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Full-Moon Deer Movement During The Rut

Understanding the effect the moon has on deer activity, or lack thereof, can help plan hunts. Over the years, of course, we all have heard tried and true wives tales. Now, before you all toss my butt under the bus, let me share a little knowledge and science. Remember the newest catch phrase many of us have been living the past couple years “Follow the science?” Whether it’s a worldwide pandemic or deer hunting, following the science is always a good place to start.

When it comes to deer hunting, everyone’s an expert. Whether it’s scents, calls or stand placement, everyone has opinions on deer hunting tactics. I have been fortunate enough to hunt many great whitetails in many top-notch whitetail habitats and share a campfire with many folks who know more about the world of the whitetail than I could ever imagine. I don’t pretend to be an expert. Rather, I’m just a guy who loves to learn about and hunt deer.

There are many topics that will get a coffee shop or camp going, including a discussion about how the moon affects deer movement and rut. Many hunters put a lot of stock in moon phases. Some plan their vacation and hunting schedule around the moon phases and lunar tables.

Heck, for me anytime sitting in a treestand is a bonus, moon phase or not. Many hunters believe the full moon is a double-edged sword. They think November’s full moon kicks the rut into high gear, but they also believe many bucks move all night because of improved visibility. Are they right?

Marcus Lashley of North Carolina State University compiled more than 22,000 GPS fixes on live deer and correlated their activity to moon phases. He found they moved the most at dawn and dusk, regardless of moon phase. In fact, their movements varied little between moon phases. However, Lashley detected a slight increase in midday deer activity during full moons. Also, deer movements were greatest at dawn during new moons, with some increased activity shortly after daylight. In addition, deer movements were greatest during late afternoon during the last-quarter moon. These were minor activity upticks, however, and not major increases over other moon phases.

In another study, Dr. Mickey Hellickson collared 43 bucks on Texas’ famous King Ranch and recorded more than 420,000 GPS locations to analyze buck movements from October to January. After analyzing the data, Hellickson concluded: “Although the moon may influence buck movements in other ways, our data did not indicate any patterns relative to the effects of moon phase on buck movements.”

The Archery Trade Association’s Patrick Durkin recently wrote an article citing a Penn State survey of hunter opinions about the moon’s influence on whitetails. Of the survey’s 1,600-plus respondents, only 12% believed the moon phase had no effect on deer, while 22% said it had significant effects.

A few years back Penn State conducted a forest study. While there are many different aspects to the study, the one which is of general interest to hunters is the radio collar of deer during the months of October- and November-free range deer.

For a twenty-four-hour period — while these two deer home ranges were less than a mile apart — they were within a few yards of each other from about 9 a.m. Nov. 15th until about 9 a.m. on Nov. 16. While I am no wildlife biologist it would seem, it was during that time – knowing that a whitetail doe can breed in a 24-hour window — that these two radar collar deer did their best to increase the deer herd.

It’s worth a note that on Oct. 9 these two deer were close to each other also, but not for an extended period of time. Again on even Nov. 5 until the early morning hours of Nov. 6 the two were in close proximity, but not close enough for extended periods of time.

During this entire time the doe seemed to pretty much stay in her home area, while on Oct. 29 the buck started to extend his travels only to come back to his home area.

What is interesting to me as I looked at the data — remember, only the buck and doe were radio collared so movement of other deer can’t be monitored — is that one would surmise that this mature buck was meeting other does from Oct. 29 until the end of November when the tracking ended.

Understanding that does can only be bred during the magical 24-hour estrus time is important. Each doe estrus time is different. A lot goes into when does come into estrus. When in the spring they were born, and age probably has more to do with it than anything.

If a doe fawn is dropped early, chances are she will come into estrus earlier than a doe fawn that was later in the spring. I have seen doe fawns the first week of May and also have seen them at the end of June. Like everything in the wild, it’s about timing.

Next week we are going to cover some other new information about moon phases, its effect on rut and my rut prediction.

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