Even veteran hunters may pause for a moment over the idea of barometric pressure and deer hunting. “Baro—what?” Believe it or not, barometric pressure has a lot to do with how and when deer move. Hunters know that deer tend to lie down when the winds are heavy.
The best barometric pressure for deer hunting is not a solid number. It’s when the pressure is rapidly rising or falling. These rapid increases and decreases typically coincide with bad weather, right before and immediately after.
Knowing when the barometric pressure for deer hunting is at its best gives you a distinct advantage because you will know when the deer are moving. That’s also why it’s important to understand what barometric pressure is and how deer react to it.
Does Barometric Pressure Affect Deer Hunting
They say that a deer’s inner ear is a barometer on its own. That means that deer are ten steps ahead of you by the time you hear about a low or high-pressure front moving into the area.
Deer move the most at the tip of the incoming front and the very tail of a departing one. You want to be in the woods when either of these occasions comes around. High-pressure systems, so long as they hold steady in the area, are excellent times to be in the stands as well.
However, only after the wind dies away. As we mentioned above, deer prefer not to move too much when the wind is up, especially if it’s a headwind against them. The moment it dies, you would do well to have the stock of your rifle on your shoulder.
Even when they do move in a heavy wind, it’s usually because they have to, not because they want to. Their far more skittish, spook easily and move in fits and starts. Not exactly prime-A hunting conditions.
Tips for Hunting in Low Pressure
Low-pressure systems are the calm before the storm. They precede a storm as it moves into the area, whether it’s snow, rain, hail, or sleet. Of course, you’ve probably seen your fair share of huge thunderheads rolling into the area without dropping a single molecule of H2O on your head.
Whether it’s rain rolling in or the sky is just full of wind and bluster, low pressure precedes it. The key is to predict it. If you’re watching the weather the day before and get an idea of when the low-pressure system is moving in, prepare yourself to be in the stand an hour or so before it moves in.
Yeah, it’s not the best of circumstances because it means that if you take down a buck, you’re going to be cleaning him and dragging him back to the four-wheeler, vehicle, or house in the middle of the storm. Of course, that all depends on if it’s worth it to you.
Deer know the storm is coming. They don’t need a well-paid meteorologist on the evening news to tell them when a low-pressure front is moving in or out. They know it’s coming and they will be out, searching for food and sustenance before they have to bed down through the storm.
Tips for Hunting in High Pressure
Hunting when the pressure is high is the opposite of low-pressure hunting. After the storm passes, the air pressure increases again, and it’s the tail-end of the storm you need to chase. If you have a good shooting house, it’s the perfect setup to wait out the storm while reading a book or playing a game on your smartphone.
If the area you are hunting is highly populated with deer, it will be like someone opened a floodgate when the storm passes. Of course, that’s assuming you’ve done your homework and know where the deer are moving the most.
Their established patterns throughout the seasons are the same ones they will follow when the storm lets up. It’s the better time to hunt because you won’t be tracking, cleaning, and hauling your kill out during a freak lightning storm.
So long as you’re willing to wait out the storm, exposed to the elements (or better yet, inside a shooting house), you’ll have an excellent opportunity to take your pick as soon as the storm passes.
Bottom Line
High and low-pressure systems are ingrained into a deer’s instinctive process. It’s almost as if they are machines, carefully tuned to specific triggers. So long as you can accurately predict those triggers, and be in your stand, blind, or shooting house when it comes around, you’ll have a lot of success.
Deer are nothing if not instinctive. This makes them predictable. Buck sightings improve both in low pressure and high pressure, but high pressure is the biggest opportunity to drop one with a serious rack. All you have to do is withstand the storm.
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