Wind Direction

[FinsnFur]

Walking into an area to make a stand with the wind to your face is common knowledge. It helps avoid being detected by whats up ahead.

How do you prefer to place yourself in position with the wind when calling and, why?

[centerfire_223]

I like to keep the wind either in my face or blowing cross ways to where I think the coyotes are. I try and make sure when I am hunting a cross wind that is blows onto an open field or something of that sort. If I am hunting in the timber I like to hunt into the wind, because I know if a coyote comes in behind me he is going to smell where I walked anyway. Hunting the timber is hard when you are hunting by yourself. There is just to many avenues for them to approach. If they can find a ditch or even a crease in the lay of the land they will use it.

[Bopeye]

I totally understand the problem of hunting hardwoods with by yourself. It is nice to have a partner in these situations. He or you can set downwind of the calling or the caller.
Helps you to nail those that try to sneak in on you.

[stevecriner]

Everyone loves the crosswind and everyone loves the wind in your face, but im almost guilty of playing a downwind everytime. If i can aproach a stand were i can keep my wind right enough so i wont be winded i set up almost everytime were i can see the down wind. We all now that 99.9% of the time a coyote is heading down wind so I try to utylize this were i can almost predict where he will show.  But we also know that sometimes terrain play a factor on any wind.( i learnt this because i shot a hedg tree once)  If you set up were you have some kind of comfort zone in the factor and its down wind its is an improvement to the set up in my opinion or this is what ive learned anyway.

steve

[FinsnFur]

Steve how often do you get a Coyote throw all caution to the wind (pun intended) and come straight in up wind?

[stevecriner]

I get several to come in from the upwind when i allow it and sometimes when i just screw up and make a mistake like i did that time i shot a hedge tree. If you put everthing you can in the coyotes favore on purpose it will increase your ratios drastically. For instance If you call a timber edge with a thick covered ditch to the downwind side and you have a crosswind 9 times out of 10 they will come up the cover or close to it. Once out in the field a ways they usually will filter toward the call. Then you also got the coyotes that will barrel right out and get toward the call no matter what wind.  I usually try to hunt a crosswind unless i have another shooter with me then one can hunt the up and cross,and one to the downwind. But i always try to see the down side. Sometimes i cant do that but when permitted i will.  It is so much easier to utilize the wind with a remote caller than it is a hndcall though. The remote is really the big key in a way.

I get coyotes regularly coming from the upwind or anywhere if I'm hunting virgin eared coyotes or coyotes that are not pressured much.

Im not trying to sound like an expert or anything this is what ive just learned and this winter also. You know when i shot that hedge and i couldnt figure out why them coyotes came upwind i was stumped and then the BOYS stepped up and helped me out and answered my question.  I allowed them coyotes to do that and didnt even realize it. Now i make sure i dont make that mistake again!!!  Thats the good thing about coyote hunting "we wil never get 'em figured completly"

[CCP]

I have killed coyotes in all kinds of wind and have changed tactics through the years. I agree with steve in setting up for the down wind shot. I always try to setup watching and funneling them down wind. They naturally want to come from that direction.

There are many times when a young or not so smart coyote will come barreling in from any direction but they are far and few between. I have went hunting many times and walk a 1/2 to a 1 mile to have the wind change I turn around and don't hunt it. I think one of the biggest mistakes is  hunting a place with the wind wrong and educating coyotes.

A few places I don't pay as much attention to the wind is LBL,  reason I have only limited time. I wouldn't dare hunt a new place unless I have perfect setup and wind direction. Why chance educating them?

It is very crucial to have many places to hunt, when I get up I go to the ones where the wind is in my favor. I have areas where I had to wait a few months before I had the wind right to hunt it. I have also had times where I couldn't hunt anywhere where the wind was right and stayed home or scouted new areas.

Bottom line for me where I hunt!!

If I cant setup with the wind going toward where I want them to come from to an opening in the woods I don't hunt it. Reason I don't have allot of places to hunt no need chancing educating the coyotes. Find the perfect setup on that property then wait for the wind to get right percentages WILL go up.

[Jimmie in Ky]

Access and permission to hunt an area play a role in this for me too. While I prefer the perfect wind in my face setup , it's not always possible. If I can use the wind to put an animal on to the property I have permission for, I will do it in a second.Down wind calling is a tool everyone needs to learn to use when you can. If you can put your scent out into an open area alongside the place you think the animal will come from, you can pull him to that edge for a shot.Jimmie

[Ladobe]

Great question and some excellent comments already gents.   

I too try to set up with a quartering to full face wind, and usually a ways downwind of where i think the predator will enter my intended open area from.   I always try to have the place already picked out where the predator will be shot before I give the first toot on the mouth call.   By pre-scouting or long experience on the same stand that is usually not that hard to do unless Old Wiley changes the game plan on you mid stream.   And I have used Jimmies "hunt downwind" to my advantage a few times too when the lay of the land dictated it was the only possibility, or when coyotes were seen on the way into my stand but hadn't seen me yet.     Used the wind to push them to open areas where I could still make the shot, albeit longer.

Just another variable of predator hunting that keeps us all on our toes and often gets us busted when it changes directions suddenly (common in the west anyway).   Keeps us all coming back to try another day though.

[FinsnFur]

Picking out the spot you expect Wiley to show is good and bad though.

I have a tough time keeping my attention off that prediction spot. I mean yeah why not look, that's where we expect him to show up, but in the main time he's crawling up my back door because I aint taken my eyes off the good spot, the spot I'm lined up with and ready to shoot at. 

[stevecriner]

And I have used Jimmies "hunt downwind" to my advantage a few times too when the lay of the land dictated it was the only possibility

Using this only when its your last possibility is a limitation in my opinion.  With the right downwind and comfort zone you can put a coyote where you want him.  I try to put everything in his favor except the part that I'm there.  I learned this just a while back and utilized it already to call in coyotes and seems like they will come right were you want them except for the crazy ones that run right in no matter what,but i don't deal with them kind much.  Due to limitations in property and pressure from other road hunters this is a tool i try to use evrytime if i can.

1. nice comfort zone that allows an easy approach
2. wind preferably blowind either cross or down wind to the desired approach
3. equals dead coyote(some of the time. Other times you just shoot there tail off)

Jimmie and Rich schooled me on this after a few hunts i had a while back. I was lacking the attention required to kill a coyote and let 2 backdoor me in the same day upwind. It was determined after viewing the screenshots that the coyotes followed the shadow line of the fence on the upwind side and on the other hunt the coyote traveled the drainage ditch. Both came in upwind totally were i didn't need them just because i wasn't paying attention. I even had a hunt for my video already edited before this happend that day talking about how a coyote will follow terrain to his advantage and i still let it get me. This is really something to be payed attention to and utilized completely. I don't let it get me any more. Now I'm just waiting for the next curve ball.  If you ever figure out one pitch from the coyotes they will always throw another.

[Jimmie in Ky]

It's not so much a limitation as it is another tool in our bag of tricks. You should always take the time to look a setup over before you sit down to call. Study all possible aproaches and how the wind is moving.

I got a little dose of schooling myself this afternoon. Another what if question to think about. What if the winds die? Thermals took over in just a few seconds and blew what was otherwise a good setup. I am sure that if the wids had continued another 30 minutes , I would have had a coyote in front of the gun. This is something I am going to have to consider whenever I make an afternoon stand in there. That particular area is going to require some extra footwork to get into , but I believe it will be worth it. Jimmie

[stevecriner]

Misting will take over then Jimmie. Gotta go ill come back and see what you think about it later this evening.

[Jimmie in Ky]

I don't put a lo0t of stock in cover scents. When a dog can pick you out of a crowd just by scent alone , it's hard to believe a coyote will buy the story .

I do think misting along with a decoy is a usable tactic sometimes.

Paying better attention to the terrain and how the thermals might move would have saved that setup for me. What gets me is I thought about going in and using the other setup before this one .  Area is also very good for cats as well. Lots of brush and overgrown fields in that area. There has always been a lot of sign for both cats and coyotes in this area.Just five hundred or so yards to the west would have put my scent out into an open area when the thermals died. I just tried getting to close and blew it not thinking about the animals that might be using that saddle in the ridge to enter the area. Jimmie

[stevecriner]

I don't put a lo0t of stock in cover scents.

Okay i agree,but.....  Misting what ive learned is really not a cover scent but is somthing that will cause a confusion over the coyote and this combined with the sounds might either stop the coyote long enough for a shot or bring him out to the edge to check things out, then a shot opertunity might materialize,, Misting is not what so ever a cover scent or an attractant , so ive been tought.

Really good thread going lets keep it alive.

[keekee]

One standing rule for me, no matter were I pick my set up is make them PAY for the wind! Be the set up cross wind, in my face or down wind, I make sure I can shoot the coyote before it can wind me!

There are allot of diffrent things I look at in a set up, wind is just one, I look at the terrain features and were I think the coyotes are before I even think about the wind. This is were my scouting comes into play. After I have scouted a area, I got a good idea of were the coyotes are, what there travel lanes are and were they are going to be holed up or traveling from then I think about the wind.

By this I mean until you have some idea of the terrain features, and what approach lanes the coyotes have the wind means nuthing, same with getting into a place to make a stand. You need some idea of were they will be first.Before a wind direction does you any good.

After I have all the pieces to the puzzle, the cross wind is my favorite set up, with a open area to my down wind. But I will call dead down wind if I know I can kill the coyote before he hits my scent cone! And believe it or not, I set up with the wind in my face less than any of the others. I dont like getting back doored. Unless I have a shooter that can set to my back side I almost never set up with the wind to my face. Or I can set up to were there is some kind of terrain feature that prevents the coyote from getting down wind of me, then this will be my #1 pick every time.

If I am alone, its e-caller time! And I almost 90% of the time set down wind of the caller.



Brent

[blakcoyote]

Like was mentioned terrain dictates setup.In my area,I hunt alot of small potholes that sit at the base of ridges.Most are bordered by tamarack  or cedar swaps.Basically these places are sitting in a bowl or horseshoe.Sometimes you can sit on a ridge to watch the frozen pond,other times you have to get right on the edge of the pond to get a good view to shoot.What I noticed in these situations,the hunting is good,but is a two-edged sword.If the wind is in your face,it tends to hit the thick trees behind you or the ridge and roll back onto the ice or pond in front of you,or if it's a cross wind in can swirl around like an eddy,kinda like a pot being stirred.I both situations,coyotes will wind you the minute they hit the ice or edge of the tree line.The thick treeline acts as a wall,so it helps get the coyotes into the open before they wind you.But when they do hit the edge,be ready to shoot and shoot well,because you normally only get one shot.I have seen many coyotes hit my scent and on their way out in a second,I've seen once that nose swipes the air,their whole demeanor or body language goes from sneak in mode to high alert and ready to bolt.I like these setups,it's fast action,and many times,this time of year when the snow is deep,about the only place to find callable coyotes around here.

[COYOTE INC]

I always walk into a stand with the wind to my face but I will setup sometimes with a crosswind.  Sometimes when I am hunting alone in the woods right off of a field I will go in about 50 yards or so and make a stand.  This prevents the coyotes in my area (Maine) from circling downwind of me and will keep them out in front of me for the most part.  The coyotes up here will do anything to not expose themselves so I use that to my advantage.
The best way to always know wind direction (That I have found) is to tie a piece of black thread to the muzzle of my gun.  It will constantly tell me the wind direction and also let me know if there are swirling winds just by looking at the end of my gun which prevents me from spoiling any honey holes or stands for that matter.  I like the ability to always know the wind instead of using those little chalk dispensers which take time and are a pain in the butt!  The best part is that it is so cheap to buy a spool of black thread and when it wears or tears off your gun just replace it.  Way cheaper then the wind checkers that you can buy, last a lot longer, and is the Ultimate Wind Checker!  Give it a Try, you won't be upset with the results!  My Hunting has been so much better since I started using it!