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Risks to keep in mind when you are hunting under the rain
Keep your eyes wide open and try to move along your best known areas, this way it will be harder to get caught by an unexpected terrain accident.
2. Fall are your major enemy
The combination of wet terrain, water ponds and slippery surfaces is the perfect mix for a fall, specially if you are dealing with heavy equipment.
A fall may produce bad injuries and even death, particularly when you are hunting on tough terrain with cliffs and streams. If you are hunting on this particular type of terrain the most important thing is NOT GOING ALONE.
In case of an accident you will need help from a hunting fellow, so don't hesitate to invite a trustworthy companion to your hunting expeditions, especially under rain and storm conditions.
3. Everything slips
That's particularly truth when you are hunting from a tree stand and even a blind, but stand are the most dangerous apparels when you are hunting under the rain.
Just a missed rope and you will fall badly. Ladders tend to be slippery despite of security materials and cold numbs your hands and fingers impairing your grip. That's the best mix for a disaster if you fail even on a minor step.
Pros and Cons of Hunting during Rainy Days
Perhaps if you are a rookie you will be thinking about using a flashlight or something like it to find your way in the bushes and probably it will work if you are looking your way back home, but for hunt it's useless. During rainy days your flashlight will reflect on every single raindrop, turning you on a spotlight, thus every potential game in the area will go away from you.
On the other hand rain is noisy and it will be harder for you to hear certain sounds that might lead your steps toward your game. At the same time calls effectiveness is impaired, making the job harder than usual.
There's always a risk of falls and slips because of wet terrain, so every steps must be completely conscious and your alert status must be at maximum level all the time.
Certainly it's a challenge but if you are able to deal successfully with the cons, probably it will be easy to take advantage of the pros.
PROS
What it's a con for you is also and edge because plays against potential game.
Same as you, animals' vision is also impaired because of raindrops, so if you are an skilled hunter who knows well the area, it will be possible for you to literally "hide in the rain" until being ready to shoot.
On the other hand, if you are not the most silent hunter, rain will become an unexpected ally.
If your walk through the bushes usually is noisy or not as quiet as it should, rain will help to cover your noise overlapping its sound over yours, so it will be harder for animals in the area to hear you, especially during thunderstorms.
Early Season Deer Bow Hunting
As the season begins and hunters start pressuring deer on their own lands, keeping yours "risk free" for deer will make them to migrate towards you! Then you won't need to find deer since they will go straight to you.
To achieve this result it's important to minimize scouting on your property and leave as less traces as possible to make deer confident about human menaces absence.
But, how to know where deer are without pressuring them? Well, you will must trust technology.
Much before season beginning, install cameras and movement sensors around your spot areas, this way you won't need to stay out too much time to find deer. The same may be said about blinds and tree stands. Install all your gear 4 or 6 weeks before season beginning.
This way there won't be anything new and threatening for deer on the area and they will start to migrate there when other hunters increase pressure on their own hunting grounds.
Multilayer Clothing - The best choice hunting during winter
To deal with all this changes the best strategy is multilayer clothing.
That consists on multiple clothes layers easy to add or remove according to the situation.
The inner layer should be lightweight and breathable, the one providing less insulation to be used on warmer situations. Over it each layer must be thicker and more insulated in order to provide proper protection even on the most extreme conditions.
It's highly recommended every cloth layer to have proper camo, this way you will remain undetectable regardless the outer layer is.
Another good hint is to use modern insulation fabrics on most of your clothes. Traditional insulation may be too bulky, especially if you are wearing three or more layers of clothes underneath.
To avoid such problem, last generation fabric provides extra insulation adding almost not extra thickness.
Of course you will need a couple of bulky, heavy jackets to face extreme windy and snowing conditions, but that's less than a lot of bulky layers.
It's also important to keep in mind what kind of hunting you are going to perform.
For those waiting on a tree stand or blind, extra protection is required because physical activity is minimum and body temperature tends to drop fast.
Take the Best of your GPS when Hunting
GPS devices keep a registry of your tracks, then by studying these tracks later after hunting, you are able to identify which one was more profitable and store it on your device. This way next time you are out for hunt it will be easier to find the best and more profitable routes.
The best thing is that season after season you may add new routes, this way in a relatively short period your database about the routes working best for you will be amazing.
Furthermore, you may store your best spot areas coordinates!
Every hunter has its secret places where a catch is almost guaranteed. Such spots arise from years of experience visiting different places along the season, and the best spot areas are harvested with time.
But things can change year after year and the landscape or routes may be dramatically different, making hard to find such treasure places. With the GPS things get easier because you only need to store your favorite spot areas coordinates on the database and the GPS will lead you then, no matter how much the route changed!
It's simply amazing but it does not end here!