Prayer for the animals

[dvolmer]

Just checked the weather conditions in Northern Montana where I go every year to hunt deer.  -47 degree with the wind-chill!!!!  And no relief in the foreseeable future (next two or so weeks).  This late winter blast can and will have a heavy toll on the elk, deer, and especially the antelope.  Has me worried some.  This happened the winter of 2008 or 2009 (cant remember which) and it literally wiped out the entire antelope herd.  Every last one of them died that year and they still haven't recovered.  Fawns and calves will take the brunt of it!  Not good!!!

[Skyvalhunter]

Will you still hunt there if drawn this year

[vandeman17]

I was thinking the same thing. Not good!

[Karl Blanchard]

They are as fat as can be this year though.  08/09 they had a decently hard winter and then got hit hard late on top of it. 

[Jonathan_S]

08/09 got tons of snow early if I recall. 

[Karl Blanchard]

08/09 got tons of snow early if I recall.

I can only speak to east central but yeah.  We had snow in early November.

[boneaddict]

The weather outlook for the next 14 days is pretty abysmal.   As Karl mentioned though, it’s been pretty mild up until now. 

[dvolmer]

Up un tell now the winter has been on the mild side so that will hopefully help.  I think one of the big factors is the snow and how much they get.  if the animals can keep their belly's full they can handle some pretty tough temps.  But if they have to work like crazy to get to the food it can be disastrous.

[bigmacc]

I told this story in another thread so sorry for the repeat, I was over in the Methow during the brutal 1968-69 winter when a cold blast/flash freeze came down the Frazier river and went straight down the Methow, Winthrop recorded the coldest temperature ever in Washington state and I believe it still stands. I think it was the end of December and my dad and I were helping a friend when a breeze came out of the north and the temperature just plummeted, I believe it got down to 48 or 49 below if I remember right. My dad and I drove around for a few days and he got some 8mm film of frozen livestock, pets and of coarse lots of dead deer. We had pictures of livestock froze solid leaning up against building, fences and trees, really eerie and something I will never forget. Engine blocks cracked, farm equipment was lost and orchards were wiped out because it just came out of nowhere and it happened so fast. I remember the old movie film my dad took of packs of coyotes running down deer in fields, the snow was froze and the deer would bust through the crust in some places up to their briskets while the yotes ran on top like it was pavement, just brutal. Me, my dad and our friend went out behind one of the businesses in town to see around 20 deer including a couple nice bucks all congregated around a compressor for warmth. Thousands and thousands of deer were lost during that winter, I remember going for spring hikes north of town up in the Chewuch areas and finding hundreds of winter kills, I remember going up into one particular draw and finding 50 or so carcases in one small area, most were under trees and a lot of them were piled or laying on top of each other, you could picture them huddling together for warmth and one by one dieing off, the temps farther to the north and higher in elevation where I was probably had temperatures in the 60-70 below range it was said, possibly even lower with the wind chill. I myself have never seen anything like it over there and probably never will, my dad and grandparents said they had never seen anything like it going back to 1917. Mother Nature can be beautiful at times and unforgiving and brutal at others.

[Skyvalhunter]

How many coyotes did you shoot?

[mburrows]

Luckily its been very light on snow so far this year over here, up until the last week or so.  Was in the mid 40's just a couple weeks so hoping they went into this cold and snowy stretch healthy.

[vandeman17]

Luckily its been very light on snow so far this year over here, up until the last week or so.  Was in the mid 40's just a couple weeks so hoping they went into this cold and snowy stretch healthy.

My thoughts exactly. All the deer around my neighborhood and area look great so hopefully they have some reserves

[bigmacc]

How many coyotes did you shoot?

If I remember right we killed 8 or 9 in our friends field. Sorry for getting off topic. I do have a relatives around Flaxsville Montana, they said its been brutal this last 30 or so days but also said the deer went into the cold snap in good shape, at least in their area.

[danderson]

1996- 97 was the winter from hell here in Central Washington, I had 7 feet of snow on the level then it rained, my kids swing set was completely under snow in our  field,  we had snow on the ground until mid April then it flooded, 100's of building collapsed and the county changed there building requirements after that year. The deer population was hit hard especially the Mule deer in the Methow, I have a buddie in Twisp were the deer died even with full bellies of alfalfa, they just couldn't digest the food and were stressed. The worst part here right now is the predators can easily run down deer and other small critters on the hard frozen snow pack.

[300rum]

I have very fond memories of hunting in 1996, it was the last of the epic regular season deer hunts.  If I remember right, the deer season was open until Nov. 4.  The day of Halloween until Nov. 4th it rained fairly solid and the magic of the rut was in full swing.  I held out and shot a great buck.  The regular season was never the same again! 

Someone will come on here and prove me wrong with the season dates but that's how I remember it anyway.   

1996- 97 was the winter from hell here in Central Washington, I had 7 feet of snow on the level then it rained, my kids swing set was completely under snow in our  field,  we had snow on the ground until mid April then it flooded, 100's of building collapsed and the county changed there building requirements after that year. The deer population was hit hard especially the Mule deer in the Methow, I have a buddie in Twisp were the deer died even with full bellies of alfalfa, they just couldn't digest the food and were stressed. The worst part here right now is the predators can easily run down deer and other small critters on the hard frozen snow pack.