I did pretty much agree with you guys, however a similar thread was on a different site. Quite a few people responded saying that deer will eat hickory nuts. Pignut hickory or bitter hickory was sited as the most common one that they seen being ate. That particularly variety as you guys probably know is very thin shelled. A few people even said that they would eat regular hickory nuts in years where the mast crop was limited. So it seems that deer may eat whatever they have to in certain years