Sunday, May 21, 2006
The Perfect Night For Deer Hunting
Everyone has what they consider to be the perfect night to bow hunt for whitetail deer. For most people, it’s the type of night they shoot a buck.
However, I’ve studied on this situation for many years. What constitutes a good night? Actually, many things go into a good night for bow hunting, and it amounts to more than just seeing deer or shooting one.
Let’s take a look at a typical good night. Everything has to fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle or it won’t work.
The wind must be from the most prevalent direction. The deer must move, a buck must meander down the deer trail where you are sitting in a tree stand or ground blind, and you must make an accurate shot and kill the deer.
These are things that will often occur in some logical sequence. Often though, such things don’t always happen in logical order, and still the buck shows up and gets shot.
Here is a typical scenario that I really like. Such conditions have produced good bucks for me over the years, and this is one of my favorite nights although I could write on other variables that make a night productive, and will probably do so in the future.
First of all, I like a slowly falling barometer that gives rise to the feeling that rain will arrive within the next few hours. A hard falling barometer will do one of two things: send deer scurrying around to feed, and then disappearing into cover before the storm or they don’t move at all.
My likely scenario shows just a slight downward trend in barometric pressure. One of those evenings when birds set on telephone wires. You know the kind of nights I mean.
The next thing is an overcast sky, and a wind from the west or northwest. The wind is soft and gentle, and just enough to lightly move leaves on a tree. It must be a soft breeze from the right direction.
Your stand is near where two or three deer trails meet, and obviously on the downwind side. If the downwind side is next to an open field, so much the better because the deer may not try to circle your stand through the open field.
About 5 p.m., a soft mist starts to fall. It’s not a rain, and it’s not a sprinkle. If you wear glasses, and look up toward the sky, in a minute or two the glasses might be misted over. Preferably this is after a rain the previous day that has softened fallen leaves, and allows deer to travel as noiselessly as possible.
The wind isn’t shifting or swirling. It is steady from one direction, and you have a reasonably clear view in all directions except behind you.
If you are hunting over bait, pay attention to where the first deer come from. There are evenings when all deer will move from that direction, and other nights when only does and fawns come from that way. All the bucks may travel from an entirely different direction. But do note where the first deer come from, but don’t ignore the other directions.
On such nights, it seems to grow darker earlier, and if possible, I prefer to hunt a stand in thicker cover. The deer seem to move earlier through thicker cover because it get dark in such places faster than in more open locations.
I prefer an evening where the conditions strongly suggest a heavier rain before dark. In many cases, the possibility of a rain will start the deer moving a bit earlier. This is an evening when hunters should be in their stand an hour or so earlier than normal.
Choose wisely, get in position early, and allow the woods to settle down from your passing. Hopefully, your tree stand or permanent blind is quiet and doesn’t creak if you make a small movement. Sit tight, and pay careful attention.
Wet ground from a previous rain, and a light mist can make for silent travel. Deer can ghost into and through an area without being heard, so hunters must rely on their vision. Binoculars can help pick holes through brush or tag alders, but use them sparingly, and slowly ease them up to your eyes.
I’ve had deer barge in like they own that spot, and some deer move in very quietly, and appear as if by magic. Wait for the buck to present a perfect shot, and kill that deer.
To my way of thinking, this represents one of the best possible nights for a good buck to move. Try to be in the woods when he does. â??â?? The Whitetail Wizard