hcurt

This might get long winded but I have some questions about some new land I have gotten permission to hunt this year. It is 320 acres total of low river bottom land. The biggest river in this corner of the state borders right around it. There is maybe 40-50 acres of timber that is not very thick because cows are in it off and on. The trees are huge and I started finding a few white oaks with not to many acorns on them yet and a bunch of red oaks that are loaded with acorns. There is probably 60 acres of hay fields and the other 200 acres are bean fields that have tree lines running between most of them. As of right now we have seen no deer on it yet in the past 3 weeks and just a few tracks. With all this food sources for them wouldn't there have to be deer coming in as the beans are getting ready to eat and when all the acorns start dropping? This will be the first time we have tried to hunt something this open without lots of thick timber or brushy areas. Don't the deer have summer ranges and then sometimes switch in the fall or winter? There are some huge corn fields about a half mile from this spot and the corn is over 6 ft. tall this year. I am wondering if they might be in the corn right now then as it is harvested and the beans get ready start coming back our way.
Sorry so long winded I just wondered what other people might think about this property and our chances. I have aerial photos but I don't know how to get them on here. Any advice or opinions would be appreciated.

TURKEY FAN

yea............go hunt!

Hill Hopper

I don't know about there, but here, the cows will be thick into the acorns when they start to fall, and where there are a bunch of cows, there will be very few deer.

Tazman

Deer will go where the food is, and when it comes to acorns, when they start dropping the deer will be there. Try and identify any funnels leading from likely bedding areas to the acorns, heck you may find a trail that is identifiable from last year.

adams

Deer will seek out the best food sources through out the year. While the deer may not be in there now, when the current food source they prefer now dries up and the acorns fall the der will seek them out. as long as there is ample cover, food and water the deer will use the property.

I haven't much experience hunting around cows so I don't know how that will effect the deer movement.

silentassassin

Curt,

You are right the deer probably are in the corn right now. They will continue to stay there until it is cut, even after the acorns drop. We had this problem in Illinois last year. The acorns were so thick it was incredible but the deer weren't leaving the corn to come eat them until well after dark. The deer do have a summer range and a fall range but they are similar places but different patterns within the overlapping ranges. In our part of the country the range will not very much but the places they use within the range will very greatly. It sounds like the areas that you described will be good bedding areas so the deer will migrate there after the corn is cut. I imagine there are several living there now but there will be more after the corn is cut. If you get stuck in a rut give me a shout and I'll be happy to run up there and help you figure them out

We hunted Pike Co. last year and I was amazed at how little the deer keyed on the massive acorn crop. Most of the area that we were huting (about 20 hunters at the lodge 7 of which were with my group) was without acorns or had very few and the property that I was hunting was LOADED so we thought we had hit the mother load but the deer didn't seem to key on them that much and they definetley weren't coming out of the corn until after dark. But even then there wasn't a tremendous amount of sign in the acorns. Now the corn was still in on Nov. 10th and the moon phase wasn't just right but we still didn't see the deer key on the acorns like we thought they would have. Hunting around the corn was definetly the way to go. When the corn is cut it's a whole new ball game though.

Good luck. If you have any more questions feel free to PM me and I will answer any thing that I can.

hcurt

I have never heard of the cows eating acorns. Is that common in places? The cows get moved around alot so I don't know where they will be when season starts. I know I wish I could hunt the areas with corn but they are not on this property. Usually the corn is down by Sept. around here which would be great timing for the beans and the acorns. Thanks for all the info from everyone.

Hill Hopper

If the acorns are on the ground and the cows can get to them, they will go after them. About drove me NUTS last year when some fences were down.