hunting in the rain?!?

[deaddoc4444]

IF  its slight misty type rain  or off and on drizzle  I will go out and hunt !  Anything heavier than that  is  a recipe for a lost deer, with a washed away blood trail .    BUT I do protect my fletching a bit IN CASE !   I use Unscented hair spray !  Doesn't keep them from being soaked if its pouring but helps fine any other time . AND I don't hunt if its pouring !

[Steve Jr]

I use the powder stuff also.

[Michael Arnette]

Originally posted by Shadowhnter:
I use wild goose feathers, which are naturally water proof.

Yup! This is the best I have found. Also the fly tying dry fly spray's work really really well, better than anything else I've tried

[Mint]

Fletch cover

[JohnV]

I don't hunt a steady rain and certainly not in a downpour.  Shooting accuracy is affected when feathers and arrow rest are soaking wet.  A soaked shooting glove is not conducive to accurate shooting.  Blood trails can be quickly washed out in a steady rain.  Good time to stay at home and catch up on other things.

I use quiver tubes that protects fletching from getting wet as well as helps keep game from seeing a quiver full of brightly fletched arrows from grabbing their attention.

[Zradix]

I often cover my fletch with a leaf plastic bag whatever I have laying around while hunting.

I like to treat my feathers with some stuff called watershed.
works pretty well.

[Trout man]

Try scent free hairspray,it really works.

[mgf]

The fletching doesn't matter so much to me because it rains all over my eye glasses and I can't see to shoot anyway.

[katman]

http://www.basspro.com/Big-Game-Treestands-PopUp-Umbrella/product/12031505005322/

[DennyK]

Gink (the dry fly floatant gel) may not be a good choice, it never dries, stays in a gel form. It does work great on dry flies and bass bugs.

Denny

[J. Cook]

I don't get enough days to hunt... so, if it happens to be rainin on a hunt day, then so be it.  I built out an elevated rest, Selway Soft-kote quiver, vanes, and rubber silencers.  That's how I hunt in the rain.

[Chain2]

I don't golf it fish in the rain either. I must be getting older.

[LB_hntr]

Hunting in the rain is a very personal decision. For me I hunt in the rain all the time. Heck I do 3 week long trips in different states hunting each year and of I didn't hunt in the rain I would miss half the days of those out of state hunts.
If you want to hunt in the rain and are only held back by worry of the blood trail you could get a string tracker from drifter bows and solve that problem.

As for feather protection all of the sprays, powders, covers, etc are all bandaids. To truly solve it and never worry about arrow flight in the rain test your broadheads and feathers in the rain. If you wet them and mat them flat with your hand and shoot them and they don't hit or fly the same as dry it's time to fix stuff. Tune the arrows to your bow, then start playing with feather sizes, broadhead, or add more forward weight. The more foc you have the less the feathers matter. I shoot 30℅ foc arrows and I also use a big Magnus 2 blade head and I don't even need feathers. See this video for that bareshaft broadhead shooting when I was first testing it.
 http://tbwpodcast.com/video-37-efoc-bare-shaft-broadhead-test/

There is no right or wrong decision to hunting in the rain and there is a variety of ways to make it happen if you do.
 But it is very important that if you do decide to hunt in the rain you make dang sure your arrows fly right and you can make an ethical shot and recovery.
You are asking the right questions and getting a great variety of good answers!

[fnshtr]

If I didn't go out when there was a chance of rain, I would seldom have gotten to hunt before I retired. Now that I'm Retired I have the luxury of staying home in bad weather. However, I've done so well hunting in the rain, that I usually still go.

I'm with LB Hunter, well tuned arrows fly fine with wet feathers,

[Bowwild]

I've been caught in light rains a couple of times. I've also not gone out the door because of impending rain that never came.

But....

I share the Wicked Witch of the West's aversion to liquid on my head. For many reasons.

The older I get the more of a "fair weather" hunter I am becoming.  There have been times in my past when bowhunting started feeling like a "job". For example, I went two years in the early 80's with a diary documented 110 bow range opportunities without shooting a single arrow (big deeritis).  I still feel "guilty" when I skip a beautiful morning in the deer woods.

[Caddo]

Always enjoyed hunting in the rain, just not a heavy down pour. Barronett Pop up Blinds are made for rainy day hunting.

LD

[Cootling]

I've been hunting in the rain for decades now.  I still go, but I've resigned myself to the fact that deer in this neck of the woods like the same kind of weather I do.