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Browsed Acorns - What Sign Do You Look For?

B

Bach55

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2019
Messages
231
Location
Indiana
Looking for some insight from some of the more experienced hunters. Say you come across an oak flat, and it’s clear that the white oaks are dropping acorns. You hear them fall
occasionally and can see them laying on the ground. What is the sign you are looking for to confirm that deer are hitting them? How do you differentiate deer sign from other critters that could be pawing around? I’m trying to get better about reading sign and letting it dictate where I setup. I’ve had no trouble finding acorns, but it’s been difficult to determine whether they’re worth investing a sit into.
 
I'd look for tracks and scat to determine if deer are browsing or not. Deer will typically eat everything but the cap of the acorn as well. Squirrels will take the whole thing to stash or leave a pile of chewed on shells behind. Not entirely sure how turkeys ingest acorns, if they eat the whole nut or split them open and eat the softer inside only

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Deer often poo when they eat. That's a good sign.

Kicked up leaves. Although that's often squirrels or turkeys, a good nut is a good nut. The other animals key into the less tannic acerns also.

Dead cuttings on the ground. Before the nuts are ripe the sqwerls will go up into the prime trees and cut some branch tips.

The biggest for me is just finding some producing trees right up against where they can bed.

Good question in my experience it usually is pretty vague sign and a lot of times they don't really key into specific oaks as much at the hunting experts would make us believe. At least here in the mid Atlantic region where oaks are ubiqitous. I think that strategy works a lot better where oaks are more of a destination food source.
 
AJA posted a really good scouting video and this was one of the main things he covered.

When you come across an oak flat how do you pick a tree or trees to use if there are multiples?

His answer was to find one that has little to no growth under it of oak saplings. This means that the animals are eating more from under that tree than others in the flat. I've used that method when scouting this summer/fall and it has certainly helped me narrow down spots that I'm looking to hunt. Oh and poop haha.
 
MIPublic said:
AJA posted a really good scouting video and this was one of the main things he covered.

When you come across an oak flat how do you pick a tree or trees to use if there are multiples?

His answer was to find one that has little to no growth under it of oak saplings. This means that the animals are eating more from under that tree than others in the flat. I've used that method when scouting this summer/fall and it has certainly helped me narrow down spots that I'm looking to hunt. Oh and poop haha.
Click to expand...

AJA?
 
MIPublic said:
AJA posted a really good scouting video and this was one of the main things he covered.

When you come across an oak flat how do you pick a tree or trees to use if there are multiples?

His answer was to find one that has little to no growth under it of oak saplings. This means that the animals are eating more from under that tree than others in the flat. I've used that method when scouting this summer/fall and it has certainly helped me narrow down spots that I'm looking to hunt. Oh and poop haha.
Click to expand...

This will apply to white oak flats more than red oaks due to the short spouting time of the white oaks. Catman had a video about identifying oak trees on youtube a month or so ago that touched on white oaks sprouting very quickly while red oaks will lay dormant til the next spring.

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Read warren Womack’s hunting style sticky.

You’ll know when you’ve found the tree you need to hunt. You won’t have to ask us. If you have to ask us, you haven’t found the tree.

yeh, you’ll go to any donut shop if your donut shop of choice is closed. But if your favorite donut is available, are you going anywhere else? No. Deer are you, with less ability to make themselves go somewhere else. They want the best donut. And they want it now. Find it.
 
You want to key on the primary trees which are the ones showing the most feeding sign as mentioned above, lots of leaf disturbance, caps and crap. Keep in mind the tree preference is a moving target too. Deer may hit a particular tree hard for 3-4 days then move to another. Even in an area with lots of oaks to choose from there will be one or two that are seeing the heaviest feeding activity. The type of oaks can also strongly influence when trees trees see primary feeding activity. Typically trees in the white family are more preferred due to lower tannins but trees in the red family may be the earliest primary trees if they drop earlier than the local whites. It's important to learn all of your local oaks, their drop times and order of preference, making special note of the trees that consistently show primary feeding.
 
One thing about finding the best feed tree, is that species, size, elevation, all the other details about the tree don’t actually matter.

all that matters is how much poop is under the drip line of the tree. Poop = time spent. More poop = more time spent. And to a lesser degree poop=feeding. Fresh poop=all those things happening now.

you will know a hot tree immediately. You’ll either jump deer under it, jump deer bedded near it, and the ground will give you a strong indication that multiple deer are spending significant time there.

One important detail here is the delta. As in, the difference between trees deer casually eat under, and a primary feed tree. And the difference between sign made three days ago, and sign made three hours ago. You need to see a lot of sign to spot the differences. And the best way to see a lot of sign is to cover lots of ground. And the best way to cover lots of ground is to not be sitting in a tree.

My best advice to anyone, especially new hunters or hunters new to an area, is don’t climb a tree, until you’re 100% sure a deer will be under you during daylight hours. Go find sign that MAKES you climb the tree. You’ll know it. There will be zero doubt in your mind.

@WHW says it best here:

My Style of Hunting By Mr. Warren Womack

For all you folks new to mobile climbing methods, or those of us that have tinkered with our system enough to be dangerous.... "Not only is it good practice but it's also a good conditioning program for climbing. I try to shoot every day and climb up to shoot and down to retrieve arrows, about...
saddlehunter.com
 
kyler1945 said:
all that matters is how much poop is under the drip line of the tree.
Click to expand...
This.

I don't care if the oak is red or white, much less what species it is. It either has fresh sign under it or it doesn't. If it has fresh sign the time to hunt it is now. Yesterday or last week or last year's hot tree is only still a hot tree if it has fresh sign today.
 
Nutterbuster said:
This.

I don't care if the oak is red or white, much less what species it is. It either has fresh sign under it or it doesn't. If it has fresh sign the time to hunt it is now. Yesterday or last week or last year's hot tree is only still a hot tree if it has fresh sign today.
Click to expand...
The point about learning species, drop times, order of preference, etc is about future scouting and hunting efficiency. I have trees I wont look at for another 3 weeks because I know they are not dropping yet but when they drop they will be a primary draw.
 
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