moon phases

[200"mulie]

Full moon - is brighter (duh) more time feeding staying in the openings and moving at night to stray away from predators. ---> so look for those bucks moving from open hill sides to thick canyon bottoms at first light. --->

 

New moon - is darker ( ) less time feeding and moving around ---> so look for them moving in the open hills at first light

 

 

other phases are a toss up .......... just my 2 cents and experience

[joeybari]

ok lets say you have dec 10 hunt and you can go anytime that hunt but only for a week what week would you go

 

[200"mulie]

ok lets say you have dec 10 hunt and you can go anytime that hunt but only for a week what week would you go

depends on when and if weather front comes threw. if it's cold and cloudy with no wind i find them moving around to get warm in the sun, the wind will put them down cause there sense's are all screwed up -----> can't hear as good, trees and grass blowing all over you can only smell up wind. i would choose the second week

 

 

 

Good luck and hope you can go on your dec. hunt i'm sure wifey shall come around sooner or later

[DubTee]

I have paid particular attention to the moon phases and observed deer movement (mostly in the midwest) over the past 10 years or so, about the time they started coming out with those moon dial calendars that are very popular in the midwest. It got me curious, so I decided to get my hands on everything I could to read about the subject. My experiences and research indicates (as someone mentioned earlier in this thread) that animals have the urge to feed when the moon is directly overhead or underfoot, the key is coinciding these times with the animals natural feeding/movement times to enhance animal sightings in my opinion. Animals move toward feeding areas when the moon is rising, move back to bedding when the moon is falling. The best moon phase to hunt in my opinion is a first quarter moon, the second best is a last quarter moon (these are when there is half a moon). These moon phases coincide the rising and overhead time of a first quarter with an animals urge to move towards feeding in the evening, the last quarter falls in the morning, coinciding with animals natural urge to go back to bedding areas later in the morning. Full moons are overhead at midnight, that is why animals wait until dark to move (the moon begins rising late) and feed later. IT IS NOT BECAUSE FULL MOONS PROVIDE MORE LIGHT FOR THE DEER TO SEE, PREDATORS CAN SEE JUST AS WELL DURING FULL MOONS. Deer can see just fine in the dark, they do not have eyes like ours. If you are ever in the midwest and go shining, you would see just as many deer at midnight during a dark moon than you would during a full moon, with completely different lighting. I would advise anyone who is curious to learn the different phases of the moon and what times they are rising, overhead, and falling (these times are always constant), then when you see particular times of great animal movement or terrible animal movement (all things being equal), correlate the moon phase into the equation, I bet you will notice some things. I do have some other advice, hunt whenever you can, no matter what moon hunting is better than sitting around on the couch. Also, male animal movement during rutting periods is not based on looking for food so I really don't concern myself too much with moon phases during peak rut knowing that a rutting buck or bull can come by at any time. However, cows/does are still doing their thing and during this time the males are close by, so I do like when my schedule allows me to hunt during my favorite moon phases. I am headed to WI on the 8th of November to bowhunt whitetails, that week there will be a first quarter moon, I would bet my right cajone that I will see a great amount of deer movement that week as long as the weather is decent. I read that something like roughly 67% of record book whitetails were killed on a first or last quarter moon, if that is the case, then a person is almost twice as likely to score a big buck on those phases vs. a full or dark. In the case of joeybari's question, I would always hunt the last week of the late dec coues tag because of the rut being better, this year happens to be a last quarter during that week, even more bueno. Of course, this is all my opinion.

[huntlines]

I have paid particular attention to the moon phases and observed deer movement (mostly in the midwest) over the past 10 years or so, about the time they started coming out with those moon dial calendars that are very popular in the midwest. It got me curious, so I decided to get my hands on everything I could to read about the subject. My experiences and research indicates (as someone mentioned earlier in this thread) that animals have the urge to feed when the moon is directly overhead or underfoot, the key is coinciding these times with the animals natural feeding/movement times to enhance animal sightings in my opinion. Animals move toward feeding areas when the moon is rising, move back to bedding when the moon is falling. The best moon phase to hunt in my opinion is a first quarter moon, the second best is a last quarter moon (these are when there is half a moon). These moon phases coincide the rising and overhead time of a first quarter with an animals urge to move towards feeding in the evening, the last quarter falls in the morning, coinciding with animals natural urge to go back to bedding areas later in the morning. Full moons are overhead at midnight, that is why animals wait until dark to move (the moon begins rising late) and feed later. IT IS NOT BECAUSE FULL MOONS PROVIDE MORE LIGHT FOR THE DEER TO SEE, PREDATORS CAN SEE JUST AS WELL DURING FULL MOONS. Deer can see just fine in the dark, they do not have eyes like ours. If you are ever in the midwest and go shining, you would see just as many deer at midnight during a dark moon than you would during a full moon, with completely different lighting. I would advise anyone who is curious to learn the different phases of the moon and what times they are rising, overhead, and falling (these times are always constant), then when you see particular times of great animal movement or terrible animal movement (all things being equal), correlate the moon phase into the equation, I bet you will notice some things. I do have some other advice, hunt whenever you can, no matter what moon hunting is better than sitting around on the couch. Also, male animal movement during rutting periods is not based on looking for food so I really don't concern myself too much with moon phases during peak rut knowing that a rutting buck or bull can come by at any time. However, cows/does are still doing their thing and during this time the males are close by, so I do like when my schedule allows me to hunt during my favorite moon phases. I am headed to WI on the 8th of November to bowhunt whitetails, that week there will be a first quarter moon, I would bet my right cajone that I will see a great amount of deer movement that week as long as the weather is decent. I read that something like roughly 67% of record book whitetails were killed on a first or last quarter moon, if that is the case, then a person is almost twice as likely to score a big buck on those phases vs. a full or dark. In the case of joeybari's question, I would always hunt the last week of the late dec coues tag because of the rut being better, this year happens to be a last quarter during that week, even more bueno. Of course, this is all my opinion.

 

 

This is right on the money. Years ago I was into the moon phase thing as well. What I found was not what I thought I would. I went out late at night to scout using a spot light. What I found during a full moon was all the deer I spotted were bedded down. The predators can see at night too and even better on a full moon. The deer have figured this out over the years and bed down so they can hear them coming. On nights where there is a new moon I found the deer to be moving. They can see at night just as good as we can during the day. You can't control the season dates anyway so just get out there and hunt!