Why You Should Summer Scout for Whitetails in Bad Weather

That may have been true, I don’t really know. What I do know is that heading to the woods during summer rain showers kept producing sightings and encounters in places I didn’t expect.

Then it all kind of clicked.

We often time our trips to the woods when the weather is as favorable as we are going to get in a 10-day forecast, at least if it jives with some available free time. This kind of mirrors a lot of us and our rut-hunting habits, where we are more prone to going to the woods when it’s supposed to be cold and crispy outside than 75 degrees and dead calm.

The thing is, deer live in the outdoors and react to weather all year long. If you hunt private land that is managed well, you might be in a position to only hunt when things line up perfectly. The rest of us should learn to hunt in all types of conditions. This should start right now with our scouting trips and trail camera work.

Game animals move before weather fronts hit, and after. This is no secret, but where they move might be. If you spend a little time glassing for bachelor groups in the summer in the 24 hours before and after a front hits, you’ll learn a lot.

You’ll witness peak activity periods, watch big deer, and get a glimpse into how you should hunt the early season when similar conditions are about to roll through. You’ll also get a chance to spend some time out there in the rain, like I mentioned earlier, and if you want a cheat code to killing big bucks in September and early October, that’s it.

Just like you want to get to the edge of a field in spring turkey season when it starts to rain, the same rules apply for deer. Soybeans are like magic in an early-season rain, but deer will hit other food sources, too. They’ll also just move more as long as it’s not a real frog-choker of a downpour, meaning you don’t need to post up on an ag field to kill one in your rain gear.

There is nothing more beneficial than watching a big buck do what a big buck does, in person. Summertime scouting is the best opportunity for this that you’ll have all year. But, you can’t be out there all the time.

This is where our trail cameras come into play, but we often severely underutilize their recon when it comes to pattern matching with the weather. This can be accomplished with a traditional, non-cellular camera, but it is much easier with a cell camera.

When pictures show up, pay attention to what’s going on weather-wise. Some camera apps already do a lot of heavy lifting here for you, but you have to understand how to use those features. Either way, when you get a picture of your target buck, or a bachelor group moving nice and early in the evening, make a note of what is going on weather-wise.

Is it just a random, cool evening when it makes sense for them to leave their beds early to start munching on some greenery? Or is there a warning on your weather app about severe thunderstorms headed your way? What was the wind doing?

All of this intel matters to your hunting season, even if it’s still a few months away. This is almost (notice I said almost) a shortcut to developing solid woodsmanship. Think about it this way–an ol’ timer with several decades of bowhunting under his belt could probably tell you on any given day whether the deer movement is going to be heavy or light, just by stepping outside.

Most of us don’t get as much time in the woods, in or out of the season, as we’d like. That’s where you develop serious deer skills, but there are other ways to get better. And one is to scout during inclement weather in the months leading up to the season. The other is to really try to understand what your trail cameras are telling you, which is usually a hell of a lot more than a buck just walked through a specific location at a specific time of day.