Hunting In Snow

[dh.hamilton1]

Probably a dumb question but gonna ask anyway.

I typically don’t hunt in the snow, mainly due to not getting any until late December and I’m usually done hunting by then but we currently have a few inches on the ground now.

Still have a few opportunities to rifle hunt as well as bow hunt before the end of the month and the seasons end. I’ve only filled one doe tag with my rifle so far.

How do tactics change for eastern whitetail in hill country once snow is on the ground and temperatures are at or below freezing?

I understand snow can be helpful to see tracks and bedding areas but what type of cover and land features should I be focused on?

I know food sources also play a big role.


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[Q_Sertorius]

I just still hunt when there is snow on the ground. Deer are much easier to spot and you can move quietly. If they are not scraping up snow to find acorns, they will usually be bedded down in hollows or other places out of the wind.

Edit - I don’t change my tactics. I just plan on being able to see deer more easily.

 

[JCMCUBIC]

We don't get a lot of snow here but had a little snowfall and cold weather last year. I had plans to still hunt it...until I tried. The top was hard and crusted. Each step was like breaking glass bottles on concrete. Cleared a spot and sat down. Didn't see anything except a bobcat and it wasn't breaking through the top layer.

 

[Macintosh]

If its crusty its hard. But generally tracking is super fun. You need space, so a big chunk of public is best. And it can be difficult to tell one track from another, so areas with LOW deer density are best, again often favoring a big chunk of public. If you get into a “barnyard” of tracks where your deer is mixed in with other deer, its hard to sort it out.
Basically in the AM you go to where a buck will be late at night or super early—if any rut is still happening then go to where a buck will be checking for a doe in estrus, etc. Plan a walking route to check out as many of those areas as possible. Try to walk perpendicular to where a buck will travel to intersect tracks. Find a fresh buck track (a fresh track that is big, or better yet one with a scrape or rub or antler mark in the snow where you can connect it to a specific track), and follow it. When you find the deer, shoot it.
It’s as simple as that.
(This is sort of the cultural pinnacle of north country deer hunting as far as methodology, obviously a ton of nuance and tips and tricks etc, but at its heart it truly is that simple.)

 

[Nine Banger]

We don't get a lot of snow here but had a little snowfall and cold weather last year. I had plans to still hunt it...until I tried. The top was hard and crusted. Each step was like breaking glass bottles on concrete. Cleared a spot and sat down. Didn't see anything except a bobcat and it wasn't breaking through the top layer.

Reminds me of my first and only bear hunt.

I was sinking up to my knees, falling and having palpitations and she was cruising on top of the snow.

 

[Yoder]

I just did this yesterday in crunchy snow in hill country. I sat until 8 on a ridge top. Then still hunted for about three hours. I stayed on the ridge tops so I could see the ledge down below. I had pretty good success taking a few steps, waiting a couple seconds and hitting my grunt call. Then scanning with binos. I saw four doe. I missed two and had one in my scope with no shot. Snow camo might help. I think softly hitting the grunt call throws them off a little bit

 

[txsportsman]

I have always wanted to track an animal in the snow… maybe one day down here in S. Tx.

 

[BrrrtaPaul]

It’s a rare year here in Alberta where don’t have snow in our deer season. A nice heavy dump of snow seems to drive the deer out of the bush to feed, which makes hunting them way easier. I just sit on their food sources and let them come to me.

Tracking in the snow almost feels like cheating.

Driving 2+ hours to my hunting spot on the other hand gets a bit treacherous, especially since I usually leave at about 4am and it’s dark the entire time.

 

[Yoder]

I have always wanted to track an animal in the snow… maybe one day down here in S. Tx.

I lived in VT for a while and tracking was big up there. Everyone thought they were Larry Benoit. One thing I notice is where tracking is most effective is where there aren't that many deer. You have to be really good and identifying a track to stay on the same deer when there are hundreds of tracks on the ground. I know I can't do it. I know enough to find a buck track, staying on it is a different story.

 

[Eleven]

Macintosh has listed the basics pretty well. I’m in VT as well, and live in the exact area where the Benoit boys did a lot of their first tracking. Snow makes it easier to find active deer. It allows you to be super mobile covering as much ground as you need until you find those active deer. It also makes it a bit easier to put some puzzle pieces of deer behavior together. The snow can sometimes show what the deer was doing (feeding, rubbing, cruising, scraping, paralleling other trails). It’s a wonderful tool and sometimes works out for the hunter…

 

[Agross]

I absolutely love deer hunting with snow on the ground. So much easier to see them . Winter came a little earlier for us this year, and I’m all for it. Just shot a doe a few days ago with my bow. A blind man coulda followed the blood trail. Around here, this time of year , they are going from bedding area to food, and from food to bedding area. Sit near , or in between those areas. Play the wind and pile em up.

 

[Watcher of the Woods]

Back in Iowa it was super common for them to go to any standing corn that was left once the snow fell because it was an easy food source. Not sure if there are agricultural fields in your area like this, but it may be worth a shot?

 

[brancher147]

I just still hunt when there is snow on the ground. Deer are much easier to spot and you can move quietly. If they are not scraping up snow to find acorns, they will usually be bedded down in hollows or other places out of the wind.

Edit - I don’t change my tactics. I just plan on being able to see deer more easily.

Agree. But they can see you a lot more easily too. By this time of year deer are pretty spooky in most places so you have to be extra careful how you move through the woods with snow.

I have hunted and tracked in the snow quite a bit and it definitely has its place. In the steep mountain areas I hunt I prefer no snow. It’s just hard to get around in the snow on steep rocks, tracking is not advantageous for multiple reasons, people can easily find where I have been hunting, and snow covers up all the old sign and old tracks.

 

[Eleven]

@dh.hamilton1 I got excited and didn’t actually write what I wanted to in my post above. I shot that buck yesterday in the VT snow using an old Francis Sell technique, my buddy slowly pushed while tracking that deer and I did a loop in front. In the right conditions we’ll do this all day taking turns looping in front. If you know the terrain you can often predict the funnels and escape patterns. The trick is to not push too hard on the track, you don’t want to spook the deer so much that they run to the next county. The goal of the tracker is to see and shoot the deer, the looper is just an extra perk. The tracker and the looper really have about an equal chance at the deer when done correctly.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

@dh.hamilton1 I got excited and didn’t actually write what I wanted to in my post above. I shot that buck yesterday in the VT snow using an old Francis Sell technique, my buddy slowly pushed while tracking that deer and I did a loop in front. In the right conditions we’ll do this all day taking turns looping in front. If you know the terrain you can often predict the funnels and escape patterns. The trick is to not push too hard on the track, you don’t want to spook the deer so much that they run to the next county. The goal of the tracker is to see and shoot the deer, the looper is just an extra perk. The tracker and the looper really have about an equal chance at the deer when done correctly.

Two hunters working together who understand the terrain and safety factors are a really deadly combination. My dad is too old for it and my brothers are usually too busy for it these days, but we had stuff like this working really well for a couple of decades.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Deer can’t see nearly as well as people at longer distances. So, while they can see a hunter more easily in the snow, a good, slow-moving, patient still hunter is at a huge advantage in the snow.

I am tagged out right now, but I am sitting up on the hill behind my dad’s house watching my daughter and the puppy play in the snow. I brought my SWFA 12x32s with me (and a .22, in case a rabbit or squirrel comes out. I’m sending texts to my older brother, who is sitting in the house (“it’s too cold for them to be moving”), for each buck I see. I could have tagged out on mature deer - not trophy deer, but antlers are hard to eat - just this morning.

My neighbor is very helpfully driving his stupid quad around his fields (he went up to check his [illegal] feeder) and scaring all the deer out of his fields and into ours.

The deer I tagged out on had a belly full of his corn. After I shot him, I backtracked him 600 yards to where he crossed the border fence coming from the feeder. That buck had come at least 1/2 a mile from the feeder, to the center of our farm, in his quest for the herd of does I won’t shoot.