Predicting Deer Movement by Daily Lunar Cycle...What do you think of this?

[Land_Owner]

I share the full text of a notice that I received from a start-up Forum below. I neither endorse nor underwrite the stated information. Neither do I endorse nor underwrite the solicitation contained herein. This is not an attempt to divert attention from this forum, although temporarily that may occur.

  I am interested in determining your reaction and follow-on discussion with regard to the data presented there.[/b]

Hello everybody,
You are receiving this email because you entered your contact information into my Deer Sighting Survey during the 2001 to 2005 hunting seasons. You may recall that during this time I scanned the internet for people to enter information into my Deer Sighting Survey (one of two websites used, both inactive now, were thehunterseye.com and pineybottom.com).

I apologize for the two year delay, but I have finally completed my analysis and I think you are really going to like the results. I am unaware of any other survey that has been this detailed. I have certainly never before seen the detailed results that I found.

I have compared all the data (over 19000 deer sightings) with time of day and moon phase/position to determine which days of the lunar month are the best times to hunt.

Not surprisingly, there were significant variations during the lunar month. Two criteria were used to determine the quality of each lunar day. These were Success Rate which is the percent of hunters viewing deer divided by the total number of hunters in the woods and Deer per Observation which is the total number of deer viewed divided by the number of hunters viewing them.

The Success Rate does vary with time of the lunar month to some degree. Most significant however, is the change in Deer per Observation. A clear and undeniable pattern was discovered that shows significant differences during the lunar month not only for each day, but also during the time of day (morning, noon and afternoon).

I hope that you will be pleased with the results. I have more coming and will keep you updated. I have secured a password protected forum for open discussion and questions about the survey. Please feel free to look at the survey and discuss it, however, I ask that you not take the graphs or text and place them in other areas without written permission from me.

I am also developing some hunting related software to be released in the near future. In appreciation, those of you that register will be proivided a special rate for these software packages and future updates. The software will be related to Trail Cameras, Deer Sightings and other hunting related activities. The first of these programs will hopefully be released within the next two weeks as Beta testing is currently being performed.

To view the full results report : You must go to www.outdooroutlook.com/forum and become a registered user.

After you have completed your registration, you can go to the forum home page and you will now see a forum called "Sighting Survey", it is password protected for now and the password is "survey".

Please feel free to invite others that may be interested in viewing the survey and discussing it.

Sincerely,

Johnnie

If I have erred in the posting of this message, please dump it. No harm no foul.

  Repeat...I am interested in determining your reaction and follow-on discussion with regard to the data presented there. [/b]

[beemanbeme]

I haven't seen it in years but there used to be a "Knight's Solanar Table" that was supposed to map high and low cycles of game and fish movements. It was based on moon movement and other factors as I remember.  It was widely published in some of the outdoor mags as well as newspapers.  It worked pretty well with fish.   

[Siskiyou]

I get the same information by going to my Garmin gps units, click on Main Menu, select the Hunt & Fish Icon and it gives the information for the current location by default or the user can select a map location.  It does not make a difference if the location is twenty miles down the road.  It then gives you a prediction.  The prediction for my day is AVERAGE.  It also identifies BEST TIMES, and GOOD TIMES.  You can check out an up coming date by changing the date in the menu. 

You can get similar information by selecting the Calendar Icon.  It indicates the quality of the day by using little fish symbols, one being a poor day, four being above average.  It also shows the phase of the moon.  It also displays the best time of day for fish and game activity.  You can also change the calender for a planned hunting trip.

What this does not take into account is when the normally quite woods fill with hunters, or the lake is churned by jet ski's.

While I have taken this information into consideration, it does not determine whether or not I go hunting.  If a hunter or fisherman sets around waiting for the perfect day he loses the opportunity to be in woods hunting or fishing.

[rockbilly]

I have about the same confidence in the Lunar Cycle tables as I do in the local wine-o  giving me numbers to play on the lottery.  I was a tournament fisherman for many years, and did watch the tables religiously, but after reviewing my record keeping I found them to be only of fair accuracy.  I have caught tons of fish when the table indicated it wasn't worth going to the lake that day, and by the same token, I have not caught a fish when it said the fishing was excellent.  I haven't watched the game animals to any large degree to determine how it effects them so I wouldn't bet the farm on them.

[BigDaddyB]

I've used it for bow hunting thus far this year.  I'm about ready to go ask a wine-o.  The solunar charts have shown ZERO benefit to my hunting efforts.

[rickt300]

The moon does have an effect on deer movement. On clear nights with a big moon you can bet daytime movement is not going to be heavy because deer see so well at night anyway why should they wander around in daylight. If you have several cloudy nights in a row then there will be some daylight movement, same goes for no moon at all. Here in Texas deer prefer to move around after dark because it is cooler, the heat makes them naturally nocturnal.