The Moon and the Deer Rut;

The moon and the rut

  • Its BS

    Votes: 20 62.5%

  • It works like clock work

    Votes: 12 37.5%
  • Total voters
    32
The moon has an effect, but, it's a little more complicated than just being in the right phase.
Clear weather will allow deer to feed at night, and hide by day. Moonlight just makes it easier for them. Ink black nights have the oposite effect.
There are a ton of other factors to figure into it too.
Daylight weather?, mast crop failure? Hunting pressure? Rut? Drought?
Recent Logging?.... List must be endless.
As to the moon phase having some mystical effect..... I'm not a believer.

How about adding the choice:
"It's more complicated than a simple yes or no"
That's where I'd put my vote.
 
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The rut takes place at the same basic time each year. There are things such as weather, the moon phase, etc that influence or affect the 'intensity' of the rut, but it takes place at the same time nevertheless.
 
Solunar tables are guess work as far as I am concerned... kind of like horoscopes. If you believe in them thats great, whatever makes you confident is a bonus n my books.
The hours of sunlight (photoperiod) is what determines the onset of the rut... period. All the other mitigating factors such as lunar phase, weather, predation, hunting pressure among others can and will affect the rut to a certain degree.
Accurately predicting exactly when your going to shoot your deer is akin to winning the lottery.
 
Biggredd is absolutely right, it is the number of hours of daylight that triggers the rut. The same thing that tells horses when to start shedding their winter coat in the spring, etc.

Few hunters know this and it it also hard to convince most of them. they seem more comfortable with buying into the concept of, 'we need snow on the ground' or some such thing. It is hard to break old myths..............even when I point out to them that the fawns and calves are all born at the same time every year and the deer and moose didn't just change the length of their gestation period.
 
I agree with that (Daylight) to a great degree, on a local basis, but, remember that in southern climes, deer breed at different times, and in some places, they breed all year long, no "rut" at all. So daylight isn't the only factor for them, and probably isn't for our deer either.
 
Here's my take on it, the light triggers the does, the bucks are all swelled up a waiting. The Moon comes around, normally with it cool dry temps, bucks find a date.
Now if a system moves through, that puts a wrench into it , and in my view why some does have to do it all over again in on the 2nd rut.
Now as far as the feeding and night time goes, I see many deer during daylight hours during the new moon. It may be all bs , but I plan to be off 5 days prior to a full moon , and extend it to 2 days after(in november)
Also a mini trip which covers 1 day before and 1 day after the new moon.(oct & nov):rolleyes: :confused: :cool: ;)
Frank
 
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Moon phase has an effect, but it is so interrelated with other factors that I don't believe it alone "controls" the rut. Deer are tuned in to their environment, which consists of a lot more than just the moon phase. Photoperiodism is a primary controlling factor according to science and I agree with that. However in my area, I notice local variations in rutting activity which are subtle but real. What I see is that in southern locations and lower elevations where temps are a bit more moderate, the rutting and scraping may be delayed a week or more compared with higher elevations and more northern locations, where it is a bit cooler. We see it in the rubs and scrapes, but we see it also in the physical condition of the bucks that are taken. They are much more swelled and stinky earlier in the higher elevations and more northerly locales. A few miles one way or the other can make a a huge difference. Here in NB the hunt is timed so that the peak of the rut generally occurs and the very end, if not AFTER the season has closed:mad: . Our biologists know this but don't care because less bucks are getting shot. Around here, if you don't pay attention to these local differences, it may make the difference between a boss buck and an unfilled tag! I guess what I am saying is that temperature has a big say in the intensity of the rut, which makes sense. If it is cold, all deer are more prone to move more in their warm fur coats than in the heat, and deer burn more calories when it is cold. I sat in my stand for a solid week in warm rainy weather right in the prime rutting period for our area, and never saw a tail! Then on the night before the last day of the season, the mercury plunged to -10C overnight, and I just about had to chase the deer out of my area with a stick to get into my stand, they were so thick! It was like flicking the lightswitch.
Having said all that, I do believe that when the moon is visible in the sky either in the morning or afternoon, that can be an indicator that the deer will correspondingly be on the move later in the morning or earlier in the evening. Not sure why those early evening or late morning moons have an effect on deer, but it does seem to, at least from what I've seen:)
If we had all the answers, it wouldn't be any fun...ha!ha!:p
 
Sasquatch said:
The rut takes place at the same basic time each year. There are things such as weather, the moon phase, etc that influence or affect the 'intensity' of the rut, but it takes place at the same time nevertheless.
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I wish that was true in S. Alberta. I've seen full rut from late oct - very late Nov. If there's a Chinook all bets are off.
 
BIGREDD said:
Ask a Biologist and they all give the same answer.
Check for yourself... http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio99826.htm
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Ah yes, biologists, the same people that brought us the spring bear hunt.
I'll trust what I see rather than some biologist expert thanks.
I've seen years when rut activity was almost absent during the gun hunt, and others where it was intense. If daylight alone was the cause of the start up of the rut, it should be consistent.
Biologists claim that daylight causes the leaves to fall too, but, not long ago, we had a drought, and the leaves did not fall. Seems there are other factors there too.
 
I always heard it was the amount of daylight that starts the rut, fish to spawn,etc. While fishing in May there was 4 moose cows in a bay. Just before dark I gave a cow call and a bull answered and came in grunting same as in the fall rut. I got him and the grunts recorded on my cam corder, maybe animals are like humans when she calls we come??????
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Ah yes, biologists, the same people that brought us the spring bear hunt.
I'll trust what I see rather than some biologist expert thanks.
I've seen years when rut activity was almost absent during the gun hunt, and others where it was intense. If daylight alone was the cause of the start up of the rut, it should be consistent.
Biologists claim that daylight causes the leaves to fall too, but, not long ago, we had a drought, and the leaves did not fall. Seems there are other factors there too.
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Well this is an interesting response... Are you saying that biologists cancelled the spring bear hunt? :confused:

I guess the deer in my neck of the woods read more biology books than yours J/C.;) We have a high population density and they sure are predictable... this past season the opener fell almost a week later on the 7th of November. I remember posting on this forum that deer would be in the full rut with the late opener and that the kill ratio for bucks would be a lot higher. This was exactly what happened and the buck to doe ratio was double this year according to most reports in high density areas.
Our camp alone shot 16 bucks out of 20 deer. Now I don't claim to be an expert... Ok... I do claim to be an expert...:rolleyes:. But I know two PHD Biologists and one who hunts with us who is a Whitetail expert. They both agree that the beginning of the rut is predictable and constant.
I agree that there are many factors that affect the rut but the only one that is guaranteed is photo period.
Here is another respected biologists opinion... http://www.trmichels.com/RutDates.htm
 
I know some days are better to be in the bush and those days quite often coencide with the moon phases. However moon phases arn't the only factor. The best time to be out in the bush is during a cold new moon or a cloudy full moon. Also just before a weather system moves in and just after the weather clears. Days where the heavy snow is falling off the trees is also a good day for deer movenment.

I have shot animals on full moons and new moons and probably a variety of phases imbetween, it doesn't nessesarily say you will or will not see animals but there is definitly a stronger deer movement during some phases than during others.
 
I have seen ruten action from 12-21 Nov, and buck pre rut scrape maken , with regular visits, as early as 3 nov, and thats in AB, BC,NB, snd NS.
Gotta love seeing big bucks at 10 meters or less with their upper lip pinned to their nose bone:D
I have never seen a biologist in the woods, but they must spend a few minutes in there. To count a 1/2 dozen s**t piles , then predict the population for 1000 square miles.
Frank
 
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Unfortunately too many guys seem to think that the rut is only happening when the bucks are smoking around hot on a does tail, or the moose come readily to the call...................that is what I was refering to by the intensity of the rut....the visible signs. Just because you don't see them running around acting heavy in rut (or what we like to see) doesn't mean it isn;t happening anyways. Like I said.....the gestation period is the same....and the fawns and calves are still born in the same time frame in the spring.......and if you didn't see much of a 'rut' the previous fall it still happened. Unless of course it was mass cases of immaculate conception.

This is one of those topics that is kind of like beating your head against the wall...it feels good when you stop! So I am.
 
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