MGH_PA

Ok, so here's my dilemma. We have quite a bumper crop of acorns this year (as do most from what I'm hearing). The deer I've been seeing during my outings this week have all been basically nose to the ground eating every acorn in sight. However, we planted a great 3/4 acre food plot this August with Brasicas, Turnips, clover, buckwheat, and some rye mixed in. The plot is doing great, although I've only hunted over it once (saw a pair of turkey's and no deer). I'm hesitant to hunt it or even expect results from hunting it due to the acorns. Question is, would I be better off just waiting until the acorns start to dwindle down and then hunt the plot, or will the deer still hit the food plot with all of these acorns? I also have a lot of standing corn on my property that consistantly holds deer, altough I've hunted it twice and saw nothing. I suppose my theory at this time in PA is that the high temps have the deer moving very little (and mostly after dark), not having to move is only aided by the abundance of acorns in the woods. I'm a little frustrated as I am seeing does, but NO signs of any bucks yet, and I always have the tendency to second guess stand placement (and switch sites quite often during the season). I basically have three main sources of food right now to battle with...should I keep hunting my locations I have now since I am seeing deer (althought not every night), or should I spend a few nights over the food plot and see if anything comes out? Rob, if you read this, you're not far from me and I see the deer are coming into your food plot (and I assume you have the acorn crop we are having), so that's what's giving me the idea to try hunting the food plot for a few evenings and see what it produces. Thoughts?

mauser06

ive found the deer are on the acorns. i talk to my buddys that spot alot, or my other buddy that farms for a living and is always out there seeing deer. when they tell me they arent seeing much, i know to find the oaks. they told me that they werent seeing much...i hunted the oaks twice and am 2 for 2 on buck sightings so far.

bet they still hit the corn and other fields and plots...but i got corn, alfalfa and soybeans within 100yds of my stand...never seen em go into the fields...but they sure do put a hurtin on the acorns!

pjhunts

I'd bet they are feeding in all of those areas. I would put a trail camera on the food plot and hunt the corn(preferrably in fingers of timber that shoot into the fields) or a noticeably hot acorn tree. We have almost no acorns again this year and it has been very hot and dry here, 95 degrees today

pigiron

I'll second that. Most of my bucksightings are in oaks right now. There's about 100 acres of horse corn around me, and two 2 acre food plots with soybeans, but I have only seen bucks in the oaks. In fact those other areas are usually pretty hotthis time of year, but there has been little or no action in them. I feel it's a combination of the abnormal weather, and abundance of acorns. I'd put my money on an oak woods set up.

nchawkeye

Deer will hit their preferred food first...We raise corn, peanuts, soybeans, wheat, etc on our farms...We have as many as 10 hunters hunting on an afternoon on 3 different farms...When we have a good acorn crop the deer are not seen in the crop fields in the afternoon, they prefer acorns, set up nearest a cutover, that's where they will show up first...They will hit soybeans and corn later, but it's after dark, we've seen this many times while out spotlighting.

Ohio Bowhunter75

Hunt the acorns while they are falling,greens when it is warm,corn anytime it is cold.They are going after the mast crops,if they don't get them now,they won't get there share.Deer crave carbs when the weather gets cold.They want the energy.