Acorns

[BSK]

Man, I remember the 2007 drought and EHD outbreak. I graduated college that spring and couldn't wait to finally be home to get a lot of hunting in. I remember having our whole place to myself day after day and never seeing a deer. I have notes but would have to dig through them. I just remember seeing a handful of deer during November.

Although we actually had a decent year in 2007 (so little food was available deer were really having to move to find it), that event was definitely the end of our high deer densities. Deer densities plummeted and didn't bounce back for about 5 years.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Although we actually had a decent year in 2007 (so little food was available deer were really having to move to find it), that event was definitely the end of our high deer densities. Deer densities plummeted and didn't bounce back for about 5 years.

Man, you're right on the money. In 2012, everything exploded, and that year, I finally got the monkey off my back. That deer, the way I killed him, made me realize how my strategies up to that point had caused me to fail at many prior hunts. That deer taught me a lot and have had a lot of success since then.

2019 was also a devastating EHD year for us in our local herd. Since then, I have been relying heavily on leases in E TN with my FIL. I think this year we should be back to full throttle in Hickman with our local herd.

 

[BSK]

2019 was also a devastating EHD year for us in our local herd. Since then, I have been relying heavily on leases in E TN with my FIL. I think this year we should be back to full throttle in Hickman with our local herd.

Agreed. From what I'm hearing from clients in Hickman County, the bounce back in population this year is pretty significant.

 

[UCStandSitter]

Continue to spot check here on the "plataw" and we are as loaded this year as we were last all around the area. Very thankful.

 

[hoghunter65]

Just got back from South Cherokee. No acorns, no muscedines, no deer sign, did see where the hogs have been rooting and of course 3 bears, I wish twra would have a quita hunt and take some of the bears out of the Ocoee bear reserve, thered getting to be too many I see them every time I ride through.

 

[timberjack86]

Just got back from South Cherokee. No acorns, no muscedines, no deer sign, did see where the hogs have been rooting and of course 3 bears, I wish twra would have a quita hunt and take some of the bears out of the Ocoee bear reserve, thered getting to be too many I see them every time I ride through.

I really feel a month long archery hunt in the bear reserves would be very successful.

 

[muddyboots]

I don't expect a single acorn at my place. Drought wiped them out.

This. I can't find any in trees.

 

[tellico4x4]

Even our hickories have no nuts. Have about a dozen around the camp yard & saw 2 nuts total in all of them today. Limb rats gonna have a hard time...

 

[squirrel_hunter]

I live in north eastern Arkansas. The white oakes are loaded. Dont know about hickorys yet.

 

[Swampster]

Freeze killed all the leaves.

More than leaves. Many of my sawtooth, planted in 2002, killed back, some to the ground.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Cut some limbs off of a black oak this afternoon, the acorns were very small, but the tree is loaded with them.

 

[Bgoodman30]

Cut some white oak limbs Friday. The acorns were so small they were not visible until we cut the branch off. I am assuming they will still make?

 

[muddyboots]

Saw some willow oaks today. First ones I have found. Hardin county.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Cut some white oak limbs Friday. The acorns were so small they were not visible until we cut the branch off. I am assuming they will still make?


View attachment 146425

About the same with the white oaks I found any acorns on today. Suspect the June and July drought here likely played a part.

 

[Hduke86]

Cut some white oak limbs Friday. The acorns were so small they were not visible until we cut the branch off. I am assuming they will still make?


View attachment 146425

I have a huge white oak in my backyard and typically this time of the year that's what they look like and even this year is the same. They don't grow big in the first place so I suspect it is about normal. I'll take a picture of it when I get home this evening and see. I've got hickory trees loaded up in the yard which I'm dreading for sure. We have had a good amount of rain in Hamilton county and up on the mountain the trees seem to be on par for usually acorn production

 

[BSK]

No acorns, no muscadines, no persimmons, no hickories at my place. But deer are hammering natural regrowth (primarily pokeweed) and hope to have good food plots this fall.

 

[DayDay]

I've had a ton of barely developed acorns fall off the red oaks at my house during the last few days. I've read that they will drop acorns prematurely in order to focus energy on survival when the tree has been stressed such as in droughts.

I'm guessing there will be fewer fully developed acorns around my house this year. I was kind of hoping that this means there are so many acorns that the tree gets rid of some early to help the others develop.

I remember the season in 2008, after the late freeze and drought of 2007. I was hunting an area with a huge number of white oaks and I could not take a step in the woods with stepping on a handful of acorns as the forest floor was covered with them. I think the deer could bed down, get up, get a stomach full within a few feet, and then bed back down. They just didn't seem to be moving much during bow season.

 

[BSK]

I've had a ton of barely developed acorns fall off the red oaks at my house during the last few days. I've read that they will drop acorns prematurely in order to focus energy on survival when the tree has been stressed such as in droughts.

I'm guessing there will be fewer fully developed acorns around my house this year. I was kind of hoping that this means there are so many acorns that the tree gets rid of some early to help the others develop.

I remember the season in 2008, after the late freeze and drought of 2007. I was hunting an area with a huge number of white oaks and I could not take a step in the woods with stepping on a handful of acorns as the forest floor was covered with them. I think the deer could bed down, get up, get a stomach full within a few feet, and then bed back down. They just didn't seem to be moving much during bow season.

Pretty well established fact that, in a hardwood environment, deer sightings and harvests decline in a bumper acorn year and peak in a poor acorn year. When acorns are plentiful, deer have to move shorter distances to find food, and less often (acorns digest slower than browse/ag crop plants). In a poor acorn year, deer may have to travel greater distances to feed as well as feed more often, exposing themselves to hunters more frequently.

 

[UCStandSitter]

Pretty well established fact that, in a hardwood environment, deer sightings and harvests decline in a bumper acorn year and peak in a poor acorn year. When acorns are plentiful, deer have to move shorter distances to find food, and less often (acorns digest slower than browse/ag crop plants). In a poor acorn year, deer may have to travel greater distances to feed as well as feed more often, exposing themselves to hunters more frequently.

Interesting

 

[BSK]

While running the Harpeth Greenway this morning, I saw freshly fallen Red and Black Oak acorns on the ground. So in Middle TN, look towards oaks in the Red family.

Talked to some clients along the TN River in western TN and they said they have Swamp White Oaks in swampy bottomland areas that are loaded with acorns. Considering Swamp White Oak are THE top choice of deer, and that upland oaks in the area are not carrying any acorns, any groves of Swamp White oaks in the bottomlands producing acorns will become a kill zone like shooting fish in a barrel.