Coyotes don't move when the moon is bright?

KjBeachy

New member
So the other night I had an opportunity to do an all night hunt for yotes with some friends. The moon wasn't full, but it was bright enough you could have shot something without thermals or night vision. We hunted the whole night, saw 1 coyote. I have a good idea what I'm doing when it comes to calling, so I don't think that was the problem. I was wondering if maybe coyotes dont feel safe when it's so bright outside? We were using no lights, we were using nightvision and thermals.
 
My experience is in bright moonlight, it's almost like hunting during the day. They don't feel as safe and don't move as much.
 
Agree, both prey and predator are aware of their additional exposure.
More so the prey, so there's less prey out & about : less predators on the hunt.
 
When night hunting first became legal in my state, we couldn't use thermal or night vision so hunting was all done during bright moon conditions. Even then, when it was totally full, it wasn't great but we would get a few. We did very well from 60-80% full moon nights. Then, it just shut down, and we couldn't hardly get one with any type of bright moon. Now since thermal is legal, I don't need to rely on the moon any longer. However, the pattern seems to continue during the last few years with thermal where bright nights have yielded very poor results. However, the darkness before the moon rise or after it sets has typical still been very productive.
 
On a bright, moonlit night, is it that the coyotes don't move, or is it that coyotes can see us coming from a very long ways out, and therefore won't respond to a call?

My question comes from having tried to be out in the field all set up, before first light. After quite a few sets, I noticed my very early morning success wasn't very good, instead, it got better after the sun was up.

I deduced that, in the dark, coyotes could see me coming and getting set up, while I could not see them. So, calling to that coyote was a waste of time.

After hunting all night, the coyotes are looking for a place to nap the day away. When I arrive after, say 9am, they are bedded down, and I can get into position with less chance of them seeing me. Then, I send out my 'come to breakfast' invitation.

The areas I hunt are really wide open, sometimes there is not a tree, or even a large bush, for miles, so hunting might be different when there is more cover.
 
K-22, yes there could be some possibility of coyotes seeing a person walking out in a wide open field etc. However, I pride myself in trying to approach calling areas as "invisibly" as possible. Lots of folks at night try to get away with a lot more than during the day, but I typically set up my night stands exactly as day stands. Even with this type of caution, I still see a drastic difference. So, I think some could be attributed to them seeing the hunter, but I don't think all of it.
 
It's the same way here. I tried something new last week in the snow with a full moon. I went in the edge of the woods and let out a howl and one came running. I was at the very edge of the woods backed in to a bush with a fence behind the bush and the rest woods. He was behind the bush on the other side of the fence so I couldn't see him. I just heard him trot up through the leaves and sniffing around. I lip squeaked and didn't hear anything for a while. About 5 mins later I walked out and it was right there. He had circled around. I had hoped he would circle but didn't think it would take so long so it surprised me. That made me wonder if they just won't come out in the open for some reason when it's a full moon. He was really quick to come when I was in the woods but I can't get any to come out in the open. Even when he had circled he had stayed shades under the trees.
 
I remember many many posts on this website over the years about how terrible the hunting was in the daytime during a full moon.

Doesn’t make sense to believe both (although I believe both are true) not good hunting during daylight during a full moon, not good hunting at night during a full moon.

If the coyotes don’t come out at night as much during a full moon, shouldn’t they be hungry and active in the day?

There was a time when I wouldn’t hunt during a full moon during the day because I was convinced the coyotes were out all night hunting because they could see prey at night and slept during the day.
 
I've only called in two coyote during the day, both on accident, one I was calling for turkeys and the other calling crows.

Most my hunting is done at night in the snow during the week of the full moon and I can't really think of our best nights being during the full moon or a couple days before or after... I should keep better track.
 
I’ve hunted a bit at night and had some great fun with a fresh blanket of snow and a moon at least 3/4. But I haven’t done it a whole bunch of times...
 
If you check your major and minor feeding periods during a full moon, you will see what is going on.

Best hunting from 10AM to 3 pm.

We had some excellent hunting years ago when hunting in Mexico just prior to the moon coming up, on "full Moon" nights. When the moon lit up the landscape, it was like throwing a light switch in how they quit "running".

We learned to hunt with howlers during full moon for the best results. A family unit would send in a yearling to find out what was going on with a "stranger" being in their Territory.

A Full Moon during a High Pressure front is a deal killer on any success, in spades.

On the other hand, we had good luck on Full Moons were there was a storm front with heavy clouds that blocked the Moon Light, where barometric pressure was falling.

We had a barometer in the truck. Scouting with good maps was part of our ritual. I learned while hunting with an old timer that started calling in the late 50's.

The less territory you have to hunt, the smarter you have to be in when you hunt.

Moon phase-Major and Minor feeding periods
Weather fronts-hunt on low pressure fronts, scout on high pressure fronts

Learn the discipline, or you are just educating yearlings, and 60% of what you kill are yearlings.
 
I've always noticed more action after a snow storm, I keep up with the major and minor periods of the solunar calendar but haven't noticed an effect there.

I can't make any sense out of my area, too populated hunt the day in my opinion, sun up to sun down there are tractors, chainsaws, snowmobiles, hunters and people walking their dogs all around and sometimes through my hunting spots.

In fact I had better luck when I first started with hand calls, now foxpro became popular everyone is out blasting recordings and wolves have worked their way south.

Still a lot of tracks in my area but in the last two years there were 3 to 4 week periods I didnt even hear a howl.
 
Originally Posted By: ackleymanIf you check your major and minor feeding periods during a full moon, you will see what is going on.

Best hunting from 10AM to 3 pm.

We had some excellent hunting years ago when hunting in Mexico just prior to the moon coming up, on "full Moon" nights. When the moon lit up the landscape, it was like throwing a light switch in how they quit "running".

We learned to hunt with howlers during full moon for the best results. A family unit would send in a yearling to find out what was going on with a "stranger" being in their Territory.

A Full Moon during a High Pressure front is a deal killer on any success, in spades.

On the other hand, we had good luck on Full Moons were there was a storm front with heavy clouds that blocked the Moon Light, where barometric pressure was falling.

We had a barometer in the truck. Scouting with good maps was part of our ritual. I learned while hunting with an old timer that started calling in the late 50's.

The less territory you have to hunt, the smarter you have to be in when you hunt.

Moon phase-Major and Minor feeding periods
Weather fronts-hunt on low pressure fronts, scout on high pressure fronts

Learn the discipline, or you are just educating yearlings, and 60% of what you kill are yearlings. Kieth nailed it. This should be what you call one of them sticky's permanently posted at the top on the night hunting thread. In Californian we do a lot night hunting It's legal here for now and has been for a long time go figure but we can only use spotlights no night vision thermal and such. In my opinion it's not cause 'they can see you'. It's more complex than that. Another trend I've noticed over recent years is that the old boys rarely respond to the call at night. The more mature coyotes are being seen on daylights. One night was hunting the Eastern Mojave started calling at 7:30 killed seven coyotes holding the light in one hand, operating my bolt gun with the other. I was on a roll killed a double and almost got a second double. As soon as the moon came out from behind the cloud cover around 11:00 PM it was over. Grizz
 
Great post, Grizz!

One weekend down in Mexico, we had killed 16 from 3PM till around 8PM when the moon came out. Suddenly, no more takers, like slamming a door shut. I blew a howler, and there were 50 or more no further than half a mile from us, all around us. No takers. I challenged barked with another howler, got a lot of pissed off coyotes, but none would come in.

It was a hunting pards birthday, I pulled out a bottle of champagne, and we drank the bottle, went to sleep, started hunting at 10 am the next morning. We got 4 coyotes, two foxes, and a bob cat all without moving the truck. We got 32 that weekend.
 
My best is three of us hunting two days three nights we kilt 15 coyote 8 bobcat I pulled the trigger on 9 of the 23 animals and this was in the heavily hunted preserve. Grizz
 
Last 12 sets over the last 4 nights have not had one coyote called in. Moon has been big, bright and directly overhead. I don’t see anything close to the numbers that guys out west do but usually this time of the year I do get one to at least shows its self on better than 50% of the sets. Not to mention some sets were on a couple of new prime properties that have never been called. Also buddy has wireless camera on one of the properties that had 3 coyotes on it about 100 yards away in the woods about 15 minutes before we started calling. Set up so there was no way they could get down wind without us seeing them. Set up in the woods line shadows. Coyotes around here will very rarely break a field during daylight and with this bright moon it is pretty close to daylight. They are very light shy. Im thinking they don’t feel save to come out in the open with this much light from the moon. Things been slow for anyone else?
 
Same..coming into the new moon..the were coming left and right to the call just after dusk. Coming into the Full moon and warm front that's passing through seems to have made them reluctant to do anything more than assemble howl in the distance.
 
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