Do you hunt in the light rain or drizzle? What about blood trails in this case?

That is what I do


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This is very factual, but can also lead to some tense periods while grid searching. My biggest buck to date was shot in late October on a morning that started out in drizzle that turned to rain shortly after it got light. I was sitting there pondering my sanity when a doe trotted by my stand and caught me completely off-guard. That prompted me to stand up and do a practice draw to limber up. Not 15 minutes later I saw a LARGE bodied deer headed my way on the same trail, but from the opposite direction. As soon as I saw antlers, I was on full alert and drew my recurve bow as he walked into range. He kept on coming and I shot him at 14 yards with a light voice grunt to stop him. Shot placement looked perfect and I thought I saw him fall, but during the escape he gathered a couple does who joined him in fleeing the area. I gave it about 40 minutes and could not stand it any longer, so I climbed down and gathered my buddy's son and then my buddy for tracking. Since it was nearly an hour after the shot in a decent rain, blood was scarce and we simply went on my visuals and grid searching. It took us over 30 minutes to recover him and those were L-O-N-G minutes wandering about thickets and tall grass. My buddy's son stumbled on him and man was I elated. It would have been a LOT easier with a blood trail as he only went about 175-200 yards on pure testosterone since I had ventilated both lungs.

 

I like hunting in light rain. If the gear is good you are very comfortable. Also covers sound and movement.

 

Rain is a touchy situation. The ability to follow a blood trail needs to be highly considered. Besides hunting in an actual rain, another thing to consider is hunting before a huge rainstorm. While that can make for some awesome deer movement, if you shoot one and have to wait any length of time, you're going to have the trails washed away.

 

I have in the past and will in the future, the blood will still be there if you know what to look for.

 

Light rain or immediately after a heavy rain seems to invite deer movement.
I hunt.