Independent Study

[BSK]

Your doing these numbers on your cams on your property..right ? What about property with totally different terrain than yours like mostly fields ? Does any of you track your deer like Brian ? He's good at what he does no doubt ...but other properties could be totally different..right ?

This particular data I'm referring to (moon data) is hunter-collected deer observation data. In essence, looking at the number of deer/bucks seen under each condition and dividing by the number of hours hunted under those conditions. This gives me a "deer/bucks seen per hunting hour" number for each condition I'm looking at.

And yes, just from my property. And I only use my property's data because nobody else I know collects the level of data I do! My data collection drives the other hunters nuts, but they're used to it. Everyone has learned to collect all their observations on their phone.

I suspect deer movement is HIGHLY influenced by habitat. Flat farmland would probably see very different numbers than ridge-and-hollow hardwoods.

 

[BSK]

If some say it has nothing to do with moon phase. Could it be possible that during a full moon. Some flowers or greenery of some kind. Will actually flower or possibly sprout. Bringing the deer to feed just because of what's sprouting or flowering. And that doesn't happen outside the brightness of a full moon. And it not actually being about the moon phase.even though it kind of is. But it gives an appearance of it being. Just thinking outside the box. I have no idea.

I can't think of a plant like that here, but in the desert there are plants that only bloom in moonlight (some cacti).

 

[BSK]

Food for thought? I'm going to compare moon phase to prime and minor times by the trail camera pictures I've collected from September to January. This is on the farm I hunt, all three seasons Monday through Friday some Saturdays. Half day hunts.
? is when are my deer moving the most during hunting hours.

Should be some great data!

Here's mine. This is 14 years of trail-camera data from October, November, and December. It is comprised of 4,111 older buck camera events. An "event" is any time a buck is captured on camera, but does not include every picture in the event. He may hang around and get his picture taken 50 times, but it's still just one event. The "hour" data is the hour following the listed time. For example, the bar for 4:00 PM includes all events between 4:00 to 4:59 PM. The two vertical black lines represent a basic idea of sunrise and sunset.

 

[Double-D-Team]

this! also...the first hour of the podcast reviews the study design with the second half being results. i went into this assuming that the moon had statistically significant impact on deer movement, and i was wrong.

There are 4 parts to this blog so fare. I got number 4 tonight on YouTube.

 

[Smo]

I'm a believer…

I've hunted the moon phase since back in the early 90's.
A Friend told me about how feeding times coincide with the moons position during each moon phase.
He allowed that deer under normal conditions would feed / move approximately every 6 hours.
His explanation was when the moons path was directly overhead (noon on a New Moon ) that was a major feeding time.
When it was directly underfoot (12 hrs later midnight) that was the 2nd major feeding time that 24 hour cycle.
2 minor feeding cycles would occur at 3:00 pm & 9:00 on a typical New Moon phase..

At that time I belonged too a hunting club and could usually only hunt weekends & holidays.

But I started hunting the moon phase and feeding times..
I hunted 2 hours prior to prime feeding time until 2 hours after..sometimes going 3 before & 3 hours after prime time.
My numbers of deer sightings far out numbered any of the others in the club.

During the rut, as mentioned above anytime in the woods is a good time.

I still find by running trail cams that I see more activity during those prime feeding time than any other times..except the rut.

Keep in mind the moon rises approximately 45 -48 minutes later each day so adjust your hunting times as applicable..

Full moon days I rarely get to the stand before 9:00 am..

I recall growing up my Dad and I squirrel hunted a lot..
Some weekends would would go early and some weekends we would go in the afternoons..I never ask why, but I think I know now..

 

[BSK]

Interesting stuff Smo!

 

[BSK]

Double-D-Team,

Depending on how you're going to store and calculate your data, you might want to brush up on Excel macros! I can't tell you how many days I spent learning to write macros. And some get really crazy. Do you want to know what this crazy bit of gobbledy-gook does?

=IF(AND(G14>=(VLOOKUP(A14,$BO$2:$BS$93,4,FALSE)),G14<=(VLOOKUP(A14,$BO$2:$BS$93,5,FALSE))),"D","N")

All it does is for a given camera event, compare the date and time against a table of sunrise and sunset times for every day of the season, and check to see if the camera event time falls within 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset, for that date. If it does, assign the value "D" (for "Daylight") to this cell. If not, assign the value "N" (for Night) to this cell.

It took me hours to get that little line of code to work right! But having each record with its own "flag" for whether it is during legal daylight or not is a HUGE help for analysis.

 

[Popcorn]

Never read a moon chart at the same time I have always paid attention to the moon. The above post by @Smo makes sense. My rules have been to hunt early and late on dark nights, hunt mid day on bright nights. Heavy cloud cover and or overnight rain always had a similar effect.

 

[Snake]

This particular data I'm referring to (moon data) is hunter-collected deer observation data. In essence, looking at the number of deer/bucks seen under each condition and dividing by the number of hours hunted under those conditions. This gives me a "deer/bucks seen per hunting hour" number for each condition I'm looking at.

And yes, just from my property. And I only use my property's data because nobody else I know collects the level of data I do! My data collection drives the other hunters nuts, but they're used to it. Everyone has learned to collect all their observations on their phone.

I suspect deer movement is HIGHLY influenced by habitat. Flat farmland would probably see very different numbers than ridge-and-hollow hardwoods.

I admire your commitment to collecting data and then using it . Has to take up some time.

 

[Ski]

There absolutely is credence to it but not in the way people expect and not to the scale they expect.

If you're expecting to see a dramatic difference in distance and time of movement then you're going to be disappointed. GPS collar studies will confirm that.

However, if you're set up 50yds from a crest where you suspect a buck is bedded or staged, with plans to kill him as he sets out for the evening, then your success will rest inside a tiny window of time. Minutes and feet make the difference. If he moves 10yds/minute as he browses his way down the trail and shooting light ends at 5:45pm, then he has to be on his feet headed your way by 5:42pm if you want a 20yd shot. If an overhead moon urges him to move at that time then you kill a buck. If a low moon keeps him in his stage until 5:43 or 5:44 then you don't kill a buck.

That is the fringe many of us regularly hunt on. And while moon position isn't by itself a deciding factor, it is absolutely one of several criteria that if stacked up simultaneously make for a higher odds sit. And in a tight game like that odds are everything.

At 13:15 in this YouTube vid, Dr. Strickland explains pretty much exactly what I was talking about. Both in major and minor moon positions bucks were on their feet measurably longer than normal. HUGELY during minor position times they were 18 minutes later to bed down in the morning and 6 minutes earlier to move in the evening. Like I said above in my previous post just a minute or two makes a tremendous difference in killing a buck or not. I'm a big fan of Dr. Strickland and the research he oversees but the way he dismisses his own data on this subject as insignificant baffles me. A buck predictably being on his feet nearly 20 minutes later in the morning and 6 minutes earlier in the evening is most definitely not insignificant.

I mean if you're hunting out of a box blind from 200yds away over a corn field then yeah for you those few minutes probably don't mean much. But for those of us hunting next to buck bedding with a bow it means everything.