Talkin Acorns

[Cchez]

Hey guys, quick question on acorns. I know that deer prefer the nuts of white oaks over others, but i was curious if anyone knows or has experience with areas that only have red or pin oaks? Where i live and hunt, theres not much for oaks in general, but white oaks are very scarce. Most of the stands are of the red and/or pin variety. If they are the only oak species in the area, do the deer start hitting them when they drop? Or do they tend to eat them later in the season like in areas where both white and red oaks grow together?

[SEMObowhunter]

They love pin oaks about as much as white oaks. When those acorns are black on the ground the deer will be on them. They will eat black and red oaks but they are higher in tannic acid making them less palatable to deer than those in the white oak family. I have found they prefer the red oaks later in the season after they have been on the ground a few months and lose their acidity to some degree.

[cspot]

White oaks drop acorns before the red oaks do. Generally unless there is a large crop of white the deer have them cleaned up before the red really start to drop. IN PA since our season doesn't start till OCtober we generally only get to hunt the white oaks for about the first week of the season and then you better be on the red if both have acorns. We have killed a bunch of deer in the red oaks. They love them. We don't have alot of pin oak around me.

[Ranger Matthews]

Where I hunt I only have red oak. If the deer don’t have a choice of eating white oaks they will hit the reds earlier and then come back in the late season to dig for what was left. I have one spot that is great till about mid October where the deer every evening clean up the acorns from one tree before moving out to a field. With oaks it’s almost better if there aren’t very many trees

[cspot]

Where I hunt I only have red oak. If the deer don’t have a choice of eating white oaks they will hit the reds earlier and then come back in the late season to dig for what was left. I have one spot that is great till about mid October where the deer every evening clean up the acorns from one tree before moving out to a field. With oaks it’s almost better if there aren’t very many trees

Some of the best hunting that you can get is a year when only a few trees have acorns and the ones that do are absolutely loaded. I have had that a couple of times and wow can you see some deer. About every deer in the neighborhood will be there.

[mipubbucks24]

What do you guys do when you have scrub acorns like red and pin oaks spread out all over, and none of the trees are really loaded? Where I hunt i have yet to find a white oak, and there are a lot of junk oaks but they never seem to really produce, just some acorns but nothing heavy.

I have been searching for years for that loaded white Oak right next to a bedding area and just can’t seem to find any down here.

The closest I have come to it is about 4 years ago I found 3 big Red oaks that were dropping pretty good and there were 2/3 rubs right around it. I now realize that I should have hunted that spot, but this was when I was first learning beast hunting. I have checked those trees every year since and they have only had a few acorns on them or none.

[brancher147]

If it’s mature forest with little browse deer will eat whatever acorns are falling as soon as they fall. If they have a lot of choices they do prefer white oak but doesn’t mean they will pass up on others to get to those.
We have lots of red oak acorns this year. I will be hunting the mature red oak woods this fall. I prefer a year of very heavy widespread acorns compared to spotty acorns. Sure spotty acorns will concentrate deer in smaller areas but also will concentrate bears and we have way too many. Bears will run the deer off and can be a nuisance.

[megavites]

In NJ, white's and red's are pretty abundant in places...so much so on some public you can't take a step w/o stepping on them, which makes hunting a challenge trying to determine
exactly where to setup. I've also collected swamp oak which is a relative of white oak. They tear them up.

[Cchez]

Awesome info, thanks for all the replies guys. The area i hunt is mostly big woods, ive managed to find a few areas that are isolated red oaks that are the only ones around for miles. Im hoping to get in a couple sits in these areas to see what happens. One area in particular is a long way off the beaten path, but has been logged within the last couple years. They left the big reds, and there are pockets of swamp and low land mixed in that they also didnt touch. My general plan is to hunt some oaks near the edges of the low thick stuff and see what happens. The terrain there is pretty hilly, but with the logging its pretty wide open besides the mature red oaks and thick swamp pockets.

[Randyflash]

White oaks drop acorns before the red oaks do. Generally unless there is a large crop of white the deer have them cleaned up before the red really start to drop. IN PA since our season doesn't start till OCtober we generally only get to hunt the white oaks for about the first week of the season and then you better be on the red if both have acorns. We have killed a bunch of deer in the red oaks. They love them. We don't have alot of pin oak around me.

In northern MI I notice the exact opposite. Reds drop before whites...I am no tree biologist but I do know that there are 100’s of difference species of oak tree and “red” and “white” are general categories. In my area when the acorns are dropping the deer will hit them almost immediately especially the whites. Up here it seems like the deer will prefer this food to every other food including standing corn around our opener which is October 1, but eventually they move on to different sources. With the red oaks the deer will eat them but I often notice that red oak acorns still lying on the ground from the previous season.

[Cchez]

White oaks drop acorns before the red oaks do. Generally unless there is a large crop of white the deer have them cleaned up before the red really start to drop. IN PA since our season doesn't start till OCtober we generally only get to hunt the white oaks for about the first week of the season and then you better be on the red if both have acorns. We have killed a bunch of deer in the red oaks. They love them. We don't have alot of pin oak around me.

In northern MI I notice the exact opposite. Reds drop before whites...I am no tree biologist but I do know that there are 100’s of difference species of oak tree and “red” and “white” are general categories. In my area when the acorns are dropping the deer will hit them almost immediately especially the whites. Up here it seems like the deer will prefer this food to every other food including standing corn around our opener which is October 1, but eventually they move on to different sources. With the red oaks the deer will eat them but I often notice that red oak acorns still lying on the ground from the previous season.

Ag fields are virtually non existent where I am, so thats one source i dont have to worry about. Clear cuts and hay/clover fields are about the only open spaces where a guy can monitor them through glassing or drive by scouting (no shining allowed here). The only down side to the fields are they are pretty much all private with no public that buts to them, and i havent had much luck with gaining permission to the private since most people here are rifle season hunters come november. So my hope is finding these hidden pockets of oaks in big woods can bring me a little luck this year.