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Acorns

I've seen some shumard oaks around here start to drop a couple green ones, but I haven't been glassing the trees to see what the acorn crop looks like. Those Shumard oak are ol reliable around the Nashville basin. Always one dropping somewhere, and in a good year will feed deer all season long
 
I about broke my neck last night in the dark stepping off my back deck. The white oak behind my house has already started dropping but then again this massive white oak always seems to produce a truck bed load so much so that I invested in one of those acorn pickers that you pull behind a mower.
 
Hamilton county. I have a lot of acorns this year
 

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On my place I actually found a very few scattered oaks that had a few mature acorns. I honestly thought all acorns had fallen off during the drought. Now the amount of acorns I found is so low deer will scarf them up the instant they hit the ground, but it is interesting that a few made it through the drought. And all of the trees I found with acorns were around the edges of food plots. Probably due to the better soil and lack of competition with other trees for soil moisture.
 
BSK said:
On my place I actually found a very few scattered oaks that had a few mature acorns. I honestly thought all acorns had fallen off during the drought. Now the amount of acorns I found is so low deer will scarf them up the instant they hit the ground, but it is interesting that a few made it through the drought. And all of the trees I found with acorns were around the edges of food plots. Probably due to the better soil and lack of competition with other trees for soil moisture.
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Same at my place in Humphreys County. The white oaks that were out in my plots had quite a few acorns. I was very surprised seeing as how we went nearly 2 months without rain. I spent the last two days getting 20 acres planted, so I didn't have a chance to look around in the woods, but I highly doubt there are many acorns outside of the plots.
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I went out and found less than 10 white oak acorns but they usually will drop more in a few weeks. Reds seem more loaded in middle TN
 
White Oaks are starting to drop here on my place. Looks like it might be a banner year for all hard mast. Hickories are loaded and the Squirrells are wearing out the Beech nuts.
 
Was walking our dustmop of a dog yesterday only half paying attention to what was around me and noticed an acorn on the pavement. Looked up and realized the house down the street has a couple Shumard oaks. They are as loaded as I have ever seen them. Seems to be consistent across all species here on the plateau this year. The late summer rains we had really bumped up production in a big way. Probably the rainiest July I can recall. We were blessed to get all of that while the rest of the state was dealing with borderline drought conditions.
 
I spent all afternoon yesterday scouting some new spots. Saw a ton of deer snd deer sign. Found a couple limbs broken off a couple of oak trees. First was a Shumard and the other was a big old pin oak. Loaded down heavy. Also found one massive white oak that is absolutely loaded, but it's 60 yards from a house so I'd have to hunt back in the woods a ways to stay legal (it is on public land).

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catman529 said:
I spent all afternoon yesterday scouting some new spots. Saw a ton of deer snd deer sign. Found a couple limbs broken off a couple of oak trees. First was a Shumard and the other was a big old pin oak. Loaded down heavy. Also found one massive white oak that is absolutely loaded, but it's 60 yards from a house so I'd have to hunt back in the woods a ways to stay legal (it is on public land).

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All the early summer worries I had about acorn production appear to be unfounded for middle and east TN. West TN seems to be bearing the brunt of this. Sorry fellas...

I know not everyone relies on acorn production as heavily as I do. Some folks even hate em as they take away from their spot but, I they are a major part of my gameplan this season (as well as last).
 
UCStandSitter said:
All the early summer worries I had about acorn production appear to be unfounded for middle and east TN. West TN seems to be bearing the brunt of this. Sorry fellas...
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In western Middle TN, our acorn situation is a disaster. Then add in food plots are a disaster due to the continuing drought. Going to be a tough year.
 
BSK said:
In western Middle TN, our acorn situation is a disaster. Then add in food plots are a disaster due to the continuing drought. Going to be a tough year.
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Weather patterns have been really interesting (and unfortunate for you fellas) this year. We've had, and continue to have, so much precip here. I never remember it being like this. Put out a couple micro plots a few weeks back. Rained the afternoon I put them out. Had a good stand of green within 3 days. Crazy...
 
UCStandSitter said:
I know not everyone relies on acorn production as heavily as I do. Some folks even hate em as they take away from their spot but, I they are a major part of my gameplan this season (as well as last).
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Big acorn crops are a double-edged sword for us. Big acorn crops draw a lot of deer to our property from nearby bottomlands once the crops have been harvested. We see our biggest season-long deer census numbers in big acorn years. But when acorns are everywhere, deciding where to hunt can be a crapshoot. Deer don't move as far, as often or predictably when acorns are everywhere. We usually have our highest deer numbers in a good acorn year but have our highest buck sighting rates in a poor acorn year, as deer have to move farther and more often to find food. Plus activity will be concentrated in predictable areas (near food plots).
 

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