How to conquer those soggy deer hunting days

I don’t know if every deer covert in the state is as soggy as those here in the central part, but I’m sure no Missouri deer hunter was enveloped in a dust cloud at any time during the opening weekend of the firearms season.

Many hunters didn’t venture outdoors on Sunday. As a result, the opening weekend harvest — which normally accounts for at least 60 percent of the total firearms harvest — was well below expectations.

The Missouri Department of Conservation’s deer biologists are attempting to put a happy face on the situation by pointing out that there’s still plenty of time left in the various firearms seasons.

They’re undeniably right about that. The November  portion of the season ends Tuesday, and the antlerless season opens on Wednesday and runs through Dec. 6. Muzzleloader season opens Dec. 19 and closes  Dec. 29.

Hunters ages 6 through 15 have another opportunity on Jan. 2 and 3 during the second portion of the youth season.

Those are a lot of potential deer hunting days, and common sense indicates that, even in Missouri, some of them are bound to be dry.

But what about those of us who aren’t big fans of common sense, and what about people who have to hunt on specific days because of work schedules or other obligations? What are they supposed to do when the weather turns wet?

The simple answer is to keep hunting. A more realistic answer is to keep hunting but be willing to adapt tactics and, sometimes, locations.

Deer can’t come in out of the rain, but they do seek shelter from deluges by holing up in dense cedar thickets or, if nothing else is available, in the heaviest cover to be found on the lee side of ridge lines.

Man-made shelter belts  hold a lot of deer during severe weather. If the weather gets bad enough, driving deer out of their “storm shelters” can become nearly impossible.

I found that out one year when my son, Aaron, was still living at home.

On a rain-soaked last day of the season, Aaron hadn’t filled his tag. He climbed into a stand overlooking a half-acre copse of cedar trees, and I  crawled under the cedars to flush any deer hiding there.

Finding deer was easy — I could often see their legs in the gap between the bottom of the greenery and the ground.

Forcing them out of their hiding place proved to be impossible. Two hours later, we trudged back to the house soaked to the skin, semi-hypothermic and — at least in my case — ready to call it a season.

Shortly after noon, the rain changed to snow. Aaron stuck his head out of his bedroom and said, “We won’t get nearly as wet in this snow as we did in the rain.”

What’s a father to do? We sallied forth to another part of our farm. Aaron climbed into a stand, and I snuggled into the hollow trunk of a gigantic sycamore tree.

Scarcely an hour later, I heard him shoot. This time, we were back to the warm house to stay.

A deer’s coat is so waterproof that neither snow nor light rain can penetrate it.

Therefore, deer ignore moderate wet weather conditions and continue to follow their normal activity and location patterns. Deer hunters should follow suit. Or at least they should if they can.  

Many river and creek bottomlands either still are or recently have been underwater. Most of the unimproved chore roads both landowners and visiting hunters use to access these areas are impassible.

One solution is for a group of hunters to work closely together. All of them will don hip boots or chest waders and wade or slog into their hunting grounds.

As soon as one hunter gets a deer, as many members of the party as necessary will stop hunting and help drag or carry the deer back to solid ground.

A better solution is to hunt the uplands where mud is far less of a problem. But what if leaving the creek bottom means leaving your private-land hunting grounds behind?

Don’t overlook MDC conservation areas. Hunting pressure on the CA’s with no restriction drops dramatically after opening week, and CA’s with method restrictions will be virtually deserted.

Be absolutely sure you know what’s legal on the CA you’ve chosen before you begin hunting.

Some of the seasons’ best deer hunting has yet to come, and I’m not about to let a little rain keep me from enjoying it. After all, bad weather is why God made GoreTex.