I've been looing at all of these factors for the first time this year. And looking back, it seems that there are a few trends for both my deer and my friends deer.

1. During the rut, the moon plays little importance. If the does are moving, the buck are moving. If the does aren't moving, the bucks are chasing them and making them move. Kinda a cycle. Most of the big bucks taken around my area in the last couple of years have been during the first week of November -- right about the prime time for the rut. And most were not taken in early morning or late evening. It seems that the deer were moving more during the 9-11am hours and the 2-4pm hours.

2. Outside of the rut, I think that moon phases play a large role in the patterns of deer. I'm not sure this applies everywhere, but a full moon around here has the deer moving later in the night when there is less commotion. I guess this could be partly due to the fact that I hunt an area with some small state highways. Deer cross this highway before dark, but will delay until there is as little traffic as possible. Therefore, if there is a full moon, they have less drive to get accross into my hunting area in the evening and so they cross well past legal hunting hours. There is also very little movement the next morning since they bedded down so late.

May not apply to everyone, but that's the general thoughts in my area. I wouldn't be suprised if it changed a few miles down the road though.