I'll be heading home this weekend for the second time this season to do some hunting. I've been watching the weather and looking at the moon phase for the upcoming weekend. Weather is going to be cloudy with chance of showers each day, and moderate temps during mid day(low-mid 60's . The moon looks like it will be about 5 days away from being full, I don't think that's good. With my dad away in Northern IL for the next 10 days, I'll have the property to myself. My question is what kind of areas should I be looking to hunt with this kind of weather/moon phase along with the rut getting into gear? There is a small pond on the property that is heavily covered by mountain laurels (I'm thinking a good early season stand next year?), there is no stand set up there, but I could hunt from the ground. We have two stands set-up, both in funnels, but so far they haven't had much action yet (I did see a few does in my stand when I was home 2 weeks ago). Here's a Topo, my stand is the black dot furthest right, my dads' is the black dot on the left. Green dots are my friends stands. Red lines are trails, and the yellow areas are possible bedding areas(I'm not sure about the one close to my stand, it's just a eastern facing slope(Morning Sun = Bedding?) The blue dot is the water in the property and the blue line is a stream that's off our property. Green line is property boundaries. Any ideas on my setup? I know it's too late in the season to change anything. This is more or less just a little preparing for post-season scouting for next year. Also its Tuesday night, I'm done studying for the night and I'm bored. Any help with ideas for possible areas to cover with this weather/moon setup would be great
I personally don't pay attention to the moon I already make hunting hard enough on myself. I just hunt as often as I can using the right wind.
While moon phases I believe are important, I don't really understand them well enough. However I do know that during these warm spells dalight activity grinds to a halt regardless of moon phases. Thiss weekend is supposed to be cold and wet and i think the deer will be moving more during the day. I believe the pre-rut seeking phase should begin within the next few days, chasing should be strond during the upcoming week.
I'm not too good at maps unless I've actually seen the property first. A lot of variables too, like what they're feeding on and past sightings and such. Also how big an area is this, may have been obvious but I missed it. I think rut is supposed to be in full swing here in Oklahoma next week because of several factors, the full moon being one of them. My experience says that clear skies, warm than usual temps. curtail deer activities and makes them even more nocturnal. It seems to almost make the rut invisible and stretch it out for a while. If you have some good fronts come in with cooler temps, some rain and cloud cover rutting activity should be very noticeable IMO. Even just cool weather helps, seems to get them excited, me too!!! I can't wait for next week, cooler weather, some rain, cloud cover and vacation! Wish you could hear me now! Yeehaw!!! Man my shirt's gettin tight around my neck! Oh yeah, I try to hunt my regular times, dawn and dusk, but if the moon's overhead or underfoot during the day, I try to be in a stand somewhere. (peak times) Next week I want to be in the woods as much as possible. I like Peakrut's answer too though! lp
