Sitting water on a full moon

[Tbar]

Taking my 8 year old on an archery hunt this month. Thinking about sitting water with him but noticed it was going to be a full moon/rainy. What are your thoughts? 

[CouesPursuit]

Crap shoot imo. 

Deer could stop hitting water completely or not change a thing.

That said, unless you can get another ambush setup with lots of deer movement, water is still probably the best chance at arrowing a buck in front of the youngster from a warm, enclosed ground blind.

[wildwoody]

This rain won't help

[stanley]

+1 on Woody's rain comment.

My opinion is that the full moon won't impact watering habits too much.  Deer get thirsty and want to drink whether the moon is full or not.  They can/will hit the water at any hour of any given day.

Side note:  The 'full moon' impact on deer activity has been debated SO many times, it seems.  Though most hunters would disagree based on their own experience and anecdotal evidence, there have been studies that show the full moon has little/no effect on deer activity during the day.  

Go sit that water hole with your boy!

[trphyhntr]

24 minutes ago, stanley said:

+1 on Woody's rain comment.

My opinion is that the full moon won't impact watering habits too much.  Deer get thirsty and want to drink whether the moon is full or not.  They can/will hit the water at any hour of any given day.

Side note:  The 'full moon' impact on deer activity has been debated SO many times, it seems.  Though most hunters would disagree based on their own experience and anecdotal evidence, there have been studies that show the full moon has little/no effect on deer activity during the day.  

Go sit that water hole with your boy!

I don’t agree or disagree but I know one thing, adding a winking emoji to a statement of any kind doesn’t make it a fact 

[stanley]

23 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

I don’t agree or disagree but I know one thing, adding a winking emoji to a statement of any kind doesn’t make it a fact 

Agreed on the wink emoji (Too much emoji use on my part, in general.  Likely the result of years of text exchanges with my daughter… ).

That being said, it IS a fact that there are studies.   For sure though, the results of the studies are just that; results (not necessarily’facts’…).   

[trphyhntr]

 

1 hour ago, stanley said:

Agreed on the wink emoji (Too much emoji use on my part, in general.  Likely the result of years of text exchanges with my daughter… ).

That being said, it IS a fact that there are studies.   For sure though, the results of the studies are just that; results (not necessarily’facts’…).   

If I really wanted to know, I’d ask a few dudes that are local hammers and decide for myself. If that aligns with the study so be it.
 

but I just hunt when I can, moon be damned. 

 

[high rise hunter]

I think this raining coming on Friday is going to smash hopes of killing bucks over water. Reiterating what CouesPursuit said, sitting in a blind over water is going to be the most effective with a young one tagging along. I say, roll the dice and sit some water--only need 1 to show up. 

[bigorange]

52 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

but I just hunt when I can, moon be damned

This. And when I end up eating tag soup it’s just another excuse I can tell myself. LoL

[bigorange]

21 minutes ago, high rise hunter said:

I think this raining coming on Friday is going to smash hopes of killing bucks over water. Reiterating what CouesPursuit said, sitting in a blind over water is going to be the most effective with a young one tagging along. I say, roll the dice and sit some water--only need 1 to show up. 

Agree 100%. Never know what cool stuff will come in to water even if it’s not deer. And deer get killed every season on water in the middle of rainy weather, so go for it. 

[creed]

Don't know much but I have noticed less deer activity  on a full moon than dark. Also the more rain the less activity on water. Type of terrain influences deer activity during rain. Rocky, mountainous areas tend to have more potholes.  I hunt an area a quarter inch of rain will shut off deer hitting catchments for a month 

But, I hunt when I can. 

[Tbar]

I’ll probably end up sitting water with my boy. I did have a deer hunt in unit 23 this past October and I got stuck with the full moon once again (can’t seem to avoid it). I never really saw movement until about 930ish but I also didn’t have the rain. Unfortunately, it will be difficult to get back into some of those areas with him so I might find a spot in the southern portion closer to the lake. I know they have more trails where I can drive and walk a mile in. 

[Tbar]

6 hours ago, bigorange said:

Agree 100%. Never know what cool stuff will come in to water even if it’s not deer. And deer get killed every season on water in the middle of rainy weather, so go for it. 

That’s true. I was down south a few years back and had a mountain lion come in and kill a deer at a water hole. I wish I had it on video but I couldn’t believe what I was watching (Only thing that came into that waterhole the next two days were birds)

[Chef]

I was in the 36's during this first October hunt.

Full moon. 

I saw 16 bucks on the morning of day one. 

At one time, I had four bucks in the field of view of my binos.

This is the highest number of bucks I have seen in one morning; it was nuts and totally went against what I thought would happen.

One day we glassed over a spring tank at a distance, and saw Coues hit it between 1PM to 3PM. 

I stopped counting at 30 does.  Nuts.

[Roofer Billy]

8 hours ago, trphyhntr said:

 

If I really wanted to know, I’d ask a few dudes that are local hammers and decide for myself. If that aligns with the study so be it.
 

but I just hunt when I can, moon be damned. 

 

The only personal effects I've seen with a full moon. Is that the deer/ elk seem to feed more at night under the light of the moon. And then bed down most the next day. Just my personal experience and two since worth.