Hunting Whitetail by the Numbers

Better hunting - more deer - no more guesswork!

There is one single factor affecting deer movement more often and more consistently than any other, and serious hunters are starting to take note.

Its not food sources, moon phase, rain, or even the RUT!  While all of the above can influence deer movement, the MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR that overrides them all is simple…..temperature. 

               Fits any 1" Scope - always ready to view sitting in your lap

                                without any movement to spook deer 

For a complete discussion of the effects of Temperature on Deer movement please see T.R. Michels Temperature and Deer Activity Charts at     www.trmichels.com/DeerActivityCharts.htm

Even the rut, which we all know and believe to be the optimum time to harvest a trophy buck…..can be shut down completely by warm weather.  The question it seems then, is how warm does it have to be to turn off the rut?  Or conversely, how cold can it get before a whitetail hunkers down to ride it out?  Knowing the answers to these questions can make all the difference and make your hours on stand far more productive, and your odds of getting the drop on a mature whitetail buck that much better.

How many times have you walked back into deer camp to hear all of the various stories and comments about the day’s hunt…..it’s the moon, the food, the acorns are still falling, the rut hasn’t started, etc. etc.  But the one you hear all the time, especially in the south is, “I think it’s still too warm for the deer to move much!” 

In the north it’s more like, “I was so cold, I just couldn’t sit still any longer…way too cold for the deer to move much!”  The real question here is…..How cold or hot was it and does it really affect the deer movement?”  The answer is a resounding “YES….absolutely”, and serious high tech whitetail hunters are taking the steps necessary to include this information in their deer hunting bag of tricks.

                          Scopewatch looks great on ATV handlebars too!

Along with the topo maps, moon phase calculator, peak activity charts, grunt calls, doe bleats and all of the other gadgets that we throw money at every year in hopes of getting a monster buck, hunters in the know are doing things like checking and plotting factors such as wind speed and direction, humidity, moon phase and last but not least …..temperature.  Think about it…you can check your topo map and be in just the right funnel, and have the latest and greatest grunt call or bleat, and the food plot can be in plain view of your stand, and yes, it can even be during the rut, but if it’s too hot or too cold for the deer in your area, you are probably going to be disappointed.  Countless articles have been written about the effects of temperature on deer movement…isn’t it about time we paid attention.

Scientific study has proven that deer movement in a given area is affected directly by temperature, and the peak activity temperature window for deer movement varies by geographic area.  In other words, what may be just right in Georgia is too warm in Pennsylvania.  What turns them on in Minnesota may shut them down in Louisiana.  Finally, there is a better way to gather this information and put it to use to your advantage. 

So how do we go about including this information in our bag of tricks?  It would seem simple… every time you begin seeing deer on a hunt you simply note the time, current temperature in your blind or stand and deer activity for later entry into a log book or journal.  That’s sound like a lot of time and energy you say….but is it really?  I would rather spend five minutes making a journal entry to pattern deer movement then waste four or five, or more, hours in a stand, day after day, expecting things to happen that probably never will.

Here are two scenarios where the information gathered by creating a log book might prove useful.  You are sitting in the stand on a beautiful morning and a cold front is passing through, you have been sitting for a while, getting restless and have seen no deer, but since you have created a log, you now know the temperature in your blind is 50 deg. F and is dropping and you also now know that 95% of the activity you have logged in this geographic area in the past occurs somewhere between 47 degrees down to 35 degrees…..now that’s a reason to stay in the stand and be vigilant.  Knowing that information will probably prove to be more useful than having that ten-dollar- a-bottle skunk pee cover scent on your shoes, but I think you get the idea.

Scenario two:  You are getting ready to hunt that favorite bottom by the creek, but you know its 34 degrees where you are standing on the trail and you also know that 80% of the time you have seen deer in this area on a morning hunt when the temperature is 34 degrees or below it’s always on a certain sunny ridge that just happens to be on your way to the creek bottom….it might be time to rethink this morning’s hunt, and increase your odds of killing a deer.  You probably won’t even need that twenty dollar rattle bag since you started keeping track of the important stuff.

Make a mental note when you see first see deer on a hunt -- like “4:32 pm, 45 degrees, 3 does, 6 point buck”.  Enter this information into your log book after the day’s hunt and you will absolutely begin to see a pattern of temperature and deer movement in a given area.  Hunt camp and stand location should also be included in your log book for hunters that hunt in various regions. 

Texas is different than Wisconsin and creek bottoms are different than ridges and it does affect when the deer move in these locations.  Deer in northern regions that are used to cooler temperatures will always have a different peak activity temperature window (example 35 – 48 degrees) than deer in Georgia or South Carolina. 

But how do you go about getting this information?  Is it by calling in on your cell phone to find out the temperature?  Not likely…after all, that’s probably the temperature at an airport 20 miles away and could be 10 degrees different than the temperature right where you are in your stand.  Besides, how many deer will tolerate that much movement?  Is it practical to mount a thermometer in every blind, shooting house, climber stand…..not really.  How about when you were walking to that bottom and it was 34 degrees….to know that you would need a thermometer mounted on your gun, not very likely until now.

For today’s high tech hunter there is a new and useful product on the market called the Scopewatch.  The Scopewatch mounts on any 1” rifle scope, just like a scope ring, and displays temperature (-10 to 120 degrees F) and current time at a glance.  No movement, phone calls to the airport, digging out your cell phone, or pulling back three layers of clothes to see your watch.  It mounts right on the side of your scope for information at a glance, no movement involved.  Many hunters are finding that for a few dollars, they can buy a piece of equipment for deer hunting that actually works and will make you a much better hunter. 

It doesn’t take long to figure out the finer points about having a scopewatch along.   Since it fits on any 1’ rifle scope and is inexpensive, you can afford to have one on all of your favorite rifles.  This means that regardless of which stand, blind, climber, you are hunting from….even walking down the trail or hunting at your buddies camp in another state, you always have the information that you need.  This is the real key to unraveling the puzzle about temperature and deer movement, when you start hunting whitetail by the numbers.