Hunting around rain

[RiverRoost]

Calling for light chances of rain over night and into early morning. What would be the best place to set up in a pop up blind if not raining too hard? Open timber, field, logging road?

[g8rvet]

I usually start in a field.  But if the logging road is fairly open, that may be good. You just want to be where that are likely going to go to strut and be seen.  Field has always been my best bet. I even have a couple I hit on public land.  Most folks stay home on rainy days.  I usually head to the fields on windy days too.

[RiverRoost]

I found some fresh scratching this morning, like the dirt was still wet so fresh, so I built a stick blind around a tree and was going to start out in that area listening at daylight and then move to my blind if nothing hot right off the bat but this is in an open hardwood bottom. Also has a food plot right to my back that has about shin high wheat. Didn't know if this bottom would work if it's misting rain or just starting to break. All our fields/plots are abnormally tall with the warmer winter and spring.

[MK M GOBL]

We hit the fields, birds in my area move into open fields during the rain, been out in downpours and have killed birds in the field still gobbling strutting and working!!

MK M GOBL

[g8rvet]

I found some fresh scratching this morning, like the dirt was still wet so fresh, so I built a stick blind around a tree and was going to start out in that area listening at daylight and then move to my blind if nothing hot right off the bat but this is in an open hardwood bottom. Also has a food plot right to my back that has about shin high wheat. Didn't know if this bottom would work if it's misting rain or just starting to break. All our fields/plots are abnormally tall with the warmer winter and spring.

I had that problem too a couple years back.  The birds just quit using that field it was so tall.  So I set up along the edges of it. 

[fallhnt]

Field hunt in the rain. Bird will be there.

[suburbhunter]

Field hunt in the rain. Bird will be there.

[ilbucksndux]

I really dont hunt much different in the rain as I do when its not raining. Once the rain stops I will head for a field they WILL be out there after it rains.Just dont forget your bread sack !

[yelpy]

My favorite days to hunt them is when its raining. I have killed many birds setting up close to a field or open areas in the rain.

[TRG3]

RiverRoost...I noted that you said that the vegetation in your food plots was taller than usual due to the warmer weather. I had a similar problem last year with the yellow headed mustard-type plants that grow to 2-3 feet tall in picked corn fields in the spring of the year here in Southern Illinois. I placed my decoys among those plants and they could not be seen. Later in the season while hunting in an open picked soybean field, I placed a decoy on a homemade stake (I picked up three as-new foam-type decoys at a yard sale for $6. I wonder if the husband was aware of what his wife sold them for!) that was about a foot too tall; however, the gobbler that came it, while having to look up at the gobbler decoy, didn't seem to hesitate to come in. So... this season I'll hunt those same picked corn fields with the tall plants but purposely place them on stakes that keep them 3-4 feet up in the air, just above the plants. The visibility will be greatly increased and I believe that it will bring in birds. We'll see!! (This is what I enjoy about turkey hunting, trying new "stuff" to see if it will work or not. Nothing ventured...nothing gained!)

[RiverRoost]

Yeah these plots are knee high in most of them. Crazy!

[dejake]

If the fields are knee-high, I doubt they'll be there when it's wet.  When they're wet, they don't like to rub/touch anything.

[Kevin6Q]

I absolutely LOVE hunting in the rain. It is easier to move around as the wet quiets laves and there is always sound in the trees. Also, everything is in constant motion so I blend in much better. I think because of this the birds go to open terrain where movement close in is easier to see. Open ground is a defense. Only human can hit them from a distance. The biggest drawback to hunting in the rain is the post kill photos always look terrible.