Full moon has been very good to me for several years now...............Good luck!
During Full Moon times we really get excited as this is one of our favorite times to hunt elk as long as skies are fairly clear & not cloud covered. The closer to mid Sept to end of Sept the better. We've found the Rut trumps a Full Moon! We generally will locate elk at night or an hour before daylight off dirt/paved roads, we drive or if you're packed in it's good to call at these times for a bulls location. While still dark bulls often times bugle back to us from very long distances or from short distances. When elk are vocal while still dark they're in their feeding/watering/wallowing & nighttime bedding areas.
Once located, this area gives us a starting point come daylight! We will move towards them with good wind & get position, this will give you an edge come daylight, the moonlight sky helps so you don't need a headlamp but care must be taken as you trudge through the woods avoiding its many obstacles. It's up to us as hunters to use the best possible methods to either ambush them on trails as they exit or lure them in with calling that fits the encounter & phase of the rut, sometimes both ambush & calling are required!
Phase of the RUT is extremely important here, this helps us decide what tactics may work best for the mood of the elk! At this time I personally like taking care of business while they're still in their feeding areas if at all possible. You have about one hour generally to get in there & get it done before they head off to their daytime bedding areas, after that time you'll find yourself "dogging" the herd for 1+ miles!
If it doesn't pan out then, do your best to keep tabs on their movement as they head to daytime bedding areas, many times bulls will bugle their way towards bedding with the lead cow leading the way & avoiding possible confrontations with other vocal bulls. Finding those bedding areas has led to much of our success.
If not sure where they are or where the elk bedded, we then stake out the higher peaks where elevated perches offer us a listening advantage. We sit, listen snack & nap for a couple of hours, elk will eventually get up midday for light feeding & watering or re-position bedding to stay out of the moving sun especially on hot days, we like being within earshot of these areas when they start to move around. At this time it's possible for bulls to sound off, this will not only give away their immediate position but also their aprox bedding area as bulls will bugle right from or very near from their beds at this time!
Make mental notes of bedding areas, they can use the same areas yearly. Be willing to use Location sounds even at midday, this means both cow calling & bugling early afternoon to trigger a response, we use them sparingly at these times unless the rut is in full swing! Once elk are located we move in & work our magic! (grin)
ElkNut1
As for moon, what the others said. Hunt when you have the most time to hunt, and later can be better, or worse, depending upon where you're hunting. If the elk aren't there, doesn't matter if the moon is made of green cheese.
Here is my data. I haven't updated since but we have killed a bunch more elk since then.
For what it's worth....
"Since you asked...
I went thru this little exercise a few months ago with another guy who ran my numbers.
Me and my buddies have taken 22 elk [archery] in the past 10 years
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"
The majority of elk killed by my partner and myself were during the last week of the CO season, irrespective of moon phase. After much deep introspection, we concluded its because that was when we took our 10 day hunt when vacation days were limited.
During the years when we took the third week (we hunted all other weekends), most of our elk were killed during the third week. I screwed that up by going on a run of killing my bull the last couple days of the season, no matter which week we hunted.
Otherwise, whatever the moon phase was during those weeks was what it was when we killed the elk.
There are guys that do see a difference so go with your gut.
What are the proposed mechanisms for the moon influencing animal behavior?
I'm assuming that there are non-astrological explanations.
Photo-periodism [length of daytime light hitting the retina of the eye] controls pretty much everything in an elk’s life not the moon. The length of day triggers all the hormone releases which in fact control the rut. These hormone releases trigger bulls to rub off velvet, trigger the cows cycle which there are three main ones but can be as many as 4. The first happening around the 25th of Aug. then around the 15th of Sept. 3rd around Oct 10th & 4th around first week of Nov. which is final one.
Elk will then start the building of fat for the winter. So the peak for breeding cows happens mid Sept through first week of Oct. A cow is in Estrus for a period for 12-15 hours but if she isn't bred in that time frame will have to wait 21 days for the next window. Fact, not all cows come into heat at the same time. The older cows, aprox 7-8yrs & older generally come into an estrus cycle first followed by the younger cows.
If a cow was born as a fourth cycle cow her first cycle as a 2 + yr old could be up to 9 weeks later than a lead cow but will regulate back as a 3 yr old. So don’t be confused with a lot of full moon myths. All the moon does is let the animals go nocturnal. Hot weather can slow down the search for cows and bugling during day light hours. The heat can lead elk towards being lethargic just as it does us! Cows cannot control when their estrus cycle will start, in other words they cannot choose it happening only after night fall! Full Moon times during peak rut times are magic! Locating elk at night during this phase or an hour or so before light is at the top of our list!
ElkNut1
