Do everything you can to keep the fronts of your binoculars protected from this unnatural phenomenon, but also keep a dry cloth handy to wipe away any of the rain that is inexplicably drawn to them despite your best precautions. This will also serve to wipe away the fog that will form from your hot breath on the cold glass.

Jeff Zennie of Zennie Outfitters has been hunting and guiding in Oregon and Northern California for more than 20 years and has had more than his share of hunts in the rain. This experience has taught him a simple, but effective trick for dealing with this frustrating scenario.

"Keep a handkerchief stuffed up your sleeve," Zennie said. "It keeps it dry, and it keeps it handy. You can slip a corner of it out to wipe your binoculars or scope quickly and easily."

Even with this helpful hint, glassing in the rain isn't an easy task. Millions of tiny light prisms falling in front of you will distort your amplified vision making your eye have to work harder to readjust. This is another reason why it's important to glass slowly and take breaks often. If your eyes get overly fatigued you might not be able to spot that buck bedded down in thick cover. Once the quarry is marked, it's time to move.

SOGGY STALK
Going out into the rain might not be the most pleasant way to hunt, buy it is preferable to going home empty-handed. And as soon as you spot a deer in his dry, comfortable bed, the rain will likely be the last thing on your mind. Conversely, leaving his bed will be the last thing on that deer's mind. It is during this soggy stalk that you can start taking advantage of the slight advantage the rain provides you.

"You can get a little cockier in the rain," Zennie said. "Because it cuts down noise and scents, you can get into thick areas of cover you wouldn't be able to get close to otherwise and slip right into their living room."

There's a huge difference, Zennie cautions, between cocky and careless. "Their senses might be handicapped somewhat," he said, "but they still have them. You still need to make sure that you always have the wind in your favor."

Where you'll find the most advantage in your stalk is with the noise. The moisture will saturate dry duff on the forest floor reducing the rustling you make walking through it. It will also soften the live brushes that you move through and the scraping sound they typically make as they rub the cloth of your pants will not be as sharp.

Probably the biggest aid you will receive from the rain is the noise of falling water. In a slow, careful stalk, the sound of rain works to cover the slight sounds that are unavoidable as you walk through the woods and typically serve as an instant warning bell to a deer's amplified ears.

The deer realize this even more than we do, and they tend to be a little edgier and pay more attention to subtle messages their senses deliver. So don't think that the slight advantage you have is license to forsake the slow, meticulous stalk that is normally essential when trying to catch a buck in his bed.

"The last thing you want to do is bump them," Foulkrod said. "They'll move fast and they'll move far."

It's unlikely that a bumped buck will return to the same place where he sought cover previously. And you never know how far another suitable place might be.