Eve
Everyone keeps saying that. And while I'm sure he is an ok hunter. He doesn't know the difference between a button buck and a "velit spike" he has no clue about wind. His scent regiment is sweat in awful hunting aparel and spook a bunch of deer and hope. The amount of deer pushed and spooked or that winded them is crazy. I don't get blown at that many times a year as they did in a few evening's. If they hunted Michigan more than Iowa and other big buck states there collection of bucks wouldn't be near a braggy. Imo. That said I love watching the show much better than most. And a few of the are good they just weren't hunting in this one. They all seem like fun guys to be around but not playing the wind and being scent free doesn't do a lot for ya in Michigan.
When you only have a few days to hunt a new area the aggressive tactic Dan uses is highly effective. He seems to understand where the bucks will be bedded from looking at satellite images, but the only way to know for sure is to get right right to the edge of that spot and find the fresh buck sign. In high density areas, he’s going to blow out some deer doing that.
He does hunt the wind as far as paying attention that his scent isn’t blowing into where he thinks a buck is bedded. My guess is he has multiple spots pegged on a map to check and then picks where he goes based on the wind that day. If he finds good buck sign, he sets up and hunts. If he doesn’t, he moves on to a different spot. He doesn’t have time to hunt a good looking funnel and just wait them out.
It is a much different style of hunting than if you have all season to hunt an area. In that case a guy would take more precautions to not push the deer around because you can screw up the spot for later in the season. Scent control and waiting for the buck to make a move rather than risk spooking him out is the name of the game.
As far a scent control, I quit worrying about that years ago. I know I get winded once in a while, but not by the deer I am actually hunting that day. I make an educated guess where I think the buck I want is bedded and just set up according to the wind for that spot. Since going to that tactic rather than always “playing it safe” my success rate on older bucks has gone way up. I can literally smoke in my stand and still kill a 3 1/2 yo buck that sit if I have set up correctly.