Take Notice
Whitetail Deer
Deer feeding times are mid morning till mid day for the weekend and are prime 3 to 5 star days. Weekend warriors ought do to well if they hang tight.
Thanks TBM for trying to provide something useful on Bowsite. Everybody else that has posted on this thread seems to want to start an argument for no apparent reason. That seems so petty an childish. I'll bet those guys will be the first ones to ________. Feel free to fill in the blank. Sad that when a guy posts something that is meant to be useful, a few sad individuals come along and ruin it with small minds and cheap shots. Why do the MODS allow that? Mike
Saw one on the way in but got skunked from the stand. I think they are patterning on the live oaks now...don't have a stand in the oaks for me and my11 year old.
Looks like a rite smart deer seen today during the hours the chart suggest.
Times 4 tomorrow are good at day break and at dusk, best around noon.
"Deer feeding times are mid morning till mid day for the weekend and are prime 3 to 5 star days. Weekend warriors ought do to well if they hang tight."
TBM- I'm not a white tail hunter at all so I have no idea what makes em tick and do what they do. What method did you use to come to your conclusion?
Lung shot this works for all ugulants...all cud chewing split toed animals. What you do is just play tendencies. The moon chart(Google deer feeding times calendar) is just one of the tendencies. Major feeding times are when the moon is overhead or underfoot. Minor times come 4 hours either side for a total of 2,major and 4 minor times. That us what I know about it. I have no idea why there are 5 star major days and one star major days. A day like today where the major times are at noon mean the minor times are at day break and dusk...3 good times per day.
Now that doesn't mean mid day will be the best time because other factor like time of day will limit activity. What is see in mid day primary feeding is a few deer eating at close it bedding areas. Now if it coensides with great weather I might see better movement. Actually the minor feeding at just before dark will be really good because it coensides with a natural time for deer to feed.
One of the worst times is when major feeding centers around mid evening. Deer are commonly spooked when walking in for the evening hunt and none are seen after that because feeding time is over and will not occur again until after dark.
http://besttimestohunt.net/
Tomorrow is still 5 stars with major time starting around noon and going to 2 pm. Only one minor time during daylite hours and it is early morning until 8 am. My son wants to hunt tomorrow so we will go early...early means we climb at just before 8 because I work nites tonite and it takes that long to get from work to home and then to the hunting area.
I think one reason that the accuracy and extreme importance of moon phases is overlooked and underrated is because most of the information printed comes from mid west hunters. These hunters center their attention around rut tactics...rightfully so. The rut starts relatively soon after season starts so all efforts are centered around rut tactics. In a he deep south season starts 3 months prior to the rut so all of bow season if done under feeding pattern tactics. With all efforts on figuring out feeding patterns and eyes focused on that, we southerners are the experts in that field as Midwesterners are rut experts.
But here is the catch...and the reason a southern influence would help all hunters...feeding patterns influence movement during the rut too. When the in heat does get up to feed, you guessed it...the bucks get up to chase them. So figuring out when they get up to feed can also trigger a good chase through the exact funnel you are sitting in....or not sitting in if you don't know those times.
One more thing...the word deer can be substituted with elk...cow for doe and bull for buck. Mule deer too...and moose. If it has split toes and chews cud this info will apply but only if natural feeding is the norm. Feeders and feed truck routes can change the natural behavior.
On a side note, if you pay close attention after a while you can start to sence these times of movement. That is when you know you are becomming one with the game.
I agree that moon phase effects patterns, feeding, behavior etc... But only to a certain extent. I used to plan and schedule all my hunts according to the new moon but over the years it seems less and less important. I feel like there are so many other factors such as pressure, temp/weather and water availability that effect them more so than moon phase. Of course the difference is that I'm in Colorado hunting elk and mule deer on public lands as opposed to hunting white tails (which from what I hear live much more patterned lives than muleys) on a patch of private.
I never noticed any patterns while elk hunting but there were not any 5 star days while I was there. I think a 5 star primary feeding time at 6 pm might mean seeing 75 deer in the farmers alfalfa but the same 5 star primary feeding time at high noon might mean the buck gets up from his bed and mills around and lays back down. You almost have to be looking at game to notice if it is affecting them.
Sometimes the evidence is overwhelming that there is something to this and at times there is little evidence. The same weather day after day can add to the evidence while changing weather patterns can take away. It's hard to argue that some days game just seems to be everywhere...other days game is nonexistent.
Deer are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk.
TBM - sounds like the old Polly Wheel I used to use. I liked it best when moon overhead and underfoot coincided with sunrise or sunset.
"Deer are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk."
That's basically a guy who don't want to put in the work to figure things out. He just wants to do the traditional early hunt and evening hunt and think he is doing it right. Stuff like that is laughable to me, and couldn't be further from the truth.
One thing I've learned is not to use what I'm not seeing as data for deer movement because sometimes you just pick the wrong spot to hunt and don't see anything. I only factor the data when I do see deer. Take today for instance. We went in at 1 pm because deer peak movement of was suppose to be at that time and end at around 2:30. Our only sighting was at around 2:15. We looked in greenfields and along the roads on the way home which was just before dusk and did not see deer in places where they normally are at that time. So the sighting was during the time of peak feeding and no sightings occured after that.
Almost without exception when deer are seen up and feeding there is a primary or secondary feeding time that coincides with the sighting.
I remember on area we cut timber on when I was just starting to bow hunt. It was loaded with deer. We always got there at dawn and would occasionally see one or two deer. When on the way out with a load we would see more deer from 10am to noon....a lot more...we're talking 20 to 40.
"That's basically a guy who don't want to put in the work to figure things out. He just wants to do the traditional early hunt and evening hunt and think he is doing it right. Stuff like that is laughable to me, and couldn't be further from the truth."
It's not my opinion that deer are crepuscular...it's a scientific fact.
This is why I don't post on your threads. I post a link to an actual deer tracking study done in the southeast by a respected PhD. There is some very interesting data presented regarding the moons affect on deer movement and you call me a lazy hunter who doesn't know chit. You think your anecdotal evidence overrides any scientific data or anyone elses experience so you try to belittle anyone who may disagree.
lol@ Midwest, don't try to wrestle with a pig, you just get muddy, and the pig likes it ;-)
Just read Florida Mike's post again...hahahahahahahaha!
The crepuscular theory is easy to debunk. I hunted that way for years. Didn't kill much in the am hunts. Started hunting late mornings and started killing 35% in the am. Started hunting by moon times and did even better.
I would be more inclined to believe the crepuscular theory on mature bucks...deer in general... not so much. During the rut...not so much. Mid to late mornings are awesome during rut.
I want my money back!.....I saw a doe bedded at 10:12 am and it was still bedded at 1:30pm. Can't predict these Va deer :)
"saw a doe bedded at 10:12 am and it was still bedded at 1:30pm. Can't predict these Va deer". If that was today that was the lull times....not the peak.
My dad was working Saturday skidding logs and said deer were running everywhere and acting crazy as in extra energetic. Said he saw them at 4. Looked at the calander and it had peak times at 3:59and a 5 star day.
Exactly, just as easy to get a shot at "lull" times.
I see some of the hunting shows and they claim hunting consumes them and then they go on a guided hunt or just go out in the evening and hunt...that's not being consumed...that's just leisure hunting. Being consumed is getting elbow deep in it every day and coming uobwith out if the box next level thinking.
The mix of scouting, hunting...trying to stay on top of things without messing up the deers patterns....trying to scout when the deer are not moving and hunt when they are...it's cranium work man....it takes planning and strategies. It a the whole package.
This is what I do....I don't just come on here to start junk. Most of the threads I start are just me thinking outloud...a peak inside the mind of the TurkeyBowMaster. If it wasn't solid state up there I'd burn up dremmel bearings thinking bout these deers and turkeys. Been this way since the 3 rd grade.
The concept of brain bearings burning out in TBM's cranium is not that far fetched.
No matter what time of day it is!
Her first bow killed buck.
Shot last Friday in between exams.
Around 11:30am feeding under wateroaks.
Primary feeding just after daybreak and an hour before dark. Secondary is late am till noon. Going to try and be gigged up, locked on and knocked up at those times...rut is just starting so I might stay up most of the day.
Saw 3 up on the minor feeding time plus front is coming I think...rain..not cold. Just had a spike come right by. Getting gtreat shit opportunities now when I'm not shooting anything but nice bucks. Figures
I'll have to show my granddaughter what a girl can do! Way to go girl.
The best time tokill a deer is between exams. This is especially true or morning exams and proctology exams. However, between the latter exams, deer seem to move much faster.
What I find interesting is the variation between "solunar" or "best times" tables. Solunarforecast.com, Scoutlook, Farmers Almanac, and the table published by Alabama DNR can all be different, but claim to be right and are supposed to be based in theory to some extent on John Aden Knights theory. Maybe this year ai will keep up w activity times on my cameras and see if any one seems more accurate.
