I realize that this thread says Blacktail/Muley, and I have hunted mulies a good bit, but I hunt whitetail's from mid- Sept thur Jan 01 extensively, usually 4 to 5 days every week for 14-15 weeks!, with a liberal bag limits of 15 deer . I have been keeping a hunting log for the past 11 years of each of my hunts, both morning and evening if possible. I include date, time, temp, weather cond, Bar. pressure, moon phase, moon times, location of hunt, sightings or kills... I hunt in the Western Portion of South Carolina and here are my findings based on bucks seen and harvested according to moon phases...7 days prior to and leading up to the full moon in October are best, with THE DAY OF THE FULL MOON THE BEST!! Then 7 days prior to and leading up to the full moon in Nov. are 2nd best, with THE FULL MOON DAY IN NOV BEST. We have killed 3 times as many trophy bucks in the 7 days prior to the full moon in October than any other times...period! If I had only one week to hunt....it would be the 7 days prior to the full moon in October...2nd choice would be 7 days prior to the full moon in Nov. Once again let me say that this is for the Western Upstate of South Carolina,,,,but I believe that my records will hold up for 7 days prior to A full moon in your area for the month of your local rut...
As a bit of a side-note I was a police officer and as I began following the times of the moon with my casio moon phase watch for hunting and fishing I began watching human behavior while at work according to the moon times....AMAZINGLY most of our violent crimes happened during these peek moon phase times....It really works!!gun)