It’s the beginning of a new year, and the cold weather will usually bring about apprehensive bucks who have been pressured during the past warmer days. This is sure to make them a bit more cautious than usual, but not enough so that they can’t be found and conquered.
How to Hunt Deer in Late Winter
Maybe the best part of the coming cold is that deer won’t travel very far—staying close to refuge and viable food sources wherever they can find it. Around this point is the time for slow and sometimes testy maneuvers. We all dread it, but it is in your best interest to take your time when dealing with wary deer.
In addition to moving slower, it would help that a hunter has the right kind of blind to help with the job at hand. Layout blinds, for example, will give the hunter a low profile and conceal most—if not all—of him or her while allowing a small opening to be used for sighting game and taking that necessary shot.
Since the cold temperatures and prior but heavy hunting season has slowed down the deer population, hunting layout blinds found at reputable hunting stores will help for quiet transportation. Their aluminum frame and canvass layers give deer hunters the advantage of moving without much noise or delay. They will also erect with ease once you know how.
Additionally, rain or snowfall will work to conceal the whereabouts of a ready rifle and that inevitable predator’s gleam found within your focused eyes. These snowy and rainy conditions, when present within windy days, are always perfect for making yourself more elusive.
Get the Gear, Get the Advantage with Deer
Nature provides animals with tremendous instincts, so any advantage you can get to work for you, the better off you are. It’s important to make sure that your layout blind is also placed near a tree or other obstruction when you are ready to stake out an area.
It’s necessary to be stealthy and obstructions will break your contour. You’ll need this edge to best outwit the survival instincts of your prey whether you have a tree stand or are using your favorite camouflage pattern against a tree.
Hunting stores and hunting outfitters will have the equipment that you will need, but you must use it properly. The best equipment with poor practices will mean nothing and even cost you money further down the line.
Your ability to focus on nothing else but your potential target is of the utmost importance. Unfavorable weather may be seen as optimal for hunting—it is—but windy days and thick snowfall can lead you to lose the concentration that will bring you home the biggest buck in the forest.
Don’t allow these conditions to make you lose your visual focus, so always be on the lookout. You may mistake a fallen leaf for a moving tail, and this is alright as long as an image of a buck is actually in your mind. The right layout blind will also make that experience comfortable for you.
Hunting for deer this late in the winter season can be tough with obstacles like weather, snow, and deer characteristics, but it certainly isn’t impossible.
