John's Journal...

HOW TO HUNT DEER IN A SNOWSTORM

Hear No Evil -- See No Evil

Click to enlargeEditor’s Note: A grizzled hunter in the Berkshire Mountains of New England once asked the young Gerry Bethge, now editor of "Salt Water Sportsman", and past editor of "Outdoor Life Magazine" and Harris Publications, "Boy, when will you find the best conditions to hunt whitetails?" With a puzzled look on his face, young Bethge strained to come up with an answer that would make him sound like a knowledgeable woodsman. As he said, "during the first few moments of daylight," he knew he'd guessed the right answer. "That's a good time to hunt," the old man agreed. "But during a snowstorm is the best time to hunt." Because Bethge's parents had forbidden him to go out whenever the wind howled and the snow fell heavily, he asked, "Why do snowstorms provide the best hunting conditions?" Today, I'll share with you what the old grizzled hunter taught Bethge how snow enables you to become a better deer hunter.

A grizzled hunter in the Berkshire Mountains of New England once asked the young Gerry Bethge, "boy, when will you find the best conditions to hunt whitetails?" With a puzzled look on his face, young Bethge strained to come upClick to enlarge with an answer that would make him sound like a knowledgeable woodsman. As he said, "during the first few moments of daylight," he knew he'd guessed the right answer. "That's a good time to hunt," the old man agreed. "But during a snowstorm is the best time to hunt." Because Bethge's parents had forbidden him to go out whenever the wind howled and the snow fell heavily, he asked, "Why do snowstorms provide the best hunting conditions?" The old man, full of wisdom, smiled and answered, "When you hunt in a snowstorm, the deer can't hear you or see you. You can walk right up on them without spooking them."

Many years later, after the boy had grown into a man, the advice of the old hunter produced one of the greatest days of hunting that Bethge ever had experienced when he hunted the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York with Ralph Stuart, an editor at "Outdoor Life Magazine". "We just barely made our way to camp before a snowstorm blew in from the northeast," Bethge remembered. "The snow fell heavily as we unloaded our gear and got to our camp." The next morning when the two hunters woke up, they saw snow had covered the trees. Fourteen inches of white powder lay on the ground. The wind howled, and the snow continued to fall.

This type of weather would have made hunting tough at best. But sinceClick to enlarge the two hunters carried muzzleloaders, they also worried their powder might get wet. At 10:00 a.m., they decided to brave the elements and go into the storm to search for deer. Since both had taken a day off work, not hunting seemed almost sacrilegious, even if the weather conditions did not favor their hunt. I had tramped through the woods in the blowing snow only about 15 minutes when I walked up on six bedded deer about 20 yards away," Bethge recalled. "We had doe tags for the muzzleloading season and wanted to take some meat for camp. I brought the rifle to my shoulder and sighted-in on the big doe standing by the bedded herd." At the report of the rifle, the standing deer did not go down nor did the loud crack alarm the bedded deer. The thickly falling snow and howling wind caused Bethge to misjudge his shot. But because the wind and snow blew so fiercely, the deer couldn't tell that the loud boom they had heard had come from the firing of a rifle.

"I reloaded my rifle," Bethge said. "When I rammed the bullet home, the deer spotted me and broke into a run." As Bethge pursued the herd's tracks, deer got up all along the trail he followed. "I couldn't believe how many deer I saw," Bethge reported later. "The deer would run, and I'd take a shot. In the distance, I could hear Ralph firing too. By day's end, I had spotted more deer than I'd ever seen in my life. But I also had missed six deer. Although Ralph had shot almost as regularly as I had, he, too, had failed to connect. On the walk back to camp, I remembered the words I'd heard so many years before, 'always hunt in a snowstorm Click to enlargebecause the deer can't see you or hear you, and you can sneak right up on them.'" In two days of hunting, Bethge and Stuart saw a total of 35 deer. Large patches of mountain laurel grow in the Catskills. In these thick-cover areas, the deer can bed down and remain unseen by hunters. However, when a heavy snowfall comes, much of the laurel breaks down. Then hunters can move through the laurel because the snow and the wind help muffle the sound of their breaking limbs as they walk and prevent the sound from traveling.

"We could walk right up on the deer in the snowstorm, because they were much easier to see," Bethge emphasized. "Against a white background, a brown deer stood out like a sore thumb. We also could track them much easier. We knew we would find only fresh tracks in the snowstorm because with the rapidly falling snow any tracks left by the deer filled up quickly. So when we found a fresh track, we could walk it until we jumped the deer."

TOMORROW: HUNT THE CALM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORM




Check back each day this week for more about HOW TO HUNT DEER IN A SNOWSTORM...

Day 1 - Snow Storm: Ideal Condition for Hunting Deer?
Day 2 - Hear No Evil -- See No Evil
Day 3 - Hunt the Calm in the Middle of the Storm
Day 4 - Hunt the Grocery Rush
Day 5 - Circle The Thickets

 


 

Entry 277, Day 2