# What do YOU get from this???



## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

The Premise: Several popular Game Activity Tables predict that fish and game animals will be most active or feed within a 1-3 hour timeframe of when the moon is either directly overhead or underfoot of their position on the earth. The question is; Are these Tables and Predictors correct in there predictions? I will tell you that I conducted an exhaustive research project of this subject between 1990 and 2000, on 5 different herds of deer in three widely separated locations.

One of the problems with the study was that I was seeing dozens of deer, and was often unable to determine if I was seeing one of the deer on several occasions, or several deer on several occasions. However, in our new location, we have only one whitetail doe in the area. So, I will be able to determine if the activity of one particular deer is correlated with the times predicted by one of the several Game Activity Tables currently available to hunters. For the purposes of this study I will be using the Astro table. Which is available on the ESPN web site at http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/...a_astro_tables. To determine the meteorological conditions at the time of the deer sightings I will be using the weather station closest to our house, which is within 3 miles. The address of the website is http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin...st?query=eagan, mn &wuSelect=WEATHER.

Following are the sightings so far, and the weather data and predicted activity times.

Since we can deduce several things about deer behavior from this data, if we know what to look for, my question to you is - "What can we learn from this information?"

I'll keep you updated as the days go by.

Thursday, June 04, 2009 At about 5:45 AM I saw a Coyote sniffing the air right near out apartment. It was a lot of fun watching the animal look for the source of my burnt bacon, which I am sure wafted out the kitchen window to the meadow below. Astro Table 10:02 - 11:18 AM.

From 6:30 AM until 6:50 AM I watched a doe White-tailed Deer feeding in the meadow. I did not see where the deer came from, but when it left, it went west into the trees, down a hill toward one of the lakes. You can view the video here. I hope to see the doe's fawn in the next few weeks. Astro Table 9:57-10:53 AM and 9:07 - 10:39 PM.

Friday, June 05, 2009 At 3:15 AM we heard a coyote howling, presumably in the woods behind the house. Astro Table 11:26 - midnight.

Saturday, June 6, 2009 The whitetail doe was in the meadow feeding at 7:23PM; it came from the woods north of the meadow and left at 7:29 going south toward another patch of woods. Astro Table 11:51 AM - 12:43PM. No Correlation.

Sunday, June 07, 2009 The whitetail doe was in the meadow feeding at 6:20AM; it came from woods to the south of the meadow and left at 6:31 going north into the woods. Astro Table 12:21-1:07AM.

Sunday, June 08, 2009 The whitetail doe was in the meadow at 8:50 PM. She left going south. Astro Table 1:37-2:32 PM. No Correlation.

Monday, June 08, 2009 The whitetail doe was in the meadow at 7:44 AM; she came from the woods south of the meadow and went to the woods north of the meadow. The Astro Table 1:27 - 2:23.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 Researchers have found that breeding/nesting birds reduce their calling within 4 hours of sunrise - which means that if you want to hear or see birds in the spring, the best time is from sunrise to 9:30-10:00 AM.

At 7:54 PM the doe stepped into the meadow from the woods on the north and fed there until 8:02, when she left going south. Partly cloudy, no wind, temperature 60 degrees. Astro Table2:28 - 3:14 PM.

Thursday, June 11, 2009 Cloudy, no wind, 51 degrees, Twilight 4:48 AM, Sunrise 5:25 AM. At 5.36 AM the doe was leaving the meadow going north. Astro Table 2:47-3:43 AM.

Diane saw the doe in the meadow at 8:30 PM; it came from the woods north of meadow, and it left going to the woods south of the meadow. Astro Table time was 3:54-5:00 PM.

I will tell you this - if you can start to understand deer activity - you will be able to figure out sevearl things about when, where and how to hunt deer from this study. In fact, this may be one of the most important lessons you will ever learn - if you have not leaned it already.

So - what does this tell you???

God bless

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

Conclusions:

It appears that the deer is somewhat predictably active within 2 hours of sunrise and sunset, but it is unpredictable as to how often it will be seen within a given week at those times. And it is fairly predictable as to where it will be at those times. In the last week the doe has been in the meadow within 2 hours of sunrise 5 times; and has been in the meadow within 2 hours of sunset 3 times. None of those times was within the timeframe given by the Astral Table for those days.

These sightings do not prove that this doe did not feed at times correlating with the overhead or underfoot position of the moon, or the times predicted by several popular Game Activity Tables that use the position (or other factors) of the moon, in their predictions. But, since several scientific studies show that deer are most active on a daily basis within 1-2 hours of sunrise and sunset, I think it is unlikely that this deer was also active at those times.

This study suggests that Game Activity Tables (that rely on the overhead/underfoot position of the moon) are unreliable at predicting the best times to see deer - at least this particular deer. After 10 years of research I've found that none of the tables (Solunar Table, Feeding & Fishing Times, Moon Guide) are accurate more than 20% of the time. I don't know about you - but that is not good enough for me.

------------------------------------------

But, what other conclusions can you come to from this, about the times the deer was seen and the places it was seen.

God bless and good hunting,

T.R.


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## Canuck (Nov 10, 2004)

Tells me you got a lot of time to look out the window!!

Sorry just kidding.
Canuck


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

As to why the doe was in the locations that I saw her, at the times I saw her:

No matter what time of the day you see a deer, it is either sedentary in its daytime core area or other area, or it is coming from somewhere, or it is going somewhere. The first thing you should ask yourself, whenever you see a deer is, "Why is the deer in that location at that time of day?"

Let's use a few well known deer facts to come to several conclusions.

Deer Facts:

1. Generally speaking, deer have a seasonal home range. One end of the home range is usually a daytime core area (where the deer spends the majority of the day) , the other end is often a nighttime feeding area. Home ranges are generally 3-5 times longer than they are wide.

2. Deer generally get up at about the same time each evening, leave their daytime core areas ,and begin to travel to a food source. In the morning they generally try to get back to their daytime core area within a couple hours of sunrise.

3. Scientific studies have shown that deer rarely travel more than 2-4 miles in one night, before returning to their core area in the morning. They rarely travel more than .2 of a mile in one hour.

4. Scientific studies have shown that peak deer activity generally occurs within 1-2 hours of sunrise and sunset.

Generally speaking, the only time you will see a deer in the same area, within two hours of both sunrise and sunset, is when the deer is either in or near a nighttime food source, or it is in or near, its daytime core area. If the deer leaves the area in the evening, it is probably coming from its daytime core area. If it comes into the area in the morning, it is probably going to its daytime core are. This deer was doing both of these activities. Therefore it was either in, or near its daytime core area. And, because it came from the north, on the days when it was seen, its daytime core area and its daytime bedding sites (probably several different bedding sites) were in behind the deer in the direction it had come from; which was north of the meadow.

If you want to p attern this deer, and get close to it's daytime core area (where it spends up to 75% of its time during the day and during legal hunting hours, then you might want to get close to its daytime core area.

If you understand that this deer is either in or near its core area, you just began to "pattern" this deer. Now all you have to do is figure out where to setup to hunt it.

God bless,

T.R.


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

TRMichels said:


> I will tell you this - if you can start to understand deer activity - you will be able to figure out sevearl things about when, where and how to hunt deer from this study. In fact, this may be one of the most important lessons you will ever learn - if you have not leaned it already.
> 
> So - what does this tell you???
> 
> ...


Not really...... Animals aren't as stupid as you think they are. They know when they are being hunted and their habits and behaviors change as soon as you start hunting them.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

You can now "follow" me, and keep up with what I m doing, on Twitter: http://Twitter.com/TRMichels

After not seeing the deer for about a week, I began to wonder why. And then I remembered that research studies, including my own, have shown that deer are most active during the day when there is either a full moon, or the moon is in the last quarter. And I remembered that deer activity often peaked (on a monthly basis) during the perigee or apogee of the moon (when the moon is closest to the earth and farthest away from the earth respectively). The perigee and apogee are when the moon speeds up due to the gravitational pull of the sun. This acceleration in speed of the moon alters the electromagnetic forces of the sun, the moon and the earth, which may in turn affect that activities of biological organisms; like deer.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Diane saw the deer at the larger of the two ponds when she went to work at 6:00 AM this morning. The doe may have switched her feeding places, or she just stopped off for a drink, but she is not on her previous travel route. And if she heads to her daytime core area from there, she may not go through the meadow. Astral Table 6:44 - 9:47 AM.

Deer Research, Lesson 1

I checked the moon phases and perigee/apogee, and found that the moon was full the week we saw the deer regularly in the backyard, and it was during the perigee. These lunar occurrences, correlated with the activity of one deer, for one week (not over the course of several weeks) proves nothing, because there simply is not enough data to come to a conclusion. As with any scientific study, in order for this to study be valid, you would need dozens of deer sightings, over several months, for several years, before you could show a valid correlation, But the fact remains that other studies have shown increased monthly deer activity during these lunar events.

There are far too many factors that influence daily deer activity, to rely on just on factor. These factors include the meteorological conditions, such as temperature, humidity, dewpoint, windchill, heat index, wind speed and direction, amount and type of precipitation, and cloud cover. They also include the cosmological conditions of the phase of the moon and the perigee/apogee cycle. And forage availability, predatory behavior, non-hunting human activity, hunting pressure, and the rut.

God bless and good researching and hunting,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 At 10:20 I noticed a fawn in the meadow, on the west side, right where the doe crosses the meadow going to the south. Astral Table 1:27- 4:57 PM, no correlation. New moon. Cloudy, temperature 71, no wind, Barometer 29.95 rising. Sunrise 5:27, twilight 4:49.

This is the first time we have seen the fawn.

Seeing the fawn here, suggests we are in the does day time core area.

Deer Behavior, Lesson 5

Daytime core areas (where the deer spends the majority of the daylight hours) can be as large as 40 acres or more. Deer generally have several preferred bedding sites within their daytime core area. On a hot day they may bed in the shade, where a cool breeze can get to them, or near water. On a rainy day they may bed where there is some overhead cover. On a extremely windy or cold and wind days, they often bed on the downwind side of hills or woods, or in low-lying areas, where they can get out of the wind. These bedding areas may be several dozen or hundreds yards apart.

God bless and good deer researching,

T.R.


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

I'm with I want a buggy on this one.

Deer move for several reasons. They are hungery and the food they want is across thefield and the road.
they are being pushed by, dogs, youtes and people.
Deer pattern hunters quickly even before the season starts and move out of the area.

All that gobbely goop only works in fenced in shooting pens where varmits and humans have limitedacess.

 Al


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> On a hot day they may bed in the shade, where a cool breeze can get to them, or near water.


Normally it's not hot when we are hunting. I guess early bow season is often very hot.
Anyway, the above statement got me thinking. Do you have any experience with the evaporation air conditioners they use in dry climates like Arizona? The reason I ask is because hydrophytic plants give off a lot of moisture. A mature cottonwood tree can kick out 500 gallons of water in a day. Other smaller species that are semi aquatic give off even more in relation to their size. If they are sufficiently tall I wonder what the temperature variability is between open sun and under their canopy, due to transpiration? Also the temperature variability under common woody species vs. hydrophytic species.

Not real important I guess, but never the less it got me curious. I wonder if we could predict preferential vegetation for bedding in warm weather? I guess that's more of a biological question than a hunting question.


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## bearhunter (Jan 30, 2009)

T.R. has anyone ever done a study on how biting insects affect deer movement???? i own riverbottom property and it seems as soon as the first hatch of skeets are born the deer, bucks mostly dissapear and seem to favor more open areas.


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

I have one doe that beds in my front yard where I stopped mowing due to high fuel prices. She beds her fawn under one of the pines about 100 feet away.I also have two doe's that bed in the high grass behind my pole barn at the edge of the woods.the woods only shades them in the morning. One beds her fawn at the edge of a big mutilflora rose bush. the other has her fawn in apatch of wild dog woods.

In the winter I have a herd that beds on awsouth east faceing hill in my grove of mature white pines.

 Al


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

I don't know of a study on insects and deer.

You say your deer bed close to humans (me too), but I have plenty of "expert" hunters tell me that deer don't get used to humans.

That is how much the "experts" know.

Anyhow ------

Now what?

If you see a deer in the evening, within an hour or so of sunset, it has probably come from its daytime core area, and that core area is probably in the direction from which the deer came. You just began to "pattern" that deer - so that you can locate its core area, where it spends about 75% of its time during legal hunting hours. If you want to see the deer during legal hours, on a regular basis, you should find its daytime core area.

If you have been seeing a deer on a regular basis like this - and,

1. you don't see the deer in the morning - it may be getting back to its core area before you see it there, which means you need to get to where the deer is going (close to its core area) before it gets there.

2. you don't see the deer in the evening - it may be coming out of its core area after you leave, which means you have to get closer to where the deer was coming from (its core area) in order to see it during legal hours.

God bless,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

Plainsmen,

And I though I was "musing", wondering person. You've taken the curiosity factor to a whole ne level - adn your is a good question.
Unfortunately I do not know of auch a study , but, if we all thnk about it (real hard), I'm sure we ccn (and we probably already do) equate plant types to habitat and terrain factors.

As you bring up, most of us know cottonwoods, and willows, and alders, and aspem often have to have their feet in fairly wet soil. And I know that I often find rubs on aspens at the edges of meadows.

Those wet soil areas often include lake shores and stream or river edges, which might provide the coolng efect deer may look for on hot days.

Mostly I think they look for shade, where wind can come through and provide a cooling effect. Or wet areas where the cooling effect of water helps out.

Keep thinking, and keep asking questions.

God bless,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

We've seen the doe, and the fawn, several times in the last two weeks, almost always within 2 hours of sunset or sunrise. The one exception was when the doe was suckling the fawn in the meadow, but near the edge of the trees by the lake.

Wednesday, July 02, 2009 
At 6:51 the doe ran through the meadow, by the lone tree, from west to east. Something spooked her, probably the coyote. At 7:03 the fawn was in the meadow, gong form west to east, looking back, and then it ran in the same direction, along the same path as the doe. They will probably get separated, and will have to get back together, using some type of social contact call.

At 7:32 the doe was right outside the living room window, about 10 yards from the house. She walked west, then ran toward the are where she usually enters the west woods before crossing the driveway and going into the gully. She stopped near the woods, then walked across the meadow going northwest, and went into the woods above the lake. She was probably looking for the fawn, which had gone east. 
7:41 2 Mourning doves feeding on the driveway by the meadow.

Musings: 
I wonder if bird species are affected by the weather as much as animals. I suspect cold weather, rain, high winds, and high heat, are all a detriment to normal bird activity. Ducks seem to move a lot more on cold, windy and rainy days; but I suspect they are looking for places to find food that are out of the high wind.
Warblers seem to be harder to find when it is windy, probably because the insects they eat are not buzzing around the treetops like they are on calm days. The insects are either blown clean out of the country, or they stay hidden. The warblers may be huddled up somewhere.

Solunar Table 6:05 - 8:05, correlation. Cloudy skies, temperature 55, wind 1 mph wsw, Barometer, 29.82 steady. Full moon. Sunrise 5:30, twilight 4:53. The Mourning Doves make it 31 bird species in the backyard in the last month.

It is cold (55) and windy today. The brown Thrasher did not sing at all..

_______________________________________

Deer Behavior, Lesson 4

During the day, in the fall and winter, deer, especially bucks, prefer to bed in heavy cover, in a wooded areas if they can. They often like to bed on a slope, a rise, a hill, or a bench on a hill, with their back to the wind; where they can smell and hear danger from behind them, and see danger in front of them. Beds in cover often indicate daytime use.

During the night, even in the fall, deer often bed in or near food sources, or in or near open areas. Beds in open areas often indicate nighttime use.

God bless,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

If you have been following along, you may begin to see how stutying the behavior of the animal (when it appers in particular places at semi-predictable times), can help youi choose a place, a set of weather conditions, and a time frame (say 1-3 hours), where you have a pretty good chance of seeing the animal on a semi-regular basis (2- 3 timse per week).

To me - that sounds a whole lot better than just going into the woods, seeing some deer sign (that may or may not be recent) and setting up a stand.

So, where do we go from here?

After the second or third time you see a deer on a pattern like this, whether you see it in the morning or evening, you should get out the next day and look for deer sign, to help you locate a good spot to setup to take the deer. Look for the trail the deer uses in the evening, and setup in a location where you can hunt the deer before sunset, or before legal hunting times are over. If you follow the trail far enough, it may lead into relatively heavy cover, where you may find deer beds and droppings.

If the deer is a buck you may find scrapes and rubs along its trail. Rubs on buck trails are usually on 1-2 inch trees. Remember, if you are following a buck trail backwards, the rubs will be on the far side of the tree as you follow the trail, you may have to turn around and look behind you to see the rubs. If you find several rubs, scattered out over an area less than an acre, with large deer beds nearby, and large clumped deer droppings (caused by constipation from poor eating and lots of exertion) during the rut you are probably in one of the deer's preferred bedding sites.

After the second day I saw the deer, I scouted the area. I started by going to where the deer had come from in the evening. I found a lightly used trail (probably made by one deer, not several deer) and three old deer beds, all of about the same size, in a small opening 50 yards from the meadow. Next I went to the area where the deer left the meadow, and found another lightly used trail, that went into a heavily wooded gully that ended near another meadow and a pond, with more woods on the other side of the pond.

If you do not have the time or opportunity to watch the area where you saw a deer (to determine if it is still regularly using the area), you can scout it every 3-5 days, scout it on weekends, or use game cameras to catch the deer using the area when you are not there. But, watching the area is the best tactic.

I hope this is helping some of you.

If you have questions - feel free to ask. I'm here to trly to help - you.

God bless and good hunting,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

Sorry I haven't been around much lately, but I'm conducting another research project, which I'll talk a bout in a minute.

We have not seen the doe as much lately, but when we do it is usually within 2 hours of sunrise or sunset. And, while we were seeing her with the fawn, I have no see the fawn in about a week. I hope nothing happened to it. I did hear the coyote howl the other night at about 3:40 AM, and then it was joined by some higher pitches yelping. It seems out resident coyote has pups.

Anyhow, the doe has not given me much to work with lately.

MY NEW RESEARH PROJECT

I've gotten together with one of the people on my Live Animal Camera page, who lives done in Arkansas, and has several thousand acres of a game preserve. They have 8 live feed cameras out, 1 is in their deer enclosure, where their are over 100 deer. The other 7 are n feeders scattered throughout the preserve.

The cameras have night vision and audio capabilities, so I can see and hear the animals 24 hours a day.

I'm going to be looking at the activity of deer, bears, turkey, raccoons op[possum and several species of birds - to see if their hourly activity is correlated with any of the popular game activity tables, or with any of several meteorological or lunar factors, and with the time of sunrise, sunset, and morning and evening twilight.

I can tell you that during the last week, there has been no correlation between the sightings of deer, bear, raccoons or opossum with the predictions of the Solunar Table. And since all of the game activity Tables use the same lunar factors in their predictions, they all parallel each other, which means none of them will show any correlation with the sightings of the animals.

Interestingly, in this months Petersen's Bowhunting, there is an article about using GPS collars to see if deer activity is correlated with the moon. The answer was no. Game Activity Tables thagt use lunar factors - do not work on deer - period.

Deer Behavior Lesson 6

After not seeing the deer for about a week, I began to wonder why. And then I remembered that research studies, including my own, have shown that deer are most active during the day when there is either a full moon, or the moon is in the last quarter. And I remembered that deer activity often peaked (on a monthly basis) during the perigee or apogee of the moon (when the moon is closest to the earth and farthest away from the earth respectively). The perigee and apogee are when the moon speeds up due to the gravitational pull of the sun. This acceleration in speed of the moon alters the electromagnetic forces of the sun, the moon and the earth, which may in turn affect that activities of biological organisms; like deer.

It is now 2:30 AM Minnesota, and I just got done checking the cameras. No deer seen at the camera in the enclosure (there were several at 1:40, including a large 8 point buck).There were 5 does and 2 raccoons at the other 7 feeders. I saw several bears, over a dozen raccoons, probably 20 deer (including some real nice 8 pointers), and two opossums earlier today.

　

Deer Research, Lesson 1

I checked the moon phases and perigee/apogee, and found that the moon was full the week we saw the deer regularly in the backyard, and it was during the perigee. These lunar occurrences, correlated with the activity of one deer, for one week (not over the course of several weeks) proves nothing, because there simply is not enough data to come to a conclusion. As with any scientific study, in order for this to study be valid, you would need dozens of deer sightings, over several months, for several years, before you could show a valid correlation, But the fact remains that other studies have shown increased monthly deer activity during these lunar events.

There are far too many factors that influence daily deer activity, to rely on just on factor. These factors include the meteorological conditions, such as temperature, humidity, dewpoint, windchill, heat index, wind speed and direction, amount and type of precipitation, and cloud cover. They also include the cosmological conditions of the phase of the moon and the perigee/apogee cycle. And forage availability, predatory behavior, non-hunting human activity, hunting pressure, and the rut.

Hey, there will be a few more lessons we can learn from this deer, and then the big finale - which brings it all together, and shows us how you can choose the best times and best place to hunt most deer, if you take the time to pay attention to its movement times, and pattern it. I've used this technique on big bucks for several years - and it is very productive.

God bless,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

I've kind of lost track of where we are in this study, because I'm so busy with the NEW project. So, if I previously posted this - forgive me.

Deer Behavior, Lesson 7

Deer may shift their travel patterns (where they move on a daily/weekly basis) based on where the preferred food sources are each week. This often occurs during the Fall home Range Shift/Dispersal Phase, when many deer move from summer home ranges (often in September or October in the north) to fall home ranges, and when the bucks begin to breakup from their "bachelor" groups, become solitary and start to establish their breeding ranges. In order to know where the deer are active each week and month, you have to continue to monitor their movements by seeing them or by using game cameras, and by regular field scouting tips, to look for fresh deer sign, especially trails, rubs, scrapes and beds. If you can scout 2-3 days a week, you can usually learn enough about the property and the deer, to be able to predict when and where to find them, and where to setup to hunt them. (I'll talk more about field scouting later).

Deer Hunting, Lesson 3

Of the factors that affect deer, the ones that have the greatest influence on the daily activity of them (influencing when and where they are active), are the meteorological factors (weather conditions) of the day. I have a couple of personal axioms I use to predict deer activity.

1.If it is too hot, too cold, too windy or too wet - the deer aren't going to do what they would normally do.

When this occurs you can:

a. sit at your stand and put up with the weather, and not see any deer;

b. stay home and be comfortable; or

c. figure out where the deer may be during the conditions of the day, and go look for the deer, probably in their daytime core areas, because they may not come to you.

2. Get out and hunt when it is cloudy. Cloud cover alters the amount of available light, and can make it look like it is closer to sunrise and sunset than it actually is. On cloud days deer may come out up to 20 minutes earlier than normal in the evening, and they may stay out up to 20 minutes longer than normal in the morning.

One more posting and we are done with this. It will be the BIG CONCLUSION, which I hope will help you understand deer better, and use some new, productive hunting techniques, to help you become more successful.

God bless and good hunting,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

Deer Behavior, Research - and Hunting, Lesson 1

The difficulty with predicting where deer are going to be active each day - is figuring out how all of these factors interact with each other. After 10 year of deer research, documenting the behavior of over 4000 deer sightings with all of these factors, I think I've got a pretty good handle on predicting deer activity on a daily basis. When I go out the door I don't just plan on going to my normal deer stand, or just any deer stand, I immediately begin to think about when and where the deer will probably be active that day, and I go there.

My research into the biology and behavior of deer, and my deer hunting experience as a guide and outfitter, has made me quite successful at seeing deer on a regular basis, up close, and personal enough to archery hunt them.

Anyone can do what I have done, to help them understand deer better, which should make them better able to predict when and where to see deer on a regular basis, which will in turn make them more successful as hunters. All you have to do is start to take notes on the meteorological and lunar conditions each day you see deer, where you saw the deer, what time you saw them, and what they were doing.

After a couple of weeks you may start to see some patterns as to where and when the deer are most active. After one hunting season you may see some patterns as to when and where to find the deer under any of the weather condition you might encounter during the fall and winter, and during the different phases of the rut. Start out with a log book, check the local weather station as close to the time you hunt as you can, and write down where you saw the deer, where they came from, where they were going, what they were doing, their sex and approximate age or number of points, the phase of the rut, and the location and availability of food sources. You'll be amazed at what you learn.

And while you are doing it, remember that you are beginning to use the technique known as "patterning" deer. If you combine your understanding of when and where to find deer on a regular basis, with good scouting techniques, you will be better able to put yourself in the right place at the right time to hunt a specific deer, possibly even a trophy class buck, on most days. No matter what the conditions are like.

Deer Behavior, Research - and Hunting, Lesson 2

As mentioned before, the travel route of a deer usually follows the path of least resistance. But, the desire to follow the path of least resistance is overridden by the need for security. They often have a preferred trail by which they leave their daytime core area in the evening, and a preferred trail be which they go back into their daytime core area in the morning.

In the morning, when the doe left its daytime core area, it would be easier for the deer to simply walk down the road, which paralleled the gully, to get to the bottom of the gully, where it opened up into a meadow, than to travel through the steep terrain and thick vegetation of the gully. However, the deer would be more visible, and more susceptible to predators and hunting pressure, in the open habitat of the road. In order to feel more secure, the deer chose to travel in the bottom of the steep gully, where both the terrain and the vegetation made it less visible.

Since this deer leaves the meadow (which is part of her daytime core area) in the evening, by using the gully on the southwest side of the meadow, and comes back into the meadow in the morning, by using the same gully, and it travels through the gully at about the same time every time it uses it, either in the morning or the evening,, we can assume that the trail in the gully is one of her preferred trails (similar to the rub route of a buck).

One of the most obvious places to setup to hunt this deer, is in the gully, close to the meadow in the evening, so we have a chance of seeing it during daylight or legal hunting hours. In the evening we could also setup in the gully, someplace where we think we can intercept the deer before it gets back to the meadow. Similarly, the best places to setup to take a buck, is along one of its preferred trails (along its rub route),. either the trail out its daytime core area in the evening, or the preferred trail back into its daytime core area in the morning.

I hope eveeryone learned something (from the deer) from this excercise. If not go back and look it over again, it might help you figure out - how to figure out - why a deer is where it is at, at the time it is there, which might help you pattern the deer, and choose a place to set up, where you will semi-regularly see it.

If you have questions - please fire away.

God bless,

T.R.


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## TRMichels (Apr 2, 2008)

I've gotten a lot of different questions and comments on this thread, because it is on more than 40 different talk forums.

One of the most frequent comments is that a hunter will not rely on science, or just one factor that affects deer, to determine when (what days) they hunt.

I can't say that I totally disagree with that statement, but I also can't say that I totally agree with it.

This thread started out as project to determine if the hourly activities of one deer were correlated with the predictions fo the Solunar Table, but the project grew to include most of the factors that might affect when and where deer are most active each day.

So, when it comes to using the moon to determine what hours of the day to hunt, I don't use it, because it does not work.

But, examining scientific research, and learning how other factors affect deer, particularly "what type of habitat" to expect them in during different types of weather, and "when" (what hours of the day) to expect them to use different tyeps of habitat, or when to expect then at particular points along their daily travel routes - I'm extremely interested, and I will use the information gathered by scientific research - to hunt, because it can help me choose where to hunt, at what time of the day - based on how the deer will react to the (weather, lunar and other) conditions that day.

Let's put it this way, if it is raining hard, there is probably no sense sitting in a stand near an alfalfa field in the evening, where I have seen lots of deer every evening for the past week, because the deer are more than likely not going to show up. They are probably trying to get comfortable, or stay comfortable, in a wooded area. I can either sit at the field and see no deer, not hunt at all, or go to where I think the deer are, and hunt them there.

After 10 years of scientific research, I have a pretty good idea of where to find deer, at particular times of the day, on a regular basis. And I use that science to hunt deer.

The more you know about deer behavior, the better you will be able to predict where to find deer, at what time of day, under any condition - and that can help you see more deer, up close, on a regular basis.

So, if you are willing to learn a bit about deer behavior, through scientific research, follow along on the "New Wildlife Research Project" thread. I'll be updating you on what I see, what the deer are doing, when they are doing it, and where they are doing it - on a weekly basis.

God bless,

T.R.


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