Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Worst weather conditions you hunted in?

What was the worst weather conditions you hunted in and what were you hunting?

Rain, sitting in a treestand hunting Whitetails in Wisconsin.



Much rather hunt in snow and cold weather.

Me too on the snow. For me, one of the worst was this year's sheep hunt in the Chugach. Or maybe it's just the most recent. Most of the trip was good weather but the hike out sucked. Took us three days, with the last 2 1/2 constant rain, just about everything soaked, which added to the weight we were carrying. There was one windy steep ridge in particular that sucked in the rain. Around 1400 ft elevation gain, steep, wet, with a good gust blowing over the top, I could barely keep moving fast enough so I didn't get chilled. Don't have a pic of the rain, but here's the ridge ascending from right to left:

There wasn't much hunting involved. I sat in a small tent on the Alaska Peninsula for six days waiting for the fog and the cold, misting rain to abate. Visibility was measured in tens of yards, and there were no prominent landmarks with which to navigate if you left the camp any direction at all. (This was in the days before GPS.) My partner and I had three paper back novels between us, and I think that I read all of them at least three times that week. We got in one day of "hunting" before the plane returned to take us out.

An early winter storm caught us very high in the Wind Rivers on a sheep hunt.. If we had not had an excellent tent and bags, it could have been very dangerous..

We only had bologna sandwiches for 2 and 1/2 days.. The horses left for base camp during the storm.. When it cleared, the guys brought the horses and mules back to pack out my sheep.. An bless the cook, he sent a bread bag full of, you guessed bologna sandwiches!! Have eaten another one to this day.. The hunt was in 1991..

Walking in snow can be darn noisy. Fresh wet snow crunches & squeaks. Frozen snow crackles worse than shuffling through gravel. An elk or deer can hear you walking a 1/2 mile away.

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Hope this displays. Been having trouble with these google links.

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Only photos with the jpg or gif extensions will show here with the IMG tags.

That helps. It started as a .jpg but it everything somehow gets remnamed when trying to use google photos as a webhost.

Not hunting story but took a cousin from Minnesota salmon fishing one day. When we got home he said that was a first for him, I said how so? He said fishing in the rain, I said really? yup if it's raining we stay home. If you don't fish up here in the rain you don't fish! We did break a rain record for that day! It was WET!

About 7 years ago, area 61 late cow hunt. Around -6 degrees, a blizzard hit, with high winds no visibility what so ever, and I'm on a high plateau. Took awhile to get back down off the mountain, without an elk.

August in SC.

15 below zero deer hunting. NW GA. 2' of snow. Also duck hunted in 15 below weather. Agree with Ringworm....August in SC (or GA) ain't for sissies.

A friend had an ID cow tag and invited me to go for the last day of the season. We found about 40 cows on windswept ridge, wind howling, -16F, and a foot of snow. Apparently they'd bedded next to the road then moved up there before light. There were beds everywhere along the road. They were totally safe as there was no way to approach them without being seen.

The worst days I've had have been when there's an unexpected weather change. I've hunted in -10 in MT. Not so bad when you know before you leave the house/camp and can prep.

But when it goes from 40 to 10 and dumps 6-8" of snow on you in the process, it can get pretty miserable. Mostly because it melts on you for a while. When its really cold, snow won't melt on contact.

Parked a pickup about 4 miles from the farm with plans to make a walk for pheasants with my cousin. Weather started getting dicey about a mile in but we were bumping birds and we didn't have a limit so we kept going. By approximately the halfway point the temp dropped from around 50 into the low 30's and it went from a drizzle to a gully washer (ND term) rain with a nice stiff wind to add to the misery. The farm seemed closer than the pickup at this point and maybe a little less uphill so we proceeded to slog SW. With a 1/2 mile to go we cut through an open gate into the pasture that was across the road from Grandpa's place. We get to the fence line 75 yds from the warm dry house and wouldn't you know it but the friggin fence is hot!!! We were both in saggy, soaking wet 1980's cotton hunting attire and had to climb across a damned electric fence. Talk about icing on the cake! I've hunted when it was -25 and not been anywhere near as cold as I was that day being soaking wet in temps right above freezing with a 20 mph wind cutting into me!

Freezing rain in a tree stand. When limbs started breaking from ice buildup I decided it was time to get down.

1+ inch of rain a day and 30-50mph winds can coincide right with the peak of the rut here. No big deal.

Duck hunting. A buddy and I dropped some nice mallards in a big pond and we had to swim out and get them. Stripped down to your skivvies, it was 0 degrees F and there was ice around the edge of pond with snow on the ground. We had to swim out 30 yards and I didn't know if I was going to make it back to shore. My muscles were locking up on me. When we got out, we threw our clothes on, jumped in the rig and headed home. Took a hot shower and little me didn't want to show his head for hours. Yeah, the water was cold...

Elk hunting in Hells Canyon. It was about -35º when I took this photo of Karen and our pack string loaded with frozen quarters.

A couple of days before, it was -51º on a certified thermometer at our feed tent on the top of Warnock Corral. And it was -42º when we killed our four elk.

I couldn't wait pull off my heavy insulated mittens and thrust my hands into guts. Damn, it was cold.

Blessings,

Steve

Amen. Hunted 2 years ago on opener. As I walked to stand I was clicking thermacell. I had on shorts no shirt and a bugtamer. Between mosquitos and sweat I couldn't have killed a moose.

Duck hunting has put me in some foul weather. Nastier it gets though, the more the ducks seem to like it.