Keys to Becoming a Better Bowhunter with Archery World Champion Jackie Caudle
Day 3: Bowhunters Need to Know Wind Direction and Control Human Odor to Take Deer
Editor’s Note: Bowhunters already have started practicing for deer season, since many states’ bowhunting seasons open soon. Let’s hear what Jackie Caudle of Gadsden, Alabama, the two-time IBO World Champion, the four-time Buckmasters Champion and the winner of the 2003 ASA/NABH World Championship, who has competed in the sport of archery on the national and the international levels for more than 20 years, considers the keys to becoming a better bowhunter. Caudle also won the Gold Medal in the 2000 ESPN Great Outdoor Games and is one of Buckmasters 2011 Top Bow qualifiers for the 2011 Buckmasters Top Bow Indoor World Championship. His hunting friends consider him an expert at finding and taking deer with his bow. His hunting skills even may surpass his archery accuracy.
 Remember that wind direction is always the most-important key to being in the right place to hunt. After you’ve tested and checked your equipment and pinpointed the very-best spot in the woods to take deer, don’t hunt from that site, unless you have a favorable wind direction. Sometimes a bowhunter will go to a tree stand where he’ll have a favorable wind direction. However, the route he takes to his stand may cause him to be upwind of the deer. Then he may have killed his chances of taking a buck, because he hasn’t had a favorable wind direction when he walks to his stand. I’ve found that the deer’s best alarm system to notify him of the hunter’s presence is his nose. If you disregard the importance of the deer’s nose, more than likely you won’t take the deer. Even if I locate a stand site where I know the biggest buck in the woods will show-up the next day, if I don’t have a favorable wind to move to my stand and a favorable wind to hunt when I’m on that stand, I won’t return to that stand site, until the wind is favorable. Oftentimes a hunter thinks he can cheat and move to an area with deer sign in it and not have his hunt affected by the wind blowing from the wrong direction. However, the only person he cheats is himself. Control your human odor. The deer’s ability to smell you is dependent not only on the wind, but also on how you limit your human odor. I generally wash my hunting clothes in baking soda – not detergent – and don’t use any type of fabric softener. I use an odor eliminator to try to cover my scent after I put-on my clothes. Although many people say that as long as you’re hunting into the wind, you don’t have to worry about odor control, I disagree for several reasons. I want to eliminate as much human odor as possible when I’m walking to my stand to prevent the deer from knowing I’m even in the woods. Sometimes I’ve had deer come-in downwind of me, because I haven’t left much odor for them to smell. Another reason odor eliminators are critical to your bowhunting success is because many times the wind direction will change when a buck is coming toward you. But you drastically can increase the chances of that buck not smelling you, even if the wind does change, if you wear an odor eliminator.
 To learn more about successful bowhunting, go to www.nighthawkpublications.com/hunting/mastersbow.htm, and read about John E. Phillips’ book “The Masters’ Secrets of Bowhunting Deer,” which includes strategies from some of the nation’s top bowhunters.
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