How do you hunt acorns when.....

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cornfedkiller
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How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:53 am

....your entire property is oaks?? Not solid oaks, like obviously there are other flavors of trees there, but if you stood at just about any place on the property, I would bet money that there is an oak tree within 30-40 yards of you - probably several in each direction... Burr, red, white, doesnt matter, they're all there...

So how do you figure out where they are eating in that situation?


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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby ozzz » Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:59 am

Any whites dropping more than others with lots of sign around them?
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby dreaming bucks » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:21 am

ozzz wrote:Any whites dropping more than others with lots of sign around them?


ya, what Oz said......

I think they prefer the white oaks.... someone told me the deer don't like the red ones, too bitter...
But I know what you mean, we have alot of oaks on our land too, so I guess I just look for sign around them...
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby dan » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:26 am

They love red oak acorns... they just love white oak acorns more.


I would hunt buck bed staging or water near buck bed staging... Its hard to get them to move to far in daylight when acorns are dropping in there bedding area. But they will definatly prefer the taste of acorns from one tree over other trees and head to that particular tree.
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby kenn1320 » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:32 am

Can be tough, especially seeing as how you don't want to scent the area up checking for sign. You know they are eating them, just not the exact tree. I would still hunt staging area's like Dan said, or oaks that offer thick cover close to them. If the understory isnt real thick, you could hunt a stand more for observation then killing. Figure things out and then move in the next sit.
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby dan » Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:33 am

you could hunt a stand more for observation then killing. Figure things out and then move in the next sit.
Excellent point Ken
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:24 am

Whites and burs are the most preferred of the oak acorns. Squirrels, turkeys, ground hogs, deer all love the big fruits. Whites and burs are found more on high ground and the reds (pin) are more abundant in bottom(wetter) ground. If you find white oaks with a lot of turkey scratchings under them I would set up in that area.
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby Southern Man » Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:56 am

cornfedkiller wrote:....your entire property is oaks?? Not solid oaks, like obviously there are other flavors of trees there, but if you stood at just about any place on the property, I would bet money that there is an oak tree within 30-40 yards of you - probably several in each direction... Burr, red, white, doesnt matter, they're all there...

So how do you figure out where they are eating in that situation?


That's they way it is here....everywhere. Sometimes you can find a tree or trees that the deer will prefer over all the others. Don't know why but they do. Trouble with finding those is it's easyest to find now, while the acorns are falling. It's not real easy to do in the winter / spring scouting, as most of the sign is gone with the falling leaves covering it all. Look for the biggest (oldest) white oaks.

One farm I hunt has 2 huge white oaks on it maybe 150 yards apart. White oaks drop every other year and fortunately these two drop on oppisite years. The ground is literally bare under these trees while the acorns are falling and you will bump deer almost anytime you go in to them. There are other white oaks on the property but none of this size and none of them get the attention these two do. Don't know why. If you can find feeding trees like these, they're absolute gold. They deer will be back year after year (or every other year). The Red oaks seem to get most attention around the first of November here.

Find those feeding trees and if they're close to bedding, get on them. The sign is pretty clear. Deer seem to browse along on acorns moving from one place to another, so look for feeding sign along the trails close to bedding. But these feeding trees will have them stand and eat, eat, eat. They're kind of hard to find but they're out there.

Post oaks are the first to drop, usually september here. I don't know what the offical name is, maybe Black oaks, but we call them post oaks. The biggest ones are the best. I'm talkin trunks maybe 3-4' in diameter if you can find them.

Something else to think about. Oaks on the ridgetops drop first, dryer ground. The oaks in the bottoms will hold longer and seem to be favored over the ridgetop oaks.
Last edited by Southern Man on Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby Southern Man » Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:02 am

This is a pic of the ground under one of the White oaks from last year. This one sits on the side of an easement road on the north end of the property. The easement road is gravel with traffic from the farmer of the back property. I've seen deer just stand in the road eatin acorns. The trunk of this tree is about 4' in diameter.

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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby GRFox » Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:18 am

cornfedkiller wrote:....your entire property is oaks?? Not solid oaks, like obviously there are other flavors of trees there, but if you stood at just about any place on the property, I would bet money that there is an oak tree within 30-40 yards of you - probably several in each direction... Burr, red, white, doesnt matter, they're all there...

So how do you figure out where they are eating in that situation?


Just about every wood lot in my entire county is mixed of Ash, and Oaks, they don't have "feeding areas" around here, they don't need them.

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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby hoyt » Mon Oct 10, 2011 2:15 am

When lots of acorns are on the ground I pay attention to how trampled up the leaves are under the oaks. Like has been posted deer favor the taste of some acorns over others of the same kind. When I find areas where the leaves look like mulch it tells me it's a favorite tree.
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby Indianahunter » Mon Oct 10, 2011 2:26 am

We have a lot of oaks as well. I will usually hunt the areas where the open oak woods meets some type of transition....but if I am hunting oaks as a food source then I get out of the grove and look for that big oak in the middle of a field or fenceline. On the farm we don't have any oaks standing by themsleves but we do have a small cluster in the woodlot across the road which is primarily Poplar and Walnut this makes these oaks an isolated destination spot when they are dropping. Other than that...go for the transitions, or like someone else suggested try an observation stand.
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Mon Oct 10, 2011 2:56 pm

Indianahunter wrote:We have a lot of oaks as well. I will usually hunt the areas where the open oak woods meets some type of transition....but if I am hunting oaks as a food source then I get out of the grove and look for that big oak in the middle of a field or fenceline. On the farm we don't have any oaks standing by themsleves but we do have a small cluster in the woodlot across the road which is primarily Poplar and Walnut this makes these oaks an isolated destination spot when they are dropping. Other than that...go for the transitions, or like someone else suggested try an observation stand.


I had another thread about this, but Im really having a hard time understanding this transition thing.. I understand its where two different types of terrain meet, like fields and hardwoods, crp and woods, etc - that stuff is pretty easy to understand the "transition", but when you mention hunting the transitions inside the woods, how do you find these places?? Im not sure Im familiar with what this looks like..

When people mention where 'thin' meets 'thick', how thick are we talking? Cant see though? Cant walk through? How large of areas do the thick and thin have to be?
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Re: How do you hunt acorns when.....

Unread postby Indianahunter » Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:04 pm

It can be the boundry of where mature oaks and sapplings(immature woods) meet. Where your mature oaks meet cedars or pines. Of course the thicker the cover the better but doesn't have to be. Basically if you can distinguish a difference in terrain or vegetaion as it borders another type of terrain or vegetation you have a transition line.
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