wvfarrier
Active Member
Whats your work around for rain? Supposed to rain all next week (1st week of our season).
I agree with @Chistavocat, they dont move much during the rain. However, a gap in the rain usually gets them up
Luminol. The stuff will find blood even after an inch of rain. In fact, it works better after the blood has been rained on.
Luminol, aka bloodglow, aka bluestar.Give me more info on this stuff! How do you use it?
Good idea.Tie a piece of paracord to your tether and cinch it tight with a few wraps. The water will drip off the tail.
We often talk about how deer behavior is different from region to region so take this for what it's worth. I've whitetail hunted in Pa for 48 years. In Ohio since 1995 and a few years in Iowa. IME, rain has little effect on deer movement. In addition to my anecdotal input on hunting experiences with rain, I also live right among a substantial deer herd. Our plots and cover surround our home and we can pretty much watch ~100 acres from our windows. We observe deer daily. Rain does not minimize deer movement in any of the places that I interact with deer. We had 6 inches of relentless rain over a 48 hour period during Florence. At times the rain was fairly heavy. We watched deer out in the plots at all hours.That isn't the only time I've witnessed that. I've watched it happen countless times since we built our home in 1986.I agree with @Chistavocat, they dont move much during the rain.
We often talk about how deer behavior is different from region to region so take this for what it's worth. I've whitetail hunted in Pa for 48 years. In Ohio since 1995 and a few years in Iowa. IME, rain has little effect on deer movement. In addition to my anecdotal input on hunting experiences with rain, I also live right among a substantial deer herd. Our plots and cover surround our home and we can pretty much watch ~100 acres from our windows. We observe deer daily. Rain does not minimize deer movement in any of the places that I interact with deer. We had 6 inches of relentless rain over a 48 hour period during Florence. At times the rain was fairly heavy. We watched deer out in the plots at all hours.That isn't the only time I've witnessed that. I've watched it happen countless times since we built our home in 1986.
IME, a light rain during the rut actually stimulates buck movement.
I will say that a short, heavy rain even seems to send deer from the plots and into cover, but that usually only happens during severe storms and for short periods.
Deer behavior in the rain may differ in other regions, I don't live/hunt everywhere so I can't say one way or the other about deer behavior in other places. But where I live, and where I hunt, rain makes no difference to the deer.
I spent 11hours in the saddle on Saturday. It rained all day, I was soaked, and actually at about 3PM started to shiver so bad I thought how stupid I am. During the entire day, I saw 10 doe at various times slipping thru the field, well out of bow range. Nothing in the woods, I'm pretty positive that it's because the rain was so loud in the canopy. It was almost deafening at times. I don't think the deer would feel safe traveling in such noise. The only reason I stayed was it was my first saddle hunt, and I wasn't going to be deprived. Experience in saddle was great, but misery in rain was horrible.