Rain, snow, wind, and temperature all play a role in the quality of the hunt. Where do you draw the line?
I skipped going today, it's 30mph and thunderstorms where I'm at.
I hunt turkeys because it's fun. When the weather makes it STOP being fun..........time for breakfast......or to sleep in.
Spent the first 4 days of last year's season wearing my Arctic Shield and 1200 gram Rutmaster boots. Spent good bit of that time in a blind, out of the rain, snow and wind. Blinds (which I do not much care for) have kept me hunting some days I would have not been. But, I figure it's better to sit and look out the window of a blind on a crappy day than to sit on the couch and look out the window on a crappy day.
Shot my first bird last year during a LOUSY snow squall. I was NOT in the blind.
I don't mind cold, played ice hockey for over 40 years. I like hunting misty/drizzle, birds seem active these days. Heavy rain, I'll sit in my Rhino blind on a clear-cut. Unless the wind is howling, I'm out there.....
I don't draw the line, I get a very short time a year to hunt 23 days here, of those days I typically get less than 7 I get to hunt. And the turkeys are there regardless of weather. If I'm not at work, and it's turkey season, I'm turkey hunting
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The older I get, the less I tolerate. I am also on a blood thinner. Hard all day rain and cold. I'm not going. Snow and cold is fine. I fish steelhead all winter in Michigan but I am able to move around in the boat. High wind keeps me from either.
I've hunted these birds in snow, cold and perfect weather. I normally won't do rain unless it is very light but I will watch the radar and I will be in open areas as soon as the rain passes to catch them drying out.
I've hunted cold weather, which in my opinion, that's not so bad. Real windy days, pouring rain, lightning. fog and bad humidity i don't care for either. So i usually have a backup plan for some of these weather conditions... But pouring rain / lightning is something i will wait out until conditions are better.
Quote from: Greg Massey on March 28, 2024, 08:02:06 AM
I've hunted cold weather, which in my opinion, that's not so bad. Real windy days, pouring rain, lightning. fog and bad humidity i don't care for either. So i usually have a backup plan for some of these weather conditions... But pouring rain / lightning is something i will wait out until conditions are better.
Good point on lightning. No way in woods with bolts flying! Wait this out for sure!
I don't mind the cold, but pouring rain will make me skip. I turkey hunt for enjoyment, when it's miserable weather, I'm not having fun.
I will say, I've killed most of my biggest deer in nasty weather.
I don't enjoy hunting in inclement weather, so I don't. About an hour after it quits, I go.
I won't hunt in pouring rain but I'll be waiting in the truck till it lets up !
If I am off work and season is in I go no matter what the weather is.
I dislike hunting in the pouring rain and most likely wont leave the house. If I'm already in the woods and it starts I'll hunker down and wait it out. If its calling for rain I take a camo tree stand umbrella in my pack and if need be I sit under it.
Real windy and down pours...nope. Other than that I'm in.
To give you a story, I was in my 3rd or 4th year as a turkey hunter, I hadn't killed one yet but had missed a few, I was probably 9 years old. It was our youth season and my older brother was my ride, we started our evening hunt at around 3 or 4 pm. A couple hours in to it my brother had a handful of gobblers tore up, most I've ever heard in an evening, 6 or 7 if I remember right. Anyway, it starts getting really windy, sky got so dark it looked like night, and thundering and lightning. We were probably 500 yards from the truck and we just kept working those birds until they quit gobbling. About that time the sky opened up and it came a duck drowner, my brother was worried about getting stuck because he had a 2wd ford ranger and my dad was at work for the night, over an hour away in his 4wd truck, so against my will, knowing we had turkeys there, we left. We pull in to the drive way of our house about 2 miles up the road and our mom came out crying and cussing us, and we didn't know what was going on. Come to find out, a tornado had been spotted like 15 miles from where we were hunting and she had been trying to call my brother's cell phone but we didn't have service. She had called my dad and he was on the way home to come look for us. She thought for sure we were had out there.
I will hunt in any weather. If it's turkey season. Now if it's deer season, it won't take much for me to sit it out until another day.
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Some days I hunt the crap weather some days I wait it out, but I'm usually in the truck ready to roll when it breaks!
Opener for one state last year was a total white out blizzard, 5 inches of fresh snow and wind, went anyway, right before daylight the weather quit and surprisingly the birds were vocal, worked a coyote but didn't shoot one until after 3 pm!
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Rather hunt in the rain than the wind.
Usually sit out the heavy rain but am ready to roll asap as soon as it quits
Only get so many days to enjoy God's creation, if I'm off work I'm hunting. Lightning is the only thing that deters me. I've had some absolutely miserable dark to dark days of deer hunting, with that said I'm always amazed how cold I can be in April Turkey hunting Illinois.
Quote from: Jfowler82 on March 28, 2024, 08:30:54 AM
I won't hunt in pouring rain but I'll be waiting in the truck till it lets up !
^^^
Same here
I don't do rain. Wind bothers me but I still go. There are places wind and cold tend to concentrate turkeys if you know where to look.
I'm only going to get so many springs, and so many days during each of those. If the season is open, I'm going.
Downpour and windy= go to work.
Intermittent showers= hunt
Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club
Unlike water fowling, there's really no benefit to turkey hunting in the rain and wind. The only advantage I can think of is less competition on inclement days. I do agree that going right after a storm, especially if the sun come out is good time to go.
I can and will hunt in any weather except for FOG! We can get some very thick fog during turkey season.
I was hunting a few years ago and I could clearly see and hear 5 tornadoes around me! Shot a Longbeard and then I got out of there!!!
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Rain and/or lightening... Wind is no fun either.
I will still hunt on a rainy day, and still hunt on a windy day.... Lightening I am out... Had a pretty scary day a few years ago, in which lightening hit the tree I was sitting under, and that was it for me.
I am a duck hunter, and am used to incliment weather, and have good gear for it. But when the weather is bad enough to drastically reduce my chances of killing a bird while simultaneously being uncomfortable to be in, I will take a pass these days.
Anything but bad lightning or tornados. If I see a severe t-storm on the radar I'll hunt close to the truck and watch the radar.
A mild thunderstorm can be really cool if you're on a hot one that will gobble at thunder.
It seems like a fast moving storm just makes them pause what they are doing altogether. A lot of times when the weather breaks they will turn it on and start acting stupid to make up for lost time.
I'm not to keen on sitting in a lightning storm holding onto a piece of metal and leaning against a tree, that is my one sure "Time to leave" scenario.
Beyond that it all depends on what my body is telling me to do.
I love Winter so the snow is not something that bothers me so long as I can safely get in and out and by that I mainly mean footing. Of course I would also have to be dressed for it.
I would rather not walk across a soaking wet plowed field, I do not have the ankles, knees or back for it anymore and to be honest always had a problem with that anyway.
Before my last accident I hunting sitting next to trees so if it was not raining to awful hard or it was really warm anyway I would stick it out, these days I am in a waterproof blind so the rain does not bother me. It also helps with the aforementioned snow.
So other than that so long as my body will let me I try to stay, though these days I may not shoot a turkey with a gun, I just shoot it with my camera, not to say I would not take a turkey, I just have to be sure my body will let me clean it before I shoot it or it is just a film bird.
I normally don't hunt in bad weather. I have gotten a few after snow squalls. I like to hunt nice weather.
Hard rain? Waiting it out.
Lightning? Waiting it out
Wind? I'm going, if one answers (low percent) he is coming in hard and fast. I hunt a lot of creek bottoms and they are usually less windy anyway.
Drizzle/fog- hunt
My son's first gobbler came on a foggy day hunting a field. Bird gobbled at normal time but stayed in the tree another hour. When he gobbled on the ground, I started calling. He took his time, but headed right to us. He gobbled and told son he is on this field. We could not see him and the field edge was 125 yards away. Seeing a big mature longbeard appear out of the mist and my son kill him at 30 yards was probably my single biggest thrill turkey hunting.
I'm going in whatever mother nature throws at me! Can't kill'em or experience it on the couch..
Killed em in rain,snow,wind,etc. Adds to the challenge!
I ain't hunting in no rain
Back in my college days me and two hunting buddies of mine were at a dorm party, we were having a few beers and decided we were going to go turkey hunting the next morning. We got up at about five dragged ourselves out of bed and off we went. They were calling for a scuff of snow with light winds. We reached our destination; the ground was white and the wind was blowing. I couldn't get either one of them out of the truck. I went on by myself to listen about a hundred yards from the truck. I heard one gobble, came back to the truck to tell them and they didn't believe me. I finally got them out of the truck and we ended up killing that bird. We were hunting National Forest and decided to head out the mountain. The wind started to die, the temperature started to rise, and you could see blue skies every once in a while. To make a long story short we all killed a bird that morning. It was all of our only "triple" to this day.
I used to would sit right through a down pour and keep on hunting. Thunderstorms were not so often in the spring, but I for years did the same with them and the thunder would often just make the Tom gobble more. Then one day I came to my senses and quit that stuff. After you have killed enough turkeys, it is not that big of a deal to wait for a better day as far as weather. I don't so much hate me getting wet, but man I hate to get all of my stuff wet, especially my gun. No fun cleaning a gun after climbing in the mtns for eight-nine hours that day.
I will hunt the wind, but most times it really makes for a hard go of it in many of my favorite spots.
Quote from: mountainhunter1 on March 28, 2024, 05:49:54 PM
I used to would sit right through a down pour and keep on hunting. Thunderstorms were not so often in the spring, but I for years did the same with them and the thunder would often just make the Tom gobble more. Then one day I came to my senses and quit that stuff. After you have killed enough turkeys, it is not that big of a deal to wait for a better day as far as weather. I don't so much hate me getting wet, but man I hate to get all of my stuff wet, especially my gun. No fun cleaning a gun after climbing in the mtns for eight-nine hours that day.
I will hunt the wind, but most times it really makes for a hard go of it in many of my favorite spots.
X2
I don't so much hate me getting wet, but man I hate to get all of my stuff wet, especially my gun.
I will set in the truck on a heavy rain, hopefully I make it to the truck before the rain gets to the 9# mark. Otherwise, I am in da woods
I live in the south so its always warm during turkey season, lightning and super heavy rain are the only thing that will keep me out of the woods.
Heavy downpours. Nope.
Lightning. Nope.
Super windy days. I'll go, but it feels more like deer hunting than turkey hunting.
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I'm part of the guys who hunt when they can if season is open, regardless of the weather.
Here in MN. we only get 7 days to hunt, and if you have to work 4 of them, your down to 3 days hunting,so I go no matter what the weather. If it's raining I'll sit in a pop-up, but if it's nice out, I like to move around the best I can depending on the property size.
It's situational. I've killed them all weather , called them up gobbling in all weather .... Though the weather seems to play a factor in overall gobbling and activity , if a bird is ready hes ready . I don't like hunting in horrible weather , but sometimes I've no choice with my time off . I definitely don't prefer it, and I don't like drenching my equipment as that is more time spent taking care of said equipment after the hunt cutting more in to my time off .... But it does on occasion pay off . Unfortunately where I live , early spring you can expect stormy , sporadic , unpredictable weather ... like this year . I've been off 3 times and it's rained "monsoon" 2 out of those 3 times ..... has been beautiful weather in between of course lol
Back when I was on call and had fewer days off, nephew and I went out in crazy heavy rainy, windy weather. the rain slacked so we headed to where we were gonna set up. On the way nephew said "The train is running early". I told him the tracks were to the north and the sound was to the south. No doubt we heard a tornado - one was sighted at daybreak north of us, but luckily it never actually touched down. We sat down and started calling. No one believes it but we watched a jake and gobbler downwind of us and hit my box call and we could see him gobble. No lie, 200 yards away, wind blowing like crazy and neither of us could hear it, but we watched him gobble. He came in to about 50 yards (of course jake was 25). Nephew was older and I would not let him shoot the jake and we had to let the gobbler pass (nephew said we could have killed him if we both shot, but I explained I would rather do battle another day than risk crippling a bird). Memorable hunt even though no bird was killed.
Won't go out if its lightning close, hailing, or a tornado is present. I've had too many close calls with those conditions to risk it ever again.
I probably hunt 12/15 days a season. Almost anything goes on opening day.. except lightning, snow storm, heavy rain.
The rest, I'll have to see how the season is going. I'm not getting a wet A$$$ if I don't have to. If it's raining hard, I'll wait for a late morning hunt when it slows down. Out of state hunts I usually plan around the weather.
Lightning is a hunt killer. Heavy winds are a killer as well. Rain puts the blind in the middle of a field. Its always cold here the first 10 days to 2 weeks of the season so I dress accordingly. They live there year round and have to be somewhere. If the weather conditions make it unfun, then I am opting out. I give back any advantage our technology and gear give us because of my hearing and physical maladies, I'm not going to make it a miserable day. God Bless all of you "hunt or die" guys. I am one tier below Y'all. Z
The older I get, the less I will likely I am going to hunt in high winds or and sideways rain. I've been hunting in WVA and KS and had to hug the tree to stay in stand and when younger my goretex coat pockets would fill up with rain, but now I have backed of some.
Quote from: runngun on March 28, 2024, 11:54:34 AM
I can and will hunt in any weather except for FOG! We can get some very thick fog during turkey season.
I was hunting a few years ago and I could clearly see and hear 5 tornadoes around me! Shot a Longbeard and then I got out of there!!!
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I still have a memory burned into my mind of a long beard appearing like a ghost out of the fog and crossing in front of me. I knew he was there. We had been talking. When he appeared I was so caught off guard and really couldn't tell how far he was. Of course this only lasted seconds and he vanished just as quickly.
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We have short seasons here. Our 1st season is only 4 days long. So, I will hunt in wind and snow...prefer not, but I will. I don't mind hunting in a light, brief rain shower. If it's a down poor, thunder/lighting, I'm going to wait it out. If there is a good chance of off & on rain showers I take my "rain kit" which basically is a couple of pot calls(that I don't care if they get wet), my chair, gun & decoys. My vest and "good calls stay in the truck or at home.
Last year I REALLY learned my lesson with the thunder/ lighting. Opening morning of our 3rd season. They were calling for scattered showers and possible storms early in the day then clear off. I checked the radar before leaving home and there wasn't anything showing within 60- 70 miles. I make the 15 minute drive, get in the timber(about 500yards from the truck) and get set up. I have several birds gobbling. All of a sudden it just pours rain for about 45 seconds...glad I worn the rain suit. About 10 minutes later the birds are still gobbling on the roost and I start to hear thunder off in the distance. Roughly 20 minutes later I see a flash of lighting off in the distance and decide I need to get back to the truck. I was holding a shotgun and sitting in a turkey chair next to giant cottonwood tree...I was basically a lightning rod.
I get back to the truck and I'm listening to the radio waiting out the storm. It's storming pretty good with quite a bit of lightning. All of sudden there was big ball of light and a loud boom at the same time...no pause between the light and the sound. It sounded like someone shot a shotgun right beside the truck window. The truck shook and my ears rang. It didn't hit the truck, but it was REAL close. I left and came back a couple hours later only to have it start storming again so I left for the day.
I was dropped on a ridge top in Northern Mo by my brother who circled around to work the bottom. This was before smart phones and instant access to radar. 1/2 hour in as I was nearing my listening point for roosted gobblers I could see lightning in the distance. That storm went from lightning in the distance to all around me in matter of maybe 15/20 mins. Several lightning blasts within a couple hundred yards of my location and one or 2 almost on top me had me toss my gun, space myself evenly and hastily between the trees surrounding me, and curl into the fetal position with arms and legs tucked underneath me with hopes they wouldn't be blown off by arching lightning. Simply put, I was S'ing my pants!
As fast as the storm blew in it was gone! My brother was pretty relieved when he seen me exit the wood line at the bottom of the ridge.
Any weather that is above 20 degrees and not producing lightning is go time for me. In the temperate rain forest of coastal Oregon, where I live, turkey, deer, bear and elk seasons are typically rainy with temps between 20 and 60 degrees.
Lightening is my no go other then that I'm pretty much a go. I'll use a blind on those steady rainy days
Conditions I will hunt in are directly correlated to how far away from home I am and how much effort I have put in to being where I am hunting. In other words, if I am close to home, I can wait for good weather conditions...and if I am far from home, I got no choice to try to hunt if I want to kill a gobbler there.
Having said that, my least favorite weather-related conditions to hunt in locally are high winds and heavy rain or snow. The winds are a common problem...rain/snow less so, but occasionally.
One weather-related concern around here that we have every spring is the forests potentially being so dry due to the lack of winter precipitation that the Forest Service closes access to the National Forests. Now that possibility, although extremely rare, has happened a time or two...and that is a REAL weather-related bummer! ::)
Around here, if it is sunny and warm, I have to really struggle to decide on doing yard work or house maintenance or go hunting. Usually hunting wins out on sunny days, but, if it is raining out, no need for a struggle for a decision. It's hunt on! Rain = hunting for us over here..