Wind!!! What do you guys do?!

[Eyeguy]

Ok HT crew,
Just got back from an archery hunt in southern CO. The first couple days we were on bulls. They were bugling and decently responding to calls. Seemed like every drainage we hunted had multiple bulls. Things were going awesome.....and then... it hit. Unrelenting WIND. We could no longer hear bugles to locate bulls and the bulls seemed to almost shut down. We hardly ever saw them in clearings. They seemed to stay in the timber and no longer respond to ANY calls. The wind was so strong it was actually blowing down trees! SO. My question is.....do you guys have similar experiences? What do you do to punch your tag when chasing bugles is no longer an option. We tried sitting on used trails and by a couple of wallows. The FRUSTRATING thing is even when we made the right calls and sat in productive spots.....the strong winds created swirling thermals and breezes with flows and counter flows....which made fooling the elks noses impossible. It was beyond disappointing. Id love to hear thoughts and ideas.
Steve

 

[squirrel]

Once on a goose-less day my buddy said "wish i could be a goose for a day, so I could understand why on some days they are suicidal and others un-killable" I said why? we'd only hunt 5 days/year if you knew that!

With a bow there are days when you are not going to kill an elk, but you can spook a ton out of your immediate area by pushing a bad situation, go to camp, go to a bar, go home, but go.

And if in beetle kill areas- take your naps in the sage- its safer.

Biggest single mistake most archery hunters make is not allotting enough time to let things happen, instead they give it a week and try to make things happen, with some success of course.

 

[Eyeguy]

Once on a goose-less day my buddy said "wish i could be a goose for a day, so I could understand why on some days they are suicidal and others un-killable" I said why? we'd only hunt 5 days/year if you knew that!

With a bow there are days when you are not going to kill an elk, but you can spook a ton out of your immediate area by pushing a bad situation, go to camp, go to a bar, go home, but go.

And if in beetle kill areas- take your naps in the sage- its safer.

Biggest single mistake most archery hunters make is not allotting enough time to let things happen, instead they give it a week and try to make things happen, with some success of course.

This is a great reply. Thanks for your insight. We did fear we would spook elk due to the wind so we didn't push any situation too hard. But being ultra conservative doesn't punch too many archery tags either. I think its like you said above....we were in a no (or dang near little) win situation. We sensed this and pulled out a day and a half early. There was some beetle kill....and these were the trees toppling like dominos. Not a safe place to be that far from the road. I think we made the right choice. Thanks again.