Could use advice on stand placement

I could use a little advice on choosing a treestand location. For years I have been a spot and stalk mule deer hunter and haven’t put a whole lot of time into treestanding whitetails. I have done my fair share of it but mostly in the flat lands of South Dakota where picking stand locations isn’t all that difficult. Now my problem is that I was granted access to a piece of property a week or so ago that has quite a few whitetails on it. It’s a river bottom that is 3 miles long and is full of big cottonwoods in the bottom and big bluffs on each side of the river. For the past week I have been sitting on the bluffs above the river bottom watching the deer in the mornings and evenings trying to figure out their patterns. I have found two possible stand locations where I have been seeing deer entering and leaving the river bottom as they come and go from an oats field where they feed half a mile away. Problem is that whenever I go down to the river the wind is either blowing up or down the river bottom. The deer are coming from both directions so when I go in there the wind is always wrong in one direction. I need it to blow perpendicular to the river rather than parallel to it but it never does. Any suggestions on what to do? I would like to be in the bottom because I see deer all the time that cruise up and down it but don’t come out. I can imagine once the rut gets going it would be a great place to be to catch bucks moving up and down it looking for does.

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I need it to blow perpendicular to the river rather than parallel to it but it never does. Any suggestions on what to do?

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Wait for the right wind direction. As frustrating as it is waiting for that right wind, it should be worth it.

I have a few spots like that myself its tough. Problem is some guys only have so,many days in a season to hunt might not get that perfect wind day on a day your free. Are u bow hunting this or gun hunting? If gun id pick a good tree 50 yards off the travel rought and get up real high in a tree maybe 20 plus feet and use alot of scent spray and hopfully that wind will stay above their noses. But bow hunting u might be screwed

Or go to church sunday and pray to the whitetail deer hunting gods to switch it up for a month.

I’m bowhunting it.

When I’m sitting above the river on the bluffs somedays there will be a good cross wind just like I need but when I get in the river bottom it changes and either blows up or down the river. I don’t think the wind ever blows across the river like I need it to.

My experience is that wind in the river bottoms or valleys always seems to swirl.

I have had my best luck hunting mornings versus evenings in river bottoms or valleys. With little or no wind, the thermals should get your scent up in the air enough to keep approaching deer calm, provided your practicing good scent control.

I gotta believe the wind is always wrong one way or the other once down in the valley. What I’m envisioning is a rather steep set of bluffs all along the river funneling the wind either predominantly up or down river.

In my opinion, you are simply going to have to hunt and risk getting winded by some deer. I’d try a combination of doe estrus/buck in rut dripper and scent eliminator tools like Nose Jammer.

I see guys hunting along the Powder River all the time in the same scenario you are describing. These are guys with camera men etc… Knowing you, you’ll get out of the tree and start rattling/stalking the deer.

Good luck!

Justin and Kooty make great points.

I have a question to follow it up:
Is there an area that doesn’t have any trees?

If yes, I would look for a spot that pinches down to open area without any cover or has a little gap without woods that still presents a shot opportunity. After that, I would put a stand on either side of the opening (or both) and sit in the stand that offers the best conditions for that day.
If no, than you are SOL…

I have used the cow pie trick with some success. Hunting when there is little to no wind is a good option. I would wait until “prime time” before i risked stinking up the place and potentially forcing the deer to relocate. Getting high up in the tree, good scent control, and saving the spots for the best time of year are what i would recommend.

Gobbler,

There are a couple spots where the river bottom necks down some to where it’s maybe 200 yards across and the trees are thin. I’m thinking about putting a stand there. At least I would be able to see any deer that comes buy. Plus it’s at a bend in the river where I could hopefully keep my scent to one side.

There are a few cattle in the river bottom now so there is cow crap everywhere.

IMO Sit tight!!Hunt it from afar and do the home work, TO me where the river is wide and the cover is narrow your gonna get your pinch points, isolating a pinch point in a flater location would be ideal because as you stated in a bottem situation it seems it will never be good wind for multidirectional deer movement. Its been my experience everytime I kill a buck that “you cant kill a big buck without hunting marginal winds” Scent reduction and elimination products are evolving seasonaly, they work when strict measures are applyed. I would hold off hunting the bottems hard until the last week of the month unless you feel you can kill a big deer. scout it out mid day now with the wind in your face and hang a few sets on ideal locations. For me noting wind direction at the parking location then noteing the winds at hunting sites has been very helpful.
Bottems are a tuff spot to hunt but I’ll trade ya spots any week if your looking for a different veiw!
Best of luck, feild situations are hard to judge from a computer desk. Although I got a strange feeling I will see a dead whitetail in your grips in less than 50 days! Good luck!

no matter what the wind direction is with the bluffs on either side the wind will always blow up or down the bottom I even noticed this my self when out in SD this past week this same thing had us scraching out heads also but we figured out that if there is a spot that the river turns enough to blow the scent over the water the deer we scouted were walking up and down the bottom and followed the river only crossing in a few select spots so if you have a spot that you can hang a stand right on the bank so no deer can walk between you and the river with the wind blowing over the water you should be able to pull it off we were able to do so and saw tons of deer and never got busted the other thing to consider is access I like to walk the river or creek if possable, also do not hunt with light winds of 3 to 5 mph it will just swirel in that bottom with the bluffs being there even if with the thermals I got screwed out of taking a nice buck a few years ago in the same situation the thermals were working good but they started to swirel and I got winded by a nice buck that was 90 yards out I would try to wait for a steady wind 8 mph or more so that it dose not swirl on you the other option is to locate where the deer are crossing if they are and whitch direction they travel after crossing and set up on the crossing and figure out what wind you will need to be down wind of the deer when they cross that is about the best advice I have with out being able to look at ariel photos

P.S If you only are able to hunt a few days and you have a light wind if it were me I would scout from above and see what the next day brings no use getting excited and going in on less than perfect conditions and blowing out that big buck you are hunting you just need to hunt smart and make those sits count

Wow! Thanks for all the information guys. You have been a ton of help. I set 3 stands last night. Think I’m going to sit above and watch it a couple more times and make sure I’m happy with their locations before I hunt them. I have a feelng it’s going to get rifle hunted when season opens so I think my chances of killing one are best right now. But first I have been trying to kill an antelope that has been hanging out about a mile away. He has been consuming most my evenings so the whitetails have been taking a backseat. Maybe tonight he’ll make a mistake