Solunar tables, moon phases and calling

Coyote calling is not a scientific, statistical process. The "when, what, and why" of it can be, at best, associated with trends only. There are no imperatives. The biggest variable is the coyote, itself.

The morning after a full moon may be your worst day of calling. On the other hand, 50 miles away, I may have had my best day ever.

You cannot assign a fixed and concrete set of expectations. When it comes to coyote calling, 2+2 is not always 4.
 
Well said Nasa. I have tried every theory you can imagine through the years and I will have to agree with Nasa. Some guys have been convinced that the theory is sound, and only hunt those times and geuss what. They kill most of there coyotes at that time. Wonder why? Just get them to tell you how many stands didn't produce at those same times. I have by accident some pretty conclusive data that suggest that the moon has little or no effect on whether a predator will respond to a call. My cameras record date and time on every frame of footage I have. Last summmer when I discovered this, I made charts and recovered tons of useful data from over two years of hunting. What I found is there are other stronger variables that have a much stronger influence such as teritorial, sex, hunting pressure,food availability, and most of all weather. What I found most revealing was that you can't call anything sittng at home waiting on the moon.
Hunting at night with a light is a whole other story. You will want to plan these hunts on the darker nights. Not because the moon has some spell on the animals, but because they are easier to detect with the red lense, and it is much harder for them to detect you. This definately gives you an advantage.

Good Hunting

Byron
 
Originally posted by NASA:
[QB]Coyote calling is not a scientific, statistical process. The "when, what, and why" of it can be, at best, associated with trends only. There are no imperatives. The biggest variable is the coyote, itself.

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NASA I concur with your sentiment, however, the statistical process is what confirms the trends. This isn't a semantic distinction rather it is the source of our basic guidelines.

Like some callers I keep records on each stand that details a range of conditions and results. 40 years worth and 1,000 coyotes killed. Since I don't always dictate my days off, I call when I can and not, for example, based on solunar tables. Moon phase, however, is one of those things that I record on the datum sheet.

For day calling, catagorized by moon quarters, my highest success ratio occurs on the New Moon phase (41%) and the worse success ratio on the Full Moon phase (29%). These stats suggest a pattern and the pattern "can", in turn, provide a guideline. A lot of information can be extracted from raw data. For example, success ratio by time of day, or by month or temperature or wind, etc. Lots of variables to consider and because not all conditions can be held as constants, some interpretation is needed.

Patterns emerge and those patterns suggest that there are influences (factors) that, in turn, suggest probabilities. Exceptions to these guidelines are many and sometimes comparing notes with others can broaden and confirm validity or counter it. Hence, my original post.

But, I agree, no one has scientifically distilled calling to the point that it keep me from going afield on any given day with high expectations and a smile on my face.
Click to expand...
 
the records reported above by HANDLOADER parallel a 3-month survey (october through december) i did a couple of years ago. i read every post i could find on this forum that described a hunt, and whenever i could identify exactly what day the hunts took place, i recorded them. if a coyote was seen coming to the caller, i defined that as being a successful hunt; if no coyotes were observed, that was called an unsuccessful hunt.

i know it is not scientific, but here's how my rating numbers shook out from 168 reported hunts; the higher the number the more successful hunts (132 successful hunts and 36 unsuccessful):

3.17 the days of the half moon
2.33 the day of the new moon plus/minus 3 days
1.33 the day of the full moon plus/minus 3 days
0.67 the day of the full moon

also, 81% of unsuccessful hunts were 4 or more days on either side of the full or new moons, except for those two monthly half-moon days.
 
This supports the hypothesis that even on a lunar-phase "bad" day, someone is killing coyotes. If more people hunted by the solunar tables, my huntin' spots wouldn't be so crowded when "I" go out. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 


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