Tell me

[Volbuck777]

Okay guys so while catman is teaching us all about oaks, (which by the way is awesome, because I always want to learn more about the deer woods,) tell me what i or others may be overlooking. Example: We all know deer like white oak acorns but what else. Oaks don't always produce the way we'd wish. I have one certain natural food source they love in particular, that I hunt every year. I won't name it yet in hopes someone else says it. So tell me what's the go to food.

 

[Omega]

Okay guys so while catman is teaching us all about oaks, (which by the way is awesome, because I always want to learn more about the deer woods,) tell me what i or others may be overlooking. Example: We all know deer like white oak acorns but what else. Oaks don't always produce the way we'd wish. I have one certain natural food source they love in particular, that I hunt every year. I won't name it yet in hopes someone else says it. So tell me what's the go to food.

This may be location dependent, and can change from season to season. Near my hunting area I have a hill covered in acorns that attract many deer when it's a good year, I also have a huge persimmon tree, which draws them as well when they start dropping. And of course, there are the salt blocks and clover that they hit when those other two places don't have a crop.

 

[2in1shot]

Remember that cover is more important to deer than food.

 

[Volbuck777]

Okay guys going to try again. This is a game. Maybe I didn't make it clear I'm looking to hunt a spot I'm walking through the woods not a whole lot of cover. The oaks aren't dropping acorns, and I have no plots or salt licks. I have no ag fields what do I hunt? What are the deer eating? What do I need to look for? GO!

 

[Volbuck777]

Omega I like the persimmon tree response, what else.

 

[Shed Hunter]

I see briars worn out by deer all the time.. especially in big woods. I know they also like to not only eat, but also bed in honey locust thickets.

There's a plethora of food sources in early season.. I like kudzu in particular

 

[EastTNHunter]

Honey locust pods

 

[Volbuck777]

Ding ding ding. Well that was easy. Honey locusts. I tell people that all the time and they look at me like I have two heads. Almost every buck I saw last year passed the oaks and other food for the locust. I'm also a firm believer in hedge. Y'all have anymore go to food sources.

 

[Ski]

I've seen them eat locust pods but haven't seen them pass acorns to get them. I've heard they eat redbud seeds, too.

Maypops are a gem until mid-October. Had no idea what they were when I moved here 5yrs ago. Saw deer hanging out in a fence row & couldn't figure out why so I started looking around and found them. Once I found out their name I researched them & found that they're native passion fruits and animals love them. I ate one & it tasted like sweet tart candy, seriously good.

Another gem is paw paws. I've watched deer bed down waiting for a fruit to fall so they could scamper over & get it before anything else.

 

[Shed Hunter]

Ding ding ding. Well that was easy. Honey locusts. I tell people that all the time and they look at me like I have two heads. Almost every buck I saw last year passed the oaks and other food for the locust. I'm also a firm believer in hedge. Y'all have anymore go to food sources.

I've found a lot of sheds under honey locust trees

 

[MickThompson]

Browse. Pay attention to what they are eating and how heavily they are feeding in an area. Acorns hit or miss but browse is consistent.

 

[Volbuck777]

Good info ski and yea I don't think they pass acorns normally for pods but if they feel uncomfortable in the big woods they seem to hit them scrubby areas like old fence rows and most the time you find hedge,locusts, and maypops their. It's become some of my favorite places to hunt.

 

[MUP]

Browse. Pay attention to what they are eating and how heavily they are feeding in an area. Acorns hit or miss but browse is consistent.

I was going to say browse, and browse sometimes doubles as cover. I only have woods where I hunt and it's either acorns or browse. I haven't even found a persimmon tree on my place. But i do have a few crabapple trees tho, and deer are hit or miss with them.

 

[bigtex]

I hate the stuff with a passion but deer love Kudzu. They will eat it and it provides lots of cover especially before first frost. It grows on the edge of my property and is slowly encroaching onto my place. I try to keep it under control but it's a constant battle.

 

[Volbuck777]

How about beech nut fellas. Y'all have any luck under them big beech trees

 

[Smo]

Honeysuckle is had too beat when there's no acorns.. Really,anything green .

 

[Snake]

Deer are kinda like goats and will eat a lot of different things once a guy told me he fed chicken to a deer in Cade's Cove from which I told him better be glad a game warden didn't see you . Back in the day when I hunted different properties all around the state when I killed a deer and wanted to know what it had been eating I'd cut the stomach open after field dressing . Deer eat beech nuts , berries off a dogwood trees , wild grapes , muscadines , I've even been told (haven't seen) the eat hedge apples if they are real hungry . Main food sources concentrate on them because browse they will eat anything , once watched a yearling pick a twig up with it's mouth eat the twigs and then eat the dead leaves like it was candy .

 

[philsanchez76]

+10 on privet especially later season when acorns are mostly gone.

 

[Jcalder]

Yellow acorns work pretty well when the regular acorns dry up.


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[CATCHDAWG]

+10 on privet especially later season when acorns are mostly gone.

Yep, they love privet.

 

[dirtyhands]

I've read somewhere that they will eat baby birds

 

[TDW05]

I shot a doe last year that had mushrooms in her.

 

[Shed Hunter]

I forgot crab apples.. I use to have trail cam videos of them picking them off the tree

 

[catman529]

My two favorites from personal experience are white oak and chinkapin oak. Chinkapin are spotty producers so when you find one that's dropped a bunch, it usually has deer sign everywhere and doesn't last very long.

Around here the white and chinkapins don't drop until mid October. Before that, a few of the northern red oaks usually have dropped and those are probably my #1 to hunt during early season. After all the white oaks have been eaten up later in the season, they'll eat whatever reds are left.


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[catman529]

Okay guys going to try again. This is a game. Maybe I didn't make it clear I'm looking to hunt a spot I'm walking through the woods not a whole lot of cover. The oaks aren't dropping acorns, and I have no plots or salt licks. I have no ag fields what do I hunt? What are the deer eating? What do I need to look for? GO!

depends on the area, could be sawbriar, black gum seedlings, nettle, winter creeper, privet... or of course a persimmon tree


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[Omega]

I've read somewhere that they will eat baby birds

Yup, seen a nature show that showed they ate the heads off of birds.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/field-cameras-catch-deer-eating-birds-wait-why-do-deer-1689440870

 

[Volbuck777]

Definitely agree with you on the chinkapins catman. They are by far my favorite oak to hunt.

 

[huntncoach]

A few years ago I was hunting a small plot on the edge of a pine forest. I watched deer walking through the woods eating something off the ground. When I got down, I noticed there were "holes" dug into the the layers of pine needles on the forest floor where the deer had been. I had seen the holes plenty of times, but didn't realized the deer were making them with their snout as they were eating small mushrooms that were growing there.

 

[Volbuck777]

Pretty cool observation huntncoach I've hunted lots of pine forest and always wondered what they were eating under the needles. That may be it.

 

[TLRanger]

Honeysuckle! They have just about wiped out all of it at my place......Used to be several patches but they have disappeared. I have also seen them eat moss off of dead logs. I think they will try anything.