I'll admit, I've hunted all my life in the traditional south Texas manner - Corning the sendero and sitting in the blind a couple of hours in the morning and evening. I know nothing about hunting with the moon. I did a google search, but the few links I clicked and read were a little confusing and was just a general summary of the benefits of hunting by the moon.

Can someone explain, or provide a good link, so that I be thoroughly educated in the matter? What moon phase am I looking for? Which one means optimal morning/evening hunting and which doesn't? Terminology? Which underwear to wear? Anything I need to know.

Thanks

I am no moon phase expert. But I have heard old timers say when there is no moon, very dark out, it is the best time to hunt. Because animals cannot see well and they do not feed at night so they have to come around in early morning or evening.
I have tried this and I have never seen it make a difference, maybe bad information.

Hunting by moon Phase / Solunar
There is another thread with this kind of question.

I can tell you I had deer at my one feeder almost all night including one of my target bucks last night, when there was no moon (new moon plus moon set before sunset and didn't rise until sun up)...didn't see a deer this am and sat for a while longer than I ever do thinking the deer would be moving late. I wish I would be able to hunt tonight but can't. Will be back
Out Monday for an evening hunt.

Last weekend we had deer all morning and then again at evening hunt despite horrible weather in the evening, and it was a quarter moon, but the solunar calender said the peak times were at am and pm hunt times.

I think there may be some into the moon phase, but don't rely on it to bring deer all the time.

Full moon is some of the best time for hog hunten, before they started with the nightvision & thermal, used ta go sit were hogs been tearen it up, lights of, pistal on hip, listen an watch for movement, ease twards em keeping low profile, its not the safest method

the one thing we can all agree on is, im no expert. most hand held GPS's have the moon phase data. whin I go hunting usualy see me with pen & pad, whin see deer or hog write down time, location, at least half the time see movement whin every thing should be still. moon phase does have affect on movement, personaly think hunting preasure plays the biggest.

I am unsure about how the moon affects deer movement, which is only compounded by the telemetry studies which show no discernible affect whatsoever.

I just hunt whenever I can.

only thing I tend to use the moon for is to decide if I need a flashlight or not to get to my stand in the morning

Same here

Ya'll use flash lights I think my way gotta watch for the low hanging limbs

The prime feed times that are published are based on the moon. The minor time is about an hour and it occurs during the moon rise and set. The major feed times are about two hours and they occur when the moon is directly overhead or under foot. Once I learned that I understood the moon charts a bit. There is no question that the moon phases, rise and set has an effect on animals and tides.

I use the info on the moon as a guide and maybe as mental preparation knowing I may be hunting a feed period. The only thing I have ever been able to pattern is that when a moon rises mid day, there has been good buck activity that afternoon about 2-3 hours after the rise. I patterned this with the 5 best bucks shot off our club the last few years. All were killed early afternoon on a day that the moon rose around 1 PM

Regardless of all that above, deer are going to feed when THEY are hungry and how THEY are used to

theirs so many veribles, yours is on hunting club, most are geared for trouphy hunting, nothing against that, deer more relaxed their. puhlic land is tougher, most hunters their just looking for afordable place ta hunt, done alot of bow hunting peblic land, bow hunting, ya observe patterns of deer, limited range of fire, 30yrds can hit bullseye 99% of time, not an expert, thats a nonmoving target. as posted abovehave used GPS an moon phase, good time, best time hunting, couple years back was in bow stand pl, a doe, & two bucks came running threw, what experts call rut, one a legal 8pnt other 4pnt, weird thing only rack on one side must have injury on other side, any ways acording ta moon phase I was hunting wrong time, nothing supose ta be moving, sorry no pic's had camera with, but reaching for bow. bye house were have stand,feeders about 100yrds & 50yrds was seeing thick neck havey body 13+" buck opening day right at the legal end time ta shoot & some times early mornings second day of gun hunt, usualy not in time with moon phase. still think hunting preasure plays more than moon phase. not an expert, pretty good observer though my posts usualy domt make much cents

Thank you, that was a good post. Lernt me somethin.

Yes, the deer are going to feed when THEY are hungry, which brings up a significant point. How would the solunar tables work for all animals? What if you are hunting hogs? Bobcats? Coyotes? Bear? Bighorn?

It is silly to assume that some sort of scheduling dictates across the board good hunting or not.

It takes time, but you can do what I did. Run your game camera for a few weeks and compare the activity you see on your camera with the tables. I believe that what you will find is like what I found. The tables work very well except when they don't work well at all. I have deer showing up at all hours of the day right now, especially since the weather got good and cool. In the summer time, if it was legal to hunt deer, those daylight peak periods were pretty pathetic predictors for deer behavior at my place.

I liked this quote from Wikipedia on how well solunar predictions work...


Other conditions not being unfavorable? Come on! Other conditions not being unfavorable, animals may indeed move about, assuming they are even in your vicinity, regardless of the locations of the moon and sun in the sky.

However, it really is the "other conditions" that actually dictate animal behavior, such as the individual condition of the animals...as noted above, when are the deer hungry?

I don't like to hunt during the full moon, because that has always been when I see the least amount of game.

I don't like to hunt during the full moon, because that has always been when I see the least amount of game.

Same. Don't see a change on moon phases except when its full... see less game during the day time.

I focus more on wind/weather.

hunt out of a shack, peaken threw the quarter moon, as my daddies kin had done before, it was in that quiet spot that daily cares could be forgot, an it gave the same relieve to return for. moon phases

We tried to take advantage of the moon phase opening weekend. (no moon) Hunted hard morning, mid day, and evening. Saw no deer. Checked the cameras before leaving on Sunday and had a couple of nice bucks hitting the feeders at 2AM. My moon theory is hunt anytime you can and on full moon nights try to wait up for the hogs!

its tough hunting deer, leave that ta the pro's been hunting corn feeders instead of around acorn's, can learn so much info. hog's every one thought I was whin got on first lease with hogs hunting at night, now its high-tech

It is all about witchcraft.

witchcraft voodo ya think your foolen this is scientific knowladge.

When the rut starts all bets are off, the bucks are like cowboys in a saloon and it is getting close to closing time.

so what your saying is, its like a night out at Gilley's

I don't have much faith in the solunar theory and it's affect on animals, but I bought an app for my phone which lays it out pretty good. It basically tells you the moon rise / moon set times paired with the sun rise / sun set times. Then it spits out 2 major periods and 2 minor periods of increased animal activity for each day. The major and minor periods basically correlate with high and low tide time periods. I am trying it out this season just to see if I can see a difference. The app is called iSoulunar if anyone is interested.