Moon phase

[Coues&Bass]

Well I drew my 5th choice this year and I will be dealing with a half to full moon through my hunt Nov. 4th. I have not had very good luck when the moon is bright at night so just throwing it out for comment.

 

Give me your 2 cents on the subject.

[daryl_s]

I have seen less activity overall on full or close to full moon days also. On at least one occasion I had nothing going in one of my really good spots first thing in the morning but then saw 10+ deer get out of their beds between 7:30-8:00. Seemed like they just stayed bedded a few hours longer. I definitely prefer little to no moon.

[willhunt4coues]

Well I have seen it both ways I have seen lots of deer on cam and in the hills on full moons and on non full moons. I do know deer eat more at night during a full moon but still they have to be there and thats where I find them is in beds more on full moons. just my 2cents.

[nogalesjim]

Last year I hunted 34A during the full moon. Indeed, you could almost read the newspaper at midnight. We hunted hard for three days, and never saw a single buck. This year I have the same hunt as you; I am hopeing for the best. The end of November will be no moon.

 

 

[SunDevil]

well one thing we have discovered the last couple of years is utilizing the peak times for game activity from the solunar table calendar. we have observed enough coorelation between these times and actual observed game activity for these times not to be flukes or coincidences.

[youngbuck]

I do find more critters when the moon isn't full. I've also come to realize that I wont let the moon phases dictate how or when I'll hunt. Most tags in AZ are so short of a season it doesn't matter what the moon is doing, I need to be hunting those days regardless, if it is only a 6 day hunt. Most of the better hunts; late WT, archery elk, sheep, are longer hunts, but more "special". These hunts I hunt everyday I can, because it will be many years before I have a chance to do it again. The animals are there when the moon is full or not, raining, windy, and hot. It makes it easier on me to find them, but I'll be looking for them regardless.

[desertdog]

well one thing we have discovered the last couple of years is utilizing the peak times for game activity from the solunar table calendar. we have observed enough coorelation between these times and actual observed game activity for these times not to be flukes or coincidences.

 

 

I agree 100%.....

 

That being said I almost always hunt sunup to sundown on all my hunts. When I have a full or bright moon I pay much more attention to the solunar table.

 

I just kind of go by the thinking that you have to make your own luck. Deer are unpredictable creatures so the harder you hunt more you glass the better chance you will have. And I have also learned to not neglect spots that Coues are not supposed to be in.

[vegasjeep]

Ill agree, with such short hunting times if the moon is full, gone, half or a sliver Im hunting regardless. however I notice more activity when the moon is less full. It is funny though. My best hunting in few spots i frequent are between 9-10. I see more deer 3 huors after sun up then early.

[Week'nd WaRRior]

If your concerned about the full moon use the yearly farmers almanac for moon phases before your hunt. I don't like hunting on a full moon so as soon as the regs come out I determine what hunts will be best suited for us, with the other guys approval of course. Now i have found that it's totally different during the late archery season. That full moon it seems drives those bucks wild. It's weird how mother nature acts, as I seem to catch my best bass during full moon nights. Hope this helps.

[pwrguy]

I have not noticed a difference. I did notice that the deer this year seemed to be moving around a lot between 10:00 and Noon

[Benbrown]

Back in the late Pleistocene when I was still a young deer biologist, we conducted several radiotracking studies of whitetails in Texas, monitoring their movements and activities for a 24 hour cycle each week for several years. As other studies have demonstrated, deer tend to be "crepuscular", meaning that they are most active at dawn and dusk. However, there are two more distinct activity periods each night, one from about 4 hours after sundown and another around 3 hours before sunrise. We discovered that deer treat darkness (i.e., a dark night or a dark moon) as cover and will they will venture farther away from their daytime bedding, loafing and escape areas to feed and socialize. This means that it takes them longer to return to their daytime bedding and loafing cover as daylight returns. This is why hunters think that deer are more active on dark nights. Deer are more likely to be still out moving after daylight.

 

On bright moonlit nights, deer spend just as much time feeding, resting, watering and socializing as they do on dark nights--they just do it in areas where they are not as exposed. As daylight approaches, they are much closer to their bedding and loafing areas and are usually secure in those areas by the time that most hunters would have "shooting light". One of the other constants that we noticed was that deer tended to be active and usually go to water between 10:30 AM and about 1:00 PM, as they were moving from their morning bedding and loafing areas to their afternoon areas. I have found that Coues whitetails pretty much behave in the same manner and, like swoods205, I have located more than half of the Coues bucks that I have taken as they were moving in the middle of the day.

[Coues&Bass]

Thanks for your input peeps made for an informative read. Just the kind of reaction I wanted from my fellow Coues hunters. I have had this hunt in the past and have been mostly successfull. I will do what I have done in the past, find them in there bed and "harvest" them.

[Ad-Hunter]

Hey if you run out of places to look give me a shout and i'll tell you where I saw a couple of 90" just before my hunt last week. 322-0743

 

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