Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Full Moon-Iowa

Hardwood11

Hardwood11

It is going to be a good fall!
I'll be heading down to Iowa to hunt my farm this week. My question for you guys is from your past experience how does the full moon affect deer movement in your area. I have never hunted Iowa during the full moon phase, except during the shotgun season.

In MN we see a bit less evening movement, and more late morning movement,,,, any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Same thing here in Iowa. From what I've seen, full moon allows them to move more at night and into the morning.
 
Haven't paid much attention, although I do know it is obviously easier to see at night with a full moon, so they may feed later. I've read some stuff on how hunting the dark period is best for mature bucks too, so if that is the case, they may not be seen this weekend. I'm sure that won't apply to all hunters out there and some monsters will be taken tho.
 
Thinkin Rut said:
JMO...no matter the moon phase this week, mid day movement of mature bucks will be limited.
Click to expand...

You are correct, not expecting much really, mainly check cams and maybe take a doe.

Sometimes the moon does weird things though and it is suppose to be cooler!
 
Hardwood11 said:
not expecting much really, mainly check cams and maybe take a doe.
Click to expand...
That's where we were Saturday night when my boy had one of his better nights of hunting, passed a buck he will probably regret. Like you said, with the cooler temps, anything can happen. Good luck!
 
My experience is that this time of October is slow. Throw a full moon in there and it'll be slower yet. But with the cool weather, it may not be as bad. I will be changing camera cards this weekend so I just as well sit in a tree while I'm there.
 
KnuckleDragr said:
My experience is that this time of October is slow. Throw a full moon in there and it'll be slower yet. But with the cool weather, it may not be as bad...
Click to expand...

FWIW, my younger son went out on our place last Saturday evening and had non-stop action from the time he sat down to when he texted me to drive my truck out to him to scare the herd away so he didn't alert them by climbing down in the middle of them. Does, fawns, little bucks, medium bucks and one pretty nice one that he passed and could have shot 10 times.

Neither of us thought it would be a good evening, but it was. It just goes to show that we never know for sure. Cooler temps really help the October sits!
 
Daver said:
FWIW, my younger son went out on our place last Saturday evening and had non-stop action from the time he sat down to when he texted me to drive my truck out to him to scare the herd away so he didn't alert them by climbing down in the middle of them. Does, fawns, little bucks, medium bucks and one pretty nice one that he passed and could have shot 10 times.

Neither of us thought it would be a good evening, but it was. It just goes to show that we never know for sure. Cooler temps really help the October sits!
Click to expand...

Well I like to hear that!!
 
StickersNKickers said:
Haven't paid much attention, although I do know it is obviously easier to see at night with a full moon, so they may feed later. I've read some stuff on how hunting the dark period is best for mature bucks too, so if that is the case, they may not be seen this weekend. I'm sure that won't apply to all hunters out there and some monsters will be taken tho.
Click to expand...

Just was thinking back to last season, and actually the biggest buck I saw all season (probably 160"+ 5.5 yr old) was the day after the full moon, about 1 hr before sunset. It was Oct. 31 tho, so rut was definitely close.
 
Hardwood11 said:
Well I like to hear that!!
Click to expand...

FYI, my son was hunting near some of our new this year food plots, which range in quality from fair to very good. Drat the lack of rain or I think we would have had clearly our best quality and quantity of food ever on our farm. As it is, I would rate things on a scale of 1-10 as about a 7, which is better than most years easily.

Paul's(Dbltree) son Jesse planted most of our very good plots with what I think is the secret weapon in a dry year, a drill, and we planted some ourselves and they are fair to good too. But we also shielded everything with milo and EW and that creates a very comfy environment for the deer. Combine those plots with continued chain saw work in the surrounding timber and although deer numbers are down in our region generally, I think we have 4 or 5 times the deer we had we when first bought the place several years ago now.
 
I shot a mature buck at 4 last year on november 2. It was a quarter from full moon. I don't follow the moon phases much anymore.
 
Full moon during the rut in the past, I seem to see bucks around 10:00 am...

Not the rut yet, but I'll sit til 11 see what happens
 
I personally don't believe in moon phases for hunting. I follow the weather everyday and has worked well for me in the past. Everyone has their own theory on moon phases and I'm sure its different in other areas. My best advice would be try it and see what happens.
 
Took my nine year old nephew tonight, and he attempted to fill his youth tag on a really nice, big bodied buck. Came out by himself about 10 minutes before sunset. He was definitely one of the bigger bucks in the area, and the only deer we saw tonight. Too bad my nephew pulled the shot. Oh well, we were both shaking bad afterwards, and it was a blast. Hopefully tomorrow night we'll connect on one. Not sure if it had anything to do with the moon, but a big buck was moving on his own tonight.
 
cooler temps and sounds like it's suppose to be overcast most of the weekend I thought I heard. Something should be moving.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom