Elk Hunting Moon Phases

[cnelk]

Every so often, the topic of hunting moon phases comes up so here is a bit of info regarding that....
I went thru this little exercise a few years ago [2014] with another guy who ran my numbers.

Me and my buddies have taken 22 elk [archery] in the past 10 years - 2004 thru 2014

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

 

[cohunter14]

Looks like you might as well not even hunt during that 50-90% phase Brad!  :lol:


Good info, thanks for sharing.

 

[Rzrbac]

I?m gonna keep this info handy when we discuss dates this weekend.  May just have to pull it up and read it to them, not sure I can explain the math part . Thanks Brad!

 

[WW]

JMHO But!!!! Elk are big critters. They have excellent night vision and can see well weather the moon is full or dark. Moon phase as less effect than other things such as rut timing. In short, the season is about 30 days long. You can't get one if you aren't out there.

 

[DTP]

JMHO But!!!! Elk are big critters. They have excellent night vision and can see well weather the moon is full or dark. Moon phase as less effect than other things such as rut timing. In short, the season is about 30 days long. You can't get one if you aren't out there.

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.

I have had similar results with both elk and deer, Brad.  The moon phase thing is definitely always a popular topic. Some people swear by it, other people don't care at all... me.... I am in between.

I will not plan a hunt around a moon phase and will hunt any time, but I 100% believe that it's valuable information to understand animal patterns and movement IN each phase.

I killed my elk this year the day of a full moon. What I found is the animals were moving more at night and were in their beds EARLIER than normal. So areas that I typically caught elk moving through towards their bedding in the morning was dead quiet.... because they were already in bed. During this time I also saw more mid day movement and the evenings were not much different than any other phase.

 

[nclonghunter]

We have scheduled our hunts according to moon phase each year but I have sen more influence from hunting pressure, dry or poor low land crops, rain and thunder and hot temps than what I could credit to the moon phase. Take out the mentioned variables and moon phase may have a stronger influence.

It does affect the equinox, which I suspect gets the rut moving but the above mentioned influences can change if the activities are most active at night or day. Persistence is where I put my money! 

 

[Lark Bunting]

I know I had the elk Gods on my side this year but I got my bull Sept 2nd and had bulls screaming all around. The moon that night was very bright.

 

[Bob Frapples]

This post gave me flashbacks from taking college algebra in a summer session a few years back.

 

[Ol Arky]

I'm like Bill "WW" and hunt every day I can.... Plus I've never kept up with critters killed and what moon phase but light moon I'll hunt a lot during the mid hours and dark moon the same... :-D :-D :-D

 

[Rzrbac]

Well just checked the moon for our 2018 dates . Guess it beats not going at all.