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Hunting late season

ThePennsylvanian said:
I don't know what types of terrain or habitat you have, but you wantnto find high stem count areas, not necessarily the "best" browse. I can for sure say that high stem will attract more deer than the best browse, example a green field will be hit, especially if there isn't snow cover, if the hunting pressure is high it'll be mostly at night, bit in high stem count areas they'll move and browse most of the day, because it feeds them and gives them cover.
A late season concentration food source I look out for is honey locust, they absolutely hammer the black pods on the ground once the temps stay below freezing......
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good advice....not super common around here though, but i'll keep my eye out

i knew those black pods looked yummy
 
I have heard about the Honey Locust pods, thanks for reminding me. The spot we found in OHIO has a bunch of them evil looking trees
 
sdonx said:
I have heard about the Honey Locust pods, thanks for reminding me. The spot we found in OHIO has a bunch of them evil looking trees
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Down here the honey locust that are deer magnets have virtually no thorns. Deer and esp bucks will pound them early season if the pods are good. They will also come back to them in late season after the acorns are gone or if the pods dried late summer but after they initially filled. The pods can in that case re-hydrate enough to be a late season draw for sure.
 
ThePennsylvanian said:
One of the best producing trees around here looks like Satan's bonsai tree, some of the thorns are 3-4"
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We have a lot of honey locust here that look exactly like what you described too but they almost never either have or produce good pods. There is another locust here that the bark, leaves and thorns look the same but they grow around filed edges and only get about 1/3 as tall as our river bottom locust. Those field locust as I call them generally have pods but very seldom fill out. A big honey locust down here in the bottoms will be 80+ feet tall and 2 grown men might not be able to reach around. If they are dropping good, most times you can smell 'em before you get to them. When they are right, it is not uncommon at all for the ground under the drip line to look like the ground in a feed lot and have well over 100 piles of fresh deer crap in the perimeter. Bucks really key on them and the bears and hogs dont seem to ever feed on 'em.
 
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Another late season tactic is focusing on red oaks. Even with snowfall, the deer and turkeys will scratch for them. IF you find a south facing slope with red oaks, try and hunt it where you see the turkey and deer sign. The bitter tannins have now leached out of the red oak acorns and they are much more palatable to the deer.
 
woodsdog2 said:
Another late season tactic is focusing on red oaks. Even with snowfall, the deer and turkeys will scratch for them. IF you find a south facing slope with red oaks, try and hunt it where you see the turkey and deer sign. The bitter tannins have now leached out of the red oak acorns and they are much more palatable to the deer.
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Man we had a bad mast here locally, I haven't found any type of oak that dropped this year, reds, pins, whites, swamps, blacks all were dry. I have never seen a year this bad, typically if one wS bad like whites, as they're pretty sensitive to cold when budding, the reds would do well, or the Chestnut oaks would do well but nope a couple did have some green acorn sets but none matured it was strange......
 
ThePennsylvanian said:
Man we had a bad mast here locally, I haven't found any type of oak that dropped this year, reds, pins, whites, swamps, blacks all were dry. I have never seen a year this bad, typically if one wS bad like whites, as they're pretty sensitive to cold when budding, the reds would do well, or the Chestnut oaks would do well but nope a couple did have some green acorn sets but none matured it was strange......
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Our winters in WV have shifted. It is now often hot in November (messing with the rut) and then winter lingers longer than usual and it is often cold all the way through March and into April, when in the past people were wearing T-shirts in April. This year, we had temperatures in the 80s during 2nd week of November when in the past it would not be odd to have snow at that time and even some in October.

I've also noticed less mast. In the past, you would even have acorns falling on your vehicle as you drove and see acorns rolling around in the road. I haven't seen something like that in years.
 
After a little break, I’m back in the woods again. Scouted a new area. Found a knoll cover with briars and deer droppings right next to the road. I figured it was night activity. When in deeper and hunted the edge of a swamp and cedar thicket. 3 doe the first night and 2 bucks the second night. I missed a doe and the bucks came at last light and didn’t get close till dark. One was raiding and area I watched a squirrel hiding acorns. Both nights I found them in the briar patch by the truck after dark. So looks like cover during light and briar patch after sunset.
 
Hunted the last 5 days and it was a wild extended weekend. We had to shovel the plow wash at the paved road to get access to the cabin 2 track. Plowed into 12" of snow with deeper drifts in spots. Made the mile trek with no real problems. Hunting was great. The deer were packed into thermal cover. Seen a bunch of deer and multiple bucks over the next 3 days. On day 3 the snow had turned to slush. I had a couple of small bucks harassing the button bucks in the patch of cover I was hunting. They moved deer around the entire hunt. Eventually, they squared off right in front of me and had a little pushing match. Best hunt of the year. By the next morning, the snow was melting fast and the deer returned to more normal cover. Did not see a thing the last couple of hunts. The snow was almost all gone by the time we left. Took a doe the second night just before it really started to melt. No bucks big enough to shoot but a great end to the season.
 
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