Acorns

[grousegrove]

As Hester and others have noted, the acorn crop is way below normal in most places, and the same holds true in VA this year. However my impression (theory?) is that the silver lining is if in a year like this you set up in an area where there are any to be found, you' may have hit pay dirt.

I'm curious as to whether you agree with my logic on that. The deer I've seen while hunting thus far (before rut) were all in areas with stands of oaks, where they were browsing on few acorns lying about. That said, those are the only types of areas I've been hunting so there's a bias in my data. I'm also wondering whether those will still be good spots when the bucks start running around here shortly--or whether prime considerations for stand placement ought to be trails or scrapes or shot angles or something else. I've got one more VA buck tag and hope I can fill it!

[vixenmaster]

I have a good crop of acorns, trouble bein that thar be thousands of acres surroundin me that does also! : So i have 3 main trails across my huntin land. I have a stand on each of the 3 trails. Its hit or miss which trail they use & if'en i am in the stand coverin that trail

[rayman]

I have a lot of oak trees and the acorn crop this year is pretty slim. The deer won't be as fat and they are eating me out of house and home. Seems that when there aren't many acorns, the deer still concentrate in the hardwoods to get what acorns they can find, but there is more activity around the stands I have that are in the pine. In a good acorn year one of my stands that is surrounded by pines gets hardly any activity, but it is getting a lot now.

[Lake shooter]

Our crop seems light in Arkansas too, although I have found that the trees are dropping later this season, so, it may not be as it now looks. I have a 40x60 metal shop out back which has a southern red, white and water oaks with limbs overhanging the roof. There's no guesswork on "if" any of the trees are dropping, and I just started hearing the white oak acorns whacking the roof about a week ago. Our white oaks usually start dropping (central Arkansas) around early to mid October, but I've seen many drop earlier. To make it more complicated, different trees historical drop at different times, within a range of course.

MHO about hunting trees or trails is mixed. Sure the deer will be active at those trees that are dropping, but in big oak woods nobody can know all the trees which are dropping and those that aren't. That's what I hunt; huge areas of mixed oaks. Instead of hanging out at one tree hoping to intercept a deer, I still hunt bottlenecks and pinch points, because the deer must still use those, and this ups my odds of intercepting more deer. Throw in a major trail with smoking scrapes and rubs with even a few dropping oaks in either direction as I now have, and my decision is easy!

[grousegrove]

Thank you for the informative replies. Though it's making me yearn to be outside.

[vixenmaster]

I have a rectangler land area of 77 acres. Seldom does a deer bed on my huntin land, they go down into the Hole! So i have to wait on them hit or miss on my trails. They come up out of the Hole durin the darkness, thar be a man's home 40 yds from their main nite time travel trail. I don't want to nor do i sit close to my property line. I don't want to listen to his whining about me huntin too close to his home.

[Sopchoppy]

In this part of Tennessee, the acorn crop is the biggest anyone can remember. Do not have a clue as to why this year, but the ground is literally covered with them. The doe I killed a couple of weeks ago had more fat than any deer I've killed. Old folks say it's a sign of how cold this winter will be. Too many is just as bad as not enough as the lazy deer don't have to leave their bedding area to eat. Their only worry is acorns hitting them in the head.

[steve rodo]

Here in ga they are plentiful ,To many really .But in the last week or so ,the red oak's and pin oak's are dropping like flie's.

[Hester0305]

On all 3 of my leases the accorns are slim pickins but a friend of mine is hunting a small tract of land that the white oaks are loaded and the the deer are definitely coming to the acorns he's hunted there twice and saw 17 deer and killed a doe and and 8 pt all coming to the acorns. He is sitting on a gold mine with all the deer activity.

[8ptbuk]

No acorns in southwest va !!! Food plots are getting better by the day ! I think to many is way worse than none .

[Kegbelly]

From what I've seen in North Alabama we've got a good crop, we had sooo much rain this year, wettest summer I can remember. Buddy killed one under a big oak on opening day, the acorns falling sounded like rain.
Everybody says find the acorns and you'll find deer, but like Vixenmaster said, when you got thousands of acres of acorns around you they have a lot to choose from, they could be anywhere. Once the acorns are gone the food plots start getting hot.

[DuckHunt]

Yes, Northern Virginia (Loudoun County) has a very poor acorn crop this year. I think your logic will work eventually, but it didn't in the early bow season. There was more food in the fields than the woods, so the deer seldom ever ventured into the woods. My trail camera went three weeks (30 Sep to 20 Oct) without taking a single deer photo in the woods day or night. They were visible in the fields. As soon as the corn and soybean fields are cut the deer numbers in the woods should jump considerable.

On a positive note, the buck my son killed Monday was one of the fattest bucks I've seen in years. The poor mast wasn't affecting his waistline at all. He had one inch of thicker fat layers in a lot of spots on him.

Jeff