Barometer and deer sightings

[Demoderby4]

Went out in the morning and evening saw a doe with a 30.30 and rising and saw a buck tonight with a 30.24 and steady.

[shaman]

ORIGINAL: PrairieShadow

I wasnt saying to stay on the couch if the barometer had the wrong #'s for hunting and i certainly wont. I just thought it would be a good lil unscientific experiement to see if anyone could come up with some correlation between the pressure and movement.

 
In WhiteTail Advantage by Samuel and Zaiglin, they rely heavily on the Hellickson study on buck movement in Texas.  Hellickson could not find a correlation with barometric pressure per se.  However, the authors concede that barometric pressure up in the North will affect deer movement, because of the attendant changes in temperature and precipitation.  In short:  the barometer means little on its own, but the weather that is causing the barometer to change means a lot.  A cold front usually causes a rising barometer and lower temperatures as well as clearing skys. All together, this will get the buck out of his bed.

Overall, the model that would accurately represent deer movement would have to be extremely complex. One guy writes a book on lunar influences, another on weather, another on hunting pressure.  All together, it ends up being a mess.

My read on it is much easier--what I call "The Slack Theory."   Deer gravitate towards slack the same way humans do.  If you're hungry, you go get a burger and fries and a side of slack.  Then you feel tired, so you go home and lay on the couch to get some more slack.  A while later, you're cold, so you go get a sweater and some slack.  Your roomate comes home with some girls and wants to party, but you want peace and quiet so you go to the Coffee House for a large Mocha-slack and some peace, but there's a hot chick there who makes you steam, so you go search for slack over by her.  She and you get to talking and you're both in need of something to eat, so you go looking for a pizza and a large slack. . . 

You put yourself between the deer and his next ration of slack, and you've got venison.

The Slack Theory of Deer Behavior-- you heard it here first.

[OHhunter]

It's been my expirience that deer move and feed more on a falling barometer, wich usually means a front is moving in.  Once the front has passed and the barometer is on the rise, I also see a increase in dear movement.  When it remains steady I see typical deer movement (no increase)   I hunt regardless of the barometer reading but I make an extra effort to hit the woods when I know a front is coming in.  I often watch the weather in the western midwest to see when fronts are moving our way.  I figure it takes about 12 to 18 hours to reach me.