Hunting in the Rain
How do you feel about rain, particularly rainy days during the hunting season? Wildlife biologist and outdoor writer Larry Weishuhn discusses his experiences of hunting across the world when he’s been caught in a downpour.
The symphony of rain drops on the tin roof initially sounded like a lullaby, but after a while it had been raining solidly for two days without letting up. Staying in camp had been fun, J. Wayne Fears and I had not yet told all our hunting stories, but we were thinking of new ways to repackage them. It wasn’t that I was opposed to hunting in the rain, even though everyone in that part of Alabama said it was a waste of time, the problem was the creek between camp and the hunting grounds was raging, well above flood stage, so there no way to get to the hunting area.
Noon on the third rainy day and all the hunters had left, except for Wayne and I. Wayne lived in Alabama and I was there for an extended stay. We were working together on a book ‘Whitetails East & West’. As we ate lunch our host said, “I’ve got an enclosed blind on a couple of acres right next to town, practically in people’s backyards. Larry, if you want I’ll set you up there this afternoon, at least you’ll be able to get out for a little while and if the rain quits you might even see something. I’ll drop you off and pick you up at dark.”
Secreted in the blind for most of the afternoon, it rained so hard I could scarcely see more than 50 yards, then just before dark it slowed to a drizzle. I watched three does, two fawns and a yearling six-point buck step out of the trees to feed on some green briar and honeysuckle but it was almost too dark to see them clearly. I happened to look to my right, towards the narrow six-foot wide corridor, which separated hunting land with the backyards of town and there stood a buck, but not just any buck, an absolute monster. His beams were as big around as his ear butts and were spread just beyond his ears. His tines were as long as his heavy body was deep. Before I could swing the rifle round in his direction, the buck stepped into a backyard where he was safe. The rain continued falling and it got darker, I watched the buck feed on roses, I could see him only because of a porch light in the yard where he fed.
I am not one who normally hunts from permanent blinds, I love hunting on the ground. Had I brought good raingear, such as the Drake Non-Typical I wear these days, I would have been fine sitting on the ground in the woods and would have likely intercepted the buck while there was still shooting light, before he could have walked into the safety of backyard city limits.
Move forward a few years and I was hunting in Kentucky on a property we used to call Game Trails, located where the Tradewater runs into the Ohio River. Game Trails has some of the finest whitetail habitat I have ever seen and it was on my last hunt on the property earlier that hunting season, that I had sold my interest in the operation to another party.
It had been raining for three days. I was hunting where I had shot my biggest deer from Kentucky, a typical 10-point whitetail, with split back tines, which grossed scored just below 190 B&C.
I had hunted hard in the rain, the day was coming to a close and I had only seen young bucks and a few does and fawns. My cameraman and I were filming for “Whitetail Revolution” and we both got sopping wet, our rain gear had failed.
“I’ve got one more place I want to look before we go in,” I told my cameraman, and headed toward a food plot planted with a seed blend from Tecomate. Rain was falling and it was now turning colder. Crawling out of brushy creek bottom, I eased to the edge of the plot. There on the opposite side of the field, less than 50 yards away stood a monstrous non-typical, easily well over 200 Boone & Crockett, the biggest buck I had seen on the property in all the years I hunted there. I brought to shoulder my .270 single-shot rifle I carried, loaded with a 130 grain Hornady soft point. The buck raised his head, “Have you got him?” expecting to have the cameraman at my right shoulder. After a long pause and no response, I spoke a bit louder and repeated, “Have you got him?” With still no response from the cameraman, the buck was getting nervous, even though I doubt he saw me. Maybe he simply sensed something was wrong. “Get on him!” I said in a pleading, demanding normal voice and yet again I received no response.
I turned to look at why my cameraman was not answering and to my amazement he was 20 yards behind me, wiping raindrops off his camera lens. I could not believe he wasn’t right behind me filming. I waved to him and he did not see me, so I decided to heck with the footage and turned to shoot but watched as the monster buck disappeared into the woods.
Years ago I used to hunt a considerable amount, just south of the Rio Bravo. I loved hunting in the brush and cactus of Mexico, particularly when it rained or just after it had finished. Hunting there, I used to spend time with a local vaquero, with the unusual name of Juanito Schmidt. Juanito spoke Spanish but also a few words of English and considerable amount of German. When I questioned him about his last name, he told me his ancestors on his father’s side had immigrated to Mexico from Germany immediately after World War I.
After a busy day of seeing bucks, that night around the fire over a glass of tequila, Juanito proclaimed, “Grosse becka lieben so louffen en das nassen sondt”, then questioned, “Compendre?”
I did understand and in a way his statement explained why we had seen the number of bucks we had that afternoon. It had rained all morning long and during the rain we had seen several younger bucks, during the half-inch per hour steady rain. That afternoon when it slowed to a drizzle we started seeing mature big bucks. Juantio’s explanation was simple, “Big bucks like to walk in wet sand.” When I asked him why, he simply replied, “It makes their feet feel good.”
Regardless of why bucks like to walk in wet sand, I have seen this happen many times in southern Texas and northern Mexico. After he told this, I remembered all the times I had come to a sandy spot in areas where there was little sand and recalled the many deer tracks I had seen in the moist sand. Maybe indeed wet sand makes big bucks’ feet feel good.
A couple of years ago I was on a high-fenced property in Missouri, Oak Creek Whitetails, with my Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter .44 Magnum handgun, loaded with Hornady’s 240 grain XTP ammo. In many ways, this is like going after whitetails in ‘Deerasic Park’. It was raining and it had been raining for several days. In the rain, I rattled up several bucks with my Rattling Forks including one that likely scores over 300 B&C — unreal!
As the hunt wore on, we finally found a buck they wanted me to shoot, one that was a bit over 30 inches outside, with lots of points. Remember again, Oak Creek has bucks with antlers as big or bigger than most elk. We found him in the rain, bedded in a brush pile on the edge of a food plot. He seemed totally satisfied there because he stayed bedded for about an hour before he finally stood up and when he did, I shot him.
Had it not been for the rain, I seriously doubt I could have slipped in, as close as I did to him. The moisture had turned the dry corn flake like leaves to soggy corn flakes.
I’ve been extremely fortunate to have hunted in Austria three times. My last trip there was set up for me by Patty Curnutte from the Global Sportsman. It seemed we hunted in the rain just about every day. It rained while I was hunting alpine ibex and mouflon. I shot my mouflon on the last day of the hunt in pouring rain. Obviously mouflon do not care if it is raining or not.
On a recent hunt for reindeer in Norway, with Scandinavian Pro Hunters, we hunted in the rain and it’s even poured several times when I’ve hunted in southern Africa.
I love hunting black bear and quite often whilst hunting black bear, part of the hunt is associated with rain. Recently I hunted black bear in southern Alaska, with Keegan McCarthy with his Coastal Alaska Adventures.
Alaska tends to be wet during the spring, regardless of whether rain is falling from the sky or it’s the spray of water while using a small boat to go from one area to another. Talk about putting Drake Non-Typical raingear to the test! I spent several days soaked on the outside, but Chihuahua Desert dry inside my raingear, right up to the last afternoon of my hunt when I shot my biggest black bear to date. I shot him in the rain with my Ruger .375 FTW Hunter, loaded with Hornady 300 grain DGX ammo.
I truly enjoy hunting in the rain, especially since I no longer wear glasses, and I have rain gear I can count on to keep my dry. I have several hunts planned this coming year, which I anticipate will be wet; hunts in southern Alaska, western Canada and numerous whitetail hunts. I will be prepared with proper clothing and a proper attitude knowing “Big bucks like to walk in wet sand.”