BrandonByrge

What is this whole overhead underfoot stuff? When does deer move more? Day after full moon. Day after half moon? I'm new too the whole lunar solunar stuff. So please. Help!

NorthJeff

Brandon...the moon has some impact here and there, however, focus on the cold fronts and you will find success! A bad moon with cold temps = great hunting! However, with a great moon and warm temps...you might as well wait until a cold front passes.

For example, here in WI there are a lot of 50s/60s popping up in the forecast for the next week, after close to 80 today, and yesterday. you can bet a LOT of good bucks will be killed this week, and if you have the flexibility to pick and choose your sits you will not be disappointed if you let the cold fronts tell you when to be in a tree. I can't WAIT to get into 2 different trees for a NW wind both tomorrow and Tuesday night I will hunt the cold fronts from now thru gun season, and pretty much forget about the rest of the days...

I know that isn't the answer you are looking for, but wow...it will really help you a lot! Good luck...

halfbakedi420

contrary to belief, deer cant see in the dark...they can just see better than us... a lot better...but when there is no moon, and its dark as all hell, they will lay down early and get up at the break of daylight to forage. just what i have picked up..gl

Night Crawler

I am a weather front hunter. the only moon I worry about is Full, and then I just spend more mid day time in the woods.

halfbakedi420

my experience is the deer will stay out all night on a full moon. is this what you are saying?

Mojotex

I have chimed in on this moon stuff many times over the years, and here is my personal opinion based upon several years of totally unscientific data my best hunting bud and I kept ... looking for any "patterns".

Short of it ... based upon our personal observations hunting 40-60 days each of several consecutive seasons here in SE Alabama, I would not plan my hunting around the moon "phases". We just did not see enough "moon phase pattern" to make this anything more than a subject to toss around.

There were two and only what I'd call minor two patterns we saw .... full moon, clear overnight sky the deer tended to move later in the day and much, much later in the afternoon. "Dark" moon, the deer tended to move more all day long ... in general more.

The No.1 pattern maker ? Clearly weather. Abnormally hot, with SE-S-SW winds .... may as well sleep in. Cold front coming in, especially accompanied by a light drizzle or sleet, be in the woods unless the winds are very high (25 mph +/-). Snow ? Locked down all day each of the times we went after them in during ,or a day or two after a 2" - 6" snow (which is very rare here). Cool rainy day .... be there when it stops. Extremely cold .... say 15F or below? About mid morning when the sun popped out and started to warm up the woods, deer would move pretty good.

Moon stuff may be a big deal elsewhere around the USA ... or our collection of data and my engineering back ground analysis did not show any strong patterns related to moon phase. And believe me I worked the data over !! Maybe what we did was so flawed that our "work" was of no real value. I am not sure. All I know is if I can go, I go. Come hail, high water, rain, snow, heat or limb snapping cold ... I am in the deer woods every day I am able.

Night Crawler

10-4, fulloon is my only game changer. I sleep in and go to the stand after breakfast and stay till near dark. Unless fullmoon is acompanied by a weather factor. Hot sunny day, I may make it a scout stalk day, nut if we have good front I stick to my normal routine but make it all day

CulturedHick

I agree with this^^^^. I have been hunting for 32 years and have observed the same behaviors.

If I am taking time off to deer hunt, I schedule it late in the season for a couple of reasons:

1. The weather is usually colder.
2. There is less hunting pressure. It is too cold for alot of non serious hunters and they have run out of vacation time by the end of the year.

I have killed more deer the last 2 weeks of December than in the first 6 weeks of the season. (here in TX the season runs from Nov the the 1st week od Jan.)

Hope this helps!

Good luck!
The best was to bag a buck is my putting as much time in the stand as possibe.

furgitter

I trap nuisance animals for a living. And the moon makes a big differance in my catch report. I also handle the catch reports and calls for 26 operators across the US. Im telling ya here and now, full moon = $. The raccoons, skunks, and coyotes go ballistic. Not to say that the weather fronts dont also have a dramatic effect, this is another time the phone wont quit. Right ahead of rain, and right after rain, it gets crazy.

Gunplummer

I worked nights for over 20 years and went home by back roads between 3:00 and 4:00 AM. The most movement of animals I saw on the way home was during the darkest rainy nights. That includes every kind of animal that would move at night. My trapping take went up on the same kind of nights. I doubt the moon has any influence at all once the deer know it is hunting season. I lived in a special reg area and you could see them change their patterns when they started to bump into people out in the brush. If you hunt around a lot of houses, try 11:00 AM to 2;30 PM for seeing deer. They know that there is no one around during the day and move more. It works for me.