Who is they that believe the moon has an effect on a does heat cycle? If this were the case does could be in heat once a month.
I used to put a lot of stock in moon phases, these days, with a herd of kids, I just hunt whenever I can I used to consider anything that triggers a lessening of light, primarily photoperiod, new moon, or days where the moon is out during a large portion of the day. There is a bunch of info out there on the impacts these thing have on farm animals (see goats/horses). My work buddies used to always give me crap when they'd see me googling the estous cycles for goats...lol
This has been my primary experience as well. Morning hunts on a full moon I rarely see any deer at all, no matter the time of year. Evening hunts are usually pretty good.
I generally do not see as much daylight activity on a full moon as other days. I do believe in the moon overhead/moon underfoot timing. For instance if either time is on the daylight side and within 90 minutes of sunrise or sunset I will see more deer out before dark or getting to bed late after first light. I also think that the moon phase overlapping the photoperiod does effect how much rutting activities you see when.
I've been reading up on the whole "moon" thing for a few years now. I've also done a little of my own note taking and what I have seen has been interesting, though not rut related. When I first started reading Charles Alsheimer's articles, I started paying more attention to deer movement during the full moon. I started looking at some of my trail cam pics and in some areas had deer walking by my cameras between 9:30 am and 1:00 pm on full moon days. A couple of years ago, I debated going to the stand to hunt on a full moon on January 14 as it was the next to last day of season. I had not seen a lot of deer since gun season ended at the end of November and it is over 100 miles to the stand so I slept in. When I went to take my stand down and take my camera out of the woods I was shocked to see 4 shooter bucks (125" and up) were in front of my camera between 9:24 am and 2:10 pm on the 14th of January. In October 2012 I talked two buddies into hunting on a full moon and we all got shots at bucks between 11 am and 1:30 pm. They both connected and I shot low. On another hunt, I saw three separate groups of deer feeding on a full moon between 10 and 11 am several hundred yards from each other. The next day I hung a stand at 8:30 am and had a 125"-130" buck come in to where he was the day before at 10:15 am. The wind shifted as I was drawing my bow and he left. Ten minutes later, two does and a fawn came in to the same spot. I'm convinced that during a full moon, deer hunting in the early morning is difficult and that deer get up to feed midday relatively close to their bedding area. And that's my $.02 worth...
what i have learned after 40 years of bow hunting is not worry about the moon during the rut.it will not effect the bucks movement during daylight hours. hormones and hot does dictate his movement,but unseasonable warm weather can shut down the rut till the next cold front hits.bucks will catch up on their feeding during this time which if happens to be a full moon he will feed more at night.
In my experience, I see way less movement during the full moon phase while hunting. Last year, I had November 4th thru 12th off and hunted every day. Mostly morning and evenings but a couple mid-day's as well. It was rough, very slow movement. It was a full moon on 5th, so big moon for the majority of that week. I've killed a buck on a full moon, but it was early in the morning and they had actually been running does very hard in the dark. I got stuck at the base of my tree for over an hour in the dark while they chased all around me. I called one back a little after I got in the stand and killed him over my decoy. I just believe they don't move as much during daylight hours with a full moon, but I also think it might have a little to do with when the moon is actually high in the sky and underfoot. Typically, they will move better when the moon is considered underfoot.
