bowtch huntr209 said:
we have a ton of red oak acorns...
1) Could this be contributing to why everyone is saying their deer sightings have gone done recently?
Absolutely.
Post-rut, deer activity greatly decreases.
Most notably, they stop traveling far (daily) in linear distance. I often see deer (both bucks & does) that never go more than 150 yards (linear distance) from daybreak to dusk. This can make it very difficult to get close enough for a stand set-up without alerting them to your presence. Getting set-up undetected is further complicated by often noisy frozen ground, and the fact that sound travels farther after the trees are leafless.
Comparing the post-rut to the rut, during the rut, both bucks and does travel much greater distances daily. Many leaves are still on the trees (helps us hunters get set-up with deer less likely to either hear or see us), and the ground is seldom hard frozen and crunchy (noisy) like so many mornings post-rut. And of course, there are simply more deer earlier in the season.
Red oak acorns contribute greatly to post-rut deer inactivity. These acorns are very high in fat, and digest slowly, giving the deer a "full" stomach feeling that can last 24 hours between feedings. The deer can wait until right after dark, travel to a single red oak tree, fill their stomachs, then go lie back down for another 24 hours, after another day and darkness falls once again. Not saying they stay bedded all day, but rather they move around in and near their bedding areas, not traveling very far in any one direction until darkness falls.
When there are red oak acorns post-rut, cultivated food plots can seem virtually worthless for hunting purposes. But when there are no red oak acorns, deer have to eat more often, and will be more mobile during daytime hours, and can be particularly likely to enter crop fields and food plots during daylight. Right now, thanks to the still abundant red oak acorns, 99% of my food plot usage is under the cover of darkness. The only deer that are regularly stepping out before dark are button bucks.
bowtch huntr209 said:
2) Do these red oaks help with antler growth in the spring and summer months?
You betcha!
IMO, generally speaking, having abundant late-season red oak acorns is a bigger deal than what grows in the spring or how much spring/summer rainfall we have. Now if we can have above average spring/early summer rainfall on top of this good acorn crop, we're in for some spectacular antler growth in 2011.
Also, while I can't prove it, I strongly believe that our gaining more mature bucks and improving buck:doe ratios --- these factors are the most significant ones in causing the 2 1/2-yr-old bucks in particular to grow larger antlers than 2 1/2's did in times past. Yep, as BSK will say, my evidence is "antidotal", but I've been hunting many of the same areas now for over 30 years, and young bucks in particular are growing larger antlers, most noteable to me in the 2 1/2-yr-old age class.
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