dkeener

Anybody in here save acorns to use later? I have some property in Michigan where baiting is legal and plan on picking up acorns this week to use in November and December. Most of the trees around here have dropped their acorns already and I figure the squirrels will clean them off the ground within a few weeks. Do you just keep them in the frig or should I freeze them? Or just maybe toss them in a box in the garage?

aeroslinger

Funny you should ask. I've been picking them up for a week or so thinking I'd try throwing some out. I can't tell yet but they may not keep very long. I'll try to throw some out this weekend and I'll let you know later how they worked.

MOTOWNHONKEY

Just buy a 4 dollar 50 pound bag of corn.

dkeener

Motown-
I already have some corn, molasses treated for deer and all. I have some concern though about using corn in the woods, though, and would prefer to use acorns under some of the oaks. Guess I am worried that the smarter, older bucks might get spooked if they came across corn in the wrong location. I have seen them get all nervous when discovering apples that I have left for them that are not natural to the location. Maybe I am being over cautious, but if I want to shoot a big un, I want to be as careful as possible.

legacy22

dk, I happen to live in the U.P. of Michigan and my advice to you would to forget about the acorns, regardless of what kind of area you plan on hunting. I would use corn or apples as bait. They seem to work the best for me. Being as you'll be up here during the rut, you'll likely get the bigger bucks following the does to the bait and not really being overly concerned with eating it anyway. Most of the good bucks i've shot have been back behind the feeding does anyway. Hope this helps. Good luck!

finner

they will last till later in the season if you pick them now, just picked 10 bushels the other night at the cemetary....they wont draw the deer like corn or apple will though...but they will gobble them up once they find them.

cravingame

I don't know if they will last but I have put some out. The main thing is how you handle apples or acorns. You don't want to touch them with your hands. Use a rake and/or scentfree rubber gloves. Also don't store them with things that will put any foreign scent on them. Heavy duty trash bags work good for transport.

Orion in IL

Do NOT store your acorns in 5 gallon plastic buckets (from experience).

Most likely, there are small little acorn worms in each acorn.

Given a dark location and all the acorns in one small area, these worms will multiply like crazy and devastate your acorns in no time.

Use a potato sack (holes for ventilation) and store from the string from a rafter in your garage or other location.

This seems to help a bit.

You are correct however, the squirrels will gobble them up real quick.

Also, the deer are very aware when these acorns naturally dropand know the areas in which they do so.

I agree that you'd do better with the corn.

Don't forget that you can still make a good cover scent using those acorns and a cheap blender.

Good Luck.