I do believe in it but not as much as I do fishing. I have seen the bite turn off several times right at the end of a major period. That being said, I have always favored a Waxing moon 50-80% for movement into the full moon. I also think wind will trump any moon phase period. Cold and still in that Waxing phase is where I have the most deer and activity.

We all fall victim of biases, and several are at play in this thread.

Confirmation bias: i shot my best buck and when i checked, it was during a “___ moon phase/position” when the real situation was you were in the stand during the rut and caught a buck on the move, or you shot it close to sunrise/sunset when we know deer are more likely to move. Your bias is that you attribute the buck to the moon phase but not to the other factors.

Selection bias: i only get to hunt several weekends or i see deer up and moving when i do X (drive thru the country, look at trail cams, mow the fields, whatever…) and when i do those things i see more deer moving during full moon or see less movement when full moon is at night, or whatever….this is not taking into account all the other times you are not there to see the deer moving or not moving. But attributing this selection bias to moon is a faulty conclusion.

Anecdotal evidence bias: i know what i see and what so and so told me, so it doesnt matter what anyone else says about the subject, i know what i know because i have experienced it. This is the most common barrier to getting good information out there about deer hunting.


Just throwing this out there. The research done was pretty well done. Sure it isnt perfect, but it was pretty solid. The reality is rut is the biggest factor affecting buck movement, followed by sunrise sunset, and then weather conditions. Moon phase had almost zero effect, well within the margin or error for the gps collar tracking devices.

Of course, research is only as good as the data, and the data may only apply to Mississippi deer. It may also be flawed data. But for what it is, this is a large multiyear study that showed many things affect buck movement, but the moon was not it.

These two bucks were killed on a SUPER moon.

Great summary. I assume the next to the last paragraph is from the study and not your opinion.