by Rick Hall

Adaptability is defined as the willingness or ability to change. Being able to adapt to changing circumstances is a strength that almost every world leader, motivational speaker or business expert would say is necessary for success in any aspect of life. Ask any deer hunter that regularly connects on big, mature bucks and they will tell you that adaptability has played a crucial role in their success along the way. With so many variables out of a hunter’s control, being able to adapt to current hunting situations could be the difference between a filled tag and an empty truck bed. To this point in the series, everything I’ve covered has ultimately been about adapting; how to adapt to hunting pressure, changing access routes and timing, and even the approach to in-season scouting. In this article, I’m going to take that a step further and dive into adapting in the moment.

Whether you have one afternoon to hunt or are preparing for a week’s vacation at your hunting club, it is extremely important to approach that trip with a willingness to change and an expectation that you will likely have to adapt to certain conditions. In my current season of life, there are many things that take priority over hunting, making the number of hunting trips and the length of those trips limited. With limited opportunities, I want to make the best of every moment in the woods. A lot of times, that means being prepared for the unexpected and changing gears mid trip, or even mid-sit sometimes. So often we go into a hunt with a plan and far too often those plans don’t play out as we expected. While it is smart to plan an approach ahead of your hunt, knowing when it’s time to adjust course may be even smarter.

There are a number of things that can force a need for change while hunting. How many times have you shown up to camp and been met with bad weather? For me, that happens far too often. Have you ever been in your favorite stand, and watched numerous deer take a similar but unexpected route that leads them just out of range? I have and while it’s always fun to watch deer, it’s far more fun to connect on one. Or, have you ever been on a trip and had zero deer sightings over multiple consecutive hunts? If not, kudos to you but I know that has happened to me far too many times to be proud of. All of these scenarios are examples of when a change in approach might be necessary.

So what does a mid-hunt strategy change really look like and how do you know when or what to adjust? Unfortunately, there isn’t a cut and dry answer as every situation is different and it’s impossible to account for them all in a short article like this. That said, we’ll look at the three main examples I laid out in the previous paragraph and ways to overcome those circumstances.

Of all the uncontrollable things a hunter encounters, weather may be the most painful. Nothing is worse than having a trip planned for weeks or even months, only to have the weather seemingly ruin everything. For those of us in the south, we will no doubt be faced with unseasonably warm weather throughout our hunting seasons and we all know the hunter who decides to stay at camp instead of hunting because “it’s too hot for the deer to move”. When I lived in Alabama and could hunt almost daily, I would use this excuse myself. It’s easy to skip a hunt when you know you can go whenever you want, but now I don’t have the luxury of skipping a hunt just because it’s a few degrees warmer than I might prefer. One thing I’ve learned from my time hunting public land in Florida is that the deer still move when it’s warm. They still need to feed and stretch their legs and at the end of the day, they live in Florida so they are used to warm weather. The same holds true for most southern states. The deer absolutely have to move regardless of temperature, but they may adjust how and where they move. That’s when we need to adjust. Warmer days might not be the time to sit on your favorite food plot, so you might have to get creative with your stand selection, looking for a water source close to known bedding, or finding lower ground that is shaded and just a few degrees cooler than that food plot might be. Rain is also another variable that we will encounter throughout the season. In a lot of camps, rain is a good excuse to play poker a little longer into the night and sleep a little later in the morning, but I look at rain as a great opportunity. 

For sure there are times when it’s pouring and likely not worth getting out in the woods, but there also are some things you can do to take advantage of that weather. First, stay in tune with the radar on your weather app and look for any break or slight let up in the rain. You might only find a 30 minute break in the weather, but a lot of times that’s all it takes. In a downpour, deer will likely stay bedded, but they are waiting on the first opportunity they can to move. Stay prepared and ready to hit the woods at any sign of the rain slowing, even if it’s only for half an hour. Rainy days can also give you the advantage and allow you to do things you might not be able to get away with otherwise.

When it’s raining, it’s much easier to move through the woods quietly. With the sound of the rain itself and the ability to walk through leaves without constant crunching, this may be the time to slip into that thicket that is holding a big buck, stalking through it and allowing you to get setup closer than you normally might. Doing this just ahead of a break in the rain and being set up when it slows is a dynamite tactic for taking advantage of mid-rain movement. I did this at the end of the 2023-24 season, on my last hunt. I drove to AL from FL on the last Saturday afternoon of the season, with only Sunday to hunt. As I made the drive, I kept an eye on my weather app as I knew there was a chance of bad weather. It started flooding as I pulled into camp that evening, and didn’t let up. Waking up on Sunday morning, I almost decided to just go back home and not even attempt to hunt. One last look at the radar showed a slight break around 8:00 A.M., so I decided to head towards the woods and be ready if it did in fact lighten up. Because of the weather, I made another change in my approach and decided to grab the rifle instead of the bow, something I rarely do. Given the wet conditions and limited time though, the rifle gave me the best chance for a successful recovery. Just like the radar showed, the rain began to slow up slightly, just before 8:00 so I jumped on the bike and headed in. Literally within seconds of parking my bike, I noticed movement and spotted two bucks less than 100 yards from me, both shaking off the rain like wet dogs. Neither were monsters, but my goal for this trip was to stock the freezer, and with one shot from my late father’s old .30-06, I did just that. Deciding not to give up because of the rain and even adjusting my approach by taking the rifle instead of the bow ultimately made me successful in my quest for more fried cubed steak and backstrap.

Now that we’ve touched on weather, let’s look at adjusting our approach or set up based on actual deer movement. As hunters, we can often get in the habit of staying put and waiting for the deer to come by us instead of trying to get closer to the deer. Over the years, there have been many hunts where I’ve watched multiple deer move through basically the same area and not been able to get a shot off from my stand location. As I continue to try and make the most of every second in the woods, I’m beginning to find myself being more aggressive and adjusting my location based on what the deer are doing at that moment. The best deer sign is actually seeing deer, so if I’m seeing them do something repetitively, I’m going to adapt and try to put myself in a better position. Sometimes this may be moving a few yards, to get past a tree limb that’s in my way, or it could be a few hundred yards. Regardless, if a deer moves out of range, I immediately start questioning why and quickly try to decide if I should adjust based on the information I have. In most cases, seeing one deer or deer group just out of range isn’t enough to make me move, but if it happens twice, it’s becoming a pattern and I will most likely try to adjust at that point.

Again, there is no cut and dry rule for this, but the key is to start asking yourself the question, analyzing the conditions and making a gut decision. This happened to me in the 22-23 season. Set up in one of my favorite travel corridors on my 85-acre AL tract during the rut, the first deer to show that morning was a really nice 8 point. He was across the bottom from me on the opposite ridge and worked his way into the bottom where he spent quite a bit of time. It was an incredibly windy morning, so I decided to try and slip into the bottom thinking the deer would do the same in an effort to stay out of the wind. Once he was out of sight, I climbed down and took my saddle setup to the middle of the bottom, where multiple ridges ran out together. As I started the process of climbing the tree, the woods came alive with deer movement. Multiple shooter bucks began chasing a hot doe and for the next hour I stood at the base of the tree, bow in hand, watching some of the coolest action I’ve ever witnessed. While I did not get an arrow in any of the shooters, the experience alone was worth it and one that I wouldn’t have had, if I would have stayed in my original location. Using the intel from a deer sighting combined with the current conditions, I put myself in position to be successful.

Lastly, how do we adapt to not seeing deer? This is a tough one and can be made tougher depending on your hunting situation. The easy answer would be to scout more or move locations, but in some clubs or leases, hunters can be limited to a small section or zone within their property, so they have to make the best of limited options. I talked about hunting pressure early in this series, and I believe hunting pressure is typically the main reason for deer movement seemingly being at a minimum. Most of us see more deer earlier in the season before that pressure forces the deer to change. As the season progresses, the deer sightings go down as they adjust to the hunters in the woods. It can be easy to stay in our favorite locations, maybe a food plot or feeder that was hot earlier in the year, but sometimes a small adjustment might be all you need to start seeing those deer. Most hunters will keep cameras on these food sources throughout the season and are likely still getting night time pictures, but the daylight sightings just aren’t happening. One of my favorite adjustments when this happens is to get further into the woods, which many hunters will do, but the key is to focus on the wind direction.

If you still have bucks on camera using a food source at night, they aren’t going to be far during the day and as they approach that food source they are almost always going to do so from the downwind direction. Being mobile and ready to adapt based on the wind on any given day is key here. Using a climber, saddle, or even sitting on the ground will allow you to move into different areas based on the wind and oftentimes take the deer by surprise. Each scenario is different, but I have found the sweet spot to be between 100-200 yards downwind of the food source. If you can find a travel corridor, multiple trails, or even some browse or acorns a couple hundred yards away from the food source, again, on the downwind side, you’re almost positively back in the game. Just like the deer adapt to hunting pressure, we have to adapt to their changing moving patterns when our typical plans aren’t producing.

The most important thing about adapting to changing hunting conditions is the willingness to change your approach. There are so many things that can impact deer movement and ultimately hunting success, and being stuck in your ways can be a huge hindrance to that success. Be open to and thinking of new tactics, new areas or new ideas, but even more so, be willing to put them into action. If you find yourself in a situation where you are thinking about adjusting your plan, but not sure if it is a safe move, do it anyway. That gut instinct is important and something that you’ll hone in as you follow it. As you approach this season, challenge yourself to be willing to adapt and adjust when things aren’t going according to plan.