Ask any veteran hunter what their greatest environmental enemy is. Take a guess. Is it terrain? Or foliage? Or the availability of open space? If your guess is any of these, you’d be wrong.
According to them, the weather is the greatest deterrent to a productive hunting session. Truly, a hunter’s game is dependent on how well he works in various climatic conditions.
For a hunter, there are only four weather types that are of the essence: hot, cold, rainy, and windy. Let’s analyze each of them.
One would expect that on a hot, humid day, deer would come out to play. This is seldom true. A hot climate isn’t a deer’s ideal temperature.
Occasionally, you’d find a group of them gathered around water formations, trying to cool themselves from the heat of the sun.
But as usually is the case, deer would rather sleep the day off and wait for the hours leading to dusk before they come out to check their surroundings for food.
This is the best time for the hunter to stalk his prey. The problem is the time factor. Indeed, you’d be in a race against time, as night would soon set in.
Deer prefer the colder temperature of the hours leading tonight, and as such, these are the hours when you have the highest likelihood of catching a target.
Cold weather is best for deer hunting, especially when there is a sudden drop in temperature. Deer experience an adrenaline rush during these times, and they would jump out of their dwellings to savor the cold climate. It’s your best chance to hunt them down.
There are many schools of thought about rainy days, however. Some believe that deer would avoid this like the plague. Others believe, strongly at that, that it depends on the amount of rain that falls.
A heavy downpour would produce no kills, as no deer would be visible at all. But a slight drizzle is a weather condition that these animals love, and if you’re not afraid of getting a little wet, chances are good that you’ll find a group of them playing in the field.
Big bucks appear during slight drizzles as well, and they would make for even more exciting games for your hunting inclinations.
Windy weather may turn away most deer from wide, empty areas, where the brunt of the breeze would be felt.
But this shouldn’t be taken to mean that there will be no games to hunt. You just have to exert more effort into looking for them. Deer don’t despise windy days.
They just settle in more protected environments, away from the atmospheric currents. You’re sure to find them huddled together in wind-sheltered enclosures.
The best weather condition for hunting is when there is a slight drizzle. But even if the day has unfavorable conditions for the sport, you could always make the most out of it by studying the weather patterns.
If, for example, you’re hunting on a hot, humid day, try to relax as your chances of finding deer are very small.
Instead, get up early and wait for daybreak. This is the time when the temperature is conducive for the deer to prowl.
Also, try to be back in the field starting late afternoon, as the temperature would also drop and you’d have better chances of gunning down some games.
The weather may prove to be a headache for the serious hunter, but it adds so much depth to the sport. Hunting, after all, is not only a matter of skills. It is as much mental as it is physical.
Studying the conditions for the hunt is part of the process, and it would just make the rewards even more satisfying.
