Milo from Illinois asks,
Hey Bill- Do the moon phases affect your hunting strategy? Sorry- couldn’t resist lol! So good to see you are back up and running. Milo
Bill responds,
Topic: How Moon Phases Affect Hunting Strategy:
I don’t pay attention to the moon phase when I decide which days to hunt. The rut is dictated by the length of daylight, which changes very little from year to year, so (at least in the Midwest), the rut falls on the same dates every year. However, there may be something to the timing of the moon rise and moon set, I am not sure about that. I just hunt as often as I can during the early phases of the rut and late phases of the rut and never pay attention to the moon phase of position in the sky.
Milo,
Good to hear from you again Milo. For the rest of our visitors, Milo was a regular when I was the primary contributor to the Midwest Whitetail website and one of the questions I got often, way too often, was whether I paid attention to moon phases.
The first 20 times I answered that question, I was OK, but as the years mounted (I must have gotten that question 150 times), I started to get tired of answering it. Milo, being a regular, sensed that so he couldn’t help himself but to ask that question here. I will honor the question with an answer, for those interested, but don’t forget there is a search function on the site and that search will find any questions I have answered already.
I doubt I will have to answer that question another 150 times, but I will answer it at least once.
In seriousness, I don’t pay attention to the moon. Testing and research by various biologists and state agencies show that the rut date (in the Midwest at least) is dictated almost entirely by day length, so the peak of breeding falls on roughly the same date every year (November 15, plus or minus a day). That is when the most does are in estrous.
So, while the moon may have some influence on the time of day when deer travel (this is also debatable based on GPS data from biologists), it doesn’t play into the timing of the rut. So, I just hunt as much as I can during the ramp up to peak breeding and again on the ramp down. Generally, it can be pretty dead during the very middle of November, so if I back off, it is then.
Don’t schedule your vacation based on moon phase. Weather patterns, hunting pressure and the phase of the rut will have way, way more effect on the movements of deer than the moon phase.
Milo, thanks for stirring things up here. Have a great day. (1/23/22)
