high-level, but it's critical to understand how the nuances impact your best stands. Not all thermals are created equal.
Sounds like a spot that you could get by with other winds on sunny mornings.
Yep. A light S wind would be fine, especially if I slipped in right at first light. A straight W or an E wind would be just fine too.