Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Favorable Rifle Season Buck Weather

Hard to beat this.

Kentucky has its Rifle Opener right around the peak of the rut. Usually my freezer is full before Ohio's December Opener. For us, the key to good deer hunting is good average fall-like weather. Wind, rain, snow and cold seems to make the deer and the bucks especially stay hidden. It's a little over 10 miles to the other side of the Ohio from my place. There, the season is starting just after I'm locking up deer camp. The rules are completely different. For one thing, it's all post-rut. Second, it's getting considerably colder and usually stormier than what we experience here in KY.

The other thing that influences the bucks is acorns. There is a distinct change when the deer use up whatever fodder they are finding in the woods and turn to the open pastures for forage. If there is a bumper crop of acorns and the acorns are still dropping in November, there will be fast action in the woods. Otherwise, the bucks follow the doe out into the the pastures. Everything from where they bed to what trails they use change overnight. Usually by the second and always by the third weekend, this shift has occurred. The question is always going to be where they are going to be on the Opener and into the first week. Here in Bracken County, we tend to obsess on that issue as illustrated by this:

O.D. and the 2 of 7 Rule

The deer are always out there. If the weather is unfavorable for deer movement don't waste your time on stand, go find them. Rain/wind/snow are favorable conditions for the still hunter and narrow down the places the deer are likely to be. The worst hunting conditions for a lone hunter are when it's unseasonably warm and dry. The deer won't move much during daylight and the dry conditions make still hunting tougher. That's the best time to get family/friends together and do some drives.

Thank you so much for your kind words.

As a walking landform, I find that still hunting is becoming more of a wish than anything else. My days of pussyfooting ended some time in the Clinton Administration. However, with age comes wisdom, at least for a few of us. I do all my hiking about well before season and generally know where they're going to be before they do. In the case of our 200 acres, there are at most 1 -2 really mature bucks on the property at any given time. They are highly nomadic and the ones that hang out in my woods are likely to be over in the next county by the next sunset. It takes a lot of man-hours of still hunting for us to be successful.

Our opening week is highly driven by the hunting pressure of others. I try to keep my farm an oasis. We do not do a whole lot of moving around just prior and during season-- just enough to cover the likely choke points and wait for all those kind neighbors who so much like to still hunt to chase the big ones back onto my property. 9-10 AM on the Opener is particularly fun as everyone around us seems to give up en masse and trudge out of the woods, driving the deer before them. This is often accompanied by a brilliant fusillade as the Orange Army (as we call them) open up on fleeing whitetails and fling lead into the surrounding tree trunks. It is thrilling.

We at our camp all owe you thanks. Keep up the good work and keep spreading the still-hunting gospel. Buy copies of Van Dyke for everyone on your Christmas list. We need good men like you out there every year. ATV owners are now doing all the heavy lifting, but we still need guys putting boots on the ground to cover all the nooks and crannies. We all had our buck tags filled this past year with good mature bucks in only the first two days of hunting. Believe me your efforts are well appreciated.

I sometimes forget that some folks are limited to hunting a relatively small piece of ground. I am fortunate to have many thousands of acres of public land to hunt here. However, anyone who is inadvertently bumping alot of deer while still hunting is doing it wrong. You should be seeing most before they see you. Done correctly you should have plenty of time to take your shots at unalarmed deer. Binoculars well used are a still hunters most important tool

Pardon me if I don't go spreading your last idea around the county.

I have read all of this thread up thru P3.

NO ONE has mentioned a very big factor.

I'd take ANY weather WITHOUT a Full Moon. I've hunted the longest and hardest on days after nights of FULL MOON. Sometimes deer will move some at MID day. I've seen deer NOT move any during daytime with a full moon at night.Where I hunt now, I can 'still' hunt but it winds up being a JUMP-shoot situation.

I like temp 30-50*, light steady wind. I also like hunting cloudy days and light rain days.

I wish I could remember who said, "The best time to go deer hunting is WHEN you can!" Maybe John Wooters.

Jerry

As I mentioned earlier, our experience regarding the moon is that a waxing moon is preferred. The average age of the moon when the buck is shot is 11.4 days. There as many taken under a New Moon as a Full Moon. Waxing Crescent and Waxing Gibbous account for 50%.

Wind is definitely the biggest problem. Our ridge top regularly gets stiff winds. No bucks have been shot in winds in excess of 11.5 MPH and most have been shot in less than 6 MPH. In the mornings, we may have an hour or two of hunting before the wind picks up. This is one of the main reasons we normally come in late morning. There is usually an hour of hunting on even the windiest days where it dies down with the approach of sunset.

Agreeing that the full moon makes it tough, I can live with it if the weather is cool/cold. If it is warm, say mid-30's and up, daylight deer movement here is zip.

I killed a buck 3 years ago with the sustained winds in the 15-20 mph range with gusts into the high 30's. He was on his feet and about 5 minutes behind a doe. They were following a green finger over a ridge between 2 swamps. I wasn't sitting either.

Best weather for deer hunting? Whatever the conditions happen to be on opening day. Ability to adapt is key, up to a point. If it's pouring down rain I pull the blankets up around my ears and wish the deer and their hunters the best of luck. I'm not driven as much as I was 30 years ago to endure nasty weather for the off chance of shooting a deer.

I'm inclined to agree, Mister G.

I've hunted in 30 mph winds, horizontal rain, thunderstorms, etc. Not much moves. We have all-weather luxury blinds for the worst weather, so if there's a lull in the forces of nature, we can beat it out to one of those for a long sit. Normally, not much moves in those conditions. The trick is to be out there just as the weather event is ending. That's when deer tend to move. I say that, but looking at the records, I see no bucks taken in rain, only doe. In the past 15 seasons, I can think of only 2 bucks that presented shooting opportunities in rain. At our place, they seem to be fair weather game.

I am NOT arguing with your 'recorded' results. I also noticed some different hunting hour preferences.
We don't hunt ridge tops in High Wind. The Leeward side of ridges and Low areas give shelter from Hi Wind.

My Mileage Differs A Lot per New Moon. I have killed so many more deer- (bucks & does) in/on the New Moon. My long time friend and hunting pard & I have PLANNED our hunting per the New Moon.

Again Not Arguing, just My mileage.

Jerry

I think the YMMV-factor in this case is the fact that the vast majority of large bucks we've taken, in fact, bucks in general, are taken on the Opener. Basically, the woods go nuts starting about first light. Gunshots start going off about 10 minutes before legal hunting, and it does not die down until 11 or so. There is about a 5-hour window for us to bag a buck and then it turns into a hard slog for the rest of season. Whatever the moon phase is on the Opener, then that's the way it rolls. I don't mean to say we have not taken bucks any other time. However, the vast majority of them are taken before 1000 on the first Saturday of season.

An example of what I meant when I said weather conditions can narrow down where deer are likely to be found.

Hunting where there are no other hunters is the most important factor for me. It's yielded my biggest bucks, if not the most.

JDK - yes, exceptions happen. The RUT can be like pulling an ACE from your sleeve.

@ 1988 a friend killed the biggest buck I personally have seen killed. Bitter Cold, HIGH wind, SNOW blowing sideways.
He had his nose ON a does' BUTT.

That can't be counted on, but it does happen.

Jerry

I agree that it's regional. I hunt blacktails on a rocky little island off the coast of western Washington State. If they holed up in the rain around here, they'd starve. Deer will get moving after a warm evening and night with light rain if the rain stops and the temperature drops to just above freezing right before dawn. Same after a storm that lasts 2-3 days. You'll get wet, but the deer move around between squalls as the storm is breaking up. The absolute worst is warm, dry days with warm, dry evenings. Then it's just a nature walk.


Okie John

I would take bitter cold, high winds, and snow blowing sideways over 45 degrees, sunny, and no wind any day of the week....where I hunt. Seems the nastier the weather the more the deer move here.

Far and away, in the desert where I hunt, the minute it stops raining, I need to be out there. Biggest, most elusive buck I've ever come across was out in a well traveled wash late in the day when it stopped raining.
This buck grew to be about 37 wide, with 7-9 pts. on a side and massive antlers. But even multiple searches in the area, during the summer, failed to see him. That search included multiple ground units with helicopters over looking it.
Finally saw him on a video when a helicopter caught him in the open. But, as far as I know, I'm the only one that ever saw him during the rifle season. No one ever got him.
Other than that, cooler weather, like the 70's, not the 90's is better. Easier on me, probably not so much on them. Even if they move at night, they still leave tracks. That's what I need to hunt them. E

No problem here, whatever freezes your popsicle. <grin>

Jerry