I actually know what ya mean, this is Arkansas. South Arkansas is nothing but Pine plantations and I have hunted that type of environment too.

ok i hunt an area very simmalar to this and we found the spot to hunt adn ahve taken many deer out of that 1 stand.are tehere any fences on teh place?? if so walk them and look. adn if tehre are a lot of deer there has to b water somewhere for them to survive and wen u find them little trickles of water take a shove and make a little pool for the deer. also look for grape vines they hug tight to them because they have a lot of cover on them!! also take a long walk around make a coulpe grids of wat u'r good areas look like and walk them very close. look for anything mayb hair in a fence or were a fence is broke. but if i was u i would go for the grape vines and the crrek or spring. it's like this deer can't live on food alone they need water to survive and creeks always have funnels. so my 1st spot would b the creek like i said if it's very small make a little pool of water for them nad then go to the grapes that is food and cover!! also look for scrapes on them little oaks set up on them around the RUT!!

Just b/c they are acorns don't mean that they are prefered acorns....find the white oaks...they will eat them first then move to other oaks such as pin oaks...

i am sure that your area has been logged at some point intime so its not thousands of acres of nothing, but oaks...if it were like that, ARK would be the deer cap. of the world...so try to find the white oaks that are dropping.

i am hunting an area like you described right now.....and thats how i am hunting it. its public land and out of 6 sittings i've seen 12 does and two bucks. all within bow range. i go through and find what white oaks are dropping and i park my rear in a climber or lock on 20-30yds from these trees.

There are no fences, and its is a swampy area with sloughs everywhere. No way to catch em at water.

It is seriously 90% oaks, no joking. And there are several big deer taken here every year, I have seen several myself. The surrounding area is a lot more open pastures and stuff, this place holds deer for sure. I haven't found any white oaks this year due to the very late freeze this spring, but I had found several Pin oak trees with all kinds of droppings under and around them. I've hunted and always see deer, but I'm trying to pattern whereother deer are coming through to other oaks. Kinda hard to explain myself I guess.

But after the acorns are gone or rotten, what would your strategy be then? Acorns only provide a few weeks of food for deer. I'm positive they eat on natural browse mostly, but it is so scattered also. Mainly those overgrown previously cut areas I talked of.

i still say deer can't live w/o water and if it's a big strech of oak and a big flat they are travleing to find some water! FIND WATER that would b my choice

Ok. Now I don't understand.

you say that its flat land. nothing, but oaks, no hills.

Then you say its swampy and drainages everywhere?

Well....in that case.. I would hunt the drainages. Hunt the edge of them where they transist into the mixed forest.

like i said. i am hunting a spot like that right now. i move from the flat land (oaks) to the drainages and see deer at both locations.

ok, thanks!

I have the same problem Hillbilly.I have so many White,Red, and Black oaks dropping nuts that you can't pattern them They can eat where they want and when they want.
Even in a bad mast year the deer I hunt are tough to pattern. They browse from one food source to another with no agriculture to pull them out. These deer even change their bedding areas as often as traveling salemen. As long as they have cover, water and food I find they don't mind where they lay their heads. They might stay in the same general area but they don't take the same commute every morning.

Hillbilly, I can relate to what your saying, and have asked the same question your asking on here in years past, and got pretty generic answers, "Find the bedding areas" "find what they are eating" Its not that easy, and I've simple started to learn from trial by error. My farm is much like you describe, nothing but acres and acres of oaks, and even this year with no white oak acorns at all they are still hitting red oak acorns, and can and will be feeding anywhere. I have several food plots, but as soon as the acorns dropped they almost stopped hitting the plots, and thee is absolutely no pattern to their movements. I can see deer almost every time I go to a stand, but also almost never see two deer travel the same direction, or trail. We also have clearcuts on all the surrounding properties, and have looked into those trying to find bedding areas, but frome what Im finding is the deer on my farm arent bedding in the clearcuts, but I do find intermittent beds on ridge point, but nothing good enough to warrant putting a stand on it. Im sorry I can help much on the subject, but I agree with you, that it is some tough hunting. When they feed and bed just wherever the feel like it, its hard to pinpoint anything. I guess Im lucky enough to have my own place, and can spend year after year putting together info from years past and just have learned certain places that funnel movement and raises my odds a little. and spend my time there. Good luck.

Thanks you guys, it sounds like you know exactly what I mean. Don't get me wrong, I see a lot of deer nearly everytime out. And I take deer every year but one, been hunting for 13 years now. But like you said you might have 10 different deer come through and all are going in a different direction. Every set of tracks seems to be going in a different direction all the time. Obviously if I find a spot where all kinds of big tracks come through like this I mark it and hunt it.Usually I see as many bucks as does, most small but a few very good ones. Its kinda trial and error. Anyway, guess I'll keep on doing this.

Thanks