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Lets Talk October Cold Fronts

I have had a few good hunts following a front in October, but I'm with goatman on the calmvwind! Calm wind=Jumpy Deer. Last year had a little front push through in mid October, had a east wind, and went back to a little clover plot next to a bedding area, about an hour before dark the wind dies. There was a several does and a couple little bucks bumping around, and then a 4 year old that I had lots of pictures walked out. With that calm wind he didn't move out of a 10'-15' radius for more than an hour. He didn't act nervous, just stood pretty much stock still, with his ears tuned to every little noise that he heard.

It was completely dark before I was able to make him out walking off using my binos(he was only 60 yards away), set there for another 30 minutes before SLOWLY getting down, I was so worried I was going to bump him. In southern Kansas it is usually still pretty dang warm all of October, you still see movement with a front, but it just seems like they don't move very far before dark.
 
6x6 said:
October can be slow, until a cold front. I killed my non typical last season after the first cold front of the season, first week of October. It was an hour before sunset at a plastic lined waterhole and clover. The year before, I killed the big 12 pt typical the 3rd week of October, after a strong front, on a fall rye/clover mix. After a cold front is always the best time to hunt, anytime of the year, but it really flips the switch in October
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I started hunting the fronts last year on a new farm in Devatur County and Holy Cow did it make a difference.....
Sligh1 said:
Evening.
Whatever is constant temp..... when there's a 10-20 degree swing lower- I'm in stand.
If u can find food & "unpressured bucks" (which can be hard) - imo, absolutely fantastic. Say a recently combined corn field or brassicas and temps dump down. Mature bucks will move well before dark if they have not been harassed. Great oppportunity if done right. Good topic!
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I started hunting the fronts last year on a new farm in Decatur County and Holy Cow did it make a difference.....I think this with 0 pressure on these deer made an amazing difference. I never in my life saw so many mature big bucks moving during daylight hours. Needless to say I missed a 200" buck Oct 7th....It made me an absolute believer!
 
In 2010 I killed a 165" on Oct 5th. Farmer had opened up a corn field and he was out early. In 2011 I killed a 160" on Oct. 5th. Same farm but this hunt was a travel route to a secluded brassica plot. Both situations were the first decent temp. drop. Moon was high in the sky and the barometer was 30+. I've had great luck hunting Oct but wont waste my time unless its colder and the pressure is right.
 
I am by no means an expert but here is how my October strategy has evolved in the last several years.
I spend all summer watching trail cam's and do my best to get a feel for what the deer, the bucks mainly, are up to. I try to do a card pull around Sept 15 or 20th ahead of our October 1st opener. I use that last card pull to set my up my first hunts of the season. I will hunt October 1st and 2nd hoping to catch a buck that I (hopefully) have patterned before he realizes it's game time. If a hit lister cooperates and presents an attackable pattern this can be some dynamite hunting. I hunt mainly evenings for this as I only have one or maybe two stands I consider worthwhile for a morning hunt this time of year.
From there I will focus on the weather and look for the temp changes and fronts. As for specifics I look for temp drops of 10 degrees or more, especially if it has been unseasonably warm for a stretch and a drop comes or if it is standard temps but the drop makes it unseasonably cool.
If you are hunting the front itself you will find success in the low pressure weather, this would be the drizzly days or the days where it rains and then lets up a bit before dark like people mentioned above. If you are hunting after the front you will find success in the high pressure days which put that cool, crisp feel in the air. The window on these fronts is generally short in October but they can produce some great hunts. If you can find one of these front's in conjunction with a favorable moon you are starting to hit all the "green lights" the pro's like to talk about. As for wind, if you hunt just ahead of or during the front you generally won't have an issue with it being too calm. The days after will generally be calmer and as others have said I also prefer to at least have some wind in the air over a dead calm day. Those dead calm put the deer on alert and make every breath and movement seem like a truck horn.
The trick is to either be patient or spread your hunts around so you don't burn up your main spot or prime spots too early. We always had our public land bow camp in October and when that ended I started an out of state hunt in October. That allows me to hunt plenty of days in October but still only spend a select few on our main farm leaving it ready to rock come prime time.
 
Great video, thanks for posting

Also thanks to those who have replied this is great info

Kratz
 
That is a fantastic video! Follow the youtube link if you haven't and there is a link to his formula. Very interesting!
 
I think October cold fronts get the local bucks up and moving during daylight hours which is why they're effective. Bucks that you have on camera during the summer are moving now during the daylight. I don't think you'll necessarily see a bunch of different bucks (although you may!) because bucks aren't quite leaving their home territories yet starting to pre-rut / rut.
 
jet08 said:
Here is a great video by Jeff Sturgis discussing hunting cold fronts.

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I had a little time yesterday and I really like playing with Excel so I quickly made a sheet to do these calcs. https://www.dropbox.com/s/isd7ap0t1d99e8e/Hunt predictor.xlsm?dl=0
Check it out if you want. I'm going to play around with it this year and see how accurate it is.
Edit: It looks like you will need to download the file from dropbox in order for it to be formatted correctly. It looks all screwed up in dropbox.
 
Go west to hunt. At least if there are seasons out there yet. Pattern change taking place out there NOW. Cool damp stormy conditions. Snow even in MTNS! Heat and fires leaving. My friend in the NWS in Omaha says heat and mostly dry to continue for Iowa thru beginning of Oct so good luck waiting for cold frnts.
 
Nice video. Only problem. Last few Novembers were warm,,dry. Few big drops in temp. Then what? Be out there anyway best you can say.
 
Tim Hull said:
I don't give a care about the weather or wind, if it is November 8th you should be in a tree somewhere. Lol
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Absolutely! November is a completely different animal than October. The main concern i see in this thread is when and how to hunt the primo days of October rather than just hunting for the sake of getting a sit in and potentially burning stands (or yourself) out before the hunting gets good. Once November rolls around, I'm in a tree any chance I have.
 
After watching the video I went back and compared days of harvest on our Michigan farm to the weather patterns on those days and Jeff nailed both of these days. Pure coincidence for the hunters on our property, but I will be paying closer attention to this. As stated I won't be skipping out on early november hunts if they don't match the desired weather patterns, however, if will make a much stronger effort to be in a tree in October and November on the days that line up with these patterns.

The 2016 season treated our deer camp well when two of our target bucks were harvested during archery season. The first buck, "Captain Hook" was taken on the evening of November 4th. Here is Captain Hook
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The second buck did not have a name but he was a tall 9pt. He was killed on the evening of November 12th by MS member BKS10
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Looking back to the weather information for these days show the barometric pressure rise, temperature drop, and decreasing or steady winds for both days.

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Just thought t it was a good reminder before our fast approaching season that Jeff is living proof as well as the above bucks to choose quality sits in your best spots vs quantity to get your target buck on the ground this season.
 
I agree with what Jeff is saying. I too have been known to postpone my rut vacation during warm spells in hopes of cooler weather to come. Last year I was at work on November 8th due to warm weather but killed my target buck on November 20 with temps under 20 degrees .
 
Are there good sources that report trending pressure? Weatherunderground has climbing and dropping but at a current state. Maybe it's not possible to predict pressure that well, say 12hrs out?
 
arm said:
Are there good sources that report trending pressure? Weatherunderground has climbing and dropping but at a current state. Maybe it's not possible to predict pressure that well, say 12hrs out?
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That's a good question. I too use wu. I like the app for up to date info for wind/ temp closest to ur location.
 
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