Last Chance Bucks

Late season is the perfect time to take a last chance buck, but it’s often a narrow, winding and cold trail to get there. Heavy hunting pressure, the rigors of rut and unpredictable weather swings have made the Whitetail wary.

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The aggressive tactics of the most popular style of hunting deer in Iowa –deer drives- has pushed the herd into the thickest corners of cover available. The ones that have survived the orange invasion are educated, skittish and sensitive to human pressure. In many locations deer turn completely nocturnal or are scarcely seen in the daylight outside their sanctuary. Now more than ever weather is either a tremendous asset to hunting success, or an unpredictable foe.

Moving to feed.

For field watchers and stand sitters, warm air is not a friend. That comfortable sit in October-like temps usually yields very little deer movement to food sources. Arctic is our new favorite word despite the brutal cold and snow that usually accompanies that caliber of Canadian air. 40° is the new 70°, and the deer know they’re being hunted. So when it warms up, they keep their cool in the safety of thick bedding. Their bodies don’t burn as many calories and they can keep warm on a safer diet of forbs, multi-flora rose leaves and other snacks in their core area. In short, they don’t need to move, so they don’t move. Canadian cold and sub-freezing conditions stack the odds in a hunter’s favor as it draws deer from the safety of their bedding areas to stock up on food to survive the winter. Stalking and still-hunting bedding areas can work very well in warm weather. It can also produce when wind chills are atrocious as Arctic air pours more winter into Iowa.

Deer reports came flooding in in the fog and icy aftermath of the freezing drizzle event on December 20th.

Windless cold is great hunting weather. Relentless wind saps energy from hunters and deer alike making dangerous wind chills an enemy of late season stand hunter. Deer are in winter survival mode and everything is about energy balance. If a deer loses more heat from the wind, than it can gain back in food consumed, the energy bank account has experienced a withdrawl. In that situation, moving to feed was a bad decision and over time the deer would lose body mass and eventually may starve or freeze to death as a result of prolonged cold and snow. Nature has ensured the deer that understand this balance have better odds of survival and reaching maturity.

Hunting an active rub line. Activity turned nocturnal after shotgun season.

In bitter cold, big herds can be found in wind breaks, small food plots and out in the open on ridges when the winds are light. Arctic high pressure when the barometer is high and steady can be great producers of late season activity. Even better hunting weather can be found the evening before a winter storm. Easterly winds picking up, a winter gray sky, and a falling barometer with the first flakes falling send signals to the deer to feed now and stock up before the storm hits. They’ll feed heavily even as the snow is piling up and this is a great time to get set up on a food source.

Happy holidays from Heather, Harley and Me.

Hopefully you can find some time to “enjoy” the tundra-like temperatures of our Canadian heat waves over the next few weeks. Whether you’re toting the trusty smoke pole or you’re aiming for a longshot with your bow, I wish you the best of luck and happy holidays.