audsley

In more than 20 years of Coues hunting, I have never encountered a rattlesnake during a November or December hunt. I did once encountered a small feisty rattler on a cold day in November, but that was in Desert Mule Deer country on the Empire Ranch near Sonoita. I do not give any thought to rattlers in November and think nothing of walking in the dark. However, you just never know. My wife once encountered a small one on the pavement of the Bear Canyon tram road, near Sabino Canyon, the day after Christmas! And it was rattling away and ready to rumble! But a snakebite in mid-November is an extremely low-odds event. I've never heard of a hunter being bit in November. It's the dove and early season quail hunters who need to step carefully.

When the moon is not full, I generally find more deer in the mornings than in the afternoons. Probably because it's cooler. But it's been my impression that during full moon periods (such as we'll have opening weekend of this year's November hunt) many Coues bed down right around sunrise or even a little before. And possibly for that reason, they may get up a little earlier than usual in the afternoon. But that's just my experience. Does this seem accurate to the rest of you? Of course, this is purely an academic question because I'll be hunting both the morning and the afternoon each day I'm out. I'm just trying to make some sense of what I'm probably going to experience a couple of weeks from now.