Weather, Lunar, Calendar, Etc. When do you hunt?

[nybuckboy]

I didn't really know how to aske this question but what I am really asking is this.

What do you really put stock into as far what you feel is prime days to hunt?

Some hunters believe in: always hunts just before a storm front and just after the front moves thru... hunt when it is a light rainy day... hunt by Lunar Tables... etc... hunt overcast days (this is my one true belief)...

What are your tried and true beliefs for good days to hunt?

[Bleitten04]

Whenever I feel like goin!!!!   I don't take any of those things into consideration when I'm deciding when to hunt.  I just go as many times as I possibly can.  All of those things probably do affect deer movement but deer are wild animals and can do whatever they want.  I just figure I'm not gonna shoot one on the couch.

[crappyice]

I too am more subject to MY schedule than the schedule of the moon or weather. I use that information more to make me more or less confident.

[nyslowhand]

I'm not gonna shoot one on the couch.

The couch begins to call me when I'm in a tree and the wind is whipping 30mph & it's snowing or raining horizontally. LOL

Back to the question.

Wild animals do what they want & when they feel the need to do it.

They are attuned to pending barometric changes. Movement (feeding) before & IMHO mostly after changes.

They generally tend to move about more in darkness during a full moon.

Other moon phases - kinda, sorta, maybe you could get some movement pattern.

The location, terrain and the deer herd themselves factor in to the equation.

What I'm saying for my area may not apply to yours.

Then you throw in the rut and all these established behaviors go down the drain.

Their unpredictability makes them fun to pursue! You hunt when you can & where you are allowed.

If you could predict being in the "right place" at the "right time", would it be hunting??

[nybuckboy]

All good answers and unless you are retired, we do have to work around our work schedules. I do agree and have always said "ya can't kill a buck unless your in the woods" OR "Ya can't kill a buck sitting on your couch" BUT I do feel there are ways to increase your odds.

One is to pattern a particular buck. I did a bowhunt in Illinois in 2009 (Successful by the way - 150inch 8pt). Their hard and fast rule was if you see a buck do something once, it doesn't count; if you see him do a second time it might be a pattern; if he does it a third time it is part of his routine and there is a good chance he has done this most of his adult life.

So if you see a buck take the same trail or route twice I would take a chance and move my stand to intercept him. Even during the rut, when he is in between does he may take this route. I have tried to practice this and can say I have deviated from this. I saw a big buck do something once and tried to intercept him all for nothing.

I did it yesterday infact. I saw a bruiser take a route across a CRP field at 730am. I knew he was heading for a triangular patch to bed down for the day. The route he took was a line dividing a buchhogged piece and an uncut CRP. I set up in the late afternoon about 35 yards uphill and down wind of the route. I put my son in a treestand at the northwest end corner of the piece. Sure enough he came out on the south side of the piece at 610pm with 2 does. I have seen him come out here mornings but there is no stand sight.

Weather permitting, (hard rain then no) I plan to set on the ground next to/behind a bush on the edge of another bushhogged/cut CRP field where I saw him last night and have seen him before.  I plan to play the wind and get there about 5:15 and a set up a small folding chair. If he comes out again I think I can get a 25 -35 yard shot in the cut piece. I'll let you know it works out.

[nyslowhand]

Best of luck with your plan!

Sounds like you have him set in an almost predictable pattern.

Hope you get him.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I have been luck enough to develope a fool proof method of being able to fill my freezer any time I want and it depends on one thing...my car making it to Wegmans...lol.

Like many my perfered time to hunt is sheduled around...work...family events and such.

[nyslowhand]

I have been luck enough to develope a fool proof method of being able to fill my freezer any time I want and it depends on one thing...my car making it to Wegmans...lol.

We all know it would be cheaper to fill the freezer with a 1/2 a beef than venison.

Then we could all be glued to the couch with the remote control permanently attached to our hand!!

Not for me! I love sitting in trees! ;D

[Culvercreek hunt club]

ME to NY...just find it funny sometimes all the gimmicks. I just enjoy being out there. Sunday was a great day and deer movement was very slow where I was..didi a little still hunting because of the rain and got some fresh air and exercise. who can argue with that

[nyslowhand]

Nothing wrong with that!!!

Spend all year looking forward to sitting in the woods, staring out into the brush, trying to pick out any movement.

Seeing the crows flying, turkey making noises, busy squirrels and hopefully a few deer all make for an enjoyable day.

Simply to get away from the day to day routine and air your brain out for a brief period.

And then there is the 60 second adrenaline rush that makes the whole experience worthwhile.

[nybuckboy]

Well I set up on the edge, a couple feet just inside the CRP in the middle of some tall goldenrod. Light rain coming down and about 6pm I could barely make out a doe looking up my way just out side the scrub patch where they bed. I watched her on and off with my binos for at least 10 minutes. She never moved an ear. Then I looked again and she was gone. About 10 minutes later I saw her behind me slowly moving toward the field. She entered the field about 60 - 75 yards in the opposite side I expected. She was the only deer that came out.

Oh well even the best laid plans don't work out when deer hunting. I'll try again the same plan in a few days maybe in the morning.

[Doc]

Yeah, I suppose there are a lot of meteorological happenings that effect deer movements, And I suppose that a serious hunter might want to make a study of all that stuff. I mean, what the heck we study everything else about deer and their habits, so why not the forces of nature that effect those habits. But the fact is that I have always had a lot of problems with some of the contradictory opinions on a lot of it. A lot of that sort of thing is some pretty dry reading, and then the first time any of it gets tested, the deer do something just the opposite of what is commonly accepted. So, you won't find me studying lunar tables and high and low pressure formations, etc.

One thing I do pay attention to is the prediction of heavy rains (like yesterday). That's not based on predicted deer movements, but simply based on what a rain storm will do to a blood trail. Also, as a point of personal comfort, I don't particularly want to get soaked. Also, for obvious reasons, I pay close attention to predicted wind directions, and hope that once in a while the weather people are correct. Also, I pay attention to high wind predictions. That does not mean that I stay home when the wind is blowing, but my confidence level takes a serious hit when the wind is howling.

I think that generally I have the same philosophy as others here. I hunt when I can and when I feel like it. Being retired I can put in some serious time, but being retired doesn't mean free from appointments and other activities. So there is no way that I am going to let other scientific theories keep me from hunting when I think the time is right.

Doc

[nybuckboy]

Ya know thre are just times when you are in the woods it just feels right... that something is gonna happen. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

[Geno C]

i hunt every chance i can get! bad or good... bad weather or good weather. even if studies show today is the worst day, i m in the woods making those assumptions myself!

you just never know...

[Buckstopshere]

I hunt just about every day of the NY and/or Pa. season, usually early before work and then after work, for a couple hours...unless it is raining. Then I use that time to scout, switch tree stands, trail cams,  or....work on the dreaded "honey do" list.

I have been doing that for 38 years.

I choose where I will (I hunt in six or seven locations) depending on the wind direction, and what phase of the rut is happening.

[crappyice]

When I grow up, I want to be Buckstopshere!  Seriously, I am jealous!

[bubba]

every chance I get.