Hunting the RUT in the rain???
Wisconsin
I am going to be hunting from Nov 2nd - 9th. Looking at the forecast there will be some rain showers moving through on Monday and Tuesday. If the rain is light (drizzle or light steady rain) with less than 10 mph winds...do you still sit and hunt all day?
How many have had experience (and good luck) in conditions like that?
Any temp, any precip is fine just not high winds.
Any temp, any precip is fine INCLUDING high winds.
High winds (and heavy rain) is the perfect time to still hunt. A deer's sense of smell and hearing are diminished with wind and rain making it the perfect time to go to them instead of waiting for them to come to you. As far as success, I shot my last deer in steady rain. I have also killed deer while still hunting in the wind.
High winds won't stop movement during the peak rut, but can a 30-50 mph gust affect arrow flight? I don't know the answer, but it seems like it sure could. Have done more than a few sneaks (mostly on turkeys, but also some deer in wind-blocked corners of fields) in high winds, but outside of gun hunts they've all ended up in close, but not close enough. I don't bow hunt in much more than a drizzle or very light rain at most, but to each his own. Gun hunting I've shot turkeys in a downpour and endured one opening day gun hunt soaker — never again without something to stay dry!
I use an umbrella over the tree stand or a pop up ground blind if it is raining or melting snow.
Be very careful in a tree stand in the rain and always use a lifeline. Stands and ladders get very slippery.
I know what people say about a high pressure day during the rut but some of my best days have been gray with a light rain.
Love hunting when it's raining and then it stops deer seem to come out of everywhere. Definitely some of my best sits ever.
Well normally outside of the rut around here if it rains very hard or is past a light shower or short duration rain the deer vanish and you may as well not hunt unless you want to go really seek them out still hunting and also cover a long distance to get to them.
However during the rut all bets are off and I will sit in the wind and rain because during the rut I see bucks regardless of the weather unless it is a monsoon outside.
I stay fairly dry in the rain if stand hunting because I modified a large umbrella to work just like the small ones that are made for hunting that have the cut out for going around the tree and then screw into the tree above your head. I am currently making one out of an old outside table umbrella that is huge.
