Deer Hunting Weather

By Steve Roark | The Winchester Sun

To sur­vive, ani­mals have instinc­tive reac­tions to the weath­er, migrat­ing birds being just one exam­ple. Knowing how game ani­mals react in dif­fer­ing weath­er con­di­tions can up a hunter’s chance of a suc­cess­ful kill.

Deer depend heav­i­ly on scent to pro­tect them­selves from preda­tors. They usu­al­ly respond to a strange scent by bug­ging out before hunters get close. Deer move into the wind to bet­ter pick up scents. To take advan­tage of this, a hunter must move and stay down­wind of his prey. This can be deter­mined by the old wet fin­ger trick.

Deer are also good lis­ten­ers and will react to either too much or too lit­tle noise. Hunters who walk steadi­ly through the woods will have no luck. The Indians had a say­ing, “walk a lit­tle, look a lot.” Deer cer­tain­ly fol­low that plan, tak­ing a few steps, look­ing around, and then con­tin­u­ing. The best hunt­ing time is often when there is a gen­tle rain or a lit­tle snow. The leaves don’t crunch, and snow sub­dues noise.

Deer are used to bad weath­er, but dis­like storms. In a high wind, they can’t hear warn­ing sounds or locate dis­turb­ing scents. During storms, they choose a shel­tered area such as cedar or pine woods, dense brush, or the lee side of moun­tain ridges (the side oppo­site the direc­tion the wind is com­ing from). Here, the wind is calmer, par­tic­u­lar­ly just below the ridge top.

Deer can sense that a storm is com­ing and will go out to feed heav­i­ly in advance of it because they might have to lie low and not eat for a few days. After a storm pass­es, deer come out every­where and feed. The best times for hunt­ing are just before a severe storm and dur­ing the clear­ing con­di­tions that fol­low. Deer lose some of their nor­mal cau­tion at these times.

Knowing the weath­er habits of ani­mals allowed Indians to hunt big game with a bow that rarely had more than 30 pounds of pull, requir­ing very close range. They knew that the wind shifts dur­ing the day, flow­ing uphill as the sun heats the slope, but drift­ing down­hill in the cool of the evening. They hunt­ed into the wind. By know­ing where deer hang out dur­ing storms, they were able to sur­prise them. Modern hunters can do the same, even those of us who hunt with a camera.

An excel­lent and enter­tain­ing weath­er ref­er­ence book is “The Weather Companion,” by Gary Lockhart.