homemade wind checker
Contributors to this thread:Equipment
From: ridgefire
02-Sep-09
just wondering what is the best stuff to use to refill a wind check bottle. thanks
From: N5J
02-Sep-09
corn starch works the best.
N5J
From: Matt
03-Sep-09
I use unscented talc.
From: ridgefire
03-Sep-09
talc. would be talcium powder correct
From: sharp69
03-Sep-09
Or crushed white chalk. Buy the sticks at the dollar store, put it in a plastic bag, apply a hammer, repeat as necessary.
From: Scotty
03-Sep-09
I tie a feather onto my bow for wind checks in my immediate vicinity. For down range checks I just use the fuzz from a milkweed, its free and effective.
From: Plowjockey
03-Sep-09
I saw a deal in Sports Afield or some hunitng magazine. They use baking soda in a sock. You put about a baseball sized amount in a sock tie it shut and store in a ziplock bag. It has 2 uses. You can powder yourself down to help with scent control or just tap it and the fine powder comes out for wind detection.. Just a little blurb I saw. Might make one and see how it works...
From: Straight —» Arrow
03-Sep-09
I just tie a thin black sewing thread on my stabilizer. I have had the same one on there for about 5 years now. All you have to do is look down at your bow to see the wind direction. No fooling around with powders.
From: Bernie P.
03-Sep-09
I tie on a fluffy black marabou feather with tippet material.It's so light it even lift's up when air thermals are rising.
From: Kevsam
03-Sep-09
I bought a $0.99 1 ounce shampoo bottle at wal-mart, whittled the plastic plug on the cap so it opens a quieter and filled it with baking soda (bought in bulk at Costco). Pretty cheap and does the job. I can't spray the powder out the top so I just shake a little out and see where it goes.
From: Shiras@home
03-Sep-09
"Or crushed white chalk. Buy the sticks at the dollar store, put it in a plastic bag, apply a hammer, repeat as necessary. "
Or I just rub it across coarse grit sandpaper.
From: btb
03-Sep-09
NO, you are all wrong,,,, Microballoons.
From: Extreme
03-Sep-09
Small lock de icer bottle filled with baking soda. I opened the hole up larger for flo.
From: PAOH
03-Sep-09
I use milkweed filaments just open one up. They are free and work excellent. The powder disappears right away where as the floaters can be seen for a good distance.
From: totalhuntingdisorder
03-Sep-09
Baking powder.
From: jay.s
03-Sep-09
what N5J said
From: jfish
03-Sep-09
If in a treestand it's hard to beat milkweed or cotton strands. Shovel a Q-tip in the edge of your stand. If you need to check wind just pull a few strands and drop them.. They float just as good a weed seed. No top to deal with and you can see it float considerably farther than powders.
On the ground stalking, your basic store bought powder wind checker.
From: bowtech hunter
03-Sep-09
i just put baby powder in a nose spray bottle.
From: jburr
03-Sep-09
Cattails . Fill a film canister with them , they will show a breeze you cant even feel
From: jburr
03-Sep-09
From: jburr
03-Sep-09
Cattail fluff will beat any powder out there and it's free . If you just like buying name brand go ahead .
From: High&Wide
03-Sep-09
Small container of baby powder with the twist top - very handy.
From: sharpstick
04-Sep-09
I carry a small ziplock or film canister full of the small light feathers from under a grouse wing or duck down. Costs nothing and it gives you an idea where the wind currents are going. i have let one go on top a coulee only to have it go 30 yards straight down hill and then do a 180 and come back past me...better than powder IMO.
Sharpstick
From: TD
04-Sep-09
Microballons. Most "powder" is too heavy, sinks too fast. These flakes dance on the wind a long ways.
Another advantage is I've found the perfect bottle for them. You need one with like a 1/2" fold out "spout" on the top, no top to unscrew or misplace. It's a big enough opening to let the flakes out, one handed use with minimal movement and totally silent. You're on your own as to what exact bottle to use, mine was off a discarded sun tan lotion bottle.
From: MadBowman
04-Sep-09
For years now I've been refilling wind checker bottles with DE ( A pool filter media ) also known as Diotomceous Earth, been using it for over 18 years. works great, if you have a pool with a DE filter, you'll already have a bag laying around.
From: CurveBow
04-Sep-09
Lazy J - I agree! :-)
>>>>----------->
From: Bullshooter
04-Sep-09
Just wear a feather boa on stand!
From: Kevsam
04-Sep-09
Bullshooter:
Do you also have to wear a camo banana hammock to go with the boa?
:)
From: >>>---WW---->
05-Sep-09
Tie about a 9 inch piece of white cotton sewing thread on your bowstring just below the idler wheel or top cam. Or right on the top string nock on a longbow or recurve.
I have tried tieing in on verious other places and it always seems like the bow itself would block some of the wind movement. Once I put it on the string, it worked like a champ.
Why white? So you can easily see it during early AM and late PM twilite hours.
Why cotton? Believe it or not, it actually seems to last longer than nylon thread.
From: seaofglass
05-Sep-09
I am going to try duct taping a cattail to my bow limb. They float nicely!
From: thesquid
05-Sep-09
Cattail, cotton wood, Milk Weed - - they all work great.
From: steff
05-Sep-09
The cattails keep plugging up my bottle.....
From: Coldsteel
05-Sep-09
All these ideas and methods sound great, My brother, and I have been using baking soda, for years. He does the sock method. For me its a foot powder bottle. But I'm going to give some of the others a try. Good stuff! :)
From: aussie
06-Sep-09
we got heaps of different flying seeds here in oz. they fly for miles er i mean kilometers
From: arctichill
07-Sep-09
During the fall in the west, Puff-Ball Mushrooms which have gone past their prime become speheres containing the finest brown powder imaginable. One squeeze and you can see the cloud of naturally occuring spores for some distance. If you can find them white and spongy like a marshmallow, then you just found the best side-dish around come dinner time!
From: Rattus58
07-Sep-09
I've only used thread with a piece of feather glued on and tied to inside of the loop. Works as good as anything I've seen and works while you're hunting 24/7, so to speak... its always giving you a reading.
Aloha...
From: petedrummond
07-Sep-09
dandruff....free but its hard to get it in a bottle.
