Wind Detection Powder?

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

I see on the shows them using some kind of powder. What could it be that doesn't have any smell yet still be effective. Any other idea's. Don't know why I'm even asking. It seems when I find a spot with the wind in my face once I sit it changes on me. Very aggravating.

[Doc]

If you ever run across a milkweed pod, be sure to stick it in your pack (preferably in a zip-lok bag). Setting one of those seeds from the pod loose at your stand will tell you exactly what the wind is doing .... not only right at your stand, but also a ways from you. You will be amazed at what the wind really does as it gets farther and farther from you. Those milkweed seeds will lay the whole thing out for you where the commercial sprays only give you a result of what is going on within a few feet of you.

[SteveNY]

I see on the shows them using some kind of powder. What could it be that doesn't have any smell yet still be effective. Any other idea's. Don't know why I'm even asking. It seems when I find a spot with the wind in my face once I sit it changes on me. Very aggravating.

Corn starch

[WNYBuckHunter]

I bought a puffer bottle from Dead Down Wind on sale and havent had to refill it yet. You can use Talc powder, it has no scent.

[Lawdwaz]

+1 on the milk weed pod. You need to get them a bit earlier than now though as they are in the expanded mode. Grab some when they just start to crack open.

It is kind of disheartening to unleash a couple seeds into the air, see them go perfectly in the direction you want then all of a sudden they start to com back past you in the WRONG direction!!

Time to hit Mahogany Ridge................................<grin>

[5.9cummins]

+2 on the milk weed pods.

Perfect example was the last Sunday when i was hunting in the x-mas trees. I thought the wind was completely in the wrong direction and i was really worried being on the ground.

I let a couple of those suckers go and they went about five feet and then straight up over the tree tops. Powder would have only told me i was in the wrong spot. I kept throwing those out every couple of minutes to double check.

I grabbed about 30-40 pods last year and have them in a coffee can. That way i don't think about using them i just throw a bunch out and let them go. I check the wind constantly.

[tughillhunter]

if your a smoker, that works well too, deer cant smell it in a stand. i do it all the time

[ny hunter]

I use a cotton ball just rip a tiny strand and let it go.

[HUNT6246]

Another thing that works well is to knot or glue a small feather to one end of a short piece of fine thread (about 4-6 inches) and tie the other end of the thread someplace on your bow (like a stabilizer) or front sling swivel on your gun. Works well except in really wet weather. It's always handy and ready to use, plus you don't have to be carrying additional items in your pockets. If you don't have a feather handy but have a friend who is a fly tier, ask them for a feather. They short have the thread too if you need it. A small breast feather from a wood duck or mallard works great.

[Jennifer]

Another thing that works well is to knot or glue a small feather to one end of a short piece of fine thread (about 4-6 inches) and tie the other end of the thread someplace on your bow (like a stabilizer) or front sling swivel on your gun. Works well except in really wet weather. It's always handy and ready to use, plus you don't have to be carrying additional items in your pockets. If you don't have a feather handy but have a friend who is a fly tier, ask them for a feather. They short have the thread too if you need it. A small breast feather from a wood duck or mallard works great.

This is exactly what I do. A light covert feather (not a rigid one) on a thread, tied to the sight on the end of my barrel. Always there with me and easy to see at any given time, it's so small nothing notices it fluttering there either.

[river]

if your a smoker, that works well too, deer cant smell it in a stand. i do it all the time

X2 on this................but I just quit this year!! UGH

[SteveNY]

X2 on this................but I just quit this year!! UGH

I quit too, I'm with you man.

[ny hunter]

Quit 8 years ago and still miss it some times....

[Doc]

As an alternative to my milkweed seeds, my wife donated a small spool of her least wanted sewing thread. I tie one end to a small leaf, and tie the other end to any overhanging limb. Actually it works well without the leaf. It's a lot like the feather idea above. Gives me a constant monitor of wind direction at my immediate location.

These things are not good for those that are easily discouraged. Almost every time, the wind takes an occasional "back draft" sending scent out all over the trail that I am expecting the deer to be using. I often wonder just how long scent molecules stay stuck to vegetation out there where the deer are coming from. In other words, if your scent blows all over the trail (even if just a brief time) is the stand blown for that particular hunt? I know if I walked down that trail, scent molecules would be sticking to every goldenrod, blade of long grass, and sapling that I might have brushed against and even in my footprints. And I know from personal experience that deer do detect those scent molecules. So I know scent does stick and remain active and detectable by deer for some period of time. The question is does the same thing hold true for scent molecules that get distributed by an occasional "back-blow" of the wind.

[Elmo]

Quit 8 years ago and still miss it some times....

Right with you man. Quit the same time. While I haven't touched a cigarette since, I have to admit I still hit the hookah here and there and whenever I get my hands on a nice Cuban.

[ny hunter]

Elmo whats Hookah?Or am I just getting old?

[fasteddie]

I thought a Hookah was a Boston Prostitute !

[Localqdm]

I think Alsheimer uses kids bubbles. I like the milkweed seed too. I wouldn't really worry about any scent from bubbles cause if they can smell the bubbles you better believe they already smell you.

[Elmo]

ny hunter...hookahs are those middle-eastern smoking pipes that has the water bowl at the bottom. Looks like a giant bong. "Shisha" is the flavored tobacco you put in it. I was introduced to it back in my college days by some Indian friends but now it's like the new "cool" and yuppie thing to do apparently.

fasteddie...the girlfriend would kill me but I wouldn't mind your idea of a hookah is it was a high end one. But for $20 bucks it's probably going to be one that's filled with every type of venereal disease out there.

[ny hunter]

Thanks Buddy..

[fasteddie]

A few years ago I was sent a wind detector from the NAHC for a Test review . It was a Sewing Machine Bobbin with a length of Blaze Orange thread . You tied a piece of the string on your bow or tree bracch to tell the wind direction . I thought , who the heck would buy this when they could just purchase a spool of cheap thread at the store .

[WNYBuckHunter]

LOL Eddie, theres an ass for every seat...

[Jennifer]

Hahah!! I can sell you my wind detection device, feather-on-a-thread, only $9.99

[gjs4]

If you ever run across a milkweed pod, be sure to stick it in your pack (preferably in a zip-lok bag). Setting one of those seeds from the pod loose at your stand will tell you exactly what the wind is doing .... not only right at your stand, but also a ways from you. You will be amazed at what the wind really does as it gets farther and farther from you. Those milkweed seeds will lay the whole thing out for you where the commercial sprays only give you a result of what is going on within a few feet of you.

Nothing better for hunting.

Wind map your stands in the summer with a smoke bomb (flea market) in a coffee can.

[hb270deermanager]

I agree milkweed pods or collect dandiloins when they turn

into seed carriers. Both tell you where your scent goes as

far as distance.I use both which ever is more available.Just

remember to use a good cover scent tinks vanish,dead down

wind and scent killer all work good.I use scent killer under my hunting

siut and dead down wind or tinks vanish over my hunting siut.I never

have any issues I have literalially reached out and touched deer on the ground.