Hot weather deer hunt

[gmww]

This is going to be strange. They are opening the deer season a week early for muzzleloading. I checked the are I'm going to be hunting. Currently it calls for high 92 tomorrow. On Friday it going to be cooler but still 82. Opening day (Saturday) is not posted. Any thoughts on how its going to effect the whitetails?

I'm thinking they are going to be coming in early out of the fields and leaving for the fields late.

 

[rabjr]

Movement wise, man I hate it here anthing above 70. Your right, they will likely move real late and leave early. At least here. Don't know when/where your rut is but that may be a factor too there. It does seem way early to me though. I generally don't get to excited till mid Oct and real excited till mid November here. Wow July just seems way to early to me. They are still in velvet no?

 

[gmww]

We only have a week to hunt. I use an outfitter to hunt private land as public land tends to get too crowded. I'm unguided on private land. There is a late season but the area will be snowed in. They should be out of velvet around here. We hunt like you and used a blind. The property owner requires this so the deer aren't pushed off the property. Looks like it will be a half moon I think.

I just checked and it call for a low of 40 high of 82 on Saturday and Sunday.

 

[rabjr]

Looks like in my opinion your morning hunt will produce. Is this over food plots?

Man I just realized it;s Sept, my thoughts were in Augest. I'm not in my right mind atm, you'll have to forgive me. :haha: So yes they should be well out of velvet. I need to go to bed. :haha:

 

[gmww]

Not on food plots. The area I hunt is surrounded by stubble hay fields. The deer hang out in the fields in the morning and head back to the hills. We wait for them just inside the woods and try and get them as they pass.

We do the opposite in the evening. We ambush them as they head to the fields in the early evening.

 

[chance]

I am not the greatest hunter but I have to hunt in some of the same conditions you are facing. IMHO I believe you are on the right course. They will be moving to and from feeding to bedding in the morning and evening. But also pay attention in mid day in case hunters arounfd your private land may push deer to you during their leaving from the morning hunt. Good luck and please post pics. Kill a big one!!!!!!!!!!

 

[luieb45]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. A few years ago I hunted our youth season on October 1 and it was 90 degrees and I managed to get a doe that was just walking through the timber with it's fawns. It will affect the deer a little but not enough that it's not worth hunting.

 

[BrownBear]

Up here Sitka blacktail season opens August 1. Years ago (like 40 years ago) the Columbia blacktail archery season in California opened in mid-August, where it was hotter than hot. Hot is relative though, and when 50 is more typical up here, a 70 degree day is going to make the deer act like California deer at 100 degrees.

I bring all that up because there's some useful thinking for you to apply to your area. It may affect WHERE your deer enter and leave the fields when they have lots of options.

For midday heat the deer are going to climb and look for the right mix of shade and breezes to ruminate and wait out the heat of they day. No higher country with breezes, expect them to drop into draws and coulees that funnel the air and cool them. If your deer have access to anything like that, you know where they're going to be headed and what route they're likely to use.

 

[gmww]

:thumbsup: Thanks that's what I was looking for. I'll be there the day before to go over the property again. I just need to figure out where to set up a couple of blinds. I like the shaded, breeze suggestion.

 

[jimmy82]

Hunted a season in NC where I was sweating the whole time... never saw a deer during the day, and only saw one at the check station that season... It was frustrating.

 

[rabjr]

Ok, so your basically hunting Staging areas.

In that case I would look for the heaviest sign inside those woods and also take brownbears advice.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Your type of hunting sounds likes ours here in WV early ML season going on this week. Hunted the last 3 days and 2 nephews each took one. One in the evening coming out into the fields to feed the other in the morning moving from fields to woods. Temps were about 60 in the morning to 80-83 during the day. We skinned,quartered them quick and put on ice in coolers. Meat was fine. The best part was that it was the first deer with a ML for one of my nephews. Hope you have a safe and successful hunt! :hatsoff:

 

[texcl]

Our deer season has been royally screwed up by the heat. Most of the deer I pick up on cam are moving well after dark (midnight)and are bedded by sun up. I might actually drive some deer here in the next couple days. We haven't even had a frost yet. and the highs are around 80 every day, it's nuts. The weather pattern is supposed to change here and we are looking at highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's in 2 days.

 

[rabjr]

I have to deal with warm weather during the special P.I hunt which is Columbus day week every year. So I'll be going over Oct 12. I've participated in this hunt 30 years this year and have seen all kinds of weather but mostly temps of 60's and above during the day, sometimes 90's tee shirt weather which sucks. But temps generally drop over night. However when your dealing with a small area which for a very long time held 70+ animals per square mile, it wasn't very hard to bump into a deer. The last 5 or 6 years have been tough because of Lyme desease, no one cares about the deer anymore so with poaching and coyotes it's probably more like 7 animals per square mile now, who knows.

Anyways I don't start to get excited here until mid Novemember for the mainland. Temps usually have them frisky here by then.

 

[jethro224]

Weather or not, and how much, high temperatures affect deer movement depends a lot on if they have their winter coat yet. Either way they will find a cool spot to lay up during the hottest part of the day, but they still hafta eat, and they haven't been pressured yet. I think you'll see some deer.

Our bow season here in IL opens October first and runs thru mid-January. The misc. gun seasons are sprinkled in from mid-November until mid-January. I've shot deer while I was sweating in a T-shirt and while I was literally covered in ice.

Heck one DAY a couple seasons ago we went from t-shirt in the sunshine, to warm drizzle, to cold rain, to severe lightning storm, to thick fog, to snow, to freezing rain covered in ice. I hunkered down and stuck it out, but I looked like Hatchet Jack by the end of the day and shattered when I stood up. :haha: Saw 4 deer that day. Didn't get one.

 

[rabjr]

Weather or not, and how much, high temperatures affect deer movement depends a lot on if they have their winter coat yet. Either way they will find a cool spot to lay up during the hottest part of the day, but they still hafta eat, and they haven't been pressured yet. I think you'll see some deer.

Our bow season here in IL opens October first and runs thru mid-January. The misc. gun seasons are sprinkled in from mid-November until mid-January. I've shot deer while I was sweating in a T-shirt and while I was literally covered in ice.

Heck one DAY a couple seasons ago we went from t-shirt in the sunshine, to warm drizzle, to cold rain, to severe lightning storm, to thick fog, to snow, to freezing rain covered in ice. I hunkered down and stuck it out, but I looked like Hatchet Jack by the end of the day and shattered when I stood up. :haha: Saw 4 deer that day. Didn't get one.

No worrys, long as I can sit there for a couple hours with little to no pain all I need to do is have one of my helpers find a good producing oak. They have a English oak over there has acorns big as your thumbs they vaccum up. Just need one good producing tree to setup a blind on and wait.

 

[tg]

We seldom can hunt before the first of Oct except for archery or whatever they call shooting arrows with those gizmoz with cables, pulleys and all sorts of do-dads,I do not like to hunt even in warmish weather so I try to wait and hunt later third week in Oct thru November if I have a tag that permits me to.Squirresl rabbits and birds are one thing but I do not like hunting, dressing or packing deer if the temp is in the 70's.