HEAVY MASS CROP

[dkaufer]

Fellow Beast Hunters,
Any sound tactics for hunting hill country with a very heavy mass crop of acorns? Acorns are overly abundant this year, which is evident when shining fields at night. The deer that were hitting fields are no longer. After a stroll through the timber it is evident why.

Does buck bedding change with the food basically falling in their beds?

What are your thoughts and tactics for this condition?

[mheichelbech]

Can't say about the bedding but I've had success by locating areas in which the area surrounding an oak or group of oaks is heavily browsed down....this indicates favored trees for nuts. Even within specific species, say white oaks, deer will have preferred trees for unknown reasons....so if you find nuts everywhere, there should be some trees that get hit heavier than others. Not sure if it's the soil or what but there are definite preferences. At least around where I hunt.

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[Zona]

I'm in the same boat here. It's like walking on marbles in the woods. White oaks are getting hit pretty hard so I am focusing on them, looking for tracks or big droppings to tell me I am in the game. Going to be real tough hunting beds with so much food in the bedding areas.

[PK_]

A lot of guys don't like heavy acorn years but I do. I feel like the deer are so excited about all the acorns that they mozy around and feed/bed all day long if they are dropping in a secure area. Guys say deer will just lay down and feed in the same group of oaks but I haven't seen that personally. The deer seem to just cruise around getting them from lots of different trees/areas.

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[mainebowhunter]

Same here this year. I do not care for a heavy acorn year. It really spreads the deer out. For example. I had an acorn tree last year that was raining acorns. I was getting 2000 pics every 5 days. It was "nuts". This year? I am only getting 30-50 pics a week. So the hot food source is not so hot anymore. I know where the deer bed...saw couple of the bucks coming out of that bed the other night. It means hunting close to the known beds and trying to catch the bucks before they disperse into the acorns. The trouble is if you have a 3-5 acre bedding area, which bed are they going to use? Thats the trouble with nuts. It really spreads the deer out.

And its tough...because I have NEVER seen this many acorns and probably won't again for awhile. Mix that together with very dry conditions...bedding has shifted all around. Deer love to bed water/swampy stuff on high spots. No more water. All dry.