Your take on moon phase and deer movement?

[Skychief]

How do you see the moon phases affecting deer movement, if at all? :idunno:

I will give my thoughts later. :hmm:

Many thanks, Skychief. :bow:

 

[roundball]

I do...have a few examples now, like this one:
Year before last on short notice I wound up with an afternoon off...it was drizzling and I wanted to get some experience with the Flintlock in that weather, so I went at noon.
Woods were dead quiet until about 2:30 when I heard a distant muzzleloader a couple farms over. 10 minutes later another distant shot in another direction...a few minutes later a 3rd distant shot in yet another direction.

I was just grasping the uniqueness of what was happening when I noticed movement off through the trees to my left front...and through the gray drizzle here comes a nice 8 pointer plodding along...he crossed about 50 yards in front and I shot him.
Four deer shots suddenly took place in 30-40 minutes scattered over 3-4 adjacent farms. When I got home I checked the solunar tables and sure enough, the major peak activity period that afternoon was 2:30-4:00pm.

I've also noticed about every other week during the season while driving to the hunting area in the dark, I'll have a few days where I'll see a lot of deer along side the road. I check the chart and see the major activity period was 3:00-6:00am for example...and I don't happen to see any deer that morning on stand because they're already down for a few hours. The chart will show them due to start moving again 12 hours later, 3:00-6:00pm, and sure enough they are.

So I’ve put more and more credence in it every year and actually changed some hunting plans this year because of it...mentioned it in one of my posts here where I tagged a deer...no longer any question in my mind about the connection of animal movement activity and the moon cycles.

I use this Field & Stream chart...just substitute your zip-code in place of mine (27613) http://www.fieldandstream.com/weather_hunt_times?ZIP=27613&IDS=general&graphbtn=Get+Graph

 

[jethro224]

Seems like a full moon means crummy deer hunting.
A new moon is almost as crummy but there may be more activity during mid-day.
First and last quarter seem to be the best for deer activity at the traditional dawn and dusk hours.

I've never messed with the tables. :idunno:
Just go hunting if I can. You never know when a big buck might decide to go for a stroll.

 

[Bill Hall]

Seems like a full moon means crummy deer hunting.

That's always been my observation. Then again, that could just be some old lore I picked up from an old farmer or cowboy, and I just pay more attention during a full moon :idunno: . Bill

 

[rabjr]

I'm with Jethro, Don't pay to much attention to tables as I've probably killed a deer everyday of the moon phase. What matters to me most is having a hot Doe or two around to get the big boys excited.

Roundball, I learned a long time ago that a shot in the distance don't mean a deer was shot at. It could mean a number of things, coyotes for one and on on a wet day, a lot of guys discharge their guns.

 

[BrownBear]

We're right on the ocean and you'd swear deer can read tide tables, their activities and timing change so much with the phases of the tide. And it doesn't matter if they're 10 miles inland or standing wet footed and eating seaweed.

I'd love to see a NOAA tide table for inland states, just to see if that isn't what's being used to generate all the inland hunting and fishing tables. They're pulling those #'s from somewhere and I'm betting it's the NOAA tidal formulas.

You can't get much more accurate measure of "moon phase" than a tide table.

 

[smo]

I had never thought too much about it ......Until about 15 yrs ago. A buddy of mine said he had read in a hunting mag. about moon phases and he swore it worked. I decided to try it out,So i picked up a mag. with those feeding tables listed in it and started hunting by the feeding times listed. At that time i belonged to a hunting club with about 15 members out of which only about 7 of us were regular hunters.We had 435 acres of prime deer land to hunt. The other guys were die hard "Traditional Hunting Time" daylight & evening hunters. I kept a log on all my hunts back then,I would record every deer i had seen as well as every deer they had seen. At the end of the year i had seen twice as many deer as all the other hunters had put together. So that convinced me that it really worked.Then one day i was thinking back to when i was a kid about how we (Dad & I) always squirrel hunted.I remembered some week ends we would get up early in the morning and go and sometimes it would be late afternoon before we would head out. So i started to put two and two together and i soon discovered why we hunted at different times, it was all about the moon phase and feeding times. Sure if you go early and late in the day you will kill some deer,just because that when most folks stumble into and out of the woods. But if you want to see alot more game ,take a look at hunting the moon phases.

 

[smo]

Brown bear, You are right thats where they come from. I go by the moon phase now and not so much the feeding times,They are very close to each other but not exactly the same. The major feeding times are when the moon is overhead,and the minor feeding times is approx. 6 hrs. later when the moon is under foot. My favorite times to hunt now are during the full moon and during the new moon phase from 10 am to 3 pm. You can sleep in with the wife, stay warm and have a good breakfast and still get in a great hunt and see alot of critters.

 

[roundball]

PS:
The effects of the moon cycles may not apply as well to people who shoot deer over bait.

Otherwise, the correlation has been proven beyond question to me.

 

[smo]

I will agree with you on that one Roundball. I have noticed that bad weather has a affect on these times as well.

 

[crowkiller]

I have found the moon has no effect on bucks during the rut.
They have something else on their minds.Alot more powerfull than the moon phase.

 

[smo]

I will agree as well, but our season last alot longer than the rut does. But to each his own,with me it's not all about the bucks anymore. :wink: I just enjoy the hunt and being out in the woods. :thumbsup:

 

[Supercracker]

I anxiously await the day where I can schedule my hunts by moon phase instead of "oh, wow, I can get away for 6 hrs??"

 

[smo]

Live is to short not to enjoy it while were on the green side of the grass. :wink:

 

[Supercracker]

but it'll be a whole lot shorter if I don't take care of business and pay the bills!

 

[Greenmtnboy]

Without a doubt the moon turns the pressured critters nocturnal.
I never minded full moon hunting, it only means I'll have the dark timber all to my self for a day of stalking.
I love it when the ungulates hide a bit more like during a full moon, it means only real hunters will know where they are because of long days of hiking and finding them.
As for the rut, well muleys are very unaware and foolish but whitetails still keep most of their wits about them, also the doe dictates a lot of what a ruttin' buck does.
Elk turn totally nocturnal during a full moon if at all pressured even during archery season.
They get a human smell from some pilgram bugling instead of just cow calling and watching the wind and they stay nervous a long time.
Public land elk hunting .
:thumbsup:

 

[hawk]

I anxiously await the day where I can schedule my hunts by moon phase instead of "oh, wow, I can get away for 6 hrs??"

oh for the days that one can pick and choose the hunting days and times...

that will be sweet I here ya ...now back to work!

 

[rabjr]

We hunt from the middle of September to the middle of January. Except for this year I'm generally out there everyday except for really bad weather or I have something to do. Yes we were taught at an early age that deer are more active at night on a full moon and more active during the day on a new moon but that all never dictated when I hunted so I don't pay much attention to it. I just want to be there when the Does come by....

 

[gonpce]

I'm like you. The moon might make a difference but the real difference on when to hunt is family and work. I hunt whenever I get the time, moon or no moon.

 

[sidelock]

I have found in my 67 yr hunting experience that the best time to go hunting is when you can and nothing much else matters. :thumbsup: