On Dec. 4, the final full moon of the year, known as the Cold Moon, illuminated the night sky. But it wasn’t just any full moon; December’s lunar spectacle was a supermoon. A supermoon occurs when the moon reaches its closest point to Earth. The moon can appear up to 15% larger and 30% brighter. And although stargazers anxiously awaited this sighting, the super moon was anything by super for deer hunters.

How the moon phase affects deer movement is up for debate. Research has shown that there’s no link between deer movement and moon phase, but many hunters dispute the scientific evidence. They believe deer become increasingly nocturnal beneath a full moon. For hunters who were in the field this past week, their reports substantiate that belief.

Deer seasons are closed across most of the Northwest, but there are still a few hunters who remain in the field with unpunched tags and open seasons. In Alaska, blacktail hunters have until the end of the year in many units. Hunters on Kodiak Island reported tough conditions, saying that the super moon kept deer bedded for most of the day. Additionally, this time of year, snow typically pushes bucks to lower elevations. However, warm weather and a lack of snow are keeping the bucks up high. When hunters saw does, there were few bucks among them, and the bucks didn’t exhibit much rut behavior.

Back in the Lower 48, mule deer in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have seemingly turned to post-rut routines. Many of the mature bucks that were chasing does just a week ago have disappeared, and with seasons closed, it’s likely not because they ended up in a freezer. Herds of does are without bucks or have been joined by smaller bucks.

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It’s amazing how fast the rut shuts off. During Thanksgiving weekend, as my family watched Sunday football and decorated the Christmas tree, we also watched mule deer bucks sparring and chasing does in our horse pasture. Cut to this past Sunday, when we watched a herd of does steal food from our haystack. They were joined by the same young bucks from the previous weekend, but this time, the bucks showed no interest in anything but alfalfa.

Did the super moon keep whitetails out of sight this week, or is rut activity also slowing down? Maybe it’s both. Whitetails were much less active during daylight this week. I spotted far fewer whitetails feeding in fields but didn’t glass any bucks. Trail cameras also captured fewer shots of bucks, and the snaps they took were in the dark. However, there were pictures of bucks with their noses to the ground, seemingly still in search of does. While on the road at 5 a.m. on my way to the duck blind, a pair of whitetails darted across the road with a buck hot on their heels.

With almost all hunting seasons closed and the rut winding down, activity is slowing down in the field as mid-December approaches.