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Observations during full moon week of 11/8-11/14??

M

MN Slick

PMA Member
What were you guys seeing during the full moon over the last week or so? I had 4 guys in my party and spoke to a couple at the hotel and we all saw very limited buck movement, especially in the evenings. Saw a few decent bucks on the 7th and 8th and then it went dead until yesterday the 14th. Do you think it was the full moon or were the bucks holed up with the does? According to the Alsheimer moon theory the peak of the rut is still a week or so out which would lend credence to the full moon causing the lull in activity. But of course that is a theory. We did see a few bucks in open county bedded and tight to does which makes me think the rut peaked around the 10th, 11th, 12th. Does that sound about right for Iowa? What were your experiences last week? Trying to get more info for future trip planning but I know I'll never plan during a full moon again. We were in Decatur County is Southern Iowa. Heading down for 4 more days on the 19th so hopefully the big boys are moving. Thanks.
 
i think this past week has sort of sucked for hunting. i have not seen hardly any big bucks until the past couple days. i've hunted till 11:30 or noon each day and back on the stand at 1 till dark. i feel lucky to have my buck hanging right now. next year i'll plan vacation around the full moon.
 
I'm hoping there's plenty of activity left yet although I think alot of the big fellas were busy with does this week. I have vacation from the 23-30 and am hoping to catch the tail end of the action.After a great start on the 5th of Nov. things have gone steadily downhill from there. I'd like to think the best is yet to come but I'm not real confident right now. Did see a nice 8 point wandering like a lost dog yesterday afternoon. Maggs
 
Re: Observations during full moon week of 11/8-11/

In our area I would say the rut was close to full swing. Saw little deer activity on good clear days. When it was clouded up more I saw more activity. I saw bucks cruizing early in the morning. Then it seemed to die for a while and late morning to midday it seemed to pick up again. I always hate hunting a full moon. I always hope that it is nice and cloudy during that phase. Still think you will be in business looking for a good buck. Good luck.
 
Full Moon is always bad, unless you are yote hunting. Big bucks get their chores done at night and hole up with fresh does all day long. This is a good time to do deer drives.
Hunt on All4s
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Well guys with this only bein my second year of real serious bow huntin Id have to say that I really dont know much about the whole full moon situation except that I shot my buck on the 8th which was the night of the eclipse. So I guess I aint got a whole lot of complaints as of yet.

Thefrgt10
 
Re: Observations during full moon week of 11/8-11/

We usually see a lot of action during this time however it was on the verge of terrible for us... Just didn't see hardly anything let alone a shooter...
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Hopefully things will pick up this week... anyone else?
 
It seems like every magazine I read has some "expert" saying how the deer will run you over around mid-day on a fuul moon if you're not careful. I sat for 6 hours through mid-day on the 9th and saw 0 deer.
 
I have to agree with you guys. In my week off during the full moon I saw 23 bucks of which 3 were shooters. Of the 23 not 1 was seen after 4pm except the one I shot last night.
I saw several nice bucks just driving home from my morning hunts, 10:30-11am. So the next few days I slept in and went to the stand later in the morning and had better success (sightings) from 11-3pm.

Pupster
 
I usually didn't give the moon theory much thought however since I spent nearly 80 hours in a stand the past two weeks and saw one shooter I'm now going to consider the moon phases when scheduling my vacation. It's the only thing I can think of since the weather did cooperate this year.

Tomo
 
I hunted this whole week from Sat the 8th through Sunday the 16th in Southern Iowa in Appanoose County. The weekend of the 8th we saw a ton of big and little buck movement and activity. I hunted with two others and they each had an opportunities inside of 30 yds each of their sits from first light to 11 and 2:00 to dark with deer movement at least once each hour. Small bucks were constantly crusing all day. They both had misses and took fair bucks. Monday through Sunday the sixteenth I hunted both AM and PM. Saw declining big buck activity as the week went on but had atleast two little spikes or baskets each stand. They have still been cruising. Around 11:00 on Sunday I went and still hunted through the thick brush and was catching bigger bucks pushing does out of the timbers into the brush. I watched three seperate shooters chasing different does in a 30 acre piece. I would spend some time the next few days watching these areas and less time in the big open timbers. Also with the deer crusing its a good time to walk those drag lines into your stands with doe scent. Hopefully things will start to pick back up like the weekend of the 8th. Shoot straight.
 
I saw moderate activity starting the 7th. Saw "the big one" the morning of the 8th. Didn't see much after that until again late this past week. My uncle saw "the big one" again yesterday. I've actually seen more activity related to rutting the past 4 or 5 days...hopefully the next week will garner better results.
 
I glad i read this post. I thougt it was just me last week. It had to of been the worst week i have seen for deer activity. I think late this week into next weekend should be very good.
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I liken it a lot to shotgun season last December...full moon and clear skies. As a group we saw very little activity. As a group we hunt from stands for shotgun season, with very little driving.
 
this last weekend, i hunted all day fri - sunday, i saw ten bucks all weekend which is really slow for the area im hunting. i think the problem is all the bucks are with the does, and my area is so huge i can cover very little. most the guys i was hunting saw very little too, unless there was a hot doe, then every buck in the area was hounding her, i bet by next week things will be awesome again when those big boys start searching again!!!
 
Thanks for the responses gents. Looks like we chose the wrong week. Do you guys think the limited sightings were because of the full moon, because the rut peaked, or both?
 
Same Frustrations here I hunted for seven days of the past ten and saw very little buck activity. I tought it was me too, I guess I'm relieved to know that the moon might be the cause of the problem this year.
 
Lets see Nov 8(saw 10 bucks from noon to 4 pm-180",140" 2-130"-135" and a couple in the 120"-130")

Nov 9- "woods on fire bucks running hard on does for most part"

Nov 10- set up decoy and climbed into tree at 2:45 pm shot deer at 3:10 pm, came to rattling.Saw 3 more bucks while waiting 45 minutes.

Nov 11-honey do's

Nov 12-processed deer and went to find fletched end of slightly used arrow. While climbing out of ditch-ran into Mr. Boone(180" typ) and Mr, Crockett(140") traveling together just like Saturday afternoon. They decided to walk away after I waved my arms and yelled some minor profanity at them--would have been a 12-13 yard shot.

Nov 14- Hunting partner slays a 15 1/4" inside spread 150" 10 pointer.

Summation; three days before this past full moon through 5-7 days after it, will ALWAYS be HOT.

I thought that those days this year were the best days of hunting we have seen in 4-5 years, at least on this end.First season Iowa shotgunners be ready for some great secondary rut activity-It's going to be good...Can't wait to introduce that 180" 12 poiner to a lightfield slug--maybe he'll even get to go for a ride in my truck
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Well I have hunted 4 or 5 days a week since season started and this week of the season was really tough. I thought the rut was supposed to be on, certainly was not on where I was hunting. I hunted 3 different farms and saw few "good bucks" moving. Tough week to hunt, looks like almost everyone had the same luck. Makes me feel better about my hunting strategies to know that it sucked for almost everyone else!
 
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