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Old 06-22-2018, 08:22 AM
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Double Naught Spy
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: North Texas
Posts: 242
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My personal opinion is that Moon phase is 100% meaningless. I know folks will differ and that is fine. I hunt 3-4 nights a week all year long. This also goes for solunar cycles, which are based on tides and fish and haven't actually been proven for terrestrial animals such as hogs.

Here is how I see it. Hogs tend to be mobile except when they are bedded down or wallowing. At least around here, they tend to be more nocturnal than diurnal. As such, they are active during most of the night, every night, particularly during the warmer months when being active and cool can only happen at night and nights are shorter.

For a couple of years, I tracked my hunting success relative to moon phases and saw no correlation. I also checked during solunar cycles and found no correlation. What really drove home this point is that for a given time period, I may be killing hogs and my buddies on other properties aren't seeing a single hog or vice versa.

The solunar apologists will say that solunar tables work so long as there are not extenuating circumstances. Strangely enough, when the solunar tables don't work, extenuating circumstances are claimed. That sort of excuse could go for any claimed method, LOL.

Pigs are going to eat, get water, have sex, etc. regardless of what the moon is doing. The only real question is whether or not you are going to be where the pigs are. In other words, don't play the moon, play the hogs. You aren't hunting the moon.

I know folks who have sworn that hogs are more active when there is no moon because hogs feel safer in the dark because predators can't be seen as well. I know folks who have sworn that hogs are more active when there is a full moon because hogs feel safe because the hogs can see threats better.

Bottom line, if you choose not to hunt because of what the moon is doing, the one thing that you are assured of is NOT getting any hogs.

In my experience, the one factor that seems to most severely limit hog movement is very high winds, usually >25-30 mph. If there are high winds, I know that my chances for scoring a hog are reduced. HOWEVER, I have had some great hunts in high winds. I have hunted when the winds were blowing so strongly that my hunting partner had to shout the countdown. So even when the winds are up, I go hunt.
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