How do you handle windy days?

[KennethDeemer]

Hey everyone!

Curious as to how you guys handle very windy conditions. Last year on our hunt, we had three or four awesome days of elk hunting, followed by three or four days of seriously windy conditions. Not like there were trees falling down everywhere, but it was a brisk Wind in my face all the time, on top of that, it was switching directions perpetually.

Curious to know how you all think about days like that and what strategies you employed to give yourself the best advantage.

Thanks in advance!

 

[5MilesBack]

Archery or rifle? During archery I have all season to hunt so I choose my days selectively. Most really windy days I stay in camp and rest up and recover. The wind is a real pain. I'll hunt in the snow or rain over hunting those windy days.

 

[Dos Perros]

Those days when the wind is up down left right...I just don't think there is anything you can do to kill one. Just have to wait it out.

 

[Skerhunter]

If it’s blowing hard all night/day, I just take the day off. Days where it’s only windy mid day, but you can’t hear well, I find a good glassing spot and try to be in a good position when it lays down at sunset.

 

[cnelk]

Same as the elk. Hang out, minimal activity

 

[Weldor]

I'll glass the Leeward sides through out the day, but I'm not against taking a nap every now again.

 

[KennethDeemer]

Archery or rifle? During archery I have all season to hunt so I choose my days selectively. Most really windy days I stay in camp and rest up and recover. The wind is a real pain. I'll hunt in the snow or rain over hunting those windy days.

Archery. Challenge is, this accounted for half our time out west last year - are there any areas you can focus on where you have found the wind to be minimized/more consistent?

 

[MallardSX2]

I just hunt.

The wind just gives me something else to bitch about. lol

 

[Fetty Wapiti]

Get in the thick stuff. That's where the elk will be. Wind is great as it can mask your noise. Scent is not much of an issue with elk and wind can difuse it

 

[Mike 338]

Fly a kite.

 

[bucksnbirds]

Stay in camp or have a backup plan close by for something in the low country.

 

[SonnyDay]

A few years back we were hunting a burn with a bunch of standing dead timber... which because of how hot the fire was, had all these crazy shapes, cutouts, fluting, etc. The wind was blowing about 50 mph... and as it came through that timber it sounded like there were a thousand voices screaming all around us. Like something out of a horror movie.

We were trying to outflank the wind by going up above timberline and over to the downwind side of some steep north-facing dark timber and slides so we could have the wind in our faces.

Took us like 4 hours to bushwhack up the STEEP mountainside, over the tundra, and as we got ready to hunt the dark timber the wind switched around and began blowing from our backs.

We gave up and hiked back to camp without even trying to hunt. By the time we got to camp it was completely calm...

 

[Ucsdryder]

Wind sucks
Rain sucks

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

On very windy days, when in an area where the elk are hunkering down a bit more and are not as mobile, I like to setup for ambush and still hunt styles versus spot and stalk.

This strategy has worked well for me in high hunting pressure areas as well, using other hunters to push elk towards us.

Those slightly steeper, thick/dark timbered areas are a good refuge for the elk from high wind and high hunting pressure.

One example from rifle hunt in Idaho in 2020...

I had glassed up 3 or 4 groups of hunters, hunting a popular basin. I made a judgment call based on the high wind/wind direction and hunting pressure locations on where the elk might push to, and beat feet to get up to a ridgeline opposite the basin. Because of the elevation climb and snow on the ground, I had to swing around the ridge at lower elevation and then climb up where the topo map showed an easier hike.

This took nearly all day to get there and I got setup still hunting a ridgeline between two basins in the afternoon. That evening, I began hearing some cow calls down below me and moved into a position that had a large opening in the timber. I got lucky and a raghorn came through the shooting lane and caught a 95 grain SST in the heart/lungs. He tumbled down the slope into the woods and died about 50 yards from where he was hit.

Now these elk could have been pressured from those hunters and the wind, or they could have come into the wind from the opposite basin, or had been there all day long, no telling. In general though, still hunting and sitting steep wooded areas/clear cuts with shooting lanes has been a great rifle hunt strategy for me.

In this photo below you can see the basin way out in the distance, and the shooting lane I killed the elk in.

 

[vladkgb]

Hunt. I went out in a blizzard during my rifle hunt last year. Wind was blowing from the north, and the elk i found, seeked refuge on an open south facing slope. Because it was windy and snowing, my noise and visibility were a lot less, so i was able to get close enough for a shot in the open.

 

[LongWayAround]

I would rather not get crushed by a falling tree. Either hunt where that won't happen or lay low and wait it out.

 

[Mojave]

He said “The wind never blows in Wyoming,”

I said, “Mister, where you from?
It’ll take the top offa big R.C.

Or peel an unripened plum!

Wherever you been, you been lied to!

I lived in Wyoming, I know.

I once seen a horse turned clean inside out

From standin’ outside in a blow!



You don’t have to shave in the winter.

Just pick a cool, windy place.

Stand there a minute, yer whiskers’ll freeze

and break off next to yer face!



They claim that a boxcar in Rawlins,

A Denver and ol’ Rio Grande,

Was picked off the track

and blowed to the east

And beat the whole train to Cheyenne.



Why, they tell of a feller in Lander

Who jumped off a bale of hay

Before he hit ground the wind picked ‘im up

He came down in Caster next day!



They don’t have to shear sheep in Worland

When they’re ready, they wait for a breeze

And bunch ’em in draws

where the willers are thick

Then pick the wool offa the trees!



But the windiest tale that I heard

Was about the small town of Sinclair.

It used to set on the Idaho line

Then one spring it just blew over there!



I carry this rock in my pocket

For good luck and here’s one for you.

Every little bit helps in Wyoming.

If yer skinny you better take two!



Well, Stranger, you might just be part right.

Though, fer sure you ain’t seen Devil’s Tower.

Let’s say the wind never blows in Wyoming …

Under 85 miles an hour!




Seriously though.

This is the problem with the considerable investment in time the non-resident tag points program drama creates. You can 100% have an absolute shit hunt.

Has happened to me. Will happen to me again.

Not any idea of how to combat the following:

Weather
Drought
Predation
Work stuff
Being sick
Disease


This is why it is important to invest as much as you can in more than 1 experience a year. If you have a bad hunt, and don't have another hunt for several years it is emotionally disabilitating.

If you have a bad hunt, and then have 3 good hunts later that year. You won't hardly think about it.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Absent a significant safety issue, I don’t let weather dictate when I hunt. I simply adjust however I need to.

 

[Jaquomo]

Archery. Challenge is, this accounted for half our time out west last year - are there any areas you can focus on where you have found the wind to be minimized/more consistent?

I've never found such a place, but some of the "hunt all day" guys apparently have.

I take the days like the OP described off. Elk have low activity levels and are on high alert because two of their primary senses are compromised.

 

[Jaquomo]

Get in the thick stuff. That's where the elk will be. Wind is great as it can mask your noise. Scent is not much of an issue with elk and wind can difuse it

What sort of elk are you hunting where scent is not much of an issue? When I hunted and guided in open country I e watch elk get a solid whiff of hunters at 400 yards and flee into the next unit.