I am always trying different material for wind indicators. I have settled on pink masonry string from Lowes. It is a 3 strand string and you need to separate and only use one strand. Brush it fluffy and it works great.

That's very cool. Have you ever tried belly feathers from turkey or geese?

I do the same with dental floss.

Cool. I've always used floss but that looks like it would be more durable

I like milkweed fluff, but that will get the job done as well

Remember that old show "Taxidermy Trails"? That fella always had a piece of flo green yard on his top tip, like yours.

Nice boo backed bow btw. ;)

OH, Have you tried dental floss? From your photo I think dental floss breaks down into smaller fibers.

Bowmania

I have tried floss. You can get this as fine as you want. I just brushed it a couple of times. I used the un-waxed floss but can't find it anymore.

I do remember that green yarn. I have 2 boo backed IPE bows that were poor attempts that I use to stretch my strings. You can't hurt them even after leaving strung for a couple days.

Poor attempts happen when you build all natural bows.

If you can't find unwaxed floss, you can just rub it between your fingers with a little dish soap. Great for fly-tying, too... You can tie the fly with everything pretty well contained and then get it down to those really fine, supple fibers. Tough as nails, too!

I always carry a Q-tip...cheap and easy to carry. Just pull off a fiber or two and toss to the wind. If depositing scent concerns you, dip the ends in deer urine and let dry completely.

Nothing better than Johnson/Johnson baby powder, in a squeeze bottle.

Bob

Always used dental floss and a small feather tied to my bow string, but the feather usually "snaps" off eventually. For something to "let go" from the stand, I like the milk weed fluff, as i can watch it as it floats off easier than a powder.

Mini Bic lighter. Scent free, works in the dark and you can also start fires with it in a pinch. - John

Down windfeathers for decades & send to any & all I have occasion to write or ship something. Tie w/dental floss & it'll move if the wind even considers blowing.

Alice marabou feather on waxed dental floss and a small pill bottle stuffed with milk weed flu. tucked in a top pocket. Fun to watch the milkweed flu drift in the wind currents. Sometimes it changes direction and reveals where your scent really ends up. TLM

Here's what I have done. I let one rip (Fart) and if my eyes burn then wind is behind me. If they don't burn wind is in my face. Pretty natural I'd say not needing anything else.LOL

Good one Cat.

I am guessing you hunt alone, maybe not by choice.

I just call the weather station and they tell me what I need to know.........LOL!!!!!!!!!

I use a turkey feather on my top limb, it looks neat also.

similar ot the q tip mentioned above, I carry a cotton ball in my chest pocket and pull off some slivers and drop it. you might be VERY surprise how the wind changes from 18 feet up until the cotton hits the ground. another advantage to the cotton is that it is totally fine to go in the wash. as little as it takes, the same cotton ball can last several seasons. mg

trapperkayak, I use a ruffed grouse breast feather.

I bet that looks nice on your bow Fuzzy. Rymancat, you'll never have to worry about a deer circling to get downwind of you. No wonder you are so successful.

I cut the seeds off milk weed fluff and stuff in a film canister with a small hole cut in the bottom to pull a little out at a time. one time I pull some out, released it a arm's length away on my right side and watched it float off behind me. a few seconds later it came back on my left side and floated out of sight in front of me.

Mohican and MattG above nailed it. If you use a wind indicator you should use something that will drift with the wind currents.

I can tell immediately just by facing into the wind which way it's blowing, but what you can't tell is what it's doing 10 or 15 ft. below you.

Can't tell you how many times I've been surprised by how the wind switches direction as it drops to ground level. I think that's one of the biggest reasons guys will swear to certain regimens of scent control, claiming that this or that works, and that the deer came in directly downwind, when in fact the wind at ground level was different than observed up in a stand.

This is mostly directed at treestand hunters, but many times relevant on the ground too due to eddying wind currents.

If you eat apples the night before it's like an orchard in am. They run in on you almost like baiting.LOL

Where did you get the grouse feather Joe find it off the forest floor.LOL

Grouse feathers make really cool looking tip overlays I seen done in the past.

This is all wives tales stuff. When wind swirls and rises and lowers there's not much your going to do out in open air. Thats the whole idea of being elevated but avoid looking like pop sickle and skylined.

Any time I hit a grouse or a quail with my bow it is a Trophy! I always make a point to save some of the feathers to use as wind indicators threaded to my bow. It not only tells me what the wind is doing (at my bow) but it also reminds me of hunts past.

Looking for a replacement for the powder in these "wind detect powder" bottles? Whats the best non-scented powder to use? I like a marabou feather tied to my quiver, but that really don't show me what the air current is doing beyond a few feet. Something that floats along in the current and visible shows whats really going on.

Hogs are good wind indicators. They let you know the second that the wind shifts In their favor!!! Thank you. Thank you, I'll be here all week. Please tip your waitress.

Milkweed is the best I have ever used. I use velcro for a zillion things but always have the hook portion left over -here is what I doto get rid of some of it, sew a small patch on the front of my cammies. prior to climbing into my stand I stick some milkweed fluff on it and it sticks in place for me to pull some off when in my stand. Sort of a milkweed fluff dispenser on my sleeve.

I carry a small bottle of kids bubbles to test wind direction. They go a long ways before they pop.

I get one of those battery powered fancy wind indicators with the fancy lights on them.,

I have an app on my phone ;)

Just tie a marabou feather to your bow limb. It will show the slightest breeze. Use a piece of unwaxed dental floss to attach it.

3ditional, ever try mixing some of that kids bubble soap with some deer in estrous urine? Now that is an interesting thought, maybe worth a try...

I have a Mallard Drake tail feather tied to about 4 inches of serving on the tip of my bow.

Ryman: And it also doubles as a grunt call!

TrapperKayak, there's no deer here but that may very well work in your neck of the woods. Like you said, maybe worth a try.

Darrin, go to a pharmacy and buy some talc.

Bowmania

Steal a stick of sidewalk chalk from your sister's kids and rub one end lightly on a piece of metal window screen. Instant odorless powder. Now steal a small squeeze bottle from you wife and fill half full of powdered chalk. That's what I did. I meant "borrow".

have been using the maribou feather with unwaxed floss to hold it...ever since first saw the 8th Dwarf use it on his videos and sold it in his online trad store.

keep em sharp,

ron herman

Pvt Smuck, great idea. I like cattail fluff also. I think scented bubbles have been tried/marketed at one time.

Good idea, Todd. Thanks.

I have been bowhunting so long I can tell a gentle breeze on my face and back of neck no matter how calm the wind is.

dental floss works good. But in the mts, its often drifting one way and seconds later its drifting another. Winds are fickle, I usually go with the direction it "mostly" blows realizing it will probably change every now and then.

But I ALWAYS pay attention to thermals.

I hunt the same kind of areas, Shade. Steep mountains. Just because the air current is hitting you one way does not mean in 20 feet it don't swirl and change direction. Steep ridges and hollers do funny things to wind directions and air currents.

The problem I have with floss on the string is that it only shows you what the wind is doing where you are currently standing. I hunt from trees, and watching a fluff of milkweed or cattail swirl around and head in the exact opposite direction that your floss is pointing is an eye opening experience.

I guess they both have good points, depending on their application.

It's not just using dental floss. The unwaxed floss simply holds a marabou feather (i.e., for fly tying) and the feather will move at the slightest hint of breeze.

As Shade said, around here you can take ten steps hand have the air/wind/breeze completely reverse itself. These mountains are full of little tricks like that, and it will be different when the leaves fall as well.

I refill the little powder puff bottles with fine ash from the fireplace. Works great.

I refill the little powder puff bottles with fine ash from the fireplace. Works great.

Dental floss on bow and powder puff bottle for seeing the wind currents.

The BEST INDICATOR EVER.....deer's tail! If it pops up, you're upwind :)

I use corn starch in my puff bottles works great . Milk weed is a noxious weed and in many areas illegal to spread you shouldn't use it. Here in ND we don't use an indicator we just look to see which direction everyone is leaning.

Fine fire place ash! Good idea, Peco! I may try that.

I don't mind milkweed around our property as monarch butterflies are dependant on it, and spraying chemicals to kill it is more noxious. .I'd say.

Sandy

Milkweed is the only food for Monarch Butterflies larvae, so it is good to have enough to supply them food to raise their young for the trip back to Mexico. It's been around for centuries and certainly not an issue here in the Northeast. Matter of fact, since 2007, milkweed has been grown and used commercially for non-allergenic pillow filling.

In WWII they also used it for insulation material and as a cheap source for latex.

"Here in ND we don't use an indicator we just look to see which direction everyone is leaning."

Now THAT is funny!

I will agree with those who advocate something that you can watch as it floats away from you - but I'll keep 6" of floss on my string anyway :)

Gotta love Thermals, dontcha? Those babies are like elevators for Stank!

One day with a mild west wind and gnats pestering me, I lit a pipe. The smoke went up the knoll between two wooded smallish valleys, I was sitting near the bottomof the knoll. A bit later, I could see the smoke heading down hill against the mild westerly breeze in the setting sunlight down below me to the left. The smoke went up the hill in open got into the tree filled valley and came down hill with the evening thermals. The yearling doe, that snorted and ran off, confirmed that I was seeing my smoke, she was in no position to see me until she came running by with her tail up. Air can do funny things that a wind indicator on your bow cannot always predict.

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