my best day elk hunting was in a huge thunder and lightning storm they were going flat crazy .
wipe it down worry more about it when i get home

I live in the Pacific Northwest, rain doesn't detour deer activity much at all. Me neither. I dress accordingly and have gortex camo from head to toe for those days.

I've had to many great hunts in the rain and seen simply far to many quality bucks to let rain slow me down any. In fact, in many instances you have to be out there as soon as the rain stops or slows, you can't be sitting home or you'll miss the days best action. As mentioned above, the proper rain gear can make all the differenceconcerning comfort. Concering the bow, afterwards, I simply wipe dry with a gun cloth, wax the strings well and throw 'er back in my case untilmy next hunt.

Count me in for the rain. I hunted a week straight in the rain for elk. They went crazy and I didn't dry out once all week. EVERYTHING stayed wet all week as I never came out........They are always there somewhere....

Where the heck is Nothern Idaho anyway???? ;0)

mdbuckhunter, maybe im wrong but im pretty sure he meant when he hunts in hard rain with feathers they dont hold up, its LIKE shooting bare shafts.. thats what i THINK he meant anyways...

As long as it is not a hard down pour i will be out there. I would have a hard time shooting a deer in heavy rain knowing that the blood trail will be washed away almost as soon as it hits the ground. I feel I owe it to the deer if i shoot it I need to recover it. Now turkeys on the other had, there is rarely a blood trail to follow anyways, and if you get a shot at a turkey in the rain with a bow you better take it because you dont know when it will happen again!!!

I don't hunt in downpours. Too hard to tell where my arrow is going to hit with all the water on the arrow and string. And there would be no blood trail.

However I do like to hunt in a drizzle or light rain. I have seen good deer movement in these conditions. And can somewhat keep the water off of my equipment. A good time to do a little still hunting too. You can sneak along pretty good when everything is wet.

I don't melt.

I'm hunting rain or shine.

LOL... no, in downpours the feathers just go flat against the shaft, so you are virtually shooting bare shafts. Never tried Goat Tuff, but the fletch-dry I used could only stand up to light rain. At any rate, a moot point now. The Blazers shoot so well, can imagine going back and taking the risk. No matter what the weather, fletchings won't be a concern.

Hunting in the rain never really bothered me untill about 4 years ago when I shot a very nice 180-200 class buck off my property. As luck would have it it started to pour. We waited for the rain to die down and went back out to search for the buck. We searched 3 days and never found the buck. I am still heart broke about the loss and wonder if he is still running around. Since that dayI wont even hunt if they are calling for any rain.