DEER IN ROTTEN WEATHER
By
Hank Pennington

You don’t need to consult the weather service or look out your window to guess about our weather. All you have to do is read Outdoor Kodiak!
Continuing my theme of finding outdoor enjoyment and success in spite of the weather, let’s take a look at deer hunting.

Whether you plan to deer hunt three days or three months from now, you will be wise to factor in the possibility that the weather is going to stink. Most of us have to schedule hunts and vacations far in advance, and weather has little respect for your scheduling.
If spring and summer have been indicators in a La Nina year, we can expect a whole lot more cloudy wet weather as fall progresses.
When the weather sours do you stay home, or do you change gear and strategy to compensate? Count me in the latter group!

In truth, deer hunting is often better for me in bad weather simply because of the way I prefer to hunt.
To understand what I’m leading up to, you have to recognize that deer don’t like bad weather any more than you do. They won’t spend much time standing out in the open once conditions deteriorate.
To find deer in bad weather, you have to get up close and personal.
They’re going to abandon the open areas looking for protection from the weather, and you have no choice but to follow them into the thick stuff. That is, unless you’re willing to spend your precious days off at home rather than hunting.
Though I’m experienced and capable of hunting the wide-open spaces of Kodiak’s high country for deer, I much prefer getting close to them on hunts.
That’s why I say the hunting can actually be better in bad weather. It simply pushes more deer off the open ridges and down into the terrain I prefer.
Once you learn the ins and outs of hunting in close cover it can be immensely productive as well as a whole lot of fun.

If there are secrets of hunting close cover they revolve around being in the right place at the right time, and getting there quietly. It helps if you spot the deer before they see you too, but that falls into the category of getting there quietly.
Of all the components that make up a bad weather day, deer hate the wind most of all. They’ll endure rain by itself, but they’ll head for cover fast once the wind starts to blow.
If there’s a trick to deer hunting in bad weather, it’s knowing where they are most likely to find shelter from the wind. If you know for sure that deer have been using a specific set of ridges in good weather, you can just about guarantee they’ll be in the nearest wind shelter once the weather turns.

What qualifies as protection from the wind?
One of the best places to look is near the top of alder choked draws on the opposite side of a ridge from the direction the wind is blowing. If the wind is blowing from the northeast, plan your hunts on the southwest side of a ridge, for example.
If you have the chance to watch deer as weather closes in, you’ll see a general migration as the wind mounts. If there’s cover on the lee side of a mountain or ridge, they will first drift over the top of the ridge in that direction, then descend into the cover once the wind gets uncomfortable.

If the nearest cover to the ridgeline is on the windy side, they’ll use it, but only as a distant second choice to cover on the lee side.
And don’t forget the possibilities of timber for cover! Deer love it, plain and simple. And for folks just learning how to hunt tight cover, it may be the best choice of all. It lets you see further, plus it’s usually easier to move quietly through timber than through alder thickets.
Wherever you find the cover, it’s important to enter it from the downwind side. The best of all circumstances is to be moving downhill or side-hill as you move into the wind, but you can do okay moving uphill into the wind. It’s just a whole lot easier to see deer in cover when looking downhill or laterally at the same elevation as you.
Be very alert as you enter the downwind side of cover, however. Deer tend to move far into the cover and concentrate toward the downwind edge. There’s no time to “get used to” hunting cover when you enter the downwind side, because you’ll often be within sight and range of deer after only a few steps.

In spite of my warnings to a hunting companion when hunting cover off the road system a few years back, we hadn’t moved 50 feet into cover when I spotted a nice buck.
My shot scared him half to death, because he hadn’t even bothered to un-sling his rifle yet. He was a believer however, when we re-entered the brush an hour later after returning my deer to the beach. He spotted and shot his deer within cover before we even took a step into the alders.
Being quiet in cover means wearing the right clothing and moving slowly. You want clothes that don’t drag or scrape noisily through the brush.
Today there are all sorts of “quiet” raingear available, and I heartily recommend it over conventional raingear. If you don’t happen to have it, plan on keeping your noisy raingear in a pack for the trip out, and instead hunt in fleece or wool.
Don’t overlook your footgear when trying to be quiet. As good as stiff soles are for foot support on long hikes, they’re just about impossible for feeling branches before you put your weight on them in moss or grass.
A better choice is boots with flexible soles almost like tennis shoes. If you are careful about where you put your feet you can usually feel a branch and shift your foot away from it before putting all your weight on the foot.
I also like quiet daypacks that don’t scrape and pop when going through branches. Your upper body is going to be brushing through limbs, and the quietest fleece or raingear is pretty much defeated by a noisy day pack.
It’s hard to describe how slowly and carefully you have to move in cover. One of my favorite spots is a stand of timber about a quarter of a mile across in otherwise open country. It typically takes me a couple of hours to sneak through that quarter mile of relatively open timber!

Spotting deer in cover is especially tough. You almost never see the whole deer. Instead you see pieces or small movements.
Watch carefully for white throat patches, the white insides of legs, and the distinct horizontal line of a deer’s back. Also watch for the twitch of an ear or a head raised out of low vegetation to nip a bite from overhead limbs.
And especially when moving sideways across a hill, look low. Almost like you were hunting rabbits. Deer spend a lot of times in folds of the terrain, and the first thing you are likely to see is a head. But it’s going to appear right down at ground level because the deer’s body is hidden by the fold in the terrain.
I haven’t said much about choosing the right weapon for hunting in cover for two reasons. For one thing, it’s a big topic I’ll feature in another column. For another, most hunters are likely to hunt cover with the arm they have in their hands when the weather turns sour. I’ll talk about that more in the future.

In closing, I need to point out that deer and people aren’t the only creatures on Kodiak that dislike bad weather. Brown bears like to hole up in cover when the weather gets bad.
As I’m looking for deer I’m always on the alert for bear sign. If I see any, I back out of the cover and go elsewhere. I also survey the edges of cover for bear sign before entering it. Same answer if I see bear sign.
A couple of times I’ve found myself less than 20 feet from bears in tight cover. They didn’t know I was there and I managed to retreat without them becoming any wiser.
But I was certainly wiser!
I don’t recommend such close encounters to anyone, no matter how big a gun you care to carry. Be alert and be cautious out there!