Moons - Is it worth while

Im sure you guys have heard that hunting a full moon is bad because the deer move at night. After reviewing all the photos from my camera over a 22 hour period during the full moon I have to question that a little bit. While the majority of the movement was at night, daytime movement proved to be what it was from previous hunting expereince regardless of moon phase. The deer moved heavy from 45minutes after I put the camera out (7pm) until 10:45am the next morning, with a slight lag while I assume they were out in the fields between the hours of 2am and 6am, at 6am steady action picked up again until 10:45am and then the camera went still until 5pm when the last photo was taken 5 minutes before I arrived. I had one buck on film at 10:45pm and another on film in the morning.

I would have to say they followed a typical pattern of moving toward the field at night and moving back in the morning. Neither buck was seen twice.

Worth while to pay attention too. Yes, the big buck was seen at night during a full moon, but I was under the impression that moon phases where saposed to have an effect on all deer, not just big bucks. The deer still moved up until almost lunch, and were back at it again by 5pm.

I know one thing, the quicker I can fill my doe tag this year the better. Get that out of the way. Last year I passed up so many doe's waiting on a buck and it did pay off, but never on a day when I passed on one.

I really think it should be like other places, you can whack one, not even get down and whack another. One thing I saw the other day I found to be excessive was ted nugent just plowing deer after deer after deer in Michigan.

He shot this buck, then a doe, then another doe, then another doe, then another doe, without ever leaving the box blind. What in the hell kind of fun is that. Im going to fill 8 tags all in a matter of hours because I can.

I can see two deer in one outing, I bet he would feel a little different if he had to gut, drag, skin and eat all those deer. He is a wildlife killing maniac, I wouldnt be suprised to hear he turned into a serial killer.

In my opinion the best time to make it out hunting is whenever you are able to. I am lucky enough that I will be able to make it out most mornings, some evenings and tuesday/wednesday all day, since I have office hours thurs-monday 11am-5pm. I guess what I am trying to say is; my work dictates when I hunt, not the moon phase.
 
I do pay attention to the moon phases, and feel they are valid. A good example why I believe the moon phases have an effect on deer movement happened a few days in a row, about a month & 1/2 ago. I saw lots of deer feeding in fields in the afternoon hours. I checked the chart on my gps to see what time the "excellent" activity times for the day were supposed to be, and those short hours coincided with the times I saw deer.
 
Do I base the days I hunt on the moon chart?...No. Would I, if my work hours were flexible, and I could choose which days to schedule off?....Yes

J

I've looked at it before (not for moon phases) .. it's fact most record book bucks are killed the first and last week.   That goes for the nation, not just PA.  I'll try to gather that sometime as well, although the results stand out dramatically.  Obviously the last week is the time but I was surprised the number of biggens killed the first week, just like Stacy's.
 

The moon phases effect the movement and feeding patterns of all fish and animals regardless of age when no other factors such as severe weather patterns, the rut, or human intervention are present. That is not to say that you can't catch fish or see animals at any other time but the moon normally dictates the best time for movement or feeding . As was previously stated hunt whenever you can, but if your hunting time is limited, go with the lunar tables to be in the woods or on the stream.

Here's a scan of the local newspaper clipping.