Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Cold weather on the way

Everytime I've hunted when it was below 30 during the day I didn't see anything. In fact the last time I almost killed myself tripping over a frozen ant hill. When it starts to snow, deer are scared to death of it and will move everywhere but they find a nice cedar tree and plant their bellies on the ground.

It got cold in Dec of 22, remember it killed all of our greenfields

They hole up in the cold. Maybe hunt for Sun out of wind. But high wind is the key. They thrust their eyes moreso then stuff falling all around them. Especially at frozen thaw midday.

The most deer movement I've ever seen , in a short amount of time, is when it begins to snow about an hour before dark while hunting a food source, during the rut. I've seen it several times , it's magic ! I like blood in the snow.

I don't think I've ever seen negative temps in Alabama or Mississippi ever. Seen single digits several times recently and I don't like it. Stuff starts to freeze and bust.

them folks on the coast aint ready for this. they going to be a lot of pipes busted down there

January 1985. My wife and I had just got married and we were poor. Lived in pawpaws old shotgun house 3 rooms and a bathroom I boxed up on the back porch. I had run the pvc pipes along the inside wall. We were just planning on staying there till we could afford something better. I'm talking built upon limestone rocks as foundation. No underpinning and not one piece of insulation. It had a wood heater in the living room and that was it. It got down to -10 the pipes all froze and busted. The water even froze in the commode. We slept in the floor in sleeping bags in front of the heater. I worked at Coca-Cola and it was too cold to even go out. I think about that old house a lot when I am driving around in the rural parts of the county. People still live like that . I am thankful this New Years.

It got down to -5 a few days between Christmas and New year up in NA in 82 and almost as cold again in '85 . The record low for the state is -27 and was recorded in New Market Jan 30, 1966, Russellville recorded -24 the same day! Brrrrrrrrrr.

Might want to hoard some water just in case. Remember the last time we had a long hard freeze in Thomaston, the town ran out of water due to people running their faucets 24/7. I had to bust through an inch of ice to get water out of the pond for flushing the toilet. If it gets that cold, there won’t be an inch of small PVC or fittings around.

Wasn't it around Christmas or after on 82 when the rescue squad had to go get them boys on Garret mountain?

Could have been. It came a big snow during one of those events and stayed on for a week or better , the squad was carrying nurses and other Hospital personnel to and from work. Can't remember if that was the '82 or '85 episode .

I remember those except the 66 event

Parents had pics of that and a few years earlier

Way back when there as a pic of my grandparents and their car on on a frozen creek or river. Was told it was Pickwick burned imagine it wa she back water somewhere if on the river
There were other pics with groups of people and cars in the ice.

Wished I knew where those pics were

Back waters of the TN River around Scottsboro froze hard enough folks had atvs and motor cycles out on it during that long event in '82. I know some guys that hunted the islands around North Sauta , they walked out to them and did man drives. Killed a monster buck too.

The 80’s were cold as heck….
I remember Several long cold days on the stand as a kid.

Wasn't it like two or three years ago it didn't get above freezing for like a week. Watering livestock was tough then

Yes.

I had a MAJOR pucker factor moment in that frozen period…first house with all water lines running through the attic and they all froze up while dripping (took a stream to keep them open after they thawed). Pex, thank the good Lord!. Now a dedicated heater and fan live up there for just such rare occasions.

Seems they are backing off the extreme temps a bit

We had a major cold snap in December of 1989. I remember it well. It was the first season I started guiding duck hunters in the marsh. A buddy and I went out to fix my blind for the 2nd split opener. That year it opened on December 26. We fixed the blind and went to my buddy’s family camp. My uncle told us not to go and that Mallard Bay was going to freeze over. We’re 19yrs old and bulletproof so of course we didn’t listen. Later that afternoon the front came through and the temp dropped like a rock, wind was probably blowing 30-35mph and it went from rain to sleet in about 30 minutes. Ok we’re in a small camp probably 10 miles away from any civilization and in a 15ft aluminum flat with a 30hp motor. We are in a canal but you have to travel through 4 large bodies of water to get to where we’re at. Only heat we have is the stove and a kerosene heater. We get up the next morning and open the door and all we see is ice. We decide we’re going to attempt to get home but the wind is still howling. But it’s out the Northwest and if we can make through one certain part of a lake we can get close to the bank and run in calmer waters. We leave the camp and when we hit that lake it was UGLY. We go over the first wave and the nexts one slashes over the deck and instantly freezes to our rain gear. This is where we realize we can’t make it to calm water and start to attempt to turn around. Fortunately we were both very experienced boat operators and we work the large waves and get back to the canal and get back to the camp. We let his parents know via VHF radio that we’re ok. We stay another day and night at thier camp. The next morning we’re able to get across that first lake as the wind died some. But we notice lots of floating ice. As we get to Mallard Bay we see nothing but ice. We stop and try to figure out what we’re gonna do. We decided to see how thick it is. We go slow and the ice is breaking pretty easily until we get to an area of open water. On the edge of that open water where the waves was splashing was thick and the boat went up on top of it. I decided to start jumping on the front of the boat and the ice broke. We did this all the way across. It took over an hour to cross what is normal a 6 minute boat ride. We made it to the landing and my buddy’s daddy was there waiting on us. He had a few words of wisdom for us and helped us load the boat. This day is Christmas Eve and we celebrate Christmas. My uncle and I head back to the camp Christmas afternoon to get things ready for the hunters to come in the next day. He was the manager/caretaker of the camp. We get there crank the generator and turn the water well on. EVERY pipe in every building and faucet is broke. It took 2 days to get everything repaired. We couldn’t hunt the first 3 days because the marshes and canals were frozen thick and couldn’t get to the blinds in the little boats at wooden pirogues. I learned a valuable life lesson about cold weather that week.