Full Moon, Boon or Bust?
By Tony Kuehn ©2005

A full moon at any time of year is a sight to see. Especially when there are light clouds and the moon is catching the sun's more colorful reflections. This year's "hunter's moon" was no exception. If you have never heard that expression before, here is a quick summary of moon descriptions. The full moon is given many names depending upon what time of year it is. An "Old Moon" is after the Yule season. A "Milk Moon" is in May. The "Hay Moon" is typically in July (during the pre-fall harvest) while the "Harvest Moon" is in September and is closest to the fall Equinox. The "Hunter's Moon" is the full moon that directly follows the Harvest Moon. A Blue Moon is the rare occurrence when two full moons occur in the same month. Probably will coincide with the day I shoot a B &C buck.

I was lucky enough to be out hunting during the Harvest moon this year. The sky was clear and the reflection in the swamp water near the area I was hunting was awesome. On September 18th, the opening weekend of Minnesota bowhunting season, it was unseasonably warm and calm. Since it is very difficult to walk any distance or put up a stand without working up a sweat, I decided to hunt out of a ground blind.

I prepared the blind last April just before the woods started greening up. This was the first time I got a chance to use it for hunting. Luckily it has been a poor year for mosquitoes and they didn't bother me much. Since it was so hot the deer didn't start moving until just before dark. About 7:00 P.M. I had a decent small buck 5 to 6 paces out side of my natural blind. One pace for each of the points on his rack.

He came in to the ground blind area from behind me and I didn't move a muscle as I heard his approach. It was obvious he was oblivious to my presence.

I thought hard about taking him because it was so early in the season, but I was using my recurve and you just don't get that many opportunities for a close shot while on the ground. I raised my bow arm as his head turned away and began my draw but stopped and then let down. I had some bonus tags for does and I just wanted to take a larger buck. I recollected over that moment during a commercial airline flight while on a business trip about a month later-watching the hunter's moon set over the mountains. The hunter's moon gets its name from a legend that the ancient hunters tracked game during moon light. I wondered if I could have stayed in the blind until dark and still seen that buck.

I have never tracked a deer during the moonlight. My night vision just isn't that good. Well , at least not as good as it used to be. While a full moon may seem bright it is very dim in comparison to average daylight. Light is typically measured in units of foot candles or lux (the units given for the sensitivity of photographic equipment). One foot candle roughly is the amount of light present 1 foot away from a burning candle in complete darkness. One footcandle is about 10.8 lux. A full moon without clouds present gives off about 1lux of visible light that can be detected by the human eye. By contrast, the optimum light for the human eye is 2,000-4,000 lux during a partly cloudy day. Deer on the other hand, are semi-nocturnal creatures and move a lot during twilight or in darkness. My guess is their optimum lux rating is a lot lower than ours.

During the full moon cycles that I have been out hunting , I found the moonlight to assist with moving to and from my stand in the darkness. Not that I could see that well but it does allow you to see the horizon and landmarks in the tree-line quite well. I have never hunted in the darkness but have come upon deer silhouetted against the snow and could see them quite clearly. They could also see me very well and I have been busted a number of times while walking around in the woods under the moonlight. I wouldn't consider shooting a bow under those conditions. However, with today's advanced technology a person could certainly glass fields on clear moonlit night without being detected.

Some hunters believe that lunar cycles control deer movement and the rut. Since deer seem to prefer low light periods, it only makes sense to me that they would feed quite often during a full moon. Perhaps that is why they seem to move a lot less in the daylight hours following a full moon cycle. As far as bringing on the rut or estrous of the does, I have always understood that it was initiated by the overall reduction in the average amount of daylight in the fall.

I am not sure what you call the full moon after the Hunter's moon just before the holiday Yule season. All I know was that this year it was the third clear moon in three months and I was lucky enough to be out hunting under it one more time. I didn't get a chance to shoot at a deer on those occasions but was able to enjoy the spectacle and get it on film. That was good enough for me. Besides I don't know that I would like to mount a busted Booner anyway (yeah I could see that much in the light that was available). The next time I am out hunting in a full moon I just might be  overcome by that natural urge to howl. If              Is a Half Booner is Better Than None?
If you hunt enough in the moonlight I am sure
you know what I mean?