Moon phases?

**ALAN** · 10-28-2009, 01:06 AM

does anyone put stock in the moon phase having significant bearing on deer movement?how does the moon phase affects movement.are some days better to hunt then others???

**Texan_Til_I_Die** · 10-28-2009, 10:18 AM

Full moon at night, I see more deer movement in midday. Other than that, I still see the majority of movement early and late.

Back in the 80's when all this moon phase stuff was fairly new, I did a lot of unofficial research on it and I found that the moon phases, tables, whatever you want to call them, was really good at predicting movement of predatory animals and fish, but not nearly as good at predicting the grazing animals like deer.

**Tominator** · 10-28-2009, 11:01 AM

Yep, I believe it. Photoperiodism.

The most significant aspect of the moon phase that I've noticed is where the new moon is closest to Halloween. New moon around Halloween and you're going to see a lot of deer movement the following week. This year the new moon isn't until like the 11th I think, so the first week of November will be interesting I think.

**layin on the smackdown** · 10-28-2009, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by Tominator

Yep, I believe it. Photoperiodism.

The most significant aspect of the moon phase that I've noticed is where the new moon is closest to Halloween. New moon around Halloween and you're going to see a lot of deer movement the following week. This year the new moon isn't until like the 11th I think, so the first week of November will be interesting I think.

Yep. I agree with Chris bigtime on this one...which is why i have elected to take off from the 8-17 of NOV instead of the 4-13th like i normally do...and i also agree with the other above statement regarding mid day movement during a full moon, and nightitme movement. During a new moon, you will tend to see more daylight activity, and as it approaches the half moon and full moon, the amount of daylight activity decreases and night time activity increases...thats how i feel about it.

**toddyboman** · 10-28-2009, 04:41 PM

Yep I believe and do follow it.

**wtnhunt** · 10-28-2009, 05:10 PM

Current field and stream lists the 7 best days of this years rut with the best day being November 11th. They give moon phases for each of those days, Halloween is listed in those top 7 days.

Typically here our best movement during legal shooting hours seems to come around Thanksgiving week.

While the moon phases may make for peaks in activity and it does seem that full moon often means slow mornings, I tend to make every effort to spend as much time in the stand as I am able to.