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Does the cold weather affect your hunting ?

fasteddie

By fasteddie,
in Deer Hunting

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fasteddie Grand Master

fasteddie

Posted
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I am sitting here with a runny nose (nothing on the keyboard) and it's 27 degrees out with a wind chill of 9 degrees . I have DMP's to fill but can't bring myself to go out hunting . Starting to feel like a wuss !

According to the weather forecast , we have a bit of snow on the way . After not seeing anything hunting , I raelly find it difficult to go out and face more frustration !

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burmjohn Newbie

burmjohn

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Yeah, it was cold this weekend.  But I was hoping that cold weather would get the deer going!  I love hunting in the snow, you can see forever.  Get out there and fill those DMP's!!!  Maybe its time to build a perm ground blind with a buddy heater :)

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Geno C Newbie

Geno C

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gotta be out there to kill a deer... i would grin and bare it! the wonderful thing about this sport is you never know. the one day your not on stand is the one day the big boy walks by.

i know its easy to get dejected! but if you can rise above that BS and make the best of this season then get back in there and get the job done and goodluck doin it!!

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Geno C Newbie

Geno C

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BTW i have a one peice thats insulated and i layer up pretty good. make sure your socks are layered, those toes get cold its over unless you getup for a walk. sometimes a stalk is a great option when its cold and snowy. but if theres not snow, sit on post for aslong as you can. bring a thermos or some heat warmers if you susceptible to getting cold quick. im weird, i dont mind the cold at all and can sit in 20° weather all day...  ive seen some big boys taken in that cold weather when most of the hunters dont want to go out. sometimes in days like that you can come out on top!!

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Doc Experienced

Doc

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I'm tagged out, or I would be in the same dillemma as you. I don't like being cold, and I have never tried to turn hunting into a physical endurance contest. The older I get the more I think that way.

However, there are things today that can help with the comfort aspect of hunting. With the wind being a major problem, a pop-up blind comes to mind (heater not out of the question). The other good thing is that unlike bow season, you are not limited as to how much clothing you can pile on. As long as you can bend your arms enough to shoulder the gun, you can shoot. No follow-through, no anchor, no arm alignment, no grip consistancy, no back tension, or any of that other hogwash that bowhunting requires.... lol. Just pick up the gun and shoot and that you can do no matter how much clothing you have on. heck you can crawl inside a sleeping bag and do that .... ;D . Take along a good portable radio for entertainment (nothing to hear anyway with the wind and the snow hiding all sound). What the hell.....have a party! Some stupid deer just might wander by.

No, seriously, I hear exactly what you are saying. After weeks of hunting (bow and gun), and then gun season finally sliding into that inevitable dead quiet time, the frustration level gets to be serious and it really gets you wondering why you should subject yourself to ridiculous discomfort when you are pretty well convinced that it will all be for nothing. I've been there. And I have cut a lot of seasons a bit short when that happens. I wish I could tell you about the times when I've just sucked it up and went out and was rewarded by some huge mega-buck .... But unfortunately as you might have guessed, that has never happened and would be one whopper of a lie ....lol.

Look, hunting is recreation. It's supposed to be fun. You have to do whatever keeps the activity satisfying those two things. There is no reason to be beating yourself up or feeling guilty if you have put in a good hard effort during the season and now decide enough is enough. There's nothing wrong with ending the season when you want to end it instead of waiting for someone to tell you to end it.

Doc

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First-light Grand Master

First-light

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Sat in a tree stand with 15-20 mph winds in 16 degree weather last year. Sat for 4 hours till sundown. It was the last weekend of season, muzzleloader.

At 4:00 magic happened and all the deer started piling into the field I was watching. For the next hour I watched 16 doe walk by me, could of shot but didn't,was waiting out the big guy who was still in the area. He never showed and I wasn't cold one bit that last hour!! The key to me staying was the end of the season was just about here and I had a real desire to get a shot at this big ten point that to this day has given us the slip.

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steve863 Community Regular

steve863

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I hunt for meat.  Was lucky enough to kill one during bow season and my uncle got one in gun season and gave me the meat.  Two deer in the freezer will easily last me until next season.  Could care less about killing one for antlers only on the remaining tag I have, so my decision is an easy one.  I will leave the butt freezing conditions to others for the rest of the season!!    ;)

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steve863 Community Regular

steve863

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2:30pm I leave the woods. 

I tell you.  Some people seem to get lucky at last light, but where we hunt we might as well NOT hunt in the afternoon.  Probably wouldn't make much difference. Almost all of deer we have killed have been in the morning.  Any deer we have shot in the afternoon have been earlier in the afternoon, so if we left the woods at 2:30 we probably would have killed the same amount of deer!

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Fantail Newbie

Fantail

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Yes cold weather can affect the hunt. But so must common sence. I mean am I already where I plan to hunt or must I drive 2 + hrs in near white out condidtions with 20 mph winds. Now dress up like the camo michelin man and hack it out in the woods untill your chilled to the core. What's that all worth? Burning a vacation day included.

And it just happens to be timming sometimes. But this time tomorrows forcast is - not good. 10 - 20" accumilation overnight untill sunrise, 25 mph winds, blizzard conditions. Sucks, and I kick myself when I call it for saftys sake but the season isn't over in the SZ yet.

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WNYBuckHunter Experienced

WNYBuckHunter

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I love it, had a fun little hunt today. Its windy and freeeeeeeeeeeezing out, and I got out of work with just enough time to put a quick walk and stalk on a creek bottom I have been seeing deer in lately. I slowly walked up the edge of a field and slowed way down when I started coming up the hill that is just before the bottom. About half way up, I saw a pair of ears sticking up from down in the bottom. I immediately got down on my knees and took off my backpack. I got my shooting stick out and adjusted it to be long enough for when I raised up on my knees. I then crawled about 50 or 60 yards on my hands and knees through a foot of drifted snow, peering up over the hill top to make sure they werent looking. I had some nose drip and snow freezing up in my mustache and the wind was biting my face. I got to within 125 yards of the deer, got up on my knees, planted my shooting stick, cocked my pistol and held on the largest of the 5 does, which were still laying down. I slowly squeezed the trigger and the deer all busted out of their beds after the gun went off. I watched them run and to my surprise, the one I shot at was running just fine, no blood or anything. I walked down and checked and there it was, a blown apart wild grape vine, about an inch and a half or two inches thick. What a bummer of an ending to an incredibly fun and cold hunt. It was the first deer I have taken a shot at with my Encore, and if it woulndt have been for that branch, she would be hanging in my garage. Oh well, the deer have been down in there a ton lately, they will be back and Ill try again, probably this weekend.

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fasteddie Grand Master

fasteddie

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The problem as I have seen it is .... the deer have been bedding down . I have been sitting on my butt in a blind . Unless someone gets the deer moving nothing happens . I have done some walking but havn't kicked anything up .

When I leave at last light , I can see deer movement . They are smart critters !

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nyantler Apprentice

nyantler

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If you were sitting in a stand waiting for deer in the snowing and blowing that we had in central NY the last couple days you're probably still waiting..lol  couldn't even track deer.. the snow was hiding the tracks before I could catch up to the deer that made them :D

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