How cold is too cold?
- Thread starter TinyTucky
- Start date
the hard winter program. Herds of deer bedding and feeding in the exact same spots day after day. whats not to love if you can stay out of the wind...0 degrees 26mph wind for 2 days straight. Id pick sunday and monday evenings forcast over any bug swatting opening weekend...
I will be out Sunday and Monday afternoon. Deer will most likely lay up next 2 days with the high winds. I actually love the late season cold days 20⁰ and below really gets them moving to the food sources alot earlier in the afternoons. With the right clothing its really not bad.The buck I shot in January it was 12⁰ windchill and a little breezy. Lots of deer were up at 4:00pm
Throw in some snow and the hunting can be great. I will take a hard pass on the 40mph winds. Just wait till the front moves through.
Throw in some snow and the hunting can be great. I will take a hard pass on the 40mph winds. Just wait till the front moves through.
Iowa_Buckeye
Smartest person here
The colder it is, the earlier they will hit the food. Love late muzzy on brutally cold days. They are in the food plots early, I assume so they can bed to save energy during the even colder overnight hours.
So far the storm has bothered these 2 idiots. Dang.
I've got deer and have had deer at both feed sites here @home all night. I've been documenting this storm event in my hunt journal.
Does hammered the food until 10P last night, then not a single picture since. The bucks were laid up somewhere I guess. Be interesting to see how long until the next pics.
Spencie
Senior Member
Wind is howling and it’s 0*. I’m currently watching 2 bucks browsing. I have had cell cam pics this morning. People lay down in the cold and wind. Deer deal with it.
Buckmaster
Senior Member
Normally I’d would have 20 squirrels on an average day in my backyard. So far today it’s zero. I shot my largest buck and doe during a late 90’s muzzleloader State controlled hunt in minus 12 degrees with 10” of snow on the ground. That’s the coldest I’ve ever hunted in. I probably wouldn’t be too interested in hunting in those conditions today.
Spencie
Senior Member
As I was watching those 2 bucks I found bully bedded near them. Right on the point in the open, no wind break. Wind screaming in his face. They are adapted to this weather. Maybe not for extended periods or late March but right now they can handle it.
Now I’m tempted to hunt even though the wind direction is questionable. Went back and dumped corn and a few does were there within 40 minutes of me dumping.
Spencie
Senior Member
I watched bully for a while bedded right in the wind. At 10:30 he got up and fed for an hour. Then No Name showed up and they started sparring. No Name bedded down and Bully continued feeding. A little later I saw 2 other bucks sparring and Bully bumped them both off. I watched him on his feet for 2 hours during the windiest part of the day since it got daylight....Gusts 25-30 mph. I have never bought into the "deer lay down during windy conditions" philosphy. Some of my best trail cam pics have been when the wind is gusting 30-40 mph. Humans hate cold windy conditions and use the deer don't move excuse as a reason to watch football. Deer are still doing their thing. Maybe not as much but they aren't hiding in caves. They are going to get up at times to stretch and browse.
Shoot-straight
Member
They can have the 50 mph wind gusts.lol I will hit it when the wind dies down but still bitter cold.
I hunted in Saskatchewan yrs ago and the actual temp hit -30 one day...thats a whole different kind of cold I have never experienced..wind chill was -43. Most deer movement that day was 11am - 1pm
Cameras were lit up all night last night, apparently they don’t give a shit about the weather. Dang.
Bowhunter57
Senior Member
This is the coldest conditions that I've deer hunted was in 2013, on a Saturday, which was the next to the last day of the Deer Gun Season. It was 5 degrees, 2" of snow on the ground, winds were 10-15 from the S.W. with overcast skies. Extremely crunchy ground conditions, so stand and wait hunting was the order of the day. 
I watched a group of deer pass by, then something spooked them and they came back my direction and the buck peeled off from the group and went deeper into the woods...in my direction. He was on the other side of a small ravine when I took the shot, which was 58 yards. I broke his left front shoulder, he went down, got back up and walked off with the herd...slowly.
It took me the next 2 hours to walk each crunching step directly towards him, to get to 45-50 yards to take the finishing shot, head on, in the chest, which sat him down like a dog before he flipped onto his back.
I would NOT hunt in those conditions today.
Ruger Super Redhawk 44 Mag. 9 1/2" barrel, Sightmark Ultra Sight.
I watched a group of deer pass by, then something spooked them and they came back my direction and the buck peeled off from the group and went deeper into the woods...in my direction. He was on the other side of a small ravine when I took the shot, which was 58 yards. I broke his left front shoulder, he went down, got back up and walked off with the herd...slowly.
It took me the next 2 hours to walk each crunching step directly towards him, to get to 45-50 yards to take the finishing shot, head on, in the chest, which sat him down like a dog before he flipped onto his back.I would NOT hunt in those conditions today.
Ruger Super Redhawk 44 Mag. 9 1/2" barrel, Sightmark Ultra Sight.