Agree.
Even when it’s “hot”…. If it’s consistently hot… wait until temp drops quick by 10-15 degrees & IMO - movement is good. Watch temp drop + increase in barometric pressure …. Movement picks up & good night to hunt.
I use weather underground - they have 10 day temps + a graph with barometric pressure. It’s really easy to help pick best days to hunt by looking at that for 30 seconds.
I’m going to buy our youth tag today. Stoked to get a cooler evening & sit with youngsters!!! Good luck everyone. Enjoy!!!
Even when it’s “hot”…. If it’s consistently hot… wait until temp drops quick by 10-15 degrees & IMO - movement is good. Watch temp drop + increase in barometric pressure …. Movement picks up & good night to hunt.
I use weather underground - they have 10 day temps + a graph with barometric pressure. It’s really easy to help pick best days to hunt by looking at that for 30 seconds.
I’m going to buy our youth tag today. Stoked to get a cooler evening & sit with youngsters!!! Good luck everyone. Enjoy!!!
cashier today when buying tags… “oh, thank you for taking kids out. So nice to see them off electronics!” She wasn’t a hunter but had a nice talk. I think most in our society actually “get it” ….. we need new young hunters & we are battling a society of “instant gratification, electronics, guaranteed results, etc”. Whether these youth tag or not- enjoy, thank you for doing it and x2, enjoy making life long memories!!!
Daver
PMA Member
Totally agree with Skip above aaaannnnddd...I will add this for your consideration too.
We had a whopper of a buck that we were trying to take down a few years ago now and we knew his seasonal habits very, very well from the previous 3-4 years of watching him grow. So well did we know this giant that we knew he would likely wander off of our place around the middle of October and then be 90% on neighboring properties until right around Thanksgiving...when he would invariably return "home" to our place and mostly remain there, and a couple of adjacent neighboring properties, for the rest of the season. (BTW - we generally knew where he was because enough neighbors share pics back and forth and this guy was on everyone's radar that he was pretty easy to follow.)
We try to get our bucks with archery tackle, but if a buck is going to move off of our farm for all of the rut, then that makes it hard to get him via stick and string. Sooo...being an outside of the box thinker
I decided I was going to get an early season muzzy tag and take this beast down via smokepole. I set a stand in a weird location just for him and just for the middle of October sometime in August I think. It almost worked, almost. Harrumph.
I watched the weather like a hawk as the days of early muzzy clicked off the calendar and I didn't hunt at all, just biding my time to intercept Mr. Big and I didn't want to risk alerting ANY deer to my stealthy stand location...which was in a giant tree in the middle of an open field. A high risk, high reward stand, if you will. I was watching for a mid October cold front that I knew would get him on his feet 30-60 minutes earlier than normal. And if he did "his thing" on the right day, I would be able to knock him down where I was waiting for him with 5-15 minutes of legal shooting time to spare.
It was Thursday finally of that short 10 day season that the awaited cold front arrived and I beat it out of the office early to be in that stand that evening. I got in clean and thought to myself...he's mine tonight. Well...seemingly every other deer living on the farm made it's way in front of me that night...except Mr. Big. Drats! Darkness eventually fell and I thought there goes my chance and I would be proven right over time. Aaarrgghh.
But after sitting awhile longer to let all of the deer filter off, I got down and swapped a card from a cam about 30 yards away and took it with me. Back at the cabin I looked for signs of Mr. Big and ding dong it...he was there in front of that cam with 10 minutes of legal shooting light the NIGHT BEFORE the cold front hit. Crap! I did everything just right, almost, but I missed him by one lousy day. He did his normal thing that year and pretty much disappeared for the rut and then was back at Thanksgiving, as usual. He got shot that December by someone else...and so died the legend of Megatron.
BUT...the potential lesson here is that SOMETIMES the movement can be good even 24+ hours in front of a good October cold front. I think, but cannot say conclusively, that the longer the relatively warmer weather persists before a good October cold front that the movement can be good even a day in advance as the deer seem to be pent up, chomping at the bit or something.
This experience has caused me to ALSO hunt the day prior to a good front hitting in October and I kind of think I am on to something here. It is not 100%...but it is often that the big boys will stir a day ahead of the right front in October too...at least in my experience. Those are just some thoughts and observations of mine...good luck to all. Season is almost upon us now!!
We had a whopper of a buck that we were trying to take down a few years ago now and we knew his seasonal habits very, very well from the previous 3-4 years of watching him grow. So well did we know this giant that we knew he would likely wander off of our place around the middle of October and then be 90% on neighboring properties until right around Thanksgiving...when he would invariably return "home" to our place and mostly remain there, and a couple of adjacent neighboring properties, for the rest of the season. (BTW - we generally knew where he was because enough neighbors share pics back and forth and this guy was on everyone's radar that he was pretty easy to follow.)
We try to get our bucks with archery tackle, but if a buck is going to move off of our farm for all of the rut, then that makes it hard to get him via stick and string. Sooo...being an outside of the box thinker
I decided I was going to get an early season muzzy tag and take this beast down via smokepole. I set a stand in a weird location just for him and just for the middle of October sometime in August I think. It almost worked, almost. Harrumph.I watched the weather like a hawk as the days of early muzzy clicked off the calendar and I didn't hunt at all, just biding my time to intercept Mr. Big and I didn't want to risk alerting ANY deer to my stealthy stand location...which was in a giant tree in the middle of an open field.
A high risk, high reward stand, if you will. I was watching for a mid October cold front that I knew would get him on his feet 30-60 minutes earlier than normal. And if he did "his thing" on the right day, I would be able to knock him down where I was waiting for him with 5-15 minutes of legal shooting time to spare.It was Thursday finally of that short 10 day season that the awaited cold front arrived and I beat it out of the office early to be in that stand that evening. I got in clean and thought to myself...he's mine tonight. Well...seemingly every other deer living on the farm made it's way in front of me that night...except Mr. Big. Drats! Darkness eventually fell and I thought there goes my chance and I would be proven right over time. Aaarrgghh.
But after sitting awhile longer to let all of the deer filter off, I got down and swapped a card from a cam about 30 yards away and took it with me. Back at the cabin I looked for signs of Mr. Big and ding dong it...he was there in front of that cam with 10 minutes of legal shooting light the NIGHT BEFORE the cold front hit. Crap! I did everything just right, almost, but I missed him by one lousy day. He did his normal thing that year and pretty much disappeared for the rut and then was back at Thanksgiving, as usual. He got shot that December by someone else...and so died the legend of Megatron.
BUT...the potential lesson here is that SOMETIMES the movement can be good even 24+ hours in front of a good October cold front. I think, but cannot say conclusively, that the longer the relatively warmer weather persists before a good October cold front that the movement can be good even a day in advance as the deer seem to be pent up, chomping at the bit or something.
This experience has caused me to ALSO hunt the day prior to a good front hitting in October and I kind of think I am on to something here. It is not 100%...but it is often that the big boys will stir a day ahead of the right front in October too...at least in my experience. Those are just some thoughts and observations of mine...good luck to all. Season is almost upon us now!!
