Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

Well, I have the next four days off to hunt, and the weather is not looking good for me. Tommrow I have high winds up to 23 mph. Friday is "showers" and Satuday is heavy rain.

In my expereince, the high winds will have the deer bedded. I usually try to still hunt the bedding areas to see if I can get in a shot rather than stand hunting. I have found showers/light rain don't effect deer to much but heavy rain will also keep them bedded. So I also plan on still hunting bedding areas for as long as I am comfortable. I ususaly sit the heavy rain days out but its the last day of the season Saturday.

So, How do you guys hunt when the wind is harsh, or the rain is heavy??

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

Yeah, tell me all about high winds... blech! My time in the woods is limited because I can only go when my kids are at their dad's for the weekend. We had nothing but high wind last Saturday, saw a whopping two does and that was after we had gone back to the truck and drove down the side road that borders our field. We saw two does heading to our stand so we parked back in the field and ran to our stand! We got there with about 3 minutes to spare, there they were, in an opening (well, one of them) and she was about 150 yds out, too far out of my range. She disappeared behind two lone trees and didn't emerge, so I am guessing she had been spooked from the neighboring woods across the street and ended up bedding down behind those trees for some shelter. Never got a shot.

Usually our land is booming with does and bucks alike, but not this time. I chalked it up to the winds, 20-30mph.

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

So jf5, how'd you do on Saturday?

I was out in Central MA, tough conditions. Wind and rain early AM, followed by heavy fog and rain in the late morning and through the afternoon. Was in the stand in the morning, then moved down to still hunt the remainder of the day. Nothing. Woods were absolutely silent.

I think the MA harvest numbers wil be way down this year compared to 2003. Conditions during second week of shotgun season this year s*cked.

Well, at least we have until the end of the year for muzzleloader or archery.

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

Nothing better here in Kentucky to report either. We are into our late ML season and the weather could not be worse. The winds have been 20-30mph with rain everyday so far. Went out yesterday and sat in a stand till 9:30. Nothing. Moved and tried still hunting. Nothing. I hope this weather breaks soon. Only saw a couple young does driving onto the property in the morning.

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

Eddy, here's the details from week 2....

So I headed back to hunt Wed-Sat this past week. I hunted zone 2 again Wed afternoon. No luck. So me and my buddy head up to our zone 3 spot we had confirmed permission to hunt in. We go to see the two brothers who own this land. The brother who said it was OK was out of town and the other brother decided to say NO!! We where very dissapointed. Not only had we been denied, but we lost a good morning of hunting driving up there!!

We hunted around the bad weather the rest of the week in Zone 2 without seeing any deer at all!! Still hunting combined with short sits at stands. At least my buddy saw a black bear at 25 yards.

Sat I hunted almost all day and didn't hear one shot at all!!

Hopefully next year will be better.

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

jf5,

Wow, you live in Allson and hunt zones 2 and 3! That's a haul.

Better luck next year, friend. I'm hoping to get out a few days the week after Christmas.

Saw a moose on my way in to work this AM, pretty cool sight on a late fall morning.

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

I had always heard that deer tended not to walk in high winds but after sitting durning bow season before and after the hurricanes came through this season I truly believe that deer will feed like anything else when they get hungry . saw enough to change my mind.

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

High winds i usually walk around and do a little scouting.. sit the evening around bedding areas. In the rain i hunt like usual. this season opening gun season was rain. the deer were moving everywhere

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

I called the local deer processor and asked if the number of deer coming in had slowed down because of the string of windy days we had been having. he replied "not a bit", so i went out for the hunr]t and came back with a really nice spike.

RE: Deer hunting in high winds or rain??
 

well sunday, it was 30 degrees outside with 40-50 mph winds. we saw i think 30 does. and we got a nice one. we saw 10 just laying out in the middle of a corn field that had been combined. and then we saw 8 out in a combined soybean field. and then we caught a few behind some roundbales. i didnt think we would see any. but it beat opening day.