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[moderator]

October 2007 Feature Article:

Bucks in the Rain

The moment you have waited for all year is on the horizon, the beginning of another archery season will soon be at hand, and you're feeling pretty good about yourself and what you have done to prepare for the new season. You took your compound to the archery shop had a safety check done on it, greased the cables replaced that worn serving and waxed the string. Read more...

Please use this area to post comments or questions about this feature article.

[GBoyd]

Good advice.
You're not going to sit long if you're soaking wet and cold.

[MudanDogHunter7]

Thanks for the advice!

last year i saw a 8 point in the rain. yea it wasnt comfortable and i really didnt come prepared for it. Didnt get the shot but it was worth it.

Thanks Again!

[Johnftwobucks]

[quote="moderator"]October 2007 Feature Article:

Bucks in the Rain

The moment you have waited for all year is on the horizon, the beginning of another archery season will soon be at hand, and you're feeling pretty good about yourself and what you have done to prepare for the new season. You took your compound to the archery shop had a safety check done on it, greased the cables replaced that worn serving and waxed the string. Read more...

Please use this area to post comments or questions about this feature article
I am a day old member to this group of outdoorsmen and I hope not to upset anyone.But as far as bowhunting in the rain for any big game animal I would like to know if anyone can explain to me how you would track a blood trail in the rain ? I will leave it at that and hope to learn something from this....I have been bowhunting for 40 years and here's hoping I hear something good.

[Archeryeditor]

I have pondered the same question John. I consider myself a pretty good tracker as I have learned a lot from some of the best trackers in the west and in Africa. While it is very possible to track an animal successfully in rain through other methods, we of course opt for the best sign of all- blood.
A perectly hit animal won't usually go far and makes recovery rather easy even inthe hardest of rains, I usually opt to choose not to bowhunt during such conditions. Not that I am unconfident in my shooting abilities, it is just that anything could happen and good old Murphy can come up bite anyone of us at anytime. In my opinion I owe it to my quarry to give it every oportunity for a clean kill and a successful recovery.

[Spinner of Tales]

Thanks for the comments folks,. In essence the below should explain what I was trying to get across.
Proficiency with your bow, experience, ethics and weather conditions at the time should be the determining factors that should decide if the shot be taken.
I would rather pass a big buck when all is not right and hunt him another day when the conditions are better.

Good hunting and be safe out there.

Bumper



Rain also demands your shooting distances be lessened. It's a known fact that the better the hit and penetration the quicker the quarry will go down. I have seen well hit deer travel varying distances from ten to over two hundred yards.

It is critical during these situations that we strive to get the best placed shot possible, I would much rather pass up a good buck and come back another day to get him than take the chance of merely wounding him or worse not finding him at all.

It is essential that the hunter remain calm and motionless after a hit as not to alarm the animal more causing it to run further on mere adrenalin because it spotted the hunter.

As bowhunters we all probably have witnessed a deer at one time or another who was hit well, show little alarm during the hit and stood motionless looking around for what it was that had struck them, only to walk away and drop within sight of the hunter. That in essence is what we should try to accomplish when hunting under these conditions.

[north1north]

Maybe it has something to do with where I'm hunting, but I never hunt in the rain anymore because I've always been told that deer usually won't move in the rain. I've experienced this firsthand as well, never seeing a deer while it was raining out. This doesn't mean, necessarily, that no deer ever will or ever has moved in the rain; its just that I've never seen it before.

2 evenings ago(November 7) I was hunting in the NE area of Wisconsin. I used estrous scents(4) hanging and had a doe decoy positioned over my bait pile. I ended up having at least 3 deer surrounding my stand, only 2 I could see. The 2 I could see were bucks, and after one bellowed a grunt, they got into a scuffle, which lasted only a minute, if that, and the loser retreated. The larger 10 pointer scraped, and took a pee behind some trees. Then it started raining and he turned 180 degrees and went back the way he came, turned a little and then I could hear him walk back to the swamp where they bed during the day! He put in all that work for a "hot doe" just to go back to the swamp??

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting what exactly happened, but I'm pretty sure the rain had a lot to do with it. I scent proof myself as well as my clothing, I don't smoke or anything. And, there would be no way that buck got close enough to see that the doe was a decoy. He didn't hear me either. He just causually walked back towards the swamp, and it was the evening so he should've been heading in the other direction towards the agricultural fields, not for food, but because thats where other does would be.

I guess it just seems natural to me that deer tend to seek cover while its raining, as aside from breeding, their main goal this time of year is to generate energy reserves and not waste energy by getting wet and cold. I suppose in more southern states, warmer temperatures allow the bucks in rut to concentrate on breeding more than staying dry and warm. Who knows...