Weather and deer movement?

[bparcher804]

In the past I've never really took the weather into consideration when I sat in the stand and although I've been fortunate enough to take a white tail buck the last four years in a row I've never taken anything older than 3 1/2 and 131".  I've passed many 100" to 120" deer in hopes of a mature buck but never end seeing one and settling for a young buck to fill freezer.  This year I have a little more time to be selective on deer and when I hunt before settling on anything to fill freezer and was curious if anybody here on HW really took the weather into consideration when they choose to hit the field.  I sat the opener all day and seen only does, spikes and a 90"-100" buck and it was sunny and 37.  I know that anything can happen during the rut though.  This mon night into Tuesday is a daytime temp dropping from 31 mon to a high of 16 tue and overnight low of 8.  Would tue morn be good for movement at the bait site?  Would love to hear what other late archery hunters look for when deciding on optimal conditions for a hunt?

[Expedition Scout]

I've sat my yearly stand site since Monday - that's all day, each day, except about an hour for lunch and a warm-up. Weather all week had been stable with lows in the 20's and highs in the upper 30's and not a drop of moisture. I had at max 8 deer in one day pass my stand and as little as 1 the entire day. Yesterday during the morning sit I saw one buck cruse through around 10:30. Knowing we had weather moving in I took an early lunch and was back in the stand a little after noon expecting the drop in Bar-Pressure to get them moving. The  front hit our area around 2pm with snow and freezing rain that tapered off at 3pm. From 3 till 4, I counted around 17 deer passing in front of my stand. So many I lost count. Quiet a few bucks (nothing special) but My freezer is now full!

You will need to learn a bit about weather, become a backseat weatherman! If you have a trail cam out 24-7, do a test. Right down weather temps, observations, drop or rise in bar-pressure, storm systems, etc and then compare your trail camera pictures to the weather you wrote down.

I did this a few year ago for the entire season from Sept - Dec and was amazed at the results. Because I was collecting the data, I also included the Solunar Calendar and although not perfect, I take that information very seriously now as well. 

The Rut will always surprise you with buck movement all hours of the day, but the same food drive the rest of the year still drives the doe's this time of year. I notice that during the peak movement times for the solunar calendar, I'll see the doe's going to feed- about an hour later the bucks will cruse through sniffing the trails to see if a hot doe came through. They wait until feed time is over and then get up.

Observations from my area only, been hunting this piece of private land for 5 years so I understand that it might be a lot different someplace else and with hunting pressure. Only provide the information to give a clinical view of non-pressured deer movement.

[Grizman]

Over the years, I have found that a big drop in barometric presser will get animals feeding and moving.  If you have the chance to pick your hunting days, always hunt when the barometer is falling.  Just watch cattle and horses to prove this out.  Sunny and stable, most animals will feed and lay down during the daytime.  When a storm approaches, they will get up and feed.  Old saying:  Hunt the storm fronts. 

[PolarBear]

 
Same with fishing
We also have some very cold (for around here) weather coming this week.  I have found that a good 20 degree drop in temps can reallt get animals moving as well.  I have had some of my best hunts where the temps went from 40 degrees one day to negative digits the next.