Trophy buck
Senior Member
Has anyone ever had luck in the hardwoods late season when all the leaves are gone?
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Hunting hardwoods late season
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misterpink
Senior Member
Waste of time. Nothing there for them now. Stay in the thick or watch food.
Yes, I have done good hunting hardwoods this time of year. In a good acorn year, there are often still acorns out there-the more bitter ones like black oak, scarlet oak, and water oak that don't get eaten first. There is also browse in many places in the hardwoods. They still travel through the hardwoods, too. I like to hunt edges between hardwoods and pines or cutover now, too.
Buckman18
Senior Member
This^^^
Killer Kyle
Senior Member
Animals eat on the red oaks all the way to spring of next year. Turkeys, deer, bear, hogs, they all subsist on the red oaks here in the mtns and will feed on them up to June of the next year. JBoggs and I scouted a red oak flat this past mid June and found where a bear was feeding on acorns and leaving crap that looked like peanut butter like it does in September. Don't underestimate the oaks. If you have a good, wide concentration of red oaks like southern red oaks, northern red oaks, or scarlet oaks, that's where I'd be right now unless you have a brassica or chicory field to hunt. Up here we primarily scout turkeys in Feb and March in or around the red oaks because that's primarily what they're eating at that time of year. I don't understand why people say the acorns are gone in late winter, because they are not. The white oaks spoil, but the mighty red oak acorns remain until spring.
jbogg
Senior Member
Kyle is right about the Reds, and like hillbilly said they will also turn there attention to the less desirable acorns once the prefered ones are gone. I can recall hunting on the last day of the season on January 1st many years ago. I watched a young buck feed under a single oak for over 30 mins. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the only Oak tree on the saddle that still had acorns under it.
Lukikus2
Senior Member
I always try to follow the poop this time of year. It don't lie.
George30022
Member
Winter Food Plot/Kill Plot
I put it in late but got some Brassica (not a lot of it came thru) mostly Rye - and Winter Peas came up. I threw it into a Bottom Holler. It's a 30' depression into a Holler. It's open enough that it grew. Deer have come back to it; A few Big Does - and my two Bucks. Took em all darn November and part of Dec. Winter Peas thrown down in Early October came up and they like em. not a lot of Acorns RED around my bottom -
I was late this year into getting a great Winter Plot in and its not that great. Next year I will really get some good seed. Hope this helps for your 2018 Fall Hunt Plan.
I put it in late but got some Brassica (not a lot of it came thru) mostly Rye - and Winter Peas came up. I threw it into a Bottom Holler. It's a 30' depression into a Holler. It's open enough that it grew. Deer have come back to it; A few Big Does - and my two Bucks. Took em all darn November and part of Dec. Winter Peas thrown down in Early October came up and they like em. not a lot of Acorns RED around my bottom -
I was late this year into getting a great Winter Plot in and its not that great. Next year I will really get some good seed. Hope this helps for your 2018 Fall Hunt Plan.
deers2ward
Senior Member
In the hardwoods, see if your creek bottoms have any privet or other browse.
If not, go back up on top of the ridges and hunt transition zones, or somewhere half way up the hill where it is real thick and there are trails traversing the hillside.
If not, go back up on top of the ridges and hunt transition zones, or somewhere half way up the hill where it is real thick and there are trails traversing the hillside.
stumpman35
Senior Member
Does anyone know if deer eat Hickory Nuts? I was hunting an oak bottom and there were a ton of squirrels eating something. Couldn't tell what, but there were the remnants of a hickory on my stand seat when I got there.
ALB
Senior Member
I just saw a buck gutted and he was full of red acorns!
Yes they are tearing up whatever food they can find.
In the winter is when you should hunt all food sources.
Yes they are tearing up whatever food they can find.
In the winter is when you should hunt all food sources.
oldfella1962
Senior Member
I used to discount water oaks because al the "experts" say they aren't a "preferred" food source. But water oak acorns make up in volume what they lack in taste I guess because I've sat in a honey-hole of water oaks the last few times I've been out and they are tearing them up - morning and evening. They might be there all day, who knows? Tough to get a single deer coming in though because when they show up they bring the whole gang of does & fawns.
I did have two bucks come through alone though - one male fawn (I think male since it was alone but who knows) and one four pointer out of range and not stopping to feed, just hanging around the big group of females a few minutes ahead or behind them - I've seen him before and if he survives until next season maybe I'll see him again.
JSnake
Useless Billy Bouncer
I got water oaks falling all over the place. I came to full draw on some does digging into them on Sunday but could never get a clear shot. They ended up busting me when I let down after what felt like an eternity.
Be cognizant of what's on the ground. Find fresh sign and hunt it. If you're hunting permanent stands that are white oak-centric, it might be time to switch up your game plan.
Be cognizant of what's on the ground. Find fresh sign and hunt it. If you're hunting permanent stands that are white oak-centric, it might be time to switch up your game plan.
The mtn man
Senior Member
Is this a serious question? If so, the answer is no, deer cannot possibly process a hardshell hickory nut. But hogs can. Hogs can also eat bone, I've seen it.
sea trout
2021 Turkey Challenge Winner 2022 biggest turkey ?
Agree with all of this
gnatbait
Member
Where I am at, I still have oak trees dropping acorns every so often. They sound like a bowling ball when they hit the forest floor.
Yep. In my experience, the southern red oak acorns get eaten up pretty quick, along with the white oaks. But the scarlet, black, water, northern red oak, and chestnut oak (white oak group, but bitter,) last a long time and get sweeter the longer they lay out in the weather.
As the Mountain Man said, no, not that I've ever seen. Bears love them, though.
I used to discount water oaks because al the "experts" say they aren't a "preferred" food source. But water oak acorns make up in volume what they lack in taste I guess because I've sat in a honey-hole of water oaks the last few times I've been out and they are tearing them up - morning and evening. They might be there all day, who knows? Tough to get a single deer coming in though because when they show up they bring the whole gang of does & fawns.
I think they get more palatable late in the season after the rain and snow leaches some of the tannin out of them. And, they're all that's left-so beggars can't be choosers.
Some of the winter browse that they key in on in my area:
Buffalo nut, greenbriar, laurel, Chinese privet, Japanese honeysuckle, sweet birch, white pine tips, hearts-abustin'. They also dig a lot of dried-up possum grapes out of the leaves and snow.
1gr8bldr
Senior Member
I have a block I call "the big woods" about 300+ acres with 750 that are 90% hardwood. It snowed one year, covering the ground in Janurary, just after season closed. I went just to observe tracks. I drove the ATV around the entire block looking for tracks. 1 set going in and 1 set of tracks going out, likely the same deer. Yet any thicket area was pulverized with tracks to the point that tracking was not possible. This taught me something. However, learn your acrons. The trash trees drop late. They are not preferred by deer but they eat them. On poor acorn crop years, the trees growing together usually don't produce however, the stand alone trees usually produce every year. Deer in the hardwoods are spooky, hard to hunt. They much prefer to move quietly in something other than dry leaves
Killer Kyle
Senior Member
I've noticed the last couple of years that when you get up high in the mtns in late summer, the hogs will straight wear out the pignut hickories.
Your comment about the buffalo nut reminded me NCHillbilly....do you remember a couple years back when I posted a picture of the buffalo nut fruit on the forum and asked what it was? I found it on old Lake Burton WMA. You replied in less than 3 minutes and told me what it was, how it was toxic to humans, but how the deer loved it.
Well, many months later I found an old research paper online. One of the researchers was Joe McClure, Herb's brother, and the study was done for the USDA in 1963 I believe. It was called something like "Deer Browse Resources of North Georgia". They did browse surveys across an IMMENSE range all across north GA and the Piedmont, and categorized plants based on the preference by whitetails that they observed. Two main categories, and two sub categories. 1) Desireable (a. Preferred and b. Staple) and 2) Undesireables (a. Emergency and b. Stuffing). Preferred Desireable, they concluded, were the species deer selected on above all other local available species. Strawberry Bush (hearts-a-burstin') and buffalonut were two of the four species that they deemed most desireable. Another, of course, was Japanese honeysuckle, and another, of course, was greenbrier. Seems like few people have heard of the buffalonut bush, yet it is quite possibly one of a whitetails favorite foods in the northern part of the state.
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Yep, you hardly ever see a buffalo nut bush that hasn't been pruned by deer.
