ORIGINAL: RobinAim Low

Here is my thoughts and practice on this subject. I kept a running journal for 3 years when this started out for me, and it has proven itself to me, so take it for what its worth...

I picked up on a "weird" deal many years ago. Nothing better to do in very early season, so I went and sat in my stand at noon in 93 deg heat hoping to get a turk or two coming to the acorns falling around me. Within an hour deer were coming in from all directions and it was a great mid day sit. Same thing the next two days, but each day they were a little later. Not long after, I read an interesting theory about the moon position, summarized as deer move with the moon straight up (or straight underfoot). I backtracked to that great weekend, and found that the movements I saw were right on track with the moon being overhead (full moon period). I started to keep track of the "moon times" as I call them for the entire next couple seasons. I hunted whenever I could regardless, but did make sure if I could I was in woods for the times that fell within "unproductive hours", and I made sure I was inside of cover where deer would feel safe. For3 straight years sightings correlated very strongly with those time periods no matter what time of year. During the rut it was even more intense, and not just for mature buck sightings. You can't just sit wherever and expect results, but if you take the time to be where deer want to be in midday times, you will see some deer.

Bottom line is that during the rut, I hunt all day if I can. If it is a full or new moon period during the rut (full and new correlate to up and down midday moon position) you better believe I will be out there all day if possible, but more important to me, during the middle of the day. If I have to sleep in a day here and there to make sure I can be out at the "right times", I will do it.

Think about this...how many times have you seen deer in fields in the middle of the day during summer time while driving around? How many times have you wondered to yourself "why is that deer out feeding in this heat?". Now...start paying attention this summer to those movements and look up the moon position for the odd times you see deer...

I'll leave it with this last little story: My absolute best day ever hunting went like this. Full moon, early Nov. Got to our area at 1100. Unpacked, and headed out to sit for the mid day. On the way over to our spot, we saw a giant cruise into a small patch of woods next to the road. Climbed in my stand at 1215. Immeadiately saw deer moving around in the brush 60 yards away. Turned out to be a huge buck keeping a doe pinned down. Saw another 8 bucks and about that many does between then and about 2:15. Crawled out at 2:45 for a quick meet up with my partner and snack. He had similar luck, seeing one absolute giant and a several others, and he killed a nice buck. Got his deer out of the woods quick as we could. Got back in my stand for the last couple hours and didn't see any deer until right before dark. Similar hunts over the next few days with the activity getting later each day. Moon was straight overhead that first day at 1245.

If you actually look into when "most" big deer are killed, the times will correlate with when most hunters are out hunting, not necessarily when most deer are active. That is a fact that you can bank on.