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This years mast crops?

Will Harris said:
i hear you, but there are exceptions.

i hunt mostly public and the dorks around here are scared to get out of sight of the mowed path leading to their ladder stand. if you can work up the courage to get 100 yds deep, you can find oak flats that the deer are working and acting like deer in daylight. esp during the dreaded "october lull" :tearsofjoy: when they switch food sources. actually, you will have many many spots to hunt and the hard spot is deciding which one to hunt.
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It used to be that way here before smart phones and mapping apps. You can still find some of those spots but they are way fewer and much further between.
 
BTaylor said:
It used to be that way here before smart phones and mapping apps. You can still find some of those spots but they are way fewer and much further between.
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Shhhhh. be vewy, vewy quiet and hope that chit doesnt affect Indiana. haahaa.

there seems to be 2 main camps. those who guard the mowed paths which is the majority and those who hunt the dark timber which is very small population. i've had some really good conversations heading back to the vehicles with dudes who hunt the deep. its not easy and some dont find it fun. i get that. we are all different and thats perfectly fine. thats yet another thing thats great about deer hunting. there is no 1 way thats right.
 
Arkie said:
I’ve put in about 20 miles over the last 3 or 4 weekends checking trees. Very few of the locust I’m checking have anything. The ones that do are loaded with pods. On the ridges I’m seeing plenty of acorns, but down in the bottoms where I’m usually hunting isolated oak trees, not many have had much. Seeing a lot of plums on the edges of the grown up fields, but essentially no persimmons.


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To me, this is ideal. You've put in the work and found what are gonna be THE trees. Everyone else will be scrambling but you should already know the few trees deer are going to congregate to. Way better than having the whole woods littered with tasty treats for deer.
 
Scouted last week and found the Chestnut oaks already dropping and the muscadine dropping. Very few of the persimmon had dropped but looked like a good crop. North East Alabama
 
Both beech nuts and red oak acorns are pretty good from what I have seen in NH. Was a little surprised with the last frost that zapped a lot of the leaves.


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I took a hike in one of my hunting spots this morning and must have checked 60 or more oaks. About 5% had any acorns at all and there were very few acorns on them. Pretty much writing that area off for the season except I do have a couple of apple trees in that piece I have to check.
 
I did scouting loops at 5 different spots in the river bottoms saturday and in total was just a frog hair shy of 10 miles covered. I found exactly zero honey locust, very minimal persimmons and very few acorns of any type.
 
BTaylor said:
I did scouting loops at 5 different spots in the river bottoms saturday and in total was just a frog hair shy of 10 miles covered. I found exactly zero honey locust, very minimal persimmons and very few acorns of any type.
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My exact experience.... gonna try some more spots friday.
 
Did 5 miles yesterday and found some water oaks dropping??? Seems too early for them but maybe the heat and drought has affected them? These acorns were not near any white, post, red or cow oaks…
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I think this year is gonna be for the birds in terms of mast. But if I do find some white oaks dropping, shoot that’s gonna get a few sits.


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this is from the red oak in my front yard. the pile of acorns at the bottom is from half of the tree this year. the back half falls into the woods. this pile doesnt take into account all the ones the fox squirrels eat. dove stool as reference.


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Fgirtyman said:
Same here for apple trees. White oaks are heavy with mast as well. Doesn't bode well for bear hunters. Falling acorns on the opener in WI will draw bears away from bait stations, acorns are their favorite. Timing is everything.
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For sure the apples here are loaded as well, I’m talking branches sagging heaping with clusters of apples.
 
Ancillary to @BTaylor’s question, it was cool to find this Sawtooth Oak regeneration on my buddy’s farm. We planted over fifty of these trees back in 2004 when he bought the place.
 

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Went out and put a couple cams up in NEPA couple of days ago. Didnt hear much dropping at all. Great news imo. We had a massive drop last year, and it was very hard to get on deer early. No matter where you walked you stepped on 20 acorns. This made hunting extremely difficult as the deer didnt have to go far at all in daylight. You either setup right on them, or you werent seeing game
 
Found a few more trees with persimmons over the last 2 weeks. Red oaks also look good, and are dropping with deer hammering them, season still couple weeks out... Screenshot_20230908-220136_Video Player.jpgScreenshot_20230908-220211_Video Player.jpg
 
Skwerls are starting to knock green acorns out of the White Oaks around the farm. Give it a few more weeks, and they will be falling on there own here.


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Just read that we’re 25+” short of our annual average rainfall. Probably going to start the season along any creek or bayou I can find to look for anything dropping.


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Yesterday we walked the nature center with the kids. Decent wind blowing, and all thru the woods you could hear the acorns falling thru the leaves. Saw a few small deer tracks on the trail. No hunting area. But they are starting to fall in south Michigan.
 
I went out today and hit up several spots to check if they have activity. I found three spots worth hunting if they stay active for another week. It is very dry here and most every tree is not producing. Several spots I went to were ghost towns. I found one white oak dropping decent. I plan to be in there opening week for sure. I do plan to make one trip out sometime next week and speed tour another half dozen locations and see if I can add 2 or 3 more feed trees to the rotation for the first few hunts.
 
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