# Moon Phase & Deer Hunting Prediction.



## Eclipse (Sep 27, 2009)

Okay for the first four days of season I watched four to five does in our food plot ( Acre and a half or so of Imperial Whitetail Clover, ChicMagnet, Sugar Beats, Winter Peas, Winter Oats) every morning for between forty-five minutes and two hours. They returned in the evening but didnt stay as long about half an hour or so before dark. I am hunting with my brother and we are really holding out for the rut to get into full swing next month before we take anything, unless a really nice shooter buck comes along. This year has been so strange though we sat dark to dark the first few days, then we started leaving late morning and returning in the early evening about 4. We were seeing great activity in the morning and decent activity in the evening. Then the frost came and we saw nothing but turkeys in the morning. Nothing but turkey activity after that heavy wind and rain. 

Almost every morning we have turkeys, they have not stayed as long since the heavy rain that followed the frost. They usually stayed half an hour to forty-five minutes then the heavy rain came and they just pretty much ate on the fly staying only about fifteen minutes.

The long and the short of my story is we have not seen any deer the last few days, hunting early morning like 6am to 10am and then early evening from 4 or 5 till 8 or dark anyway.

I have read so many articles of people who only hunt the moon phase and well the evening of the heavy rain was nearly a full moon, the night after was full and last night was nearly full. I would like input from anyone whether or not you hunt the moon phase or not. I am considering using the Garmin Etrex and it hunting fishing prediction based on the moon phase to see how it plays out. I will keep everyone posted as to how it comes out.

Thank you all in advance for your time reading and responding to my thread!


----------



## BaddFish (Jun 20, 2009)

i was out sat night and tonight and seen a total of 16 deer..... passed on 2 small bucks. I hunt the wind, the wind and the wind. 

i don't pay attention to the moon at all and I hardly ever hunt in the morning until rut time cause my stands are surrounded by food and I don't want to educate the deer until the time is right...its just too tough to get into your stand un-noticed.

its a balance and knowing when to get aggressive and going right in to a spot where the does have been entering a field or bucks have been feeding.

No offense, but it sounds like your putting a ton of pressure on your deer and they may already know your habits and are avoiding the area... I only hunt one stand once a week unless I'm hunting in the rain- then I may go twice a week.

If your holding out for bucks- you don't want to spook your does out of the area! You want to have your finger on "the pulse" of the herd but don't over-hunt it.

In my experiences in bowhunting- deer seem to move alot in the evening around full moon times (like tonight- I creeped out of the stand with 8 deer still in site) the moon was shining bright.
But I don't pay attention to the moon... I only pay attention to wind direction as that tells me which stands I can hunt and which direction to enter those stands... I hope this helps. good luck!


----------



## Eclipse (Sep 27, 2009)

Thank you for your advice it is well taken and I am not offended at all. I wouldn't be asking for opinions if I were the type to get offended. I did not hunt all weekend and pulled the cards from the six trail cams that I have out. It looks like the bucks are moving real late at night and into the 1:30-2:30am period at this point. The doe are moving just after dark and well before daylight. I don't think they have caught on to us yet? But I will back off of the stand for a little while. 

Again thank you for your advice and time.

Please keep the advice and comments coming in!


----------



## BaddFish (Jun 20, 2009)

No problem... bowhunting is my passion, but I find myself involved in everything else! 

If you have the money- invest in a climber... they give you the so much freedom and talk about surprise!

use climbers or multiple stand sites around your food plot- maybe as far as 100-150 yds away... find bedding ground and set up between- using the wind always.

right now, I've got smaller bucks out my wazooo, the does have been sneaky! it seems that every doe I see has twins with her so they are super wary and only coming out in fields on the upwind side...


----------



## Header (Apr 14, 2004)

I have read many writeups on the moon phases and just being in the woods works for me. I see deer about every time I'm out and don't pay much attention to the moon even though they say, if there is a full moon you are more apt to see deer mid-day. For the rut the stories say the best time is after the second full moon after the fall equinox. This year they say stay in your stand all day from 11/2 - 11/12 are the hot days. Our hunt camp's Nov. hunt is right on the money 11/4 -11/8. Plus, I've got the whole next week off so maybe I'll put some time in Stark co. for Mr. Bigrack. I got my freezer meat doe at 8:05 9/26 and the first at the checkin station.


----------

