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Old 09-09-2015 | 11:26 AM
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Mojotex
Nontypical Buck
 
Joined: Jan 2008
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My experience hunting in SE Al. and south central Ark. from most effect to least.

1. Temperature - This is the big player down this way. I have hunted in 80F+ in late January. And in early bow season, 90F days are not all that uncommon. It is almost foolish to even hunt where I do when conditions such as this exist. There is usually minimal daylight movement. The general rule .... the cooler the better.
2. Rain - Driving rain in stormy conditions more or less shuts down movement. However, a light or intemrittent rain very often is a great time to be out. I make a point to be in the stand when the rain is about to quit.
3. Wind - Again, as the case with rain .... strong, gusting winds (especially from the east) results in not much activity. A soft , light wind, especially when a front is coming in from the north-northwest ... activity picks up.
4. Barometric Pressure - Not sure. In general low pressures down here are associated with warm conditions and rainfall (not good), while rising pressures are usually associated cooler weather moving in (good hujnting).
5. Cloud cover/fog - No effect that I can tell, except foggy conditions down our way are usually associated with warm, still conditions. Which in turn is not usually a good time to hunt where I do. However one of the bvest bucks I have ever killed was slipping though a creek bottom during very foggy, unseasonably warm morning.
5. Moon Phases - In my opinion this is the most over hyped condition that is associated with deer movement. Years ago, after reading a "moon phase" articles in SA (complete with a when to hunt chart), one of my best buds and I decided to keep a very detailed log over two consecutive seasons in an attempt to determine any patterns in deer movement, estrus cycle, etc. How we went aboutthis study I suspect would not pass "scientific methods" criteria, however we ended up with over 200 days and 1200 hours of data. And we were in the field a lot of hours. I am an engineer by education and career. Like most of my ilk, I analyze data almost to a fault. I built a data base and took a look at all that info from about any angle one could. I found only one clear effect associated with a moon's phase .... and that had to be in conjunction with a clear, cold night. When the moon was full and the temps very cold for our area (say 25F or less) , the deer did not move until mid-morning , if at all in daylight and generally showed up on food plots very early in the afternoon. If it was not a clear night, the deer tended to move in the mornings at the usual times .... a good bit and in the time frame of 7:30 +/- 30 minutes or so and again 30-45 minutes before dark.

And for me the bottom line, I hunt whaen I can.

Last edited by Mojotex; 09-09-2015 at 11:34 AM.
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