Food plots and acorns

[Drycreek]

Native, I had a white oak in my backyard, about 100’ from the house, that in most years is literally loaded with acorns. Most years there was about as much deer poop on the ground as there were acorns. Sadly, this last winter lightening struck it and it’s now firewood. I never saw a deer under it, so I know they were feeding in the wee hours.

 

[MarkDarvin]

There seems to be a correlation with bucks using plots the further south you go. There may be one here or there, but by and large, you don't see mature bucks harvested off plots in the colder zones unless it's pre-rut or post rut. Maybe its a function of the intensity of the rut. Ours is swift and wild and it's over in a matter of a week or two. The POSQ or some outfit like that once put out a chart showing the duration and intensity of the rut by growing zones. Not sure where that went. Maybe they burned that too.

 

[DRandall90]

There seems to be a correlation with bucks using plots the further south you go. There may be one here or there, but by and large, you don't see mature bucks harvested off plots in the colder zones unless it's pre-rut or post rut. Maybe its a function of the intensity of the rut. Ours is swift and wild and it's over in a matter of a week or two. The POSQ or some outfit like that once put out a chart showing the duration and intensity of the rut by growing zones. Not sure where that went. Maybe they burned that too.

We never see our mature bucks in our plots in the daylight hours. They are out there late at night. Occasionally a young buck will wander out during daylight.

We see the bigguns cruise the woods and browse toward the plots at dusk, but never poke their heads out until after dark.

 

[OkieKubota]

I don’t even want to post a pic of what my camera got down here in the woods yesterday afternoon while I was sitting near our plot due to poor wind direction

 

[MarkDarvin]

We never see our mature bucks in our plots in the daylight hours. They are out there late at night. Occasionally a young buck will wander out during daylight.

We see the bigguns cruise the woods and browse toward the plots at dusk, but never poke their heads out until after dark.

I've never seen it either. The few bucks I've seen on stand had zero interest in food. Last year I saw a buck come within 15 yards of my plot and he kept right on walking like it wasn't there. He was nosing the ground checking for a doe trail and sticking his nose up in the air to check the bedding area he was walking along.

I'm finally rearranging my hunting to seek out this pattern. I've moved my sets back away from the food to try and intercept that same behavior. If they're not in the plot, I wanna be downwind of the path they're taking to be downwind of the spots where the does are.