The "rutting moon" or "hunter's moon" theories — predicting peak rut from the second full moon after the autumnal equinox — sound elegant but don't survive the data. Penn State, Mississippi State, and several other deer research programs have published breeding-date analyses comparing moon phase to actual conception. The conception dates don't shift with moon phase. Peak breeding in a given area is the same week regardless.
What moon phase can affect is daytime versus nighttime movement. A bright full moon may shift some buck cruising into the late-night and early-morning hours, with a corresponding lull during midday. A dark new moon doesn't change rut behavior much but can shift overall activity slightly toward dawn and dusk. These are visibility effects, not timing effects.
The practical takeaway: don't reschedule your rut hunt based on a lunar calendar. Schedule it based on photoperiod-locked peak dates and your forecast cold fronts. If a full moon happens to land during the peak in your DMU, you may see slightly more action in the first and last hours of light, but the rut isn't moving.
For the actual peak dates by state and DMU based on breeding-date studies, see our rut date pages.