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Old February 9, 2012, 01:49 PM   #1
rickyrick
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Let's Talk about hunting the Moon, Mojo and good luck.

Since the hunting forum is slow lately.


Good mojo, bad mojo?
Tricks based on fact.
Stuff that works that others may find odd?
What have you found that works for you, lucky shirt, de-scenting rituals. Ect.

I was always told that I would never have success on a full moon. I was hard headed and dismissed it as an old wives tale....but I have never had any luck on s full moon, despite countless tries, after all you can see pretty good. I am beginning to find the best time is after the new moon when it stays up two to three hours after sunset.
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Old February 9, 2012, 04:30 PM   #2
Daryl
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The best trick for me is being in the woods, mountains, or desert.

No matter the moon, the time of day, or good luck tokens, I've yet to shoot a deer when I wasn't in the woods, mountains, or desert. I spend all the time I can there during a hunt.



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Old February 9, 2012, 07:48 PM   #3
Kreyzhorse
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Well said Daryl. I try to make my own luck because you can't get the shot if you aren't in the woods. The one thing you can predict about hunting is that you can't predict an animals behavior.
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Old February 9, 2012, 08:27 PM   #4
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Smoke like a fiend!! Ever since I (had to) quit, I've seen half as many bucks as I used to. Maybe the smoke covered some other old man odor, I don't know.

I was walking along years ago during gun season up in north western Wisconsin, rifle on my back and a cigarette in my mouth and met a young fawn face to face. I mean it sniffed my clothes! Then it went to eating the leaves on the bush next to us. SIL used to say deer loved to eat tobacco. Must have been a southern deer up visiting some relatives.
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Old February 9, 2012, 10:18 PM   #5
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Wanna see a nice trophy buck or a turkey with an 11" beard and 1 3/4" spurs, just stop hunting long enough to 'take a leak'.

Never fails, you can hunt for days and not see a thing. Be standing there with the wrong gun in your hand and the biggest trophy around will walk right passed you.
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Old February 10, 2012, 12:19 AM   #6
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That also works deer hunting when taking a dump.

The trick is to "make believe" you're doing it but really are ready to shoot!
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Old February 10, 2012, 01:58 AM   #7
bamaranger
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tricks

You won't kill (insert quarry) in your den! I hunt when I can.

I do not like to deer hunt opposite a full moon. My deer sightings always go down. Full moon afternoon hunts seem the worst. I've started to hunt mid-day on full moons, say 9:00-2:00Pm, but can't really say that's made a difference.


I try and hunt w/ a plan, ..... quarry is here, going to go here, I need to be overthere, like that sort of. I hate hunting blind, but know a lot of guys who do just that. Two of the best bucks on the local WMA were killed by guys who just walked to a spot and plunked down and the deer showed up. No clue to deer behavior, the rut, etc. May be something to being " random."
Critters get pretty good at predicting humans, ever notice how somebody w/o a clue kills a big buck?

Spring turkey. Stay in the woods, hunt hard. Can't say how many times I've got on birds mid-moring, mid-day, late in the season, after many have quit and gone home.
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Old February 10, 2012, 08:32 AM   #8
rickyrick
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So how's this?

If you wanna see a deer, go coyote hunting.

If you wanna see a pig, go deer hunting.

If you wanna see a coyote, don't take a rifle. Just watch it sit there watching you at an easy shooting distance.

Wanna see a half grown goat in a coon trap, set a coon trap.

If you wanna see a cat, look delicious.
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Old February 10, 2012, 10:17 AM   #9
BIG P
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Dont use the sling on your rifle untill your dragging one out.If your gun is on your back its hard to get a bead.

Dont P into the wind on a full moon pretty much brings bad luck.Not to mention it makes your boots soggy.
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Old February 10, 2012, 10:27 AM   #10
rickyrick
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For scent.

I do have a 'teeth' brushing routine ("tooth" brushing is for okies) before I go out, I brush as normal then brush and rinse with peroxide. If you've never done this more stuff comes out than a pawn shop mosins first cleaning.
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Old February 10, 2012, 12:37 PM   #11
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I had a good deer season this year and contibute it to changing things up somewhat over past seasons.

I wash all of my clothes in the No Scent Laundry detergent, hang outside to dry and leave in outdoor aired area, bath with the soap, wash my hair with the No Scent Shampoo. I wear rubber boots all the time. I got into my stand at least 1hr before first light and two hours at lest before the evening hunt period. Stay quiet and still no matter how many mosquitos are chewing on me. Peed in a thermos type screw on top water bottle. I didn't blow grunt calls, doe bleats or put out scent bombs. All of this combined and I ended up seeing deer of some sort, type and size 75% of the times that I sat. Any time I varied that routine or falied to do something to control my scent, I got blanked.

Oh yeah, and go every chance you get. Like others said you won't see them siting on the couch. Well, you could, but some dude will be shooting them right after they let them out of the pen with a TV camera on it.

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Old February 10, 2012, 12:48 PM   #12
rickyrick
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I started leaving my clothes out side also.
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Old February 10, 2012, 03:19 PM   #13
Beagle333
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I have never noticed scent frightening a deer away. Raising it's head and finding the smell interesting, yes, but turning and running at scent alone, no. Most of the guys in our club smell like bacon and last night's whiskey anyway, and they get enough deer to please them.
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Old February 10, 2012, 05:11 PM   #14
warbirdlover
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I think if the whole woods smells like bacon and whiskey the deer won't even come into the woods!
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Old February 10, 2012, 07:09 PM   #15
arch308
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I have seen deer scent me while hunting on the ground. Once a young buck was walking by my set up and when he crossed the wind blown scent path his head came up quickly, he looked around and just took off running. They will smell you and I don't think there is really any 100% effective cure for it. You can lessen the effects of your scent but not completely IMO.
Most of the deer that wind you you never see. Now that I've gotten a little older I generally sit in my elevated box blind with a heater(new this year) and hope for the best.
This season I took a decient 130+ class 8-point, a good sized boar hog and a coyote. All from my comfortable blind with windows taken from an old camping trailer. It took years of feeding to build the trafic I see.( yes, we hunt over feeders in Texas. but I won't shoot any thing under mine, at least not yet).
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Old February 10, 2012, 07:33 PM   #16
phil mcwilliam
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I hunt during the day if theres been a full moon, but avoid spotlighting as past experience has proved ineffective. When in Zimbabwe recently on a 2 week plains game hunt, we had a full moon on arrival. Our guide stated the hunting would improve during the week as the moon became smaller. Sure enough, as the moon began fading we would seen more game during the day. The guides theory was the plains game could see predators more easily on a moon lit night & feed and move around more than usual. They would then bed down for most of the day.
Most new handheld GPS units have a hunting/fishing almanac, stating best hunting/fishing times & dates. I never base any of my hunting/fishing on these times or dates ,& only found this function on my GPS unit one day when I was bored. Interestingly, after several successful hunts & hot fishing sessions, I have later consulted the GPS hunting/fishing almanac & the times have coincided with its predictions. I'm still not a 100% believer, but for laughs you should check this GPS function when next hunting/fishing, you might be surprised.
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Old February 10, 2012, 10:25 PM   #17
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My best luck comes when I am unprepared. Wanna see pigs? Go squirrel hunting. Want to kill something? Leave your skinning knife at home. Want to try and get dead pigs out of the woods? Let your brother drive in his Neon, because you're only squirrel hunting.
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Old February 11, 2012, 12:21 AM   #18
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If I'm hunting on the ground and it's somewhat warm (~45 degrees) I'll scrape the top layer of soil off and get a strong earthy scent to help cover up. This year I used cotton balls soaked in vanilla extract and tossed them all around the area. Had a large doe literally run right towards me within about 45 minutes and held her curiosity long enough for me to get a perfect neck shot! This was right after a full moon.
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Old February 11, 2012, 03:29 AM   #19
warbirdlover
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I tried vanilla this year and thought that was one of the reasons I had such a lousy season. Who knows? The more things I try the less I appear to know. Think I'll bring my radio out with me and listen to some tunes while hunting next year. And maybe have my daughter walk through the woods playing her bagpipes. (She's really good...)

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Old February 11, 2012, 08:21 AM   #20
12GaugeShuggoth
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Well I've been having a bit of a run for the last couple of years involving my cell phone. During the 2009 and 2010 seasons, my cell phone seemingly attracted 4 different deer to me ........all of which ended up in the freezer. Basically, an important call would come in, I'd grit my teeth and answer it with a "hello, what is it, I'm in the woods" .......and next thing you know, bippity-boppity-boo there's a deer staring at you. One of those calls sent 2 deer to me within about 30 seconds of each other.

Well that little trend got me 2 bucks and 2 does, so during this season I received a call late one uneventful morning and needed to answer it. I did, and didn't see anything of interest..........until I hung up and went to put the phone back in my pocket. That was when I saw that a NICE doe had been standing right in my blind spot (covered up with my arm while talking) no more than 30 yards away. Well it was cold, and as soon as I let out that long hard breath I had apparently been holding in........she was gone. Like it or not that dang phone has some funny woods-magic in it.

Other than that, I steer a wide path from the "scent elimination" products.....if I want to smell better for the deer I roll around in the field and rub myself against trees. I use my normal soap, shampoo, aftershave, deodorant, etc.etc. During the best deer season I ever had the only scent I used was saw-dust and shavings from a big red oak that had fallen in the yard. When we had to cut it up I saved a bunch and put it in the bags with my hunting clothes.
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Old February 11, 2012, 12:03 PM   #21
brmfan
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Warbird: Not bad ideas! I was playing Angry Birds on my iPhone on the last two outings where I shot deer this season, so maybe a little party music might do the trick!
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Old February 11, 2012, 01:00 PM   #22
rickyrick
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I step in every wet cow patty in my route.
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Old February 11, 2012, 10:52 PM   #23
warbirdlover
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Quote:
I step in every wet cow patty in my route.

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And here comes the farmer's bull to check you out!!
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Old February 12, 2012, 11:57 AM   #24
TX Hunter
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I have had great sucess hunting Deer Mid Day during a Full Moon, alot of times when the Moon is bright at night, the Deer seem to not move good early in the morning, but come out later like 11 00 in the morning.

When Not in Deer Season, I hunt Racoon with Coonhounds, and some nights when the moon was bright, were good, some nights the hounds treed on Den Trees. I took a young friend hunting night before last, and we Treed Two Coons, the game was stirring pretty well, last night we treed one, but had a couple of bad turnouts without much luck. Ofcourse we had unusually cold conditons for this area, and the game was not stirring well.
I have noticed over the years that an East Wind, usually has poor hunting, Ive seen it eneough to believe it.

But as one poster mentioned you will not do any good hunting if you dont go.
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