well, this is going to be my first trad season, i built myself an ilf riser and just finished putting it all together,i got to thinking about hunting and realized that i really like to wait out the rain when i hunt but i dont know how to protect my feathers from being soaked.What do you guys use to protect your feathers from the rain?
I've never worried about the feathers getting wet , they shoot fine at close range .
I don't hunt in the rain. I always wonder if it will wash out the blood trail. I won't take the chance.
I hunt in the rain all the time. Some of my best hunts happen in the rain.
I test my arrows with broadheads and wet feathers before hand to make sure they fly good wet. If they don't I change things until they do.
Blood trailing is only one tool in the deer recovery arsenal so I never worry about the blood trail washing out. And in reality 70% of the deer I kill I watch go down or hear crash anyway. It also takes a pretty good rain or a long time in a light rain to wash the trail out. Never lost a deer killed in the rain.
Now snowing is a different matter. If we are getting a couple inches an hour of snow I won't hunt.
I use a fletch cover or Cat Quiver which really keeps feathers dry.
I've heard you can cover the fetching of the arrow on your string with one of those little plastic bags used as baby bottle liners and they suposedly fly off at the shot and don't effect flight at all. I never tried it but always meant to.
I use wild goose feathers, which are naturally water proof.
Don't worry about wet feathers.... They will fly fine,
DONT try the babybottle bags...they sound like a 300 mag when u shoot with them still on...just get a fletch cover from asbell and go hunt.
Rust oleum never wet boot and shoe. Spray on, the odor goes away in a day.
I just learned a bunch of new stuff! Thanks guys. Great thread.
I keep one goose feather fletching in my quiver incase I get a tropical downpour. Im going to try to shoot my arrows wet and see how they do.
I don't really like hunting in the rain. I've heard the fly fishing floatant, Gink, works well. Never tried it but it makes sense. It's meant for dry flies which are made of feathers and dubbing.
I won't hunt in much of a rain with a bow - worry about the blood trail as well.
I dont like hunting in the rain much. Ive gotten more and more obsessed with having a camera with me and the rain doesnt allow that.
I have been on enough "hands and knees looking for pin head drops" blood trails to not hunt in the rain if I can help it.
That being said, I do get into wet or snowy conditions. I waterproof my fletching with a fine mist of silicone spray.
I never hunt in the rain. I'm colored blind and with all the red leaves on I would never see the blood. I have done the peroxide trick before but I just wait for a nicer day now.
Stick on an elevated rest and use vanes if you are going to hunt in the rain.
James
I've used Feather-Dri or Fletch-dry type of powder for years. Rub it in good and blow off the excess. Shoot the arrows several times to get any residual powder off and go hunt in the rain if you like. It feels like rosen powder and will keep the feathers dry even after sticking them in a pail of water.
I usually won't start a hunt in the rain but I won't end one just because it starts to rain, especially if I'm miles from camp. Of course there are places where if you don't hunt in the rain, you may not hunt at all. My first trip to Newfoundland was like that - wore my rain gear everyday.
I use spray on waterproofer that is made for boots and tents and stuff. It works great. Helps a lot when trying to remove blood as well.
I have used the powdered products with pretty good success. However, I have never used it in a driving rain, because I leave when the rain gets heavy. I guess I am like a cat, I just don't like being wet.
IF its slight misty type rain or off and on drizzle I will go out and hunt ! Anything heavier than that is a recipe for a lost deer, with a washed away blood trail . BUT I do protect my fletching a bit IN CASE ! I use Unscented hair spray ! Doesn't keep them from being soaked if its pouring but helps fine any other time . AND I don't hunt if its pouring !
I use the powder stuff also.
QuoteOriginally posted by Shadowhnter:
I use wild goose feathers, which are naturally water proof.
Yup! This is the best I have found. Also the fly tying dry fly spray's work really really well, better than anything else I've tried
Fletch cover
I don't hunt a steady rain and certainly not in a downpour. Shooting accuracy is affected when feathers and arrow rest are soaking wet. A soaked shooting glove is not conducive to accurate shooting. Blood trails can be quickly washed out in a steady rain. Good time to stay at home and catch up on other things.
I use quiver tubes that protects fletching from getting wet as well as helps keep game from seeing a quiver full of brightly fletched arrows from grabbing their attention.
I often cover my fletch with a leaf plastic bag whatever I have laying around while hunting.
I like to treat my feathers with some stuff called watershed.
works pretty well.
Try scent free hairspray,it really works.
The fletching doesn't matter so much to me because it rains all over my eye glasses and I can't see to shoot anyway.
http://www.basspro.com/Big-Game-Treestands-PopUp-Umbrella/product/12031505005322/
Gink (the dry fly floatant gel) may not be a good choice, it never dries, stays in a gel form. It does work great on dry flies and bass bugs.
Denny
I don't get enough days to hunt... so, if it happens to be rainin on a hunt day, then so be it. I built out an elevated rest, Selway Soft-kote quiver, vanes, and rubber silencers. That's how I hunt in the rain.
I don't golf it fish in the rain either. I must be getting older.
Hunting in the rain is a very personal decision. For me I hunt in the rain all the time. Heck I do 3 week long trips in different states hunting each year and of I didn't hunt in the rain I would miss half the days of those out of state hunts.
If you want to hunt in the rain and are only held back by worry of the blood trail you could get a string tracker from drifter bows and solve that problem.
As for feather protection all of the sprays, powders, covers, etc are all bandaids. To truly solve it and never worry about arrow flight in the rain test your broadheads and feathers in the rain. If you wet them and mat them flat with your hand and shoot them and they don't hit or fly the same as dry it's time to fix stuff. Tune the arrows to your bow, then start playing with feather sizes, broadhead, or add more forward weight. The more foc you have the less the feathers matter. I shoot 30℅ foc arrows and I also use a big Magnus 2 blade head and I don't even need feathers. See this video for that bareshaft broadhead shooting when I was first testing it.
http://tbwpodcast.com/video-37-efoc-bare-shaft-broadhead-test/
There is no right or wrong decision to hunting in the rain and there is a variety of ways to make it happen if you do.
But it is very important that if you do decide to hunt in the rain you make dang sure your arrows fly right and you can make an ethical shot and recovery.
You are asking the right questions and getting a great variety of good answers!
If I didn't go out when there was a chance of rain, I would seldom have gotten to hunt before I retired. Now that I'm Retired I have the luxury of staying home in bad weather. However, I've done so well hunting in the rain, that I usually still go.
I'm with LB Hunter, well tuned arrows fly fine with wet feathers,
I've been caught in light rains a couple of times. I've also not gone out the door because of impending rain that never came.
But....
I share the Wicked Witch of the West's aversion to liquid on my head. For many reasons.
The older I get the more of a "fair weather" hunter I am becoming. There have been times in my past when bowhunting started feeling like a "job". For example, I went two years in the early 80's with a diary documented 110 bow range opportunities without shooting a single arrow (big deeritis). I still feel "guilty" when I skip a beautiful morning in the deer woods.
Always enjoyed hunting in the rain, just not a heavy down pour. Barronett Pop up Blinds are made for rainy day hunting.
LD
I've been hunting in the rain for decades now. I still go, but I've resigned myself to the fact that deer in this neck of the woods like the same kind of weather I do.