Oh the weather outside...

[Hilltophustler]

Do you think this early weather were having will effect this years hunting season? ie...rut starting early, animals being active/not active.
What do you guys think?

[Crunchy]

Tuff to say at this point.  Normally mild winter means wet summer.  I hope that isnt true.  Mild winter hopefullly means less of a winter killer, higher calf survival rate as well.  Also have to hope for plenty of snow pack in the mountains.

[Curly]

There should be less winter kill.

[bobcat]

Winter's not over yet. I'd wait a couple months before trying to make any predictions. It's good that so far this winter hasn't been hard on animals. But it's usually the very end of winter and beggining of spring weather that determines how many animals survive the winter.

[Blsum]

I'm hoping for a much better year this year. This year during elk season we saw lots of spikes. I'm hoping that the mild winter means a better winter survival. Also a wetter summer means more of those nummy greens they like to eat. Meaning they will be bigger healthier and hopefully staying put. Right where we hunt. But like stated before. It's not over yet, so let's not count our chickens before they hatch.

[Dirty Mike]

so what your sayin is....shootem shootem all

[WonkyWapiti]

I'm with Blsum, I hope it continues to stay nice this winter and rains all summer up until Sept 8th or so.   

[Hangfire]

In my area (north of Spokane 20 miles) this is the mildest winter since probably 1900 according to the weather forcasters. There is plenty of time for lots of weather to occur, it isn't all winter weather that hurts or helps wildlife. Wet springs devastate uplandbirds, forrest grouse and turkeys. Hot dry summers same to the berries which affect the bears and others etc.

Most seasonal things, start of rut. turkeys mating are controlled by day length, amount of sun, with a little temperature influence.