How does moon phases effect deer ?

[Eric4x4]

I was just wandering what everyone else thinks about the moon phases effecting feeding times and such ?

[texaskinner]

I think it's pretty accurate. It doesn't mean that you're going to see deer every time the moon is straight up, but animal movement is definitely higher during peak moon times. But, other things such as weather, temperature, barometric pressure, etc. also play into the equation. When all of these elements are aligned together, you better be in a tree.

[CaptainDave]

In my experience, animals typically feed on a full moon, which might make hunting during day hours difficult. Of course there are always exceptions with regards to weather conditions. The same seems to apply to fishing. I have never done very good on a day following a full moon.

[Eric4x4]

I feel the same way the darker at night the better the hunting will be in the morning.

[Mike D]

I can tell you there has to be something to it. I have followed the times on my GPS for about the past 4-5 years and can say that there is a definite increase in overall game activity when the charts say so.

And as far as a full moon is concerned, the deer are still gonna get up and move, especially when the moon is straight up and straight underfoot. They usually have to gt up and eat about every 6 hours anyway. You're just not there at the right times.

[Thumper]

I've always wondered how/if/what part of the Moon's elliptical orbit has the most effect on game movement. When the Moon's orbit is closest to Earth is this when it has the greatest effect on game movements? You see Moon phase tables all the time but not in relationship to the Moon's current orbit status(distance from earth).

"The Moon's obirt has an ecentricity of .055, which is over three times eccentircity of the Earth's orbit, and this causes large differences in the distance the Moon is from the Earth during the course of a month. The Moon's average distance is 384,000 km. However, due to the elliptical nature of the orbit the minimu distance is 363,000 km and is called perigee. The maximum distance is called apogee and is 405,000 km. The true diameter of the moon is 3,500 km (1/4 that of Earth's) however as viewed from Earth the size of the Moon appears to change by as much as 11% from perigee and apogee."

http://inkido.indiana.edu/a100/earthmoon5.html

[J-DAWG]

Reading this makes me wonder, what if you had a feeder that was programable with the movement habits depending on moon phase.......Hhhmmm.. I may be on to something here

[Thumper]

Patten Office first thing in the morning......

[J-DAWG]

You or ME Thumper???

[Thumper]

Its your idea, its recorded and dated by your 24th post.....

[sitn_on_20s]

http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/include/article/0,,fschart,00.html

I have been hunting everytime this chart has shown movement to be above average and seen deer everytime. Put in your zipcode and it give you the calculated best day of the month and the best time of day to hunt. They gathered many diffrent types of info including moon phase. Its very interesting. I would check the chart to see how "accurate" it was and it surprised me......I bookmarked it

[BentBow]

I have seen it effect the hogs movement more so then the deer around my little area. Regardless what phase the moon is, they are out in the fields at night, and come sun up, they head right past my stand every morning to see if the tasty candied corn has mystrically appeared again.