Moon Naysayers...


Tominator

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Deer and deer hunting magazine/show predicted an early "flurry" of a rut for the 23rd. These guys are predicting a late rut based on the goofy full moon schedule this year.

I saw 9 deer this morning. 3 of them fresh kills, 2 of those fresh kills were bucks, both of them decent. 1 roadkill was "toss a bucket of blood on the road" kind of smash jobs, couldn't tell what it was. 2 fresh roadkills on the way home from football last night.

Moon is almost full, temp wasn't unusually cold this morning (44).

So, how do you explain all the activity yesterday and today?

Man, if you live in Ohio, get in a stand!

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Saw two very much alive bucks this morning along I71.

Jake and I will be hunting tonight, he finally asked me to take him. :cool: He'll be in the buddy stand alone for the first time (he's 15 years old), I'll be a mere 200 yards away. :rockon:

Good luck buddy! That's exciting getting out with Jake. :cool: (must be having trouble with Emalee, eh? :D)

Think of me while I'm languishing in P/T conferences tonight.

I swear, if I see a dead deer on the way home tonight, it's getting a ride in the truck. :D

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This past Monday and Tuesday were totally nuts in my neck of the woods with chasing. I saw a couple of the biggest bucks I'm after during those days running does, buck roaring, fighting etc.. I gotta say it's probably the earliest I ever remember seeing intense rutting behavior like that.

Exactly what Alsheimer predicted, then it's supposed to taper off to a "trickle" then the real rut is supposed to happen late November.

Either way, I can't hunt, so it doesn't matter for me. :D

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The deer have been out in force around here for the last 3 days right after dark. I have been seeing them driving home at night coming home from hunting. Saw a BIG bodied deer laying dead on the side of the road yesterday a couple miles from my house. Looked like the skull cap had been cut off so it must have had some nice head gear.

I havent seen any actual rutting activity though. No bucks behind does, no scrapes. Maybe the full moon just has them moving down here.

Edited by Ethan Givan
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Deer and deer hunting magazine/show predicted an early "flurry" of a rut for the 23rd. These guys are predicting a late rut based on the goofy full moon schedule this year.

I saw 9 deer this morning. 3 of them fresh kills, 2 of those fresh kills were bucks, both of them decent. 1 roadkill was "toss a bucket of blood on the road" kind of smash jobs, couldn't tell what it was. 2 fresh roadkills on the way home from football last night.

Moon is almost full, temp wasn't unusually cold this morning (44).

So, how do you explain all the activity yesterday and today?

Man, if you live in Ohio, get in a stand!

It could have been related to barometric pressure, crop harvest could be causing a change in movement patterns, hunting pressure could be making the deer move at night when the drivers can't see them, there could be increased traffic, it could have been coincidental, who knows what could be the cause. I don't think I'd feel to good about basing my whole philosophy on what I saw once or even a few times on the way home. It doesn't prove much.

I believe what I believe because I have over 300 pages of documentation from my own hunts that give me clear patterns- none of which seem to have anything to do with moon activity no matter how I look at it.

Before I started my research, I used to believe in the "moon theories". I swore by them. It really seemed that I saw more deer when the moon wasn't full. The fact is, I probably didn't see many deer on a full moon because I got discouraged and left before I should have, hunted differently than normal, etc.

That being said, deer in every part of the country act differently. There is no doubt about that. I'm not saying that the moon can't affect deer, I'm just saying that in all of the places I've hunted, it hasn't.

Edited by TN Bucknasty
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I'm not saying that the moon can't affect deer, I'm just saying that in all of the places I've hunted, it hasn't.

And I'm not saying the moon was the only indicator here, nor do I base my entire hunting schedule on the moon, I'm saying, all things considered, (namely the ones you mentioned), there were way too many sightings to totally dismiss the moon and its effect on deer movement.

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Once again, I'm not saying moon phase is dictating my hunting, it doesn't. All I'm saying is, all of a sudden, I go from seeing zero to 1 or 2 deer every morning to 5 and then 9 in the last two days.

There has to be a logical trigger there.

Hunted twice earlier this week and didnt see a deer either time. Went tonight and saw 4. I think the moon has an effect no doubt.

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I haven't been seeing much deer activity in the woods lately but I have to say that the bucks are getting hammered on the highways in the last week. I drive from the western end of maryland to erie pa once a week for work, I take 79 from morgantown wv to erie. I would say that 75-80% of the deer that are identifiable have been bucks, they started showing up about a week and half ago. Our early muzzleloader season came in today, I hunted from daylight to 1pm and then from 3pm to dark and never saw a deer. Hopefully things will pick up in the woods like they have along the highway.

Rodney

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I had a lot of young buck chasing last couple of weeks. Mostly as a group. I had a big boy running a doe a couple days ago. But as far as I can tell the activity is pretty much normal. I am still seeing most of the doe with their fawns. I am also seeing a few more loner bucks. Scrapes are being hit and rubs are starting to appear.

Although I respect Charles Alshiemer I no longer take the prediction stuff to heart. I do know that the predictions for selling magazines and moon phase calenders are usually right on.

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the action seems to be really picking up around here... a buddy had a shooter tonight at 20 yards at last light but couldn't see his pins. A couple more shooters were seen roaming around the property before dark as well. I had to help a buddy's son look for his deer tonight so could not make it out. I'll be out as much as possible the next three days.

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Getting close to what Mark Drury calls sweet November up there. I just checked my hunting journal for last year & I saw good rutting action while bowhunting in Illinois from the 24th through the 30th last year too.

No such action at all down here right now. Deer sightings for the hunters on our place this past weekend was way below what it's been. I can't say personally how the deer movement was this past weekend since I spent Friday through Sunday morning on a tractor planting food plots. I hunted Wednesday afternoon & Thursday. Deer were just going about their business of feeding and going to or coming from beds in the afternoon. I didn't have a problem seeing deer for that 1 1/2 days on stand but it sure sounded like they shut down when the warmer muggy weather moved in while I was planting. I did see two road kills on the way home Chris...a spotted fawn and a doe.

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I have had deer in the evenings, but the last few mornings have been nil for me. Others have reported the opposite. There has been no obvious rutting behavior except the usual licking branch freshen the scrape thing.You can only account for what you see in your part of the woods. I'm out the door to observe some more and hopefully see some action.

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I haven't seen a deer in my last four hunts... been a little warm though, or just sitting in the wrong stands. :hammer1::D

Last 2 hunts for me. Sunday was in the 70's, yesterday was high 60's. This weekend is supposed to cool off, but now the "flurrry" D&DH predicted is over and it's now supposed to "trickle" until the main rut late November.

We'll see. I don't really care, because after this week, I'll be able to go out nearly every night for quite some time I hope. :cool::D

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