Buckeye's post in the moon phase thread had me thinking. I went back and checked my harvest dates against the moon phase. I don't have any other info such as temps, wind, cloud cover, Moon rise/set, but I found it pretty interesting. These are all buck harvests: 2009 - 11/14 - Waning Crescent - AM Kill 2011 - 11/11 - Full Moon - AM Kill 2012 - 11/15 - New Moon - AM Kill 2013 - 11/15 - Full Moon - AM Kill 2014 - 10/19 - Waning Crescent - PM Kill 2015 - 12/6 - Waning Crescent - PM Kill 2016 - 10/30 - New Moon - PM Kill My conclusion is that I have had good hunting around both the new moon and full moon. How about you?
2009 - 10/20 - Waxing Crescent - PM Kill (early evening) 2010 - 12/2 - Waning Crescent - PM Kill (mid afternoon) 2012 - 11/26 - Waxing Gibbous - AM Kill 2013 - 11/9 - Waxing Crescent - PM Kill (early evening) 2014 - 11/4 - Waxing Gibbous - PM Kill 2015 - 10/31 - Waning Gibbous - PM Kill I'm all over the place.
Wouldn't your conclusion be that you've had good hunting around crescent moon phases? They represent a higher % than full or new. OR, the conclusion should be that moon phase has shown no attributable affect on hunting success.
Looking only at moon phase and no other factors my overall conclusion is I have had the most success leading up to and away from the full moon. The waning and waxing gibbous have been my most successful moon phases as 9 of the 12 came from those two phases. All 3.5+ year old bucks in order from oldest to most recent: Waning Gibbous Waxing Gibbous Waxing Gibbous Waxing Gibbous Waning Cresent Waning Gibbous Waning Gibbous Waning Cresent Full Waxing Gibbous Waning Gibbous Waxing Gibbous
There are many more days in the moon cycle that fall as Waning or waxing than there are that fall as Full Moon and New Moon, so no I would not say that I have been more successful during the crescent phase. I would only consider 3 days a month as full moon and 3 days a month as new moon. That leaves somewhere around 24 days out of the month that is either waxing or waning. Therefore, no I have a much higher percentage of success on Full and New moons.
Here is some info for the 8 largest bucks I've killed. Oct 2, PM, waning gibbous Oct 4, PM, 1st quarter Nov 6, AM, 3rd quarter Nov 7, PM, 1st quarter Nov 7, PM, waxing crescent Nov 8, PM, full Nov 11, PM, 3rd quarter Nov 25, AM, 3rd quarter
I'd argue that you have a good week where the moon reflects off of the over the vast majority of its surface and for all intents and purposes is 'full' in terms of night time illumination. Sure technically there are only 3 days when its 99-100% illuminated but it is still just as bright outside at night on the 4th night. I think the new moon window is a little smaller.
