Experience hunting during the full moon?

MCary said:
Went out the last 3 nights and had some problems. We call in lots of coyotes, but only got a shot at one. The rest came in, turned around and left. They didn't bolt, they just left at the same speed they came in. It was very bright out. Being kinda new at night hunting I don't have a library of experiences to draw on to definitively identify the problem. I think it was the moon.

Our setup, there was 2 of us. We both had thermal rifle scopes and because of the difficulty of scanning with rifles we both used "Caldwell DeadShot ChairPod Shooting Rest System"s Its just a swivel chair with a rest. I just sent mine back and bought a monocular instead since I already have a Photon xt. My plan was to get closer to the ground and limit movement on light nights.

Anyway, do you more experienced people find it more difficult to hunt on moonlit nights?

Thanks

Mike
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Super moon in Texas.....so bright could have brought a book to read. Nothing moving at all during this moon phase. No call backs from my long howls.
 
Taken 6 coyotes from last Thursday night, to last night thru a full moon on clear skies. Shots were 200, 140, 200, 150, 100, 360. All thermal kills. The 360 kill there was 2 dogs coming, but they hung up, and sat down, so I shot the 1 i had a clear view on. When I recovered, visibly was an easy 300 yards with just moonlight. For me full moons have been good, the coyotes have been moving and talking, but you need to be cautious of set up, and very little hunter movement.
 
We hunted Saturday night, the moon was 95% waning gibbous. Some hunts I swear it effects them, other nights show there is no consistency when trying to pin a certain factor down that shuts down their response to the call.

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Very limited experience compared to most, but the brighter the night, the more coyotes we killed. They also seemed more vocal during that time. It was so consistent, my son won’t even want to go unless the moon is out and at least a half moon and growing.
I used to think I wouldn’t catch when trapping with a bright moon, but most of my multiple catches all came on bright nights. If you want a “wonder who got caught first” imagine 3 sets within 20yds of each other and a coyote, bobcat, coyote showing in your headlights as you drive up, lol! And that was Full Moon night.
 
I've never used thermal or night vision, all of our hunting was done under a light. We called from the truck so obviously we preferred dark or darker moon nights. I have hunted a lot of moonlit nights but you need to treat them almost like daytime. We mostly hunted high desert terrain. Certain areas we hunted lend themselves to good moonlit night stands. Dry lake beds. We had a few areas that were patches of sage bordered by dry lake beds or alkali beds. We'd make stands similar to daytime there, trying to stay in the shadows. Didn't even need a light as you could see the coyotes or bobcats very clearly come across the lake bed. All in all I preferred dark nights. With moonlight you need to use a lot more light. I did like 1st quarter nights. Usually the moon went down about midnight. Had some really responsive nights the hour or so it went dark.
 
Over the years it has been just like any other night. Sometimes it’s on, sometimes it’s not. Your approach and calling positions should be planned out to stay hidden more-so than a dark night, in my experience. Stick to cover tighter. Stay in shadows. Keep movement to a minimum.

I prefer dark nights, but with busy schedules and limited time to get out calling, I do not let bright nights deter me from calling. Other factors like rain, high winds and deep snow have far greater impacts on success in my experience.
 
The corn harvest has ramped up(soybeans pretty much done, except for some green/tough patches of replants). Was out Tuesday night, didn't hear or see any. Stopped at a hog setup to shoot some rats, rats would pop out and see the truck go back in. Using my Wraith nv. For some reason the Kildeer (12+ birds) were running/flying around the building driveway, had not seen that at night(10pm to midnight). They were acting like it was day time.
 
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