Hunting Journal

[jooger17]

Originally Posted by AgHntr10

I don't keep near the records you guys do but I had one buck in particular that I hunted hard for a couple of years. I was logging weather and moon phase from all his pictures and every time there was a full moon I would get daylight pictures when most pictures were coming at night. Took off work for the full moon in October and sure enough he came in at 3:20 in the afternoon, but I blew my shot. Never put that much thought into a deer before and since he ended up getting killed I haven't had one on camera that has intrigued me as much as him. I need to do a better job of keeping up with it all.

The only phase of the moon that I have ever paid any attention to is full. From Oct-Feb it always always always triggers some degree of rutting activity. Some scientists don't agree with that, but some scientists also say there isn't a God so I'll stick with my own personal findings on both matters lol.

Really really good post OP. Tons of extremely useful information being passed along here.


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[James]

Great thread, thanks for posting!

[Rwc]

I too keep certain notes on almost every hunt I make. I do make notes of the items you cover but I also add moon phase and time since last measurable rain occurrence. One other thing I make a mental note of then jot down, is number of deer seen during the hunt that I harvest my buck.

Great thread and thanks for sharing your notes and theory's. You have killed some truly jolly ranchers of bucks.

Rwc

[bgleaton]

I wish I could pick days/weather patterns to hunt but I have a family with two young kids, busy work schedule, and my place is 4hrs away, so when I go out there I try to make the best of it and hunt. I'm sure a lot of us are in this same boat as far as family, schedule, etc. More times than not the weather isn't great when I'm hunting but I can't change that. I definitely think what you are saying has merit and believe that change of weather is a big part of it. I wish I could plan hunting trips around weather but at this point in my life, I pick 5 weekends way before the season even starts and hope that they pan out.

[SFAbowhunter]

So after listening to the podcast with Mark Drury, he states he doesn't like hunting mornings in the early season (mainly October)...after hearing that, will it change your October up at all?

I'm looking at the weather we are to have opening weekend and I'll have a slight NE breeze and a low of 55* opening morning with the highest BP of the week. Thinking since we are getting the front that's dropping temps almost 20*, opening day being later in the front, and a high BP for opening day that I'm going to go hunt anyways. Hunting public land where I have deer patterned, but don't want to run them out if it ain't right.

[BW96]

Originally Posted by SFAbowhunter

So after listening to the podcast with Mark Drury, he states he doesn't like hunting mornings in the early season (mainly October)...after hearing that, will it change your October up at all?

I'm looking at the weather we are to have opening weekend and I'll have a slight NE breeze and a low of 55* opening morning with the highest BP of the week. Thinking since we are getting the front that's dropping temps almost 20*, opening day being later in the front, and a high BP for opening day that I'm going to go hunt anyways. Hunting public land where I have deer patterned, but don't want to run them out if it ain't right.

I listened to it also, twice actually. I assume he's meaning since deer are on the food plots all night he doesn't want to bugger them before daylight early oct. Not all of what he says applies to my style of hunting as I hunt public almost exclusively. I have caught myself being cautious of where I go most mornings as I don't want to mess with stuff too much so I usually don't go straight to my favorite places till the conditions are right and most of the time it's evening. I still hunt every morning I can, just not my favorite spots unless I have a reason to or a stands in the tree and I can make minimal disturbance.

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[Tshelly]

Originally Posted by SFAbowhunter

So after listening to the podcast with Mark Drury, he states he doesn't like hunting mornings in the early season (mainly October)...after hearing that, will it change your October up at all?

I'm looking at the weather we are to have opening weekend and I'll have a slight NE breeze and a low of 55* opening morning with the highest BP of the week. Thinking since we are getting the front that's dropping temps almost 20*, opening day being later in the front, and a high BP for opening day that I'm going to go hunt anyways. Hunting public land where I have deer patterned, but don't want to run them out if it ain't right.

I think it depends on your stand and the situation. If you have easy access and don't have a fear of jumping the deer on the way in you can hunt a morning, but I personally don't. My morning camera action is really non existent early October anyway. The bucks are usually up til 3 and 4 on their feet then headed to bed. I listened to it. It's a beautiful podcast!!!


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[Mo 7777]

Love them East Tx deer!!

[ballgame]

great post, a lot of good info

[FlightCancelled]

I just looked back at the deer I killed last year 11/24/16. The days heading up to the day.

11/22/16-11mph SE BP:30

11/23/16-6mph W BP:30.05

***11/24/16-2mph ESE BP:30.2

11/25/16-3mph NNE BP:30.5



everyone can check out what the conditions were on some bucks you have killed if you didn't log them using this link

https://www.wunderground.com/history...eqdb.wmo=99999

[GarGuy]

Good info FC! last oct, we had five days of South wind and almost zero deer movement. A strong Norther was forecast for the 19th. I posted two days ahead that that was the day!!!

Dad drilled his monster ten, Johnys son Colton smoked a monster, and another fellow let the deer of a lifetime get by him. there were so many does in heat the 19th and 20th that the bucks couldnt cover all of them.

It went from dead to the most intense rutting i have ever seen in just a few hours.

[SFAbowhunter]

November 13th here in North Texas is a day to be in the woods. Rutting like I haven't seen around that date.

[Hix]

Ok, so I checked the weather from 2015 on the last buck I killed. He had busted me during archery at full draw and I relocated him across the property during rifle season and set up a tripod on a rub line following along an old road. It was rainy the day I set up the blind and a north front forecasted to move in over night. Connected the next morning.

Weather the day before:
11-11-2015
low 58/ High 68
BP 29.86,
wind SSW @ 10 w/ 37 mph gust and rain.

Day of:
11-12-2015
Low 46/ high 57
BP @ 30.18 rising
Wind NW @ 6 mph w/ 21 mph gust in my face.. I remember it felt like 26 degrees and I didn't have enough clothes on.

Moon phase was full with moon rise @ 7:27
Shot at 7:31

The set up



Last live pic moments before..



No monster by any means but nice small property city buck.




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[RiverRacer]

Originally Posted by EastTx

I listened to it again lol. One thing he does that I never thought about is comparing his daylight pics of mature bucks from his game cams to weather history. I have years worth of pics on my laptop that I would like to go through and compare also to see if the trend sticks.

I checked the wunderground.com and it seemed to not give that much information for years past. It was great for a few months. Hope you have better luck with it than I did.


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[Capt.Bryan]

Originally Posted by GarGuy

Excellent thread. Note the pattern of big deer getting vulnerable on a significant wind chance. i wrote a post about the Corner Effect and how big deer had to change their position when the wind changed. great info sir.

X2
I remember your story Steve and witnessed it soon after as I counted 19 bucks one morning at my property, wind switched from south to a north west and i watched all those bucks reposition themselves from woods on one side of a cow pasture to the woods on the opposite side. Kinda also explains why so many deer are seen/killed when a cold northern hits, when the front hits the wind changes.

[EastTx]

I started going through my past trail camera pics and comparing them to the weather conditions for that day. The first month I have on my laptop is October 2012. I was hunting a really wide buck that year that I had only got one daytime photo of the whole season. I got a picture of him and one other mature buck on the morning of October 27th, 2012.



Wunderground.com shows that for the entire week before the 27th we had a consistent South wind with highs in the 80's and lows in the high 60's. The wind switched to a straight North wind on the afternoon of the 26th and the temp dropped to a low of 33° on the morning of the 27th. The pressure was 29.9 before the front and steadily rose until it peaked at 30.3 on the morning of October 27th.

[Tshelly]

Originally Posted by EastTx

I started going through my past trail camera pics and comparing them to the weather conditions for that day. The first month I have on my laptop is October 2012. I was hunting a really wide buck that year that I had only got one daytime photo of the whole season. I got a picture of him and one other mature buck on the morning of October 27th, 2012.



Wunderground.com shows that for the entire week before the 27th we had a consistent South wind with highs in the 80's and lows in the high 60's. The wind switched to a straight North wind on the afternoon of the 26th and the temp dropped to a low of 33° on the morning of the 27th. The pressure was 29.9 before the front and steadily rose until it peaked at 30.3 on the morning of October 27th.

It works!! That's pretty cool. I'll try and track my sightings this year


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[jooger17]

Seth did you ever look back at the temp trends we talked about? Curious if you saw the same thing?


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[EastTx]

Originally Posted by jooger17

Seth did you ever look back at the temp trends we talked about? Curious if you saw the same thing?


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There was a definite pattern in temperature change but on a couple occasions the temp actually increased. One thing I did notice with the temperature when looking at the monthly graph is that on many of the days where I killed one, or had a lot of activity, the difference in the high and low temp for that day was very minimum compared to other days.

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[jooger17]

Originally Posted by EastTx

There was a definite pattern in temperature change but on a couple occasions the temp actually increased. One thing I did notice with the temperature when looking at the monthly graph is that on many of the days where I killed one, or had a lot of activity, the difference in the high and low temp for that day was very minimum compared to other days.

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Interesting stuff. All good discussion on this thread. The more pieces of the puzzle we get the more efficient we can be.


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[EastTx]

If the forecast stays true, Tuesday evening the 10th and Wednesday the 11th is the first time the patterns I am watching for will show up this season. The wind shows to switch to the North sometime during the day Tuesday so I will be in my best spot that evening, I also took off work to hunt the following morning. It doesn't look like it will be a very strong front but it may be enough to change things up in the woods. We will see.


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[DaveC]

Originally Posted by EastTx

If the forecast stays true, Tuesday evening the 10th and Wednesday the 11th is the first time the patterns I am watching for will show up this season. The wind shows to switch to the North sometime during the day Tuesday so I will be in my best spot that evening, I also took off work to hunt the following morning. It doesn't look like it will be a very strong front but it may be enough to change things up in the woods. We will see.


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Durn it, that “front” is looking a lot weaker than they let on.
I done set my climber our 22yds away from the only scrape I’ve found this year. Gonna be a sweaty ordeal working a climber at 63*.


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[SFAbowhunter]

Looking at my forecast and I'm hunting public land, would you hunt tomorrow morning or afternoon? Looks like we are getting a little front tomorrow, then it flips back to hot, then the coldest night so far on Tuesday. Not taking days off in October. Waiting for November for that. I've got a couple of hang one to setup or my climber.




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[spidermonkey]

EastTx... I'm already on it! I was thinkin the same thing, this will be our first legitimate "movement" front of the season. And yes, like you, I'll be there, and have also entertained the thought of taking off Weds: Another thing that I always factor in, deer have "summer coats" and "winter coats" for a reason, and when they transition to their winter coats, it's EVEN MORE uncomfortable for them to move during daylight hours when you have summer temps in the "fall". Which may "shift" them to the coolest, most comfortable time to move, probably not shootin light! Just a thought. I know I ain't going outside today with a hoodie on! Good Huntin, and God Bless, Rusty

[Smith2001]

Makes me kinda want to keep a journal in the blind now

[EastTx]

Originally Posted by SFAbowhunter

Looking at my forecast and I'm hunting public land, would you hunt tomorrow morning or afternoon? Looks like we are getting a little front tomorrow, then it flips back to hot, then the coldest night so far on Tuesday. Not taking days off in October. Waiting for November for that. I've got a couple of hang one to setup or my climber.




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Man I'm going to be hunting on the weekends no matter what. Saturday evening and Sunday morning looks like would be pretty comfortable temps for you to hunt, but Tuesday and Wednesday look really good for deer movement. I hear you on wasting vacation days in October but luckily at my job I am able to take my personal time in 2 hour increments. I ha e to go in to work at 10 Wednesday.

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[SFAbowhunter]

Originally Posted by EastTx

Man I'm going to be hunting on the weekends no matter what. Saturday evening and Sunday morning looks like would be pretty comfortable temps for you to hunt, but Tuesday and Wednesday look really good for deer movement. I hear you on wasting vacation days in October but luckily at my job I am able to take my personal time in 2 hour increments. I ha e to go in to work at 10 Wednesday.

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Yep I hear that. I may sleep in tomorrow and head out mid morning, hang a stand or two then hunt the afternoon as the front rolls in. I doubt I'll be able to hunt Sunday. Need to get ready to finish laying floors next weekend in our master bedroom. I've got 5 all day sits planned for the second weekend in November. Crossing my fingers the bucks are chasing like crazy like they were last year at that time.

[Hix]

I hung a new stand in the northwest corner of a small field 25' up in a bull pine on the inside edge of the fence corner looking over an old logging road running N/S inside the over grown fence row. Has a nice beat down trail lined in rubs from the west coming out of the bottom to the corner and has been undisturbed for a week soaking in a few hundred #s of corn.
Same road I shot the buck I posted earlier a few years ago. Wind is supposed to shift finally Sunday morning with a chance of storms. I'm predicting a dead deer and LDPs by Monday.
I'm out of town working and will have 9 days of pictures tomorrow when I get back. Hopefully I stick a old 19-20" wide short tined slick 8, a big fat 6pt with 7" brows, or maybe something I've haven't seen yet but I have that gut feeling this weather change is gonna be the deal sealer.



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[EastTx]

Originally Posted by Hix

I hung a new stand in the northwest corner of a small field 25' up in a bull pine on the inside edge of the fence corner looking over an old logging road running N/S inside the over grown fence row. Has a nice beat down trail lined in rubs from the west coming out of the bottom to the corner and has been undisturbed for a week soaking in a few hundred #s of corn.
Same road I shot the buck I posted earlier a few years ago. Wind is supposed to shift finally Sunday morning with a chance of storms. I'm predicting a dead deer and LDPs by Monday.
I'm out of town working and will have 9 days of pictures tomorrow when I get back. Hopefully I stick a old 19-20" wide short tined slick 8, a big fat 6pt with 7" brows, or maybe something I've haven't seen yet but I have that gut feeling this weather change is gonna be the deal sealer.



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Sounds like a great spot. I had that feeling yesterday afternoon. Barometer was at 30.4, highest it has been all season, with a steady wind out of the N. I carried a climber in and set up on a scrape in the middle of a bunch of Chickapin Oaks that are dropping. I had two bucks, including a two year old eleven point, come and check the scrape. I had to stay in the stand 20 minutes after dark because I had deer all around me. It was my first hunt in this spot but I will be back there very soon.

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