What do you guys think about rifle season and the weather, when is it likely to be one of those days for seeing more bucks?

It seems in Texas, colder is better, it doesn't take much for the mature bucks to go nocturnal. I feel good about an overcast cloudy sky, unless it is the first sunny day after a long spell of rain. Also, I feel more likely to see bucks moving if the wind is quieter than average.

When I've hunted out of state in cooler climes, I remember seeing more bucks in the day prior to a snow.

What weather gives you the urge to be hunting?

Cold/snow. I think that's the RX across the board for me besides the September elk rut

30 degrees and snowing. Hardly ever happens

High 20's at daylight, no wind, crisp and clear

The hunting warms up when I'm getting uncomfortably cold.

I like 25-35 degrees during the day. Snow/sleet/mist. A steady 5-10 mph breeze. I find I get those days in October more than I get them in November.

I'll tell you the weather that's never failed me... an overcast sky w/a light breeze in the 40's, just enough moisture to get your eyebrows wet(a drizzle) and a falling barometer. powdr

I dislike strong wind and heat, otherwise I'm good.

I like about 2" of fresh snow, and mid thirties during the day. I also like a light drizzle for still hunting. Makes it easy to sneak through the woods.
-Jake

As patriarch of camp, I keep the log. It's in .XLS format, so it is easy to ask these sort of questions. What I'll give you is bucks only. The doe results are far more variable.

Temp: 32F to 62F with the average being 40F

Conditions: Clear or Partly Cloudy. None taken in Rain or Snow (we've had less than 5 days with snow on the ground during deer season since 2001)

Wind: 0 to 17 MPH. 75% taken under 6 MPH. 33% Calm. 50% with wind S to NW.

Barometer: 29.54 to 30.61 with the largest number between 30.04 and 30.08. There is a 2-1 preference for rising barometers.

Time: 3/4 taken in the AM before 1000. The vast majority taken in the 8 O'Clock hour.

Moon: All phases. However, more seem to be taken while the moon is waxing.

This is the results for a 200 acre patch of heaven in SW Bracken County, Kentucky.


The peak of the rut was decreed years ago by Jake, the proprietor of the general store in Lenoxburg, KY. It was and is the largest deer processor in our part of the county. He set the official peak of the rut to be 10 AM of the Rifle Opener.

"You can't rut when you're hanging from a meat pole." he said.

On a good Opener, Jake had to shut down intake at Noon on Saturday. If you were going to get your buck to Jake, you needed to be quick about it.



To distill this down, here in our patch of the Trans-Bluegrass:

It is beginning the second hour of legal hunting on the Opener. Temperature is 40 degrees. It will dip one more degree before the sun starts to warm you. The wind is calm, but you can hear the leaves rustling in the oaks on the ridge to the west. The sun has just cast your shadow on the ground for the first time this season. For the past few minutes, the shooting has been a continuous fusillade. You hear a heavy thudding in the leaves off to the south and east. Something is coming.

I also believe this will be a good year, assuming it's not overly warm, as it has been the past 2 years.

The full moon is on the 4th of November, a nice early November moon. Assuming decent weather, November should be sporty.

Outside of the rut. Day before a big snow storm they should be moving around getting groceries. Day after it breaks the same. Given a choice I'd take the day before over the others.

cold little snow

I like cloudy weather with rain, drizzle, or snow. I also like days with some wind but not blowing 40. Those clear, windless, cold days oftentimes mean difficult still hunting conditions.

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This is where I stand!

Wind around 10 mph, high of mid 40's, in the morning after a full night of rain. Rut or pre-rut, that gets them moving.

I think these can be strong regional trends. A few years ago, I was hunting in northern Missouri, everyone in camp reported seeing bucks moving for two days. Then it started snowing and it was like it turned off a switch, no one saw a buck during the snow, and it was slow the next with one buck being taken, but still slower than before the snow. In Saskatchewan, it seemed just the opposite, when it was snowing everybody was seeing bucks.

On a ranch I used to hunt in the hills near Ingram, TX when it was rain or drizzle, you would swear there was not a deer within miles, but when it stopped they would all be out.

If the does are in heat, I want whatever drives their appetite because the bucks will be around them, sooner or later. Hunting over feeding areas and the trails leading in and out will pay off eventually.

For pure hunting enjoyment, I like it around 30, with about 3 inches of powdery snow on the ground, and more falling straight down (no wind). This is just about perfect, and is rarely encountered these days around here. Even if you don't see deer, lots of other stuff is out and about for your entertainment.

The worst is clear, bitter cold, and windy, with crusty snow on the ground. Can't hear, can't spot movement in all the confusion, and deer are jumpy. This is more like a survival test than a recreation. If you have to take a day off from hunting, this is a good one. Only thing that might be worse is heavy rain combined with wind because you can't stay dry.

I like it best in the 30's.

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

*****NOT wanting to argue *****

My point was The RUT made those 2 bucks move in horrible WX.
Normally deer in general move little in HI wind.

Yes, there are exceptions. The rut is a prime example.

Jerry

I guess the most favorable condition is daylight because if you aren't out there, you aren't going to kill them.

Yeah dang it.

I never killed a deer in my Recliner in front of the TV. TOO bad it doesn't work that way.

Jerry

Of course our season is fairly long here, but I've often seen the best bucks at the tail of season. But can kill a buck almost any day I'd like to around here and at our lease. But both places, bow starts around Oct 1 give or take, and MZ ends tail of January and from about Jan 1 or so to the end around MLK day, I've often seen some dandy deer. One I still wish I'd taken the MZ with us that last evenign on a walk with the dog... but he made it to breed some more which ain't bad either.

Best weather to hunt? After rains, in fact it was still raining when I shot the best buck I've ever taken. But we had to get into a blind in a thunderstorm...

Beyond that cold weather sure puts the hiatus on them.... they just don't like the cold that I love so much.

But best weather really should say any time you have time to get out.

Opening day. I like mid 20s heavy frost, No wind sunny. I'm going to shoot something. Later after they get spooky. day before a front pushes through preferably when the temps are low enough for them to need to eat to stay warm. Our season isn't long so I go every day that I can. 80 or 8 rain or shine.

-4 F and 18 inches of fresh snow!