I posted the day after Halloween about the inordinate amount of deer activity Halloween day, today was another one of those days in Wayne county. Deer were on their feet all day, question is, why? Wind was ESE which typically means little movement. We are 2-3 days removed from the last front.
Another one of those days today
- Thread starter hbg1
- Start date
Personal opinion is first normal day. Tomorrow be good too.
JeepKuntry
Well-Known Member
I saw movement early morning and early afternoon. Few does mid morning in field edges. Sure wish there was more rut activity!
Look at weather underground historical data for today and you'll see that from 9am until 3pm the wind direction and speed was all over the place. In my experience the time during major wind changes is very often when I see heightened activity. It's usually half an hour or maybe even an hour or so. Today it was all day long.
What I look for is 180* direction change, or close to it. While it's happening the speed usually drops to near zero or zero, then picks back up as it blows the opposite direction. During that "lull" is when I expect to see activity. And today was full of those moments. Generally it happens during daylight hours once every week or two. Today was nonstop.
I noticed the pattern while trying to figure out when bucks hit scrapes and why certain days scrape activity is exceptional. Given most scrape activity is nighttime, I also wanted to know what spurred a buck to scrape at say 2pm or 10am. What I found was that specific wind pattern. It's so uncanny that I now plan hunts around it, and take time off when I see it in the forecast.
Weather Underground. If you look at the 10 day forecast it will show a graph charting several things like temp, precip, pressure, wind, etc.
Yeah i saw 10 buck and 9 does this morn. Great numbers for me for a woods hunt
Deer were on their feet all day in SW TN. I know a few hunters who saw north of 30 deer sightings yesterday, and a few of them climbed down at noon. Our weather/temps has been sustained and unbelievable for this early in November. Local deer processor told me yesterday that he has never been this full this early due to all the deer coming in and hanging in his cooler.
LenS
Well-Known Member
I had one of those incredible days yesterday as well. Saw 9 different bucks and north of 20 does. Deer were constantly on their feet from 6:30 til I needed to leave at 10:30. 7-8:30 was a near constant stream of action.
Kevin
Well-Known Member
They were everywhere this morning also. Seen them in 5-6 different places when I make the long loop home after taking the kids to school.
Yeah that's pretty ok. Monday evening looks even better, but I don't see anything in the forecast that excites me. When I get to my home computer this evening I'll screenshot some examples.
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
They moved well here yesterday. Sent my wife out this morning hoping she would be set for a great hunt, not so much. She saw just a single 1.5 year old buck, and called it quits about 9:15.
Man, thanks so much for sharing your observations. I'm a believer. Not only did I have my best morning in the woods ever, my hunting partner Chris Wilson saw does all morning long. I also had to do a fair amount of country driving in early to mid afternoon and saw deer in fields almost everywhere I went!
How do you hunt deer and not get busted when you have changing winds? In the areas that I hunt it is so tight that I don't have the advantage of distance and I want consistent wind direction to keep from getting busted
