When or if it is to Cold to Hunt...

Big mature bucks?

It is 15 degrees in Jacksboro right now and my azz is still in the semi warm trailer at 6.59.
Go ahead call me a wuss but in all of the years I have been deer hunting, I seldom ever recall seeing deer moving when it is this dang cold and if there was, it was does or yearlings. Yep i know I will not shoot anything in the trailer, but right now I am still antler hunting

So what weather conditions do you say, no way Big Bucks will be moving in this

To me, ain't no buck worth being out in these temps.

I have 3 different thermometers & the one in the pickup,,, 2 say 9-10 flippin degrees, 1 says 12, the pickup says 14...

Dressed in my warmest, including ski pants over blue jeans over thermals & 3 layers on top to go look for cows,,, didn't find them before I got too dang cold.
Did see 3 doe, they didn't run off when I walked by, maybe 30' away.
Near Loving.

I love hunting in this weather. I either walk around and hunt or I hunt from the pickup with the heater on. I killed a nice ten that way, one year.

Have you seen heater in stand thread?lm out in hunt county 28 nothing moving yet! Coffe is nice beautiful sunrise but nothing out.

Sun is up, it is a scalding 14 degrees according to Wapp and I am heading out

It's hard for me to tell on mornings like this if the deer or moving or not. I'll be in my stand, but will have the heater turned up to high, will take off my coat and fall fast asleep in the stand. By the time I wake up, its time to go in for lunch. And I will tell everyone in camp that I did not see a deer this morning.

They are moving here now 26 no wind

they will move eventually, if windy I stay in camp

guess I am hot blooded enough I've never not gone hunting due to the cold. I vividly remember 4*F with a 30+/- north wind around Clarendon and re-thinking sitting in a pop up blind one morning a few years back, but I stuck it out ... it was brutal!!!

I also remember extremely cold weather when my butt was in the fork of a tree or in a tripod stand and Macho manned it out but hardly ever saw deer and certainly never saw a big mature buck.

My play on it is these big old bucks are smart and conserve energy especially after the rut and they are not going to move until they are comfortable.

And yes I do have my buddy heater in the blind with me now

No cure for that pulled up to my brothers stand once deer everywhere. Waited patiently thinking he would shoot but no! Deer left went to stand he was not there found him sleeping by tree 30 yards from were deer were.

If they’re rutting it’s never too cold.

If not, I’m still out there waiting on any slight “warm up” to get them moving. When the sun popped out this morning my guess is the deer are doing just like my dogs and getting out in it.

Anyway, I like to hunt.

I like hunting when it is this cold. As soon as the sun comes up it seems like the movement picks up dramatically. Similar to when it stops raining during the day. Deer seem to appear out of nowhere within minutes of the rain stopping.

This. My two German Shepherds turn into absolute retards when it's cold outside. Way more active than when it's 80 degrees and they're hot. Seems to me the deer would be out moving around trying to generate some body heat.

Post rut, deer metabolism slows down a bunch, Moving in brutal cold costs more energy so they will lay up...but if wind is low and sun is out, that’s a different story they will move.

It was about 18 degrees when I shot this guy. You can see the frost all over the ground. As long as the wind isn't howling, it never gets too cold.

NP you are right, during rut bucks could care less about conserving anything, its balls to the walls chasing!
SW my 2 1/2 year old Shepherd will pull your arm off on a walk when it is cool or cold outside and he will wear you out until you take him for a walk. Wife said he went outside earlier to take care of business and has showed no interest in getting out in this.
Older deer especially mature bucks will bed down and conserve their energy when it is this dang cold.
Saw 10 deer in the field yesterday evening, so far this morning Zip!

Got a yearling last year near Paris, TX. It was 8 degrees and the windchill had it below 0. I grew up hunting elk and mule deer in the high country of my native CO. I don't think it gets too cold to hunt for me. I've shot elk when it was -20 out.

I've seen plenty of big bucks on camera when the temps were in the single digits. They have to burn a lot of calories to keep their body temp up in cold weather. This means they'll be looking for carbs which in the deer woods equates to corn.

Stubs, I'd bet your golden time will be 2pm to dark today, maybe as early as 12, but I bet they go shopping before another cool evening.

Doubt you hurt yourself one bit kicking back this am, just be mindful of that gas heater in the camper, short of time, so I'd have to bury you in that old cellar with all the bottles

It was -13* F when I shot my mule deer a couple weeks ago

I was out hog hunting last night when it was like 30 and nothing was moving. All I seen in about 5 hours was a couple coons

Goldy thats a whole different animal/type hunting. Were’nt you in Alberta or similar area where it is that frickin cold pretty much all of the time? Would it be fair to say that the deer way up there are a lot more accustomed to moving around in that weather than our Texas deer?
BTW that was a great hunt of y’alls

Dennis

Are you the one that has been breaking into my trailer stealing my Shine

That was MS! No wonder my truck is running so good!

If it is cold and the wind is not blowing, I would be hunting. Most of these cold fronts bring a day or 2 of wind, after the wind settles, the deer will start moving.

Went to Wyoming in January of this year. When we got there it was -30F. For the next three days the warmest temp we saw was -15F.

I swore to myself I would never complain about being cold again.

Oh and we hammered the geese pretty well everyday.

They would land on the snow in the corn fields and sit down until the snow melted and then eat where they were sitting.

Had 1 mile stretch of river that is a refuge and there were so many geese on it, it never froze while we were there.

Left the Sunday morning and by lunch time is was 42F.

I don't mind the cold or even wet as much as I HATE a cold wind.....a cold wind cuts thru me like a hot knife thru warm butter....

This late in the season when the deer know that so many are after them, I arrive late and hunt well into the morning on the coldest mornings. Some have said that like ourselves, deer will often stay bedded on the coldest mornings and begin to move only after the sun is well up and beginning to thaw things out. It's how I filled a late season tag on a nice buck last season. Didn't see a deer until 10am when they seemed to start coming into my food plot from every direction. Shot the buck around 10:30.

Hunted at -10 for whitetails in Indiana and in Missouri before. Seemed that when the sun started hitting the ground they'd start moving. Add wind to the equation and it seems you're out there all by yourself. Coldest morning I've hunted here in Texas was 0 F. Nothing moved until the sun came up. All I saw that morning was a little buck fawn. Left the stand about 10 as I had to get back home. Had deer all over the side of the highway eating what they could find nearly the entire way back.

Never to cold or hot to hunt!

I tend to check the wind and cloud cover when it is well below normal. If it is calm in the morning and cloudy i usually see bucks moving for some reason. If it calm and sunny, yet cold, it seems they wait until mid day.Either way if the wind is right I try to hunt a bedding area that is south facing so they warm up quicker (and so do I!)

When I shot this deer last season it was 8 deg. I saw 13 deer that morning which is the most I have ever seen at one time on my place. I love the cold as long as the wind isn't howling.

I don't go to the deer lease to hang out in camp. I hunt no matter the cold, rain, heat, wind...it could be the end-o-times and I will be out there.

what about on properties that aren't hunted and none of the neighbors hunt?