why do they move at mid-day

[weekender]

on or around a full moon

[offshore]

Most deer movement in reference to feeding times coincides with the moon. After keeping deer movement, moon position and moon phase notes the following seem to hold true from year to year.
The best feeding times always seem to be within 2hrs of the following. When the moon no matter what phase it is is straight above the earth position 12oclock in the sky or at 6oclock the other side of the earth or straight down. I try to plan a lot of my hunts around this.
This year the rut was spotty and sort of sucked due to the full moon or almost full moon high in the sky at night. This was also the prime feeding time. Never a good thing when the rut, full moon and prime feeding time is in the middle of the night.
This is only my theory on why they feed at certain times......Mark

[offshore]

This is based on where we hunt.....
The 23rd prime feeding time was approximately 11:54 am-1:54 pm

The 24th prime feeding time was approximately 12:50 pm-2:50 pm

Both of these times were based on the moon being straight down.


11/23/2010

Sun Data
Rises: 6:57 am
Sets: 5:06 pm

Day Length
10 hrs. 09 mins.

Moon Data
Rises: 5:51 pm
Sets: 7:53 am
Up: 12:26 am
Down: 12:54 pm

Moon Phase
Moon Phase is 1 percent waning
99%
Waning
Gibbous

Major Times
--:-----:--
11:54 am-1:54 pm

Minor Times
7:53 am-8:53 am
5:51 pm-6:51 pm




11/24/2010

Sun Data
Rises: 6:58 am
Sets: 5:06 pm

Day Length
10 hrs. 08 mins.

Moon Data
Rises: 6:49 pm
Sets: 8:50 am
Up: 1:22 am
Down: 1:50 pm

Moon Phase
Moon Phase is 1 percent waning
96%
Waning
Gibbous

Major Times
--:-----:--
12:50 pm-2:50 pm

Minor Times
8:50 am-9:50 am
6:49 pm-7:49 pm

[WAHOONBOX]

WITH THREE TRAIL CAMS ON MY LEASE LOCATED IN HISTORICALLY THREE HOT ZONES ......I YIELDED ONE SHOOTING HOUR PHOTO OF A DEER AND IT WAS A HALF RACK ......THIS WAS OUT OF HUNDREDS OF NIGHT TIME PHOTOS THAT WERE TAKEN FROM OCT 29-NOV 25


I AM NOT JUST SPEAKING OF LACK OF DAYLIGHT BUCKS HERE....I AM SPEAKING OF DOES AS WELL.....ONE DAYLIGHT PICTURE FROM HUNDREDS OF PHOTOS THAT WERE POSTED AFTER DARK.....PALEEEESE WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?


WHILE I DID MISS A NICE BUCK AT LONG RANGE WITH 16 MINUTES LEFT IN THE DAY.....I ONLY SEEN ONE COW HORN TRAILING A DOE DURING OUR ENTIRE RUT .....I HUNTED AT LEAST 19 DAYS IN THE ABOVE PERIOD.....BUT MANY TIMES I FOUND MYSELF EATING A BANANA SANDWICH AT NOON....AND I DID SO BACK IN CAMP WHICH WAS PROBABLY STUPID ON MY PART

ONE CAMERA YIELDED MUCH ACTIVITY FROM 5:20 PM TO 6:30 PM ON NOV 19 BUT ALL BUCKS WERE SPIKE CLASS

[WAHOONBOX]

HEY MARK....ANY CHANCE YOU CAN SHARE THAT FEEDING LUNAR CHART WITH US...?

[Tenacious]

I'd like to see that too Mark

[offshore]

Box I have it saved on my home computer. When I get home I will post it for you. The Casio Pathfinder hunt and fish watch does the same thing based on your lat and lon. It is exactly in sync with the moon tables. Neat watch and great for fishing as well I have one.. IT gives you the prime times and the secondary feeding times. It is more accurate than the charts because it is based on your Lat and Lon.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=589813
The full moon during the rut this year really hurt the hunting in our area. We did see some nice bucks rutting but most of the activity seemed to be at night.....Mark

[Catcher's Mitt]

hey guys

here is a pretty good site that has the sun and moon data. the transit time is when the sun or moon is overhead. tomorrow you should be able to look at Decembers full month calender.

http://www.huntstats.com/besttimes.p...&submit=submit
(you might have to just use the website address and navigate to the hunting times)

most handheld GPS units have a sun and moon feature and a lot of them have hunting times. my old Magellan Meridian had those features and my new Garmin Oregon has it. usually the hunting times are: major is an hour before and after the moon's zenith overhead or underfoot and the minor is 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after moon rise or set.

Mark

[thoffman]

the deer hunting has been shut down for me since the full moon. Seems to happen every year around the full moon in November. Usually middle of December we start to see daytime movement again. Since Thanksgiving morning till this morning I have seen 8 lonely bucks and one doe. Thanks for the info Mark, it makes good sense, especially this year.

[weekender]

we have spots that regular have 10 different bucks visiting. 90% this year has been night time with the other 10% being nearly all 1 1/2 yr old deer. This deer is a regular but never within 2 hours of shooting light. He is one of three 3 1/2 yr old or older bucks coming to this spot. The others have big but messed up racks.
In the whole month od Nov. only one buck we considered a shooter came in the daylight. We weren't there that day.