I'm going up this coming weekend for one last go at it(or maybe I'll go up again after Christmas if I still have a tag left, ).  Saturday morning it's going to be -11 warming up to 13 degrees.  Snow showers in the morning and snow on Friday.  Sunday morning is a low of -15 'warming' up to -2 during the day.  Looks like moderate 6-13mph winds all weekend.  We won't be arriving till mid-day Saturday most likely to set the blind up.  I know deer still move during the cold(I've heard some say the colder it gets the more time they spend on their feet to feed and attempt to stay warm, heard others say past a certain point they hunker down a bit to conserve energy).

I'm thinking after the snow should be good for deer activity.  4-6 inches expected from Friday through Saturday morning.  The spot I scoped out appears to be a very heavily used feeding area with a bedding area close by.

My question is with the weather being what it is would I be better served avoiding setting up too early(10-12ish) and instead be in their more around 1-2 getting the blind popped up and brushed in?  My limited experience has shown a lot of late morning activity when the weather really gets cold.  Ideally we'd be in and set up Saturday before sun up but I just don't trust getting a good blind setup and brushed in accordingly in the dark.

Also I take it days like this will have possible deer activity at any point during the day(I know that's always the case but especially on a weekend like this?).  I promised the wife we'd hit the local restaurant up mid-day to grab lunch and warm up but now I'm thinking we might be better served packing lunch out and staying put from sun up till sun down on Sunday.

Find water, Set up mid morning.. This time of year deer are gonna be in cover, on wont leave for food until dark, and will be bedded down before sun up.. Find the water and catch them getting a mid day drink In cold temps the deer will move to stay warm, but that requires hydration... Spend one day still hunting and follow tracks, find where they are getting water. Little watering holes will be frozen, so somewhere there is an open creek, or something they are hitting.. Or find a funnel near a heavily hunted area and hope someone else will move deer.... Hard for me to give blind advice, I dont know where you will be or the area or what your deer do, but where Im at, deer hunker down near water when the temps drop..

ETA if there is snow on the ground skip the blind, buy some good snow camo and move...Hell a bed sheet and some spray paint will do, but be on the move slowly... I love hunting snowy days, deer get all fucked up, and can't seem to pick up movement as much... Move slow and look for their backs, generally speaking a deers back should be the only thing you see in the woods that's dark and horizontal... They stand out like a sore thumb against the snow... just walk into the wind scan with your binos every 20 yards...

I like the walk and stalk idea.  I took my last doe in 2015 that way.  I didn't even really have the wind in my favor, just cut tracks and followed the meandering trail they left until I caught up.

My experience has been if it's cold/windy/both, deer will just bed down and move only when absolutely necessary.  Walking/stalking is the way to go.

I'm also going with walk and stalk.  I find when it gets very cold and snowy (which isn't that cold or very much snow where I'm at in VA), the deer movement is very hard to predict.  Plus I hate sitting in one place freezing.  If I can move slowly from spot to spot and glass the cover to try and find some deer (or catch one moving) I have had some success plus I enjoy the day immensely more than sitting in one spot freezing my ass off.

My best tip is if there's any significant wind look at a topo map and try to find terrain features that would create areas shielded from the wind.  That's where I like to stalk.

Don't know where you're hunting or the topography. Deer tend to bed down during a snow. Everybody is talking walking and stalking but if you don't know what you're doing with regard to keeping the wind in your favor, using the topography to your advantage so that you can spot the deer before they spot you, moving slowly enough, and doing all these things in an area likely to hold deer, your chances of success with this method are slim. Is there enough movement from other hunters in the area to move the deer? If so, find a funnel or cross trails to set up on and wait. Is there any heavy cover with browse for the deer to feed on?  If you're gun hunting you might want to consider not using a blind. At least around here, putting up a blind and hunting in it immediately is a red flag for any mature buck unless he's got a doe in his sights or is fleeing a hunter. Deer hit the greenbriar in the botttoms this time of year where I hunt. There will be something in your area that they will favor for food this time of year. While their necessary food intake is less as winter progresses, they still have to eat.

Problem is im hunting with my wife in tow so spot and stalk would be difficult.  There are a few bedding areas we could hit that we could sneak through quiet enough but everything is thicker than shit and extremely difficult to stalk through.

Most of the areas if you spot a deer it's already well within bow range.  I'll be bow hunting.  The area I scoped out is pretty thick with a lot of browse to eat.

Maybe I'll sit right the first and last hour and spend the day showing the wife the finer points of spot and stalk.

Edit:  no real hunting activity but there are a lot of trails all over that get a fair amount of cross country ski activity and snow shoers.

Christ crackers.. Weather is now forcasting 10-15" of snow Friday evening through midday Saturday.

The morning after a snow is always good. This weekend is going to be a bit chilly though so there should be movement most of the day especially towards dusk. They will be hungry and wind swept fields/hilltops/mounds will be a magnet, Easy food for them to get at versus digging in the woods. This last weekends doe hunt was very productive the last 45 minutes of legal shooting light.

This has been my experience as well. After any kind of precipitation the deer (at least around VA) will come out. Sometimes like clockwork. They get pinned down by rain/snow but as soon as it tapers off it's feeding time. Same deal with cold. They gotta eat. Snow on the ground awesome, they have a harder time just hanging around the woods because the mast is buried. They have to travel much more to find food.

Last day of firearm season was this past Saturday here. Light snow on the ground, 25 degrees. Perfect. I probably saw 15 deer at various points. Got me a nice one. There are so many deer here and every year it seems like there are more and more.

-Stooxie

Thats how I feel about it as well.  I don't find it enjoyable to sit still and freeze, especially when the conditions tell me that chances of the deer moving aren't good.  If you move slowly you won't freeze and you will see more deer!