# Field ducks and a full moon



## love2duck (Mar 14, 2010)

Just wondering if I could get some insight on how a full moon affects ducks and geese in the fields. Do they keep their same pattern? If not, how do you hunt them during full moon weeks? I've never hunted fields before and it looks like the week I may be in ND is gonna have a full moon. I need to know if I need to change weeks.


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## tikkat3 (Jun 27, 2006)

In a full moon situation they could feed all night, migrate, or carry on with their normal pattern.


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## jcnelsn1 (Oct 28, 2008)

If its not cloudy I find that they tend to fly a little early and you will get some big flocks coming in before shooting time.


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## templey_41 (Jul 19, 2008)

Last year we hunted the full moon with no clouds the one night. The hunting that morning wasn't the greatest. We did see birds moving, but never had big flocks coming in. THis could be for a couple of reasons ie not on the x or just running traffic, but there is one thing I am sure of. The night before opener I saw a ton of ducks pouring into this field that we hunted. SO we hunted it the next morning and only shot 10 ducks. They were hitting that field well past shooting light and not a minute before, the next night we saw absolutely no movement and we knew there were birds around. So i would say even during the early part of the season full moon does affect their flight pattern.

I looked back from the previous year, 2008, when it was a quarter to half moon while we were there. The hunting was unreal and they were coming right at dawn and 2-3 hours before sunset and this was the same field from last year. Good luck! do a lot of scouting something I didnt get enough time for since i was only out there 2 days in 2009. You will shoot birds.


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## shiawassee_kid (Oct 28, 2005)

do a search on this forum for full moon. you will see a thread that was quite extensive on a year that everyone got nailed by full moon, clear skies and night roosting in the fields. I think it was 07'.

we got snookered by it that year and had a real hard time nailing down the birds even though we would scout and find huge numbers using a field in evenings...come back and sit in the field all next day and nothing. was a humbling experience for sure. eventually they kinda normalized and we did good....but 2-3 days was really messed up by the moon.

on a side note, i try to schedule my trips around it but it has more to do with the clouds, wind, temps than the moon. I've been there on many full moons but only seen it reek havoc once.


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