Hunting the snow

[Bow Jangles]

I’ve got a few questions for you guys that have hunted snow and cold weather all of your lives.


Here’s the situation. I consider myself a pretty experienced whitetail hunter as I’ve been doing it my entire life. However, since I moved from SE Georgia to the Midwest almost 2 years ago, I’ve been reminded many times just how much I still have to learn. To say that the hunting is different here than it is in the pine forests of home would be a major understatement. I have wanted to hunt after a snowfall for my entire life and it looks like Thursday may be my first opportunity.

I live a little north of KC in Missouri and I woke up to about 4” of the white stuff this morning. They are predicting another 3-5” throughout the day today and another 2-4” overnight. We could wind up with around 8-12” on the ground before it is all said and done. Wednesday is supposed to bring very cold temps (15* for the high) and high winds out of the WNW (20-30 mph sustained).

Thursday morning is predicted to dawn clear and cold (3*) with light winds (5-8 mph) out of the WSW. The high temps are supposed to reach 25* and it supposed to be sunny. My thoughts are that the cold temps and high winds will keep the deer bedded down for much of the day on Wednesday and that they should move like crazy around daylight Thursday morning. I know that they will have to feed with it being that cold and that the daytime movement should be good.

The property is about 1200 acres and we have about 600 acres of beans, 300 acres of corn, and 300 acres of contiguous timber. There is a major timbered draw (approx. 300 yards wide) that runs N/S along the West side of the corn field (cow pasture to the west of it) and a secondary timbered draw (approx 100 yards wide) that runs E/W along the North side of the corn. The secondary draw divides the corn and the beans.

Our corn was harvested the week of Thanksgiving and the beans were taken out in early November. We haven’t hunted very much since the corn came out and when we have, movement has been pretty slow (very surprising!). I’ve never had the opportunity to bowhunt in conditions quite like this. Experience and logic tells me that Thursday should be good after the passage of a major front, but I could be dead wrong.


What are your thoughts?

Would corn or beans be more productive with snow on the ground (I’m thinking corn as we have a ton of spillage)?

Would it be wise to hunt Thursday morning, or would you spend this time scouting for obvious trails to LW on in the evening? (I hope the single digit temps don’t last too long!)

Would you hunt the edges of corn/bean fields, or would you try to position yourself in the timber between the crops and known bedding areas?

I am after a mature buck, but quantity is my focus on this hunt. I may actually take a doe, but my thoughts are that we still have a few left to be bred and that a mature buck would have a hard time not checking/following a big group of does. In my three seasons of hunting the midwest, I've noticed that bucks will a lot of times mingle with large groups of does during the late season. Is this a fair assumption?

Any thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks for helping a Southern boy out!

 

[OLETOM]

I think I would spend part of Thursday morning doing some scouting and seeing which fields they hit after the storm passed. Then if any of those bean fields have a wind blown open spot on them check it out. If they don't have to paw through much snow they wont do it and go for the easy pickens. But if they do have to paw through 8' of snow, I would be checking out the fields that are protected a bit from that wind and corn could be good. Beans are good too though at this time of year. Personally, THE COLDER THE BETTER UP HERE I SAY! COLD they have to eat no way around it and they will move earlier. Take the time to scout in the am and then put up blind on a food sorce and wait them out. They will come! Not better time other than the rut to bag a true mature buck! He has to replenish his fat reserve and no better place than on that bean field or corn field. Might take a week or two to spot the right one but wait him out and maybe be on the move a bit to head him off. You will be surprised at how much fun it can be in single digit weather and below Zero weather to hunt!

Oh, do a little modification to an old flannel shirt too! Sow on pockets over your kidney areas and on your shoulders (out side shoulders) to place hand warmers in them. Will keep you way warm and keeps your muscles loose. This cold weather tends to tighten up the muscles and can make it hard to pull back a bow! Stretch every once in a while too, just make sure no deer are coming. Oh, if you wear La Crosse rubber boots, put a foot warmer in the bottom of them as well. Have sat on stand for hours in 5-10 below zero weather and not gotten cold.

Have fun and enjoy the cold weather! It is fun!

 

[tlambert]

In the cold snowy weather I do best sitting just a bit off from the food sources on a travel corridor. This early in the year a lot of those big guys seem to hold off getting to the fields til just after dark. My theory is they feel too vulnerable in that bright snow. Find a good staging area and set up. Don't forget a neck gaiter and like Oletom said, stretch every now and then or draw your bow back every 1/2 hour or 45 minutes. Its amazing what that cold will do to your muscles even when you still feel fairly warm. I too am a huge fan of hunting the cold stuff. Colder the better!

 

[Bow Jangles]

Thanks for the input guys! I'm thinking of hunting a stand on a travel corridor about 80 yards west of the corn field in the morning then potentially doing some scouting. Thanks for the advice on the handwarmers. I will definitely see if I can talk the wife into doing a little sewing tonight!

Oletom, as it turns out, our corn sits high on a ridge and the beans are (for the most part) at lower elevation and more out of the wind. We even have a small bean field (lowest on the property) that we call the isolated bean field. It is maybe 3-4 acres in size and is bordered by wooded creeks on 3 sides (most heavily on the north and west sides) and a fence line to the south. It has always been a productive spot. I'll be sure to check it out when I start scouting.

 

[OLETOM]

If your hunting those beans, be careful of the wind. In extreme cold though I have found that your scent doesn't seem to travel like it does in warmer weather so you can get away with a little more but do like normal and watch that wind. The bucks will especially now after they have been pressured, be using it to their advantage more. Cooridoor like tlambert said is good as well. Not sure when your gun season was done, but I agree with him to a cerian point. If it is bitterly cold, they will come earlier, they have to so they dont expend as much energy as they would during the night. But the real big ones will be the last ones to the field. Although if you on a very isolated food sorce, like I have hunted in the past, heck they could be on there at 1 in the afternoon already!

Good Luck and I have to wait out a darn T-Zone hunt this weekend before I can get after the monster that is still running on our farm. Hopefully some schmuck doesn't think he can get away with shooting his buck during a doe season.

The cold is definately here in the upper midwest so get that shirt put together! If someone else would not have a patent on it, I surely would! Good think I know how to sow!