Can somebody finally answer this for me. I keep hearing diferent schools of thought: 50% say hunt with the full moon because the deer don't like to feed at night if they can be seen. The other 50% say complete darkness better because they don't like to feed at night in the complete darkness. I typically hunt in South West Georgia so I don't know if this is a regional phenomenon, North with the moon, South without, or vice versa. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated, as always.

quote:

Originally posted by Tazfla:
50% say hunt with the full moon because the deer don't like to feed at night if they can be seen. The other 50% say complete darkness better because they don't like to feed at night in the complete darkness.

I too have heard deer feed at night when there is a full moon, so they won't be moving around the next day AND exactly the opposite, they don't feed when there is a full moon because they don't like to be seen.

I have never read anything that gave me a definitive answer to this.

I am a die hard deer hunter and know for a fact that in the places I hunt that deer movement is much better when there is no moon. When the moon is out we see them all over the roads in the dark. During the rut the bucks can move at any time regardless of the moon phase.

That said, I hunt them moon or no moon every chance I get. Whitetails are my favorite big game by far. Although, I like the taste of high country(read no sage)mulie better.

Good Luck

Reloader

quote:

That said, I hunt them moon or no moon every chance I get.

There was a similar conversation about this subject on another site and my answer is the same for here as over there.

If you are not out there hunting, it ain't gonna matter what the moon is doing, you are not gonna kill nothing.

To me it is like the old sayings, "well, I have READ that white tails will or won't do this/that or the other thing, depending upon this/that or the other thing", the only problem I have found with those statements are, 1, ain't seen me no reading deer, and 2 ain't seen me no deer that could write.

There is or could be some truth to the fact that on a night with a Full Moon the deer will move more and feed longer after dark, hence the old reference Hunters Moon.

different hunting writers over the years however have done surveys and in most cases if their findings are correct, most larger bucks are killed between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., so I am not sure how the moon phase could influence that.

My experience is like Reloader's. Elk and deer feed at night during a full moon and head to bed about 2 hours before daylight. Then they tend to get up around noonish just like the lazy couch potatos they are. Midday during the full moon. Early and late the rest of the month.

Thanks gents, as always the members of this site are chock full of excellent information.
I should have started my question with why I was asking: Due to situations I'd rather not get into right now, I can only go deer hunting once a year for 4 days. Having said that, I have to plan out my hunt with the highest likelyhood of seeing deer & giving myself an opportunity for a harvest. I try & plan arround the rut, weather, & any other variable I can try to control so anything that helps I have to take advantage of. I have to say that I am envious of many people in other areas that can step out of their backyards & be hunting, that is my case but when it comes to fishing. I can literally be on the water here in Miami in 5min catching fish to eat, but it takes me 7 hours to get out of the state to hunt. But I wanted to make sure you all know how much your expertise & knowledge helps me...Thanks.

For years I hunted deer where the population was so low, it was very difficult to tell.

Starting about 2002, I found a place that had a very good population of trophy deer (unfenced) tucked between two large ranches.

I noticed an increase in morning (during daylight) deer activity as the moon phase got smaller (darker). At the dark of the moon, the morning activity was at the highest. The activiy would become less the brighter the moon got.

Now, If you have a choice to hunt Moon or rut, I would choose rut.

Very true about the full moon. Deer feed all night and bed before daylight.
If you watch the same deer every morning you will notice a change in time every day when they show up. It will reach the day when they already passed your stand before daylight and are bedded before you get there. This will go on for many, many days before their movements meet up with yours again.
I have heard movement matches moon position as well as phase.
I would hunt mid day during the full moon.
Think of deer movement as a circular cycle.
It is going on right now in my yard. Deer have been to the fruit trees every day, all times of day. For the last week I have not seen any at all but there are fresh droppings in the yard and more leaves are eaten.
Have any of you ever noticed that doe season comes in at the time deer are moving only at night?

I have a little place ... abt 80 acres ... but it happens to be in the confluence of a number of deer paths. I keep abt 5 acres around the house cut and have apple and chestnut trees. The whitetails definitely know where they are

Seems to be two populations of deer ... the resident herd and the transient herd.

The residents seem to have a more predictable schedule and the transients seem to have a much wider but cyclic range.

The weather seems to have more impact than the lunar cycle, but I do notice that the deer are less active in the daytime if the moon is full.

I cannot say for everywhere, but for where I hunt, the hunting is better when there is no moon at night. When the moon is full at night the number of deer sighted drops dramatically.

The answer is both. Deer movement is the strongest on a new moon AND a full moon. It has to do with the moon's gravitational pull on the earth which is strongest at these two periods. I've had some of my best luck with killing big bucks around a full moon, and I have seen the most deer movement during a new moon cycle.

Anyway, that's one blow hard's opinion. I was once told by a man I consider a "White Indian", that hunting a blue moon (2nd full moon in the same month) during the pre-rut (This might happen once or twice in a ten year period) will give you the best chance at killing a monster buck of your dreams.

Great resources for moonphases, sunrise, sunset:

http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/index.php?month=7&yea...s=moon.css&Submit=Go

http://www.sunrisesunset.com/usa/

How does a full moon increase the gravitational pull? Is it closer to the earth? Just want to know.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
How does a full moon increase the gravitational pull? Is it closer to the earth? Just want to know.

Actually, I somewhat mispoke. The gravitational pull is not neccesarily stronger,it is more uniform. Kind of like the old saying: "The moon and the stars are aligned". See below:

Also, the tidal force of the moon on the earth depends on its distance from earth, not its phase. Whereas the synodic period is 29.53 days, it takes 27.5 days for the moon to move in its elliptical orbit from perigee to perigee (or apogee to apogee). Perigee (when the moon is closest to earth) "can occur at any phase of the synodic cycle" (Kelly et al. 1990: 989). Higher tides do occur at new and full moons, but not because the moon's gravitational pull is stronger at those times. Rather, the tides are higher then because "the sun, earth, and moon are in a line and the tidal force of the sun joins that of the moon at those times to produce higher tides" (ibid.: 989).

If it is still published, check the Solonar Table. It is based on moon phase and is surprisingly accurate.

Skyjacker, thats what I thought. Not related to phase, only orbit.
I read that animal movement is highest when the moon is overhead or directly on the other side of the earth but have never been able to prove it.
Anyway, the deer are back in my yard, all times of the day. So are the rabbits. No way to match that up with where the moon is!

Over my last 20 years of guiding I've seen people get really carried away worrying about the moon.

We've had some really good and some really bad hunting with a full moon and with a dark moon. Overall I've probably seen a few more bad days of hunting in a full moon than a dark one but not enough to really worry about. Most of my experience is with feral pigs so the effect may be much greater with whitetails, I don't know.

It seems much more important to keep things in prosective. In general people worry way too much about things they can't control and not enough about the things they can control. Too often I've seen guys book a hunt WAY in advance to make sure the moon phase is exactly right and then show up and miss opportunities because their gun isn't sighted in (or they haven't practiced since the last time they missed a year ago!).

Kyler

Thats my take on it, the only way to predict when deer move in a certain part of the country is to watch them every day and time their movements. Then when their movements swing into the dark more you are still lost.
Deer feed more at night with the full moon because they can see better, plain and simple. They will be full and tired. They lay up longer to rest and chew their cud.
If you watch deer cross a field at dark you will see that they have trouble seeing each other. They will walk single file and their tails will be up showing all the white but the last one will have it's tail down. Fun to watch, it looks like white bowling pins rocking back and forth.
They have no fear of man in the dark either. Sneak in and put up a noisy stand in the dark and a deer will come right to the other side of your tree and watch you. I have climbed a tough hill to my stand with a flashlight, stood at the tree to get my breath only to find a herd was within 20 yd's. They kept crunching acorns and one walked past me at 10 yd's.
I have had them under me when it got dark. I wanted them to leave so I would not give my stand away. I threw my hat down, then my pack and anything else that would not break. No dice! They just fed slowly away but were still close. Nothing to do but climb down.
I can tell you a million things about deer, also how to fool them when you are caught flatfoot when walking or stalking.
Scent killers on your bow! On several occasions I did not want to shoot one. A bunch were coming so I let my bow down on the rope and watched them. There were paw-paws around my ladder and they were bumping my bow as they fed, thing kept swinging with each deer.
One thing never to do is to lay any article of clothing on the ground near where you hunt. I have never had them bother about where I walked or what I touched but that spot from clothing will make them bolt.
If you believe the articles in magazines, you will still not know a thing about deer, you have to let THEM teach you.
The guy that ticks me off is the yahoo that lucks into a real trophy, doesn't know a thing about deer and maybe never killed one before. All of a sudden he is an expert.

quote:

Originally posted by Kyler Hamann:
Over my last 20 years of guiding I've seen people get really carried away worrying about the moon.

We've had some really good and some really bad hunting with a full moon and with a dark moon. Overall I've probably seen a few more bad days of hunting in a full moon than a dark one but not enough to really worry about. Most of my experience is with feral pigs so the effect may be much greater with whitetails, I don't know.

It seems much more important to keep things in prosective. In general people worry way too much about things they can't control and not enough about the things they can control. Too often I've seen guys book a hunt WAY in advance to make sure the moon phase is exactly right and then show up and miss opportunities because their gun isn't sighted in (or they haven't practiced since the last time they missed a year ago!).

Kyler

LOL, you must know some of the same guys I know. How true, how true.

i've taken my biggest deer blaktail & whitetail little or no moon from 9:00-11:00am . i have noticed very little deer activity after a full moon.