A great oppertunity!

[Christian Soldier]

  So my sister's getting married next year and her fiance's family lives on a large farm with woods. Recently, there is a new development on the property adjacent to them that prevents them from being able to rifle hunt. And none of them being bow hunters, they noa have a very high deer population. So knowing that I make my own bows they invited me to come thin out the herd a bit. They also live in Maryland and I live in PA and since the out of state licenses are very expensive, they bought a crop damage permit. So I can take up to 20 deer (not planning on getting that many). The issue with crop damge permits is that you can't hunt during normal hunting season. So I can hunt pre mid september and post early Feburary. I'd like to hunt a little bit in the warm season but I really have very little knowldge on warm weather hunting. If you guys have any advice on hunting in warmer weather and post season that would be great. Thanks!

[JW_Halverson]

dress appropriately and keep a large ice chest with 20# bags of ice (alternatively, a bunch of 2 liter and 1 gallon jugs of ice).

I hunt antelope here in South Dakota and have successfully hung antelope in 70 degree weather by putting one bag in the rib cage and another between the hams.  Wrap the whole thing in plastic and slide a thrift store sleeping bag over the whole shooting match.  Leave it partially open at the botton so the water can drip out.  Had one goat hang three days like that when the nights only dropped into the low 60's and still had plenty of ice left.  Even three days of aging will help make the meat a little more tender.  Luckily most years I can hang two weeks at 40 degrees or lower.

[gstoneberg]

I hate to say it, but I agree with JW.  In our hog hunting in the summer down here in Texas, we work to get the animal gutted, skinned and in a cooler on ice as soon as possible.  I like to keep a 120 or 150 quart cooler with me so I can put a whole skinned hog in it on ice.  It's important to make a good shot in the summer. If it takes longer than an hour or 2 to find a hog down here in July or August, it's probably bloated and spoiled.  It'll also be covered in fire ants.

George

[H Rhodes]

Summer months around here, you don't see deer moving anywhere except the creek bottoms. I live in a county with a high deer population, but they tend to remain out of sight during the warm months.  I see deer often in the late summer when I am fishing.  If you have a creek bottom with lots of cover and vegetation that's where they will be.   I float fished a stream a couple weeks ago,  and easing along in the canoe, I bet I jumped a dozen deer before noon.  Around the farm, I hadn't seen one in the daytime since early spring.  That said, i have never hunted them in hot weather, so that info may not be of any use to you.  I know it would be a challenge to preserve the meat with the temps that we have been reaching.  Good luck.

[gstoneberg]

Funny you should say that.  I was hog hunting last week and when I reached the cut wheat field I intended to hunt there were 3 deer in the field already.  It was still a half hour before sunset and probably 100 degrees or so.  Then a buck came out and even though it was still light and I was sitting in a camp chair wide open he fed down the tree line about 50 yards from me.  It took awhile and it got dark about the time he crossed the open field.  I hunted until 11 and 4 more deer came out in the dark.  Again, though I was in the open they did not spook as long as they were upwind.  Later a lone deer crossed downwind and I got snorted at a LOT.  I guess these Texas deer are used to the heat?

George