I was just curious, Who hunts in the rain, I took a few days vacation and its rained everyday here in Southwest Virginia. I am seriously considering a ground blind now.
I hunt in the rain but from the ground but that because I use a climber. The rain does not bother me. plus I can walk a little and be quiet.
I love to hunt on good, slow, drizzly days. Your scent and sounds are surpressed by the rain, and I've taken a lot of game on these days.
I have hunted in a downpour, but not by choice.
I find game very active immediately after a long, hard rain. I like to be in the woods before it quits raining, or shortly thereafter.
Love hunting in the rain and wind! The Blacktails will be out and about! I am not much of a treestand hunter...think if I was I'd have to have one of those treestand "umbrellas"!
If you lived in this part of the country and waited for it to stop raining you wouldn't hunt much...PR
Agree with Billy. And another plus is having the woods all alone.
Yep, if you live in Oregon and hunt the late season, you've only one choice. Hunt or sit at home and dream about it! I choose to get wet. :bigsmyl:
I usually don't hunt in the rain. mostly because of the rain washing blood sign away.
Sometimes I will. I heard bucks will refreshen there scapes right after the rain stops.
I hunt in the rain a lot. See a lot of game activity, and have shot quite a few deer in the rain and plenty of hogs. If in a tree stand I do use a tree stand umbrella. Always thought they were an unnecessary item until about 3 years ago, used one in Alabama because it looked like rain and temp was in the mid teens. Well it did rain.... that thing actually kept me dry!
Now I carry one with me all the time, great for blocking the sun as well as rain. And they make a great little instant ground blind.
:archer:
I figure by golly I was born wet, I can hunt wet!
I do but not on purpose. This weekend my be wet here too and will go just because.
I'm a working man so I hunt when I can, if it's raining then I'll hunt in the rain. I even have a recurve set up with an elevated arrow rest and arrows fletched with vains for this purpose.
I can choose the dates I go to Montana, but I can't choose the weather. Yes I will hunt in the rain.
Usually not. I'm colorblind and have a hard enough time with tracking if it's dry. If I do, I try to hunt somewhere I can see a good ways so hopefully I can see them go down.
Got home Monday night from a weekend hunt. We were the only hunters in the woods because it was raining off/on the whole time. I loved it especially sleeping in my dry tent during heavy nightly downpours. Hunting wet weather will teach you things like what to wear to stay dry in the woods. Saw a lot of animals & plenty of tracks but no deer.
If you live and hunt on the west side of the Cascades you hunt in the rain .... rain keeps things quiet, evergreen, and smelling fresh. Blood trails can be a bit of a challenge in the rain.
I do and always will. If its going to be a three day downpour thats a hard steady I do consider my approach to the tracking game. It does influence shot/no shot decisions when its raining that much.
Joshua
Western Washington means rain and lots of it. I just take close shots and make sure to take my time when tracking in the rain. You can usually find your animal without a blood trail. They break brush, knock over grass, and generally leave some form of obvious path thru the brush we hunt in out here.
I'll hunt light rain but not heavy rain.
I hunt in the rain. But most of the time its in a ground blind.
The unfortunate side of having to make a living is I have to work. Therefore I hunt when I can...if it's raining, so be it. The way I look at it -- all that money I've spent on rain gear and outdoor clothing would be just wasted if I didn't test that stuff out! :biglaugh:
Only if it is a light rain and I can track if I hit a deer. Had some bad experiences with the rain washing away the blood trail.
If I wake up to the sound of a downpour, I'll roll over for a bit more sleep. But if a light gentle rain is fallin, well its one of my favorite times to be in the woods.
Not on purpose.I do get caught out sometimes but as a rule I don't unless I have no control.
My thoughts on hunting in the rain:
Rain will wash away a blood trail more quickly than you can follow it! We owe it to the game we persue to do everything we can to ensure they do not go to waste. Damp even drizzly days are excellent times to hunt and I do frequently....if it RAINS, I wont shoot.
From my limited experiance, if it is the only chance I can, I will hunt in the rain. If it is downpour I will stay in and watch the doppler, soon as I see it coming to an end (during legal shooting times), bam I am out in the woods. I do worry about the blood being washed away, but if you ensure and take nothing but the best and 20 yard shot's you have nothing to worry about. In a steady light rain they move hard, especailly big bucks, seen 6 monsters yesterday.
I'm watching the radar every hour this morning. Hoping to get out this afternoon....it's going to be wet. I will definately have my treestand umbrella!
I'll only take a "gimme" shot when it's raining very much.
Never miss the opportunity. I'm heading to CT in about 30 minutes to bowhunt and the forecast here in the Northeast for the rest of the week is rain, some snow flurries tonite. Rain doesn't bother deer, they will feed in a downpour. Now...a flat out total downpour...I will wait for the water to subside. Good luck..............Joe
I've killed most of my deer on rainy, sleeting and/or snowy days. They seem to be on the move in that type of weather.
I keep my shots close when the weather is wet and inclimement. During a heavy downpour I would wait it out, but otherwise just use a little common sense.
One of the biggest bucks that i have ever seen was in a bad rain storm and he was checking scrapes. I dont mind hunting in the rain because i have a great rain gear and as long as its not raining sideways the deer will usually go about there business.
I'll hunt in showery weather, but if it's a heavy steady rain I usually call it a day. Where I hunt there's usually a lot of brush and timber, if the bloodtrail gets washed away there's a very good chance you won't find the animal.
I'll hunt in snow any chance I get!
I hear about guys losing animals every year because they couldn't find the bloodtrail. Just last month a guy was hunting elk in a heavy rain in Western Oregon, he hit a nice bull in the throat(no, not his intended target)and the bull ran off. Said he couldn't find his arrow in the vegetation, and didn't see a bloodtrail the direction the bull ran. 10 days later he was in the same spot and followed his nose only 60 yards to where the bull had died. Maybe if he had waited to hunt in better weather, the outcome might have been better? I don't this fella put much effort into finding this elk, weather may not have mattered much.