 How
to Know When Bucks Move
The Worst Days to Hunt
EDITOR’S NOTE: You have no way of knowing what
day you’ll see a buck of a lifetime during deer
season. But you can pinpoint which days to hunt to increase
your odds of sighting one. By hunting on the days when
deer tend to move the most actively, you’ll have
more deer sightings and a greater chance of taking that
buck you’ve wanted all season.
 Some
days you’ll do better not to hunt. As Bo Pitman,
the lodge Manager at White Oak Plantation in Tuskegee,
Alabama, reports, “From the research we’ve
done, we’ve learned foggy mornings make the worst
weather for hunting for two reasons. Since deer can’t
see very well in the fog, they really don’t like
to move under these conditions when they feel defenseless.
We also have few deer sightings on foggy mornings because
the hunters can’t see well either. “In dense
fog, you may not spot a deer passing within 20 to 30
yards in front of you. If you can’t see the buck,
you surely can’t take him.” If these two
reasons don’t convince you to stay out of the
woods on foggy mornings, consider the scent factor.
When the air feels heavy and fog lies close to the ground,
your scent also will hold close to the earth instead
of rising as it will on a cool morning. If you have
a stand in a tree, your human odor comes down the tree
and mushrooms out along the  ground
in the area you want to hunt. Any deer coming through
the region where you hunt has a better chance of smelling
you on a foggy day than at any other time, except when
the wind blows your odor straight to him.
“After the fog clears, we usually have a fair
amount of deer sightings in the afternoon,” Pitman
says. “But the temperature determines how many
deer we’ll see in the afternoons after we’ve
had fog in the morning. Usually cool-morning temperatures
create fog. If those cool temperatures continue through
the afternoon, we’ll have more deer sightings
then than if the weather warms up in the afternoon.
Even if we have cool weather in the afternoon, we still
won’t have a large number of deer sightings after
a morning fog.” Pitman says pouring rain creates
the next worst day to hunt. The deer bed down and don’t
want to move. Generally you won’t see deer move
in a heavy rainfall. Although you may bag a buck on
a rainy day, you have fewer chances of seeing deer under
these weather conditions.” Pitman also has learned
even a little light rain will retard deer movement.
Although deer will change positions  frequently
before and after a rain, they don’t like to move
in the rain because it impairs two of their senses.
They can’t see movement or hear nearly as well
during a rain. Anytime the weather impedes a deer’s
senses in any way, they avoid danger by burying up in
thick cover and not moving. “Deer also hate wind,”
Pitman says. “In a strong, blowing wind, the deer
usually will hold in deep hollows or thick cover. A
windy day results in as bad hunting conditions as foggy
mornings. Deer like to move on bright, clear, sunny
days with little or no wind when they can see and hear
any movement and smell anything in front of them. Even
if you spot a deer on a windy day, he’ll act extremely
jittery and nervous. You’ll not have much of a
chance of taking a shot.”
TOMORROW: THE DEER THAT MOVE
THE MOST IN BAD WEATHER
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