Full moon impact??

Are you guys seeing an impact from the moon lately?? I had been seeing deer every trip out during bow and shotgun season…lately with the moon….ZIP! Anyone else seeing this?

Last w-end was SLOW, Mon evening saw 5, one of which was a 1.5 buck. Tonight saw 7 and had an encounter with a 11pt who stayed out at 100-115 yrds. A bit too far with iron sights in this wind. I have the same moon shining here. Some people believe in and follow moon phases, I guess being I’m fortunate to get out every evening I don’t read into it too much. Must be the corn.

I’ve always seen more deer in any phase but during the full moon. At night I’ve even seen less deer walking out from my stand. I don’t know why the full moon makes them move less, maybe its the brightness of the light making them think they will be seen more beings their paranoid anyway and maybe its the gravitational pull, I don’t know. I know its something but what. I’m a firm believer that it does something.

With Loader season pressure has them scared sh!tless after gun season and the moon allows them to move at night. This time of year Tuck get right in on the bedding areas with the moon your morning sits will be much better in these stands with them coming into bed down at sunrise for the day! Another thing I like to watch for is cloudy nights…..tonight is a bright moon but calling for cloudy, north winds, and chance of flurries. Things like that will have me sitting automatically this time of year. Hunt the food sources with fronts coming in! They will be out all night eating and often times with the clouds they do not move as much at dark so I tend to see A LOT more movment in the mornings.
My morning sit sucked today again on a clear night….so far 4 sits in my morning stand. 2 days cloudy saw TONS of deer and killed a nice doe. The 2 mornings with clear skies sucked I think I saw 5 deer total in those 2 sits! Tomorrow morning i know where i will be though

it has been my experiance( no sientific data to support this) that during full moon phases i will see an increase in deer activity in the middle of the day, not a lot but an increase none the less. also stump hunting is a vary good aproach during the full moon.

I’ve been seeing a simular pattern as Eric. I’ve been hunting bedding areas in the mornings. On clear nights its allmost impossible to intercept them. I was in my stand by 5:30 tuesday morning only to see deer(blobs) allready going back to the bedding area. Monday morning was foggy-overcast, the deer arrived at bedding sights at 7:30. In this part of the state the bucks are really nocturnal. Ya never see them during light hours. In the last 5 days of hunting I’ve seen 1 good buck, and that was in marginal light. We need some snow and cold weather to bring the bucks off the fencelines back to the woods with movements in daylight hours.Then

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it has been my experiance( no sientific data to support this) that during full moon phases i will see an increase in deer activity in the middle of the day, not a lot but an increase none the less. also stump hunting is a vary good aproach during the full moon.

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Slack, Im curious as to what stump hunting is? Choosing a spot on the ground??? If so I was thinking of doing this in a bedding area where I can get up on an old beaver dam as no trees are big enough to support a stand.

it’s more about hunting moonrise and moonset times, than it is about being a full moon.

im not a believer in the moon phases but thats my opinion. Ive seen deer move during all times of day during every moon phase and deer are still killed during full moons so that disproves it…

One thing about the full moon it seems to make the deer move during the midday hours of like 11am-2pm and I firmly believe that they also have a big movement during the middle of the night.
Yesterday I saw 5 deer at 1030 am they were to far away to make out any antlers but there were 2 very big bodied deer amoungst the 5.
I also believe that the bedding areas are an excelent area for a stand location, give hunting banker hours a try once you wont be disapointed.

CT,
it’s just an old timer phrase, it’s the same as still hunting.
now for yesterdays observations, i saw three differant deer on my way home from work, every one of them were still bedded down at 4:30.
i also think with this colder weather deer activity will increase.

I guess I pay no attention to whether or not moon phases affect deer movement. My attitude is that I’m going to hunt every single possible minute regardless of the moon phase, the weather or time of day.

i’m not saying don’t hunt but in my 40 years of deer huntig, i have come to believe moon phase and weather DO effect deer in certain ways and you HAVE to adjust your hunting tactics.

I hear ya SLACK and I didn’t mean that weather or moon phases don’t affect deer movement. I was just making a point that I’m going to hunt regardless.

So… how do you hunt differently when it comes to moon phases other than when you hunt during the day?

Brad,
during full moon phases i do alot more still hunting then sitting on stand, as i stated yesterday i saw 3 deer still bedded down at 4:30 in the afternoon that doesn’t leave much daylight left for the deer to get up and move around during legal shooting hours.
As for weather, you ever hunted in a complete down pour?
i have and it is miserable but you can have some of the most unbeilevibly close encounters with bedding deer. theres a time for stand hunting and then theres a time to be mobile. i’ve been following the threads on here about how no one saw any deer this year, there aren’t any deer, it’s the DNR’s fault blah,blah,blah.
i harvested 3 deer during the gun season and saw lots of deer, i don’t know maybe it’s were i hunt(public land, SE MN) of the 3 deer 2 of them i was on the move. still hunting takes a lot of practice and pacients but it can be rewarding.

I have never done that(still hunting) but it doesn’t seem like a logical tactic for those that manage their area or that have small acreage. I can tell you one thing though, i would be pretty mad if i was hunting public land and i saw a guy still hunting past me

SLACK – I can see where still hunting in bedded areas can be exciting and very rewarding. However, I guess I don’t do it for fear of pushing deer out of my hunting area. In fact, I do the opposite. I only hunt the fringes to make sure I leave that bedded area alone so the deer will always feel safe. I also don’t like my odds of trying to see a bedded down deer before they detect me. To each their own and as I always say, we all hunt for different reasons and none is more important than another.

Good luck the rest of the year!

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I didn’t mean that weather or moon phases don’t affect deer movement. I was just making a point that I’m going to hunt regardless.

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Amen to that Brad

I have had success with still hunting in the past. With the season winding down…now can be a great time to get right in there and not worry about them going & getting shot on the neighbors.

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I didn’t mean that weather or moon phases don’t affect deer movement. I was just making a point that I’m going to hunt regardless.

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You can’t kill’em sitting in the house!

PRO, BRAD,
i cane understand your misconseption of still hunting, i’m not talking about plowing through a bedding area like a herd of elephants, but still hunting fringes of bedding areas and i can certanly understand not wanting to push deer out of your area. as for seeing other hunters on public land, yes it can happen, it’s just the way it is.
now the area i hunt has over 20,000 acers of WMA and 10’s of thousands of acers of state forest land so no i am not limited to one small piece of land. although this year my hunting was limited to about a 15 acer peace (i was seeing deer, no need to move) and other then the guys in our party i only saw one other hunter.anyway starting to get a little side tracked here.
some one asked about the full moon phase and this what i do when deer movement drops off during day light hours.

That makes a lot of sense SLACK! I guess I was also speaking in terms of bow hunting too.

P.S. No need to call me “Pro”… That’s like comparing a my mom to Martha Stewart! I’m just an every day guy who loves to hunt and wants to learn more about it.

Brad,
many, many, many years ago when i bow hunted 5-7 days a week one of my bow hunting buddies shot a buck with his bow while the deer was bedded down. still hunting isn’t just for the gun hunter.