It could be felt in the air. The air felt cold and heavy with moisture this morning while retrieving the local newspaper, and I muttered to myself that it was soon going to rain.
Birds and animals feel a falling barometric pressure better than most humans, but those who have suffered broken bones, nerve damage, and assorted and sundry little problem as we slip and slide through life will usually be able to predict such weather changes.
I awoke today, and it felt as if Ringling Brother or Barnum & Bailey's circus elephants had used my spine as s place to practice their soft-shoe routine as I tried to sleep. I broke my back 40 years ago, had surgery to fuse two vertebrae together and repair a severely damaged sciatic nerve in my left leg.
Three months after surgery, and during my recovery period, I fell and broke the vertebrae above the first two breaks. The surgery, and the second break, set me up for four decades of back and leg pain.
An autumn storm with a falling barometer and rain in the air always seems to settle in my low back. It throbs and my left leg hurts. Neuropathy om both feet now makes long walks painful.
Watching the local weather has becomes more of an issue with me. I rarely watch the Weather Channel because its forecasts cover too broad of an area. A few minutes outside will often tell me more about what I need to know.
If birds are perched on the power lines, it forecasts a low pressure center that will often spin the wind and may bring rain. For me, that is not a good enough excuse to not go hunting.
Of primary importance is a steady or reasonably steady wind direction. Swirling winds make hunting difficult unless you are in an elevated or ground-level coop with closed windows.
For me, a soft rain like we experienced a week ago is perfect for deer hunting providing the wind doesn't get squirrelly. Of course, we had two or three periods today when it looked like rain but it never materialized. We may bet some needed rainfall tonight. Anyone sitting outside in it, even with good rainwear, might get wet but that's part of hunting.
There is something about a low-pressure center that puts some deer on the prod, especially if the present weather is being chased by something much more severe. I look for those days each fall when a storm is predicted late in the afternoon, and I try to get out two hours earlier than normal so I'll be on hand when the animals move ahead of the upcoming storm.
If the weather appears it often will settle in with high winds and buckets of rain about noon, unless the weatherman calls for clearing skies in the late afternoon or early evening as the storm pushes through. I may set out the morning hunt or crawl into an elevated coop to look for those few deer that always seems to move in nasty weather.
Predicting deer movements during rainy weather is fraught with problems. Often the storm starts and ends at an inconvenient time, and sometimes the animals move well after a storm blows through and sometimes they do not. A key factor to look for is a temperature drop.
I've sat out in rain storms, and hunted in rainy weather, for over 50 years. What has all those years taught me?
The only thing I can swear to is that hunting in the rain can be productive on some days and unproductive on others. It also has taught me that an achy-breaky back is my signal to find a spot, crawl into it and set out and hope for the best.
Sitting out doesn't give my sore back any relief, but on some occasions, a nice buck at the beginning of a dramatic temperature change will walk within bow range and for 10 or 15 minutes as I watch the animal, it takes my mind off my aches and pains.
I let the buck walk most of the time, and in some small way that makes me feel better. It means I've fooled the animal, could have made a killing shot, and chose not to. That's what makes me feel really good.
It could be felt in the air. The air felt cold and heavy with moisture this morning while retrieving the local newspaper, and I muttered to myself that it was soon going to rain.
Birds and animals feel a falling barometric pressure better than most humans, but those who have suffered broken bones, nerve damage, and assorted and sundry little problem as we slip and slide through life will usually be able to predict such weather changes.
I awoke today, and it felt as if Ringling Brother or Barnum & Bailey's circus elephants had used my spine as s place to practice their soft-shoe routine as I tried to sleep. I broke my back 40 years ago, had surgery to fuse two vertebrae together and repair a severely damaged sciatic nerve in my left leg.
Old bone injuries help in forecasting weather changes.
Three months after surgery, and during my recovery period, I fell and broke the vertebrae above the first two breaks. The surgery, and the second break, set me up for four decades of back and leg pain.
An autumn storm with a falling barometer and rain in the air always seems to settle in my low back. It throbs and my left leg hurts. Neuropathy om both feet now makes long walks painful.
Watching the local weather has becomes more of an issue with me. I rarely watch the Weather Channel because its forecasts cover too broad of an area. A few minutes outside will often tell me more about what I need to know.
If birds are perched on the power lines, it forecasts a low pressure center that will often spin the wind and may bring rain. For me, that is not a good enough excuse to not go hunting.
Of primary importance is a steady or reasonably steady wind direction. Swirling winds make hunting difficult unless you are in an elevated or ground-level coop with closed windows.
For me, a soft rain like we experienced a week or 10 days ago is perfect for deer hunting providing the wind doesn't get squirrelly. Of course, we had two or three periods today when it looked like rain but it never materialized. We may bet some needed rainfall tonight. Anyone sitting outside in it, even with good rainwear, might get wet but that's part of hunting.
We won’t melt in rain but pick sites along trails leading to food or bedding cover.
There is something about a low-pressure center that puts some deer on the prod, especially if the present weather is being chased by something much more severe. I look for those days each fall when a storm is predicted late in the afternoon, and I try to get out two hours earlier than normal so I'll be on hand when the animals move ahead of the upcoming storm.
If the weather appears it often will settle in with high winds and buckets of rain about noon, unless the weatherman calls for clearing skies in the late afternoon or early evening as the storm pushes through. I may set out the morning hunt or crawl into an elevated coop to look for those few deer that always seems to move in nasty weather.
Predicting deer movements during rainy weather is fraught with problems. Often the storm starts and ends at an inconvenient time, and sometimes the animals move well after a storm blows through and sometimes they do not. A key factor to look for is a temperature drop.
I've sat out in rain storms, and hunted in rainy weather, for over 50 years. What has all those years taught me?
It’s hard to shoot deer while sitting out a rainstorm indoors.
The only thing I can swear to is that hunting in the rain can be productive on some days and unproductive on others. It also has taught me that an achy-breaky back is my signal to find a spot, crawl into it and set out and hope for the best.
Sitting out doesn't give my sore back any relief, but on some occasions, a nice buck at the beginning of a dramatic temperature change will walk within bow range and for 10 or 15 minutes as I watch the animal, it takes my mind off my aches and pains.
I let the buck walk most of the time, and in some small way that makes me feel better. It means I've fooled the animal, could have made a killing shot, and chose not to. That's what makes me feel really good.
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