Hunting in the Heat

I don't have any good stories but I will say deer move whether it is hot or cold.

First 10 pt I ever killed was an evening hunt that was hot as hell.I’m sitting in stand sweating and getting eat up by mosquitos until I got the Thermocell fired up.I’m thinking how stupid I am to hunting in these conditions when the 10 point trotted by and stopped for a second to give me a shot.

Found him a couple hundred yards away and all four legs were black with mosquitos
up past the knees.

I had been hunting for years and never killed a 10 pt so it was totally worth it.

It’s gonna be miserably hot but I can’t wait to get in the tree. Those first few days are the only times I have seen mature bucks let there guard down besides the rut so I try to hit it hard the first week or two.
I hunted one year in a club back of plaqumine and opening week I was hitting it hard and decided I was gonna sit on stand from noon till dark. Well I miscalculated my thermacell supplies and the last 30min of shooting light my butane started making that dreaded popping sound. I said to myself it will be ok I can tough it out for 30min. After 10min of swatting hitting and 50 mosquitoes at a time biting me I decided there was no way I could make a shot even if it was a booner. Climbed down with prolly 15-20 mins of the best part of the day.
Make sure you have plenty of butane and pads

I’ve lost count of the number of “perfect” weather days where I didn’t see jack shite.

Going to be hot, but you can’t get them from your living room. Just take solace in the fact that myself and other members of the OB will also be sweating our asses on in the woods this weekend

Mosquitos will be bitches

quote:

---

Mosquitos will be bitches

---

That little bit of rain we got isn’t enough to plant food plots, but it sure made the mosquitos angry

My thermacell is going to be on overdrive

quote:

---

probably just paranoid

---

You are. The deer is around 100* when it dies. Even in cold weather, it takes a damn long time for the middle of the meat to get cool.

I dont know an exact time frame, but you should just gut it as soon as you find it, and maybe cut the crotch and armpits open ASAP. After that, leave the hide on it to protect from the flies and you can basically deal with it at your leasiure.

I'd venture to say that even in 95* heat, it'll take 3-4 hours to start spoiling and even then, it's a slow process that will only start affecting the areas that hold heat. It'll take a VERY long time for it to start getting nasty. Probably something like 6-8 hours.

quote:

---

gut it as soon as you find it

---

This helps solve 90% of the issues with dead animals in heat.

quote:

---

How do y’all deal with this? I’m probably just paranoid.

---

Just be smart about it. I shot a bill and butchered him this summer during that miserable heat. Granted I started at 4:40 and finished by 10am. I wouldn’t hesitate killing a deer in our weather today.

One of the good things about being old…you aren’t as mad at em, so you tend to wait for it to cool off a little.

But when I was younger, I killed a lot of deer opening weekends in the heat.