Full Moon
Full Moon
12-08-2011, 05:17 AM
#2
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Rena Lara, MS
Posts: 264
it just means they are more likely to move all night and bed up early. I like to hunt all day but i usually see a lot of deer around 10 and 2. I have seen them at all different times so I don't base to much on the moon
12-08-2011, 11:04 AM
#5
Spike
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 83
Both cwillard and deppedy dogg are correct! If you are not out there.... YOU AINT GONNA BAG A WHITETAIL! Although I don't hear it very much, I am glad to see the response Deppedy Dogg put up. " When the deer are moving you stay put and when the the deer are staying put....YOU MOVE." This is great advise and I wish MORE hunters would abide by it. I hear stories all the time of hunters not seeing deer for 10-12 SEASONS!!! My question always was, If the deer are not coming to them, why aren't they out locating the deer???? I never understood it. I learned this the hard way in one of my first seasons hunting whitetails. I made the horrible mistake of deciding to sit in my tree stand for 15 days straight. I sat from sun up till sun down, I even brought my own lunch. I sat hours and days with anticipation, but still no sightings of deer. Every morning I would see fresh sign, tracks, urine in snow, feces, rubs, scrapes...So I insisted on staying put!!! It wasn't until the 16th day that I decided to relocate and hunt from a bucket on a brushy hill overlooking a large field. That afternoon ( about 40 minutes before sundown) a nice 6 point came walking out of the brush. I took aim and harvested that buck. What I needed to learn was, that even though all that sign was there it was most likely made at night! The temptation of many hunters to hunt directly over rublines has in most cases proved empty tags. " The old full moon " wives tale effecting deer activity. I love when hunters say that the moon will make a deer come out more at night! ORRRRR when hunters say that hunting pressure drives bucks to be nocturnal! The thing most hunters fail to realize is that deer are biologically referred to as being crepuscular animals by nature. Which means they are already nocturnal.... That's right, you heard me correctly.....Deer are already nocturnal by nature and a FAR MORE ACTIVE AT NIGHT than they are during the day. It bums me out when a hunter gives up hunting the buck of his dreams because he feels that the hunting pressure forced that buck to be nocturnal. My question is, if that buck went nocturnal......Where does he go during the day? ..... The planet Jupiter? The moon?.... NOOOOO, chances are he's probably out there in the same woods, just bedded down and moving very little in the thickest cover during the daylight hours. Although not ideal hunting conditions during the best days, it is IDEAL hunting opportunity during the WORST days. Days that are windy....days that allow you to sneak up "cross wind" of a weary bedded buck when 2 of his 3 senses are at a major disadvantage, his eye sight and his ears. Deer do not disappear from your woods when there is a full moon or half moon or new moon. There activity can change from hunting pressure and barometric changes and weather pattern, but thats no excuse to not keep hunting. If you are sitting there and you are not seeing them, chances are you gotta go out and find them....they are out there, you just gotta know when the best opportunity is to go after them or move your location.
12-08-2011, 05:19 PM
#6
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio (Buckeye= Big Bucks)
Posts: 333
Both cwillard and deppedy dogg are correct! If you are not out there.... YOU AINT GONNA BAG A WHITETAIL! Although I don't hear it very much, I am glad to see the response Deppedy Dogg put up. " When the deer are moving you stay put and when the the deer are staying put....YOU MOVE." This is great advise and I wish MORE hunters would abide by it. I hear stories all the time of hunters not seeing deer for 10-12 SEASONS!!! My question always was, If the deer are not coming to them, why aren't they out locating the deer???? I never understood it. I learned this the hard way in one of my first seasons hunting whitetails. I made the horrible mistake of deciding to sit in my tree stand for 15 days straight. I sat from sun up till sun down, I even brought my own lunch. I sat hours and days with anticipation, but still no sightings of deer. Every morning I would see fresh sign, tracks, urine in snow, feces, rubs, scrapes...So I insisted on staying put!!! It wasn't until the 16th day that I decided to relocate and hunt from a bucket on a brushy hill overlooking a large field. That afternoon ( about 40 minutes before sundown) a nice 6 point came walking out of the brush. I took aim and harvested that buck. What I needed to learn was, that even though all that sign was there it was most likely made at night! The temptation of many hunters to hunt directly over rublines has in most cases proved empty tags. " The old full moon " wives tale effecting deer activity. I love when hunters say that the moon will make a deer come out more at night! ORRRRR when hunters say that hunting pressure drives bucks to be nocturnal! The thing most hunters fail to realize is that deer are biologically referred to as being crepuscular animals by nature. Which means they are already nocturnal.... That's right, you heard me correctly.....Deer are already nocturnal by nature and a FAR MORE ACTIVE AT NIGHT than they are during the day. It bums me out when a hunter gives up hunting the buck of his dreams because he feels that the hunting pressure forced that buck to be nocturnal. My question is, if that buck went nocturnal......Where does he go during the day? ..... The planet Jupiter? The moon?.... NOOOOO, chances are he's probably out there in the same woods, just bedded down and moving very little in the thickest cover during the daylight hours. Although not ideal hunting conditions during the best days, it is IDEAL hunting opportunity during the WORST days. Days that are windy....days that allow you to sneak up "cross wind" of a weary bedded buck when 2 of his 3 senses are at a major disadvantage, his eye sight and his ears. Deer do not disappear from your woods when there is a full moon or half moon or new moon. There activity can change from hunting pressure and barometric changes and weather pattern, but thats no excuse to not keep hunting. If you are sitting there and you are not seeing them, chances are you gotta go out and find them....they are out there, you just gotta know when the best opportunity is to go after them or move your location.
12-08-2011, 05:57 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Southeast Missouri
Posts: 2,178
I've noticed that the Deer will move more in the evenings if the Moon is up early and they will move more in the mornings if the Moon is still up high over-head!...and as stated if the Moon keep the Deer up feeding and moving at night then they will bed down early and get up moving again any where from 8:30 Am to 1:00 Pm!
