OK so how exactly do I do that? I've got thick bedding cover mixed in with oaks in a large enough area that I and the deer basically have 360 degree access with no side where deer wont go. Yes, with a couple of seasons of good property management i can create a better hunting environment with proper choke points and funnels, but for now that's not an option. If I'm watching a trail from bedding to feeding area, i set up with the wind in my face, facing the way i expect the deer to come from, but that leaves my wind blowing the way the deer are going, into the feeding area. So if I let one pass i get winded, it makes a ruckus and blows everything out of the area. So how do you guys do this? always shoot the 1st one? call it quits if the 1st one isn't a shooter? let it ride and hope the next one is deaf? Do i want my wind going into the thick brush so i get winded before they get into range? doesn't seem ideal. Do I want it going into the open area where i get winded after they pass, or or do I want it going along the edge between so I get winded if they use a different trail? Am i overthinking this? Am i wasting my time trying to hunt this location until i can terra-form it to my needs?

Deer can come from any direction. I just hope most come opposite way the wind is blowing. I have had deer blow and minutes later another deer walks thru the area. Ever seen them blow at a bobcat and stomp after it? They usually continue to feed after it leaves

I would think you need to figure out where they're going or coming from and hunt there instead of the bedding area

Thats a good thought

In the hills(dang near mountains) where i hunt you cant hunt the wind. Itll blow from 27 different directions by 9am

If your gun hunting then back off the trail 100 yds.

This ^^

I just turn around and face the other way.

No such thing as "hunt the wind" on mountain sides, period. Hunt thermals and swirls and that's a lot of guess work.

Let the deer go and hunt another spot.

Hunt a cross wind....

Hunt it when it's not blowing in either of those directions.

This ^^^ And usually will. They also blow at a lot of things. All you can do is the best you can to increase your odds, then hope you get a little lucky as well.

I don't think there is a place I hunt that the wind doesn't swirl and change directions a hundred times. Hunt high and as scent free as possible with cedar, wax myrtle and pine cover scent. I don't get busted too often.

Hunt when the wind isn't blowing towards the bedding area or the direction that they're walking. I would put a camera out and figure out which trails the deer (whatever you are looking to shoot) are traveling, and then you will know what wind you need to get close.

If you are hunting near any steep hills, aka mini mountains like beadlescomb said, you can forget about the prevailing wind direction. I killed my best deer to date on a morning with a slight NW wind facing the "wrong" direction according to prevailing wind direction. The buck came directly downwind of me according to prevailing wind, but never smelled me. I had a huge cut over bottom land in front of me and a steep hill right behind me and I was hunting on the side of that hill. The sun had been over the horizon for about 45 minutes or so, heating up all of super cold air down in the bottom, causing it rise. Thermals rule the day in that instance and my scent was being carried up directly behind me up the hillside. Bucks will walk those benches on hillsides to catch that thermal action to smell for does down in bottoms.

Figure out how wind moves in relation to being heated by the morning sun and the surrounding topography and you'll have deer hunting partly figured out. Partly.

You got it.

Yep.

Nailed it. Get you some milkweed seeds to better understand thermals

Deer rarely travel a straight line for very long distances. You got to either hunt on a different wind, or find a different place along their paths to hunt the wind you are hunting.

Example:
Bedding area to the north, food to the south, deer trails running north to south. Either need a west or east wind to hunt the trail between bedding and food.

More realistic scenario:
Pine thicket 100 yards north of a bean field with fence running east/west. Between bean field and thicket is a mixed area of hardwood and a creek, with a wide spot in it like a beaver pond approximately 100 yards long. While scouting the bean field you notice the deer like to enter closer to the west corner, which correlates they are crossing the western end of the beaver pond. You'd want to hunt the west pond edge on a NW wind. Deer coming from north won't smell you and you know they traveling SW when they get past you. Your scent is blowing across the water.

Yep. Same here