RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

LOL. Well around here I've never had that particular problem. We usually have to worry about the meat goin bad because it's too warm.

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

Big Cypress Preserve in South Florida. Archery season in September. 85 to 90 degrees and 85 to 90% humidity.

Get up at 3:00 am. Don't have to check the weather, cause I already know. Scent free soaps, deoderants, dirt scented clothes and snake boots, coffee and breakfast, and load up the truck. I'm already sweating through my clothes before I leave the house by 4:00 am.

Drive an hour to the check station and another 1/2 hour to where I go into the swamp. It is now 5:30 am. Put on my bug suit, gloves, treestand harness, headlamp and 50 pounds of gear on my back (including 10 pounds of water).

Walk 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile through muck and (if I'm lucky) only knee high water to get to my stand location. Try to get there before first light. Soaking wet from a combination of my own fluids and the swamp. Lots of snakes. Mosquitoes carrying off small mammals. Biting flies, chiggers and ticks. Spiders the size of ATV's.

Climb up the tree and set up. Wait all day and not see a single deer. Climb down from the tree and go through the same steps in reverse. Repeat tomorrow, enduring the ridicule of friends and family who, after a month start talking to me in a slow and calming manner.

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

Amen DoctorDeath, and don't forget the thermacell and snake boots!

dog1

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

In the Dakotas where I hunt deer, it has been on opening morning from 75 degrees to -15 degrees so you never know what to expect. However the one thing that we seldom if ever have is bugs of any kind. Usually by opening day there have been several hard freezes killing off those pesky critters. Although we can have both temp. extremes, its usually very nice with temps in the 40's to low 50's in then daytime and mid 20's at night. Warm enough to hunt in comfort and cold enough at night to cool the meat down well. My average day of hunting will include driving out along the river breaks and finding a spot to watch the edges of the winter wheat field where the deer come out to feed or go down in to bed down. Its mostly Mule deer and its pretty easy hunting. The deer numbers are very high right now. This year I bought eight Mule deer does tage and filled six of them the first week. I have two left but had to stop to get these processed before I finish up. Just got them all done up this week. I have until Jan. 10th to hunt yet.

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

Heat..sweat...Skeeters...rattle snakes..coral snakes...moccocins...chiggers ...ticks ...poison oak ... poison ivy......black flies ...no seeums......fire ants....black widows.....brown recluse....and gators!
Then you have to watch for FL cougers and black bears. Both protected byFL law!

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

snakes, thorns, wasps, illeagal immigrants and the occasional drug smugler

Id would probably say the average temperatures during our deer season in south texas would be in the mid 40's in the morning warming up to around 75. During december it will be in the 30's in the morning and I get pretty cold, I dunno what I would do if I had to hunt in 10 degree temperatures. I guess I would be used to it being so cold by the time deer season rolled around

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

Hey Reb, how about those crazy red ants

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

NY thought I would die laughing,you make the bugs and heat seem like child play.I'll take our Southern winters anytime.Great story.Oh and stepping in the middle of a quail covey in the dark,really gets the heart pumping.LOL

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

NY for me the "benefits" of hunting in the south is that we are overpopulated with deer and underpopulated with people so "typically" you see many of one and few of the others. I know in states like NY and Penn you are one in a virtual army of blaze orange on opening weekend and the deer are running for their lives and every 10 acre woodlot has 10 hunters in it. Other than a slight uptick in the noise caused by the occasional gunfire and the "wamm wamm wamm" noise of buckshot mudders up and down the highways, deer season in the south is hardly noticable from anyother fall/winter morning. Another benefit is our seaons last for MONTHS and many occupations are "put on hold" from Oct until the end of January. The construction industry suffers a real slowdown in this part of the country at this time of year because so many craftsmen practically take the last quarter of the year off and deerhunt.

The negatives of hunting in the south? Well see the 30pages of responses too my "dead deer in public view" thread, :Dand there are MANY knuckle draggers in our midst who don't get excited about hunting unless they are poaching. Especially if it is on the biggest landowners property. These "humanoids" just LOOOOOOVE trespassing and get plumb giddy about roadhunting on such property. They are a constant headache but after a few of them get hauled through the courtsystem (or even come up missing! ) they typically get the message and eventually go elsewhere.

Blasting into a pack of loose hounds that are trespassingwhile running deerare also a GREAT way to practice ones running shots and keeps the ol reflexes alive and well,
RA

RE: Things that are wrong with southern hunting
 

and more and more skeeters and and heat.