Weather + temp = frustrating times

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briz514

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Spent the day in rain and sleet yesterday while deer hunting near Mont-Tremblant QC. Heard some calls very early on but after that the day was completely futile. And I`m telling myself that the calls I heard weren`t other hunters, just to keep my spirits up ;)

I took two days off work at the end of next week so I could do a good 4 day stint. They`re calling 90% rain the first three days and temps that are higher than normal... :(

So what I`m looking for other than -encouraging words- is perhaps some insight into how adjust to the weather.

I assume that the rut is going to delay on the female side until the weather gets colder. This seems to be the consensus among things I have read... That the female cycle needs a cold snap to trigger it. Go ahead and flame me if I`m way off base here, I can take it. It`s my second season deer hunting :confused:

And I`ve read mixed opinions about how deer react to weather like this. Some say they go about their business as usual while others say that they bed down when the weather is ugly. Based on my experience this week and last (it snowed) I tend to believe the latter. There wasn`t much happening last weekend either.

Anyhoo... Didn`t want to post a short story here ;)

Thanks
 
In general, deer tend to get into heavy cover during nasty weather. So if there is a cedar swamp or other tangle-hole in the area you are hunting, the deer will likely be in there to avoid some of the wet/cold. They will be hanging tight under cedars or other thick cover, and if you are not hunting with a dog they can be devillish to bust out of the cover. But they still have to eat and will make foraging trips if there is not food available to them. (They do eat cedar of course, so if it is a cedar swamp they will likely stay put...)

Biologists say that the rut is triggered by the amount of daylight more than the temperature - this makes sense if you consider that whitetails rut down in the southern USA where they don't ever see snow, let alone cold weather. Folk wisdom does hold that the rut will be "harder" if the nights are cold, and indeed this has been my own experience, but anyways I would put my money on the biologists.

When it is raining/sleeting and generally miserable weather, you have two main options:

1. stay inside and call it a beer day

2. get out and walk/still hunt

There is not a lot of sense taking to a stand in this kind of weather, since the deer will not be moving much. So if they are not coming to you, you have to go to them. Good luck!

Doug
 
I hate to dissagree with Doug but it takes a lot of really crappy weather or deep snow to push the deeer into the cover here. They will bed where it is dry and they can see and hear better which is usually on a ridge top or shelf that is higher than the surrounding area. I see deer bedded in the middle of the fields often in the rain.
A doe bleat works well to call young bucks in the rain right now... still hunting is excellent in a light rain too.
 
Think it depends on the area. Where we are if theres anything to difuse their senses you may has well stay at home. Soon as the rain is heavy enough or dripping off twigs hard enough to make noise or the wind is audible its a total waste
 
I have shot plenty of deer in the rain, they have no where to go so they are still in the bush. One place you are not likely to shoot a deer is in camp, so if you don't hunt you will not see or shoot deer. I find much like everything else in life, if you work hard at hunting success is your reward.

Andy
 
Thanks for the tips :)

I actualy did abandon my cache before noon and tried a little still hunting. Discussed things with my partner that evening and we decided next week to do a cache hunt early morning, still hunt some interesting spots during mid-day while also scouting/spotting and then cache hunt again for sunset.

Hopefully we'll be able to find some doe bedding areas during our walking / still hunting and locate the deer trails between them. I want to be hunting those trails for buck. Figure that regardless of the weather, the bucks will still want to visit their potential lovers at some point. And if the females 'stay home' while it's raining the bucks will know exactly where to find them.

Weather looks like it'll be clearing up by Saturday and the temp's supposed to drop nearly 10 degrees :)
 
Looks like you have a plan. Go out there and enjoy yourself. You will soon learn that catching your deer is just the bonus. Enjoy the hunt, the outdoors, and the time you spend with your hunting partner. Most hunters in quebec had the same weather you faced last week. I know, we were one of them.
Like they say here in Quebec " #####"
Good luck, hope to see you post a picture of your buck here on Monday.:)
 
Just don't miss a big change in the weather - especially going from warm to cold and better still with snow. As far as hunting in the rain, this is fine for moose, but deer is another story. If you don't hear other hunters shooting and the animals/birds in the forest are very quiet, you are unlikely to see many deer.

Duke1
 
Back to BIGREDD..........I have to say that is something I have not seen, is deer bedded in the open in nasty weather. I guess we might all be using the same word (RAIN) to describe different degrees of wet. In a light drizzle or moderate rain, I don't think it makes much difference to the deer. In a heavy downpour, and especially sleet/freezing rain, it has been my experience that the deer get into the heaviest stuff they can find. And on THOSE days, like I said, the deer are not going to come to you - you have to go to them and kick their butts out of the cover. Or call it a beer day. Being the old, decrepit fart that I am, freezing rain is ALWAYS cause for a morning off and in general a whole day spent in camp. If I am at home and the weather is truly nasty, I stay put!!!

Andy is correct of course that you can't shoot the deer if you stay in camp, but there is also such a thing as a law of diminishing returns. If it is a howling gale driving sleet into your eyes and wicking the heat off you no matter what you are wearing, you might ENJOY going out and braving the elements, and Lord knows you might meet a deer with a death wish. But the smart money in that case is on the dry, comfortable hunter who spends the day getting caught up on chores and maybe a nap so he can rise early the next day to catch the deer out enjoying the respite from Old Man Winter......

This year in my experience, if you did not hunt in the rain you did not get out much. I have never seen such a wet fall in Ontario, and the last few days have seen more of the wet stuff. I looked down at my toes this morning in Andy's hunt camp, and I swear I saw webs between my toes......

Doug
 
I am sitting in today because it is raining like a ##### out there this morning... and I have a cold. If I go out later I will head to the high ground... the deer will curl up where they can use their eyes in this weather.
I remember about fifteen years ago slogging through a cut corn field in the rain... six inches of mud... we were headed to the heavy cedar cuz thats where we thought the deer were. In the middle of the field there was a big rock pile overgrown with sumac and I stopped beside it to kick the mud off my boots. I decide to get up on the knob and stepped up on a rock and half a dozen deer came off that knob and headed for the ridgeline... not the cedar swamp. I did not get a shot at them that day but I remembered and we have killed many deer off that little hillock in the rain since.
Ever wonder why you don't see deer so often in the rain? Maybe it's cuz they see you first.......
 
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