Arizona Hunting Club & Outdoor Adventure Group

Learn the Best Times to
Hunt Using a Lunar Calendar

All game animals repeat certain activities each and every day, week and month. Within their habitat, all of them need nourishment, and rest to sustain life. The movement necessary to accomplish these basic needs is what provides all of us with the opportunity to observe and harvest these animals. Our ability to understand these solar and lunar influences that affect feeding activity has made hunting more predictable.

Solar Influence - The sun is the largest body in our solar system and some would say exerts the greatest influence in our daily lives as well as that of wildlife. Animals that are active primarily in the daylight are called diurnal and those active at night are nocturnal. Animals that are most active in the period of twilight or transition between day and night are called crepuscular.

Deer and elk are examples of animals that are primarily nocturnal and also crepuscular. The primary solar periods that are factored into accurate hunting charts are dawn, dusk, midday and midnight. Each of these periods is determined based on the exact time of sunrise and sunset for that specific location and date.

The sun has its greatest influence when it is at its zenith or most directly overhead. That point occurs in late June each year in the northern hemisphere. Even though the solar influence on wildlife within each day is significant, the day-to-day and even the week-to-week change resulting from this solar influence is incremental and not very noticeable. Therefore the sun is a major factor in the best time to hunt during the day, but not significant in predicting the best day of the month to hunt.

Lunar Influence - The moon is also a large factor in the day-to-day activities of wildlife. Some of the lunar influences are obvious while some are not. The most obvious and measurable forces the moon exerts on the earth are gravitational and rotational which are easily demonstrated by observing tides. The gravitational force of the moon is one of the primary influences in the rise and fall of tides. The period that the moon exerts its greatest influence at any specific location on earth is based on the relative position of the moon, the distance the moon is from the earth (apogee/perigee) and the angle of the moon above that position (declination).

Most evidence indicates that the periods of greatest lunar influence on wildlife is when the moon is most directly overhead and then again when it is most directly underfoot (opposite side of the earth). These two positions are usually referred to as "major" or excellent activity periods. There are two other daily periods of lunar influence that occur halfway between the overhead and underfoot positions and they are usually referred to as "minor" or "good" activity periods.

When the moon is at perigee (closest to earth) all other lunar influences are magnified. This is also the case when the moon is at its highest declination or so called high moon. The moon phase has also been shown to indicate, if not directly cause, certain heightened periods of activity.

Understanding the affects of the sun and moon on wildlife is only one part of the complex puzzle that helps predict when game animals and fish are most active.

All wild game and fish share many things in common such as their universal need for habitat sufficient to provide food and shelter. Many different species of game animals may live and thrive in the same habitat and as a result experience the same weather and the same solar and lunar influences. However some species of animals respond to these influences differently. For example: the same rainy windy weather that may inhibit deer activity may in fact be good weather for waterfowl hunting.

Obviously animals are also different physiologically. Some animals are carnivores and exist entirely on the nutrition from other animals; others are herbivores that exist exclusively on vegetation, while still others are omnivores and derive their nutrients from both vegetation and other animals and even insects. Knowing (or being familiar with) the diet of wildlife along with their habits will go a long way in understanding and predicting daily movement patterns.

Deer and other Game Animals include several groups of animals with the largest being ungulates. Ungulates are hoofed mammals comprising one of the most diverse and successful groups of animals in existence including deer elk, moose, caribou antelope, sheep, goats, bison, boar, javelina and peccary. Most of these animals are also ruminants, which are cud chewing animals having a stomach divided into four parts. The first chamber in an ungulates stomach is the rumen, which serves as a large fermentation tank full of bacteria and other microorganisms necessary to breakdown the partially chewed digestive matter. Fine digested matter moves from the rumen to the reticulum, which is the second compartment of the stomach. Vegetation that is too coarse to leave the rumen is regurgitated and chewed further to make it fine enough to pass through to the second chamber.

A deer's digestive system works non-stop twenty-four hours a day. A breakdown in this process for even a few hours can result in a potentially deadly situation for a ruminant. In order for a deer to continue the digestive process it is critical to maintain the microbial balance in the rumen. That is the primary reason that you will almost never find a ruminants stomach completely empty. Since most vegetation moves through a ruminants digestive track in 11-12 hours, deer need to eat about every six hours. The balance of the time is spent between chewing their cud and resting. This helps to explain why deer that feed at or before dawn are likely to feed again during the day. It also explains why the two major activity periods and the two minor periods work well in forecasting deer feeding activity. (See ungulate feeding chart) Predators such as mountain lion, bobcat, lynx, coyote and fox are generally carnivores.

A carnivore is an animal that is primarily a meat eater and as a result it will have a completely different gastro-intestinal system. Unlike ungulates (deer), the stomach of carnivores process food differently. Their stomachs have developed to withstand periods of great activity followed by long periods of inactivity. Although animals that are predators (carnivores) can be more flexible with their eating habits than herbivores, they generally are most active when their prey is more active. Therefore the times that deer and other ungulates are active is also the most active time for predators.

Listen to Advice from Old and Wise Hunters

Most wise old hunters will tell you that learning the moon's phases will teach you to understand the the value of knowing the moon's location in the sky. These old timers will tell you that quarter-moons produce the most dawn and dusk sightings for their hunters and that full moons produce the best midday action.

Here's the science behind the old timer's advice. First and third quarter moons are directly overhead at sunset and sunrise, respectively; moreover, first and third quarter moons are directly underfoot at sunrise and sunset, respectively. In other words, when hunters should hunt the hardest - mornings and evenings - when the moon is peaking in the sky during these key lunar phases.

Interestingly, the moonless (new moon) and bright (full moon) phases seems to break this pattern down. The position of quarter-moons (overhead or underfoot) encourage deer and elk to be most active in the morning and again in the evening.

Suppose the moon is overhead around sunset. This lunar period is my favorite bow strategy for hunting near field edges and woods openings. Now it's possible to hunt feeding deer (or those dawdling near a staging area) because an overhead moon encourages deer to feed before, during, and after sunset. Simply put, hunters will see more "field deer" now than during any other segment of the 29.5-day lunar month. Unfortunately, this is a short-lived period that lasts but a handful of days.

Now suppose the moon peaks in the sky directly overhead at sunrise. Now's the best time to intercept a buck along a travel corridor as he heads for daytime cover; after spending the night in open, low lying areas, he now instinctively seeks dense cover at higher elevations. This "morning moon" period comprises approximately 1/3 of the lunar month and, though it can be decent for evenings, is tailor-made for morning hunts.

When the moon peaks during midday hours, on the other hand, odds are stacked against you. Though this is the most common lunar period, accounting for nearly 2/3 of the lunar month, it's the most challenging. Problem is, deer are usually bedded down for the day by the time it's light enough to hunt! This forces hunters to set up near security cover in hopes of catching bucks "stretching" during midday hours.