Full Moon....Phases and Elk hunting

[Praxeus]

Full moon tonight and heading to my spot this week. Ive heard a lot through the years how a full moon impacts elk and elk hunting.
Getting this out there for those with experiences to share their stories.

 

[Praxeus]

That bad of a question..uh?

 

[RussDXT]

If you have the time off hunt all day. If your where they are, you stand a chance of seeing them.

With a full moon you may see movement mid day so there’s a plus right?

Good luck!

 

[JoeB]

With whitetail and mule deer I have seen that they bed early. If its warm and full moon hardly any daylight at all. They will feed mid day but will not travel far to do it just stand and mill around and brows. I would assume elk to be similar

 

[Praxeus]

Interestingly, ElkNut states that some of their biggest bulls have been shot during a full moon. Corey Jaconsen (not a fan of full moon) claims that the equinox is what spawns the cows to come into estrus (later in Sept after full moon). All interesting stuff.

Was really hoping to get real world testimonies from other guys out there

 

[Stubborn_bowhunter]

Animals are more prone to being out at night because they can see.

But it doesn't affect my choices of how I hunt.

 

[CAElkhunter]

I personally try to avoid Full moon for Elk hunts.

 

[Coveyleader]

I remember a week while hunting during a full moon first rifle season. The elk were up all day, one of the best hunts I can remember. It was also chilly for the first season and I remember taking a mid day nap in the sun and still being cold.

Hard to say if the moon or the cool conditions contributed to the good hunting, but it was good and ended with three really sore guys.

 

[Jbehredt]

I don’t know if I’ve had success on a full moon, because I pay zero attention to moon phase with regards to elk hunting. Zero. I think it’s a handy excuse if you’re looking for one.

 

[ridgefire]

Our two worst days as far as bugling activity during the day of our almost two week hunt was the last couple days around the full moon. Could have been because of the weather as well but not sure. We hunt regardless of the moon though.

 

[KID]

I Hunt elk with an over the counter tag and strictly public property. It is a heavily hunted area. In my experience full moon means the Elk are up all night and hidden all day, you might have a chance getting them in the headlights to or from your hunting spots. I try to snag all the days off I can get during little to no moon. But I'm also hunting the end of October rifle season. The Elk are tough enough to find. There are lots of factors obviously but the moon in my opinion and experience is a huge factor. I have had my best days of Elk hunting following cloudy dark nights.

 

[cnelk]

Since you asked...

I went thru this little exercise a few years ago [2013] with another guy who ran my numbers.

Me and my buddies took 22 elk [archery] in 10 years
[2003 - 2013]

16 harvests were in a moon phase of 50% visibility OR LESS [some were new moon, 1st quarter, etc] 6 harvests were in a moon phase of 90% visibility OR MORE [very near or at full moon]and quick research shows 3-4 days on either side of the full moon date have > 90% or more. Shall we say 7 days are 90% or more visibility? And approx 14 days have < 50%

Category Observed Expected # Expected

1 <50% 16 11 50.000%

2 >90% 6 6 27.273%

3 50-90% 0 5 22.727%

Chi squared equals 7.273 with 2 degrees of freedom. The two-tailed P value equals 0.0263

According to the analysis we did better than expected when the moon was dark, about what you would expect near a full moon, and less than you'd expect (zero) when the moon was out but not bright. It shows some evidence that it's better hunting during darker moon, but I wouldn't schedule a hunt around it.

Good luck

 

[JoeB]

Since you asked...

I went thru this little exercise a few years ago [2013] with another guy who ran my numbers.

Me and my buddies took 22 elk [archery] in 10 years
[2003 - 2013]

16 harvests were in a moon phase of 50% visibility OR LESS [some were new moon, 1st quarter, etc] 6 harvests were in a moon phase of 90% visibility OR MORE [very near or at full moon]and quick research shows 3-4 days on either side of the full moon date have > 90% or more. Shall we say 7 days are 90% or more visibility? And approx 14 days have < 50%

Category Observed Expected # Expected

1 <50% 16 11 50.000%

2 >90% 6 6 27.273%

3 50-90% 0 5 22.727%

Chi squared equals 7.273 with 2 degrees of freedom. The two-tailed P value equals 0.0263

According to the analysis we did better than expected when the moon was dark, about what you would expect near a full moon, and less than you'd expect (zero) when the moon was out but not bright. It shows some evidence that it's better hunting during darker moon, but I wouldn't schedule a hunt around it.

Good luck

very good info thanks fort sharing