Wahoo I'm not trying to discredit someone's hard work but I just don't think the moon has as much to do with deer patterns and movement and rutting action as people let on. I took off almost the entire month of November and bow hunted my spot most of those days. I got in early and stayed all day. I only saw bucks on their feet on my place during the day on four of those days. They were random days at that. I would talk with my buddy who has a great spot for big bucks and he didn't see much on the days I did. On the day his dad shot and missed a big deer they had good buck movement. I sat all day that day and didn't see one deer.

The only reason I bring up the daylight thing is from my experience bird hunting and watching pheasants in Western Kansas when I live in Dodge City. The pheasants would be paired up but you wouldn't seen any nesting or egg laying activity until there were at least 12 1/2 hours of continuous daylight. Quail and turkeys are the same way.

Check out this pic.



I think the fawn in this pic is about 3-4 weeks old. Notice the date. Deer have a gestation period of about 180 days more or less. That puts this fawn being conceived about the middle to the late part of January. I just don't think you can cookie when the does come into estrus on every place. I'm not saying those guys don't know their stuff. I am saying they don't know my place like I do.

I saw two 140" class bucks herding their own group of does on Nov 15th this season. They were about 300 yards apart in the same enclosed bean field and completely oblivious to each other. I have several deer on my place that will go at least 135" with some in the 150" range and to say that these bucks shouldn't at least be posturing to each other during the rut is crazy I think. My buddy's spot up north of me doesn't have 1/5th as many does and he can rattle in buck after buck. I think there is a fighting element to the rut. I think I used "phase" earlier and that was the wrong choice of words. I just refuse to believe that you can generalize the rut and when does come into estrus on each individual spot. I hear people say that the deer really during the full moon. Sometimes I find that to be the case and sometimes I don't. I just try to avoid generalizations about deer behavior.

And no Wahoo, I haven't read any of it. I'm sure it's interesting though.