Scouting Report

I was finally able to get in the woods for a couple of days this week to do some scouting on a club I belong to in NE Bartow County. I did more riding than walking due to persistent back problems that have plagued me all summer, but I did walk several hardwood bottoms with white oaks in them and never saw a single white oak acorn. I looked on the ground as well as up in the trees with binoculars. I did find a few red oaks that were already dropping small acorns but did not see an abundant crop of acorns in any red oak.

I put up a lock on stand on a place with red oaks where 3 ridges come together. Two of them have red oaks dropping and the other is a cut over covered in briars and honeysuckle so I feel pretty confident about that place. I got a doe there two years ago when I was still gun hunting and jumped a deer there when I went in to scout. I set the stand for bow distance this time.

With my back problems it took me two trips to get the stand and climbing sticks in there and then getting it put up was a real challenge too. I may be building some ground blinds this year and with the scarcity of acorns I may have to fertilize some honeysuckle patches again this year. I had good results doing that last year when acorns were practically non-existent.

The bear hunters are all talking about the abundance of acorns in the mountains so I expected the same here. Has anyone else been checking for acorns in the NW GA area and if so what are you finding?

Glad to see you're able to get back out a little. Back trouble is bad business.

The trees I've looked at have been hit or miss. I have found a couple good ones though. In N Bartow look for any chestnut oaks. You probably have a couple somewhere. They have a serrated looking leaf and make a big acorn. They make on a different cycle than white oaks and deer will hammer them if the whites are scarce.

I've never tried fertilizing honeysuckle; sounds like a good idea.

Todd Cook said:

Glad to see you're able to get back out a little. Back trouble is bad business.

The trees I've looked at have been hit or miss. I have found a couple good ones though. In N Bartow look for any chestnut oaks. You probably have a couple somewhere. They have a serrated looking leaf and make a big acorn. They make on a different cycle than white oaks and deer will hammer them if the whites are scarce.

I've never tried fertilizing honeysuckle; sounds like a good idea.

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I've never paid much attention to chestnut oaks in the past because I thought deer wouldn't eat them. We have lots of them on our club and I may set up a camera on one that's dropping just to see what comes by. Thanks for the tip.

They're kinda like us, we eat steak when we can get it but sometimes all we have is a baloney sandwich.