Unread postby landscape77 » Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:15 am
So this is my first post on here , hello guys. This has been something I have been watching for the past six maybe seven years now. My buddy is keeping a chart , we use scout outlook a lot just to see. Now I'm not sure how they figure this movement time but damn if I don't see major movement time and I drive around and I will see deer most of the time. Are they using the moon , and where it will be at said time of day ? Its really hard to say. Full moon , is always the worst time to hunt, or atleast to see activity during the day. For years its always been slow out in the woods after a full moon and even a couple days after it. Now before it is another story we will see regular or more movement during those days leading up to a full moon.
I don't think it is a mystery , it just allows the deer to feed more at night because they can see better, I do think weather has an affect on the deer high and low pressure systems make deer and other animals do different things. Fish most certainly seem to respond to this. I steelhead fish a lot and just like a high and low pressure system a rise or fall in the river will shut the fish down or turn them on. Spend enough time on the river fishing and you just see it.
Its much like if you go up a mountain and your ears pop from pressure , its my belief that animals are more in tune to the pressure. It's like a survival instinct developed over time. The estrogen cycle is caused by the reduction of light , in a gland in deer's eyes, that is a proven fact. Now Alsheimer hits on the fact that once the full moon happens in October it triggers the reduction of light. This only makes sense as to when it would bring in the first cycle. So the does start to go into estrus this starts the seek phase. Now most of the time small bucks are chasing at first. I have seen some 2 1/2 year old's on their feet chasing in that first phase. Big bucks seem to hold off a bit and wait. Right to the lets say almost end of the cycle to get on the does. That's when the lock down comes. I've seen it time and time again. Timing this can be rough to say the least. So is Alsheimer hitting on something with the time frame of when the peak of the estrous cycle hits? I think so.
This doesn't explain the time frames big bucks move but they do seem to move at certain times , almost like clock work. Ever get a deer on your camera year after year on a day in day light, almost to the day you last got them? I can't figure it out except that something in nature is making them move more at certain times. There are days I wont see a deer as they seem to prefer certain days or times to bed all day and others to move during the day. My friends and I text each other when we see deer on daytime activity. We all seem to say we have seen them at the same time. Not always but a lot of the times, it just seems to hold true. I'm in Pa they are in Jersey. Multiple times my buddy says I'm seeing deer in a text mid day and bam I see them. After awhile you start to notice it isn't a coincidence. Just some things I have noticed over the last 30 years of hunting.
Now hunting pressure is a whole other situation and I do think it makes deer hold during the day much more , but if that estrous cycle hits and your in the right place at the right time your going to see a big buck with a doe. Finding that spot is no easy challenge ! There are other factors we have to look at what deer do to live. Thermals and wind current make deer move to places for certain reasons , mostly survival , but also rest. Also protection from the weather. We found an old vw in the woods once no doors with a buck bed in it.
The rut is an ebb and flow patterning what deer do in certain terrain will increase your chances of killing a buck. Weather you hunt younger or older deer. These are all keys to killing them. So do this for yourself mark the full moon , then mark when you see the most deer movemnt after? Is it the same amount of days? There are more phases to this as well and it depends on when the first full moon accures. I had one year and we talked to every bow hunter we came across as to weather they were seeing deer , nobody was! The rut time had come , and the property I hunt usually has lots of activity , that year it was a late full moon and the rut happened more toward gun season. It wasnt till I heard Alsheimer explain why that it all clicked. There is no better way to kill a buck then to scout and scout and scout. You have to try to get one step ahead of them , in their bed room!