Red Oaks
 

Up here in my part of Maine we have very few oaks and those that we have are red oaks.Are they as much candy as the whites or will they pass them for other browes?Ron

RE: Red Oaks
 

Depends what other browse you have. Deer love any acorns. They are high in fat and protein, and they can stay in cover when eating.

RE: Red Oaks
 

Im from New England as well and look to hunt near acorns.

What will deer use as a secondary source of food if the acorn crop is short this year?

Jim

RE: Red Oaks
 

Deer prefer white oak acorns but will also gladly indulge in reds if easily available. It's kinda like you having a T-bone or a hot dog. The T-bone would likely be your first choice but the tube steak will do if the T-bone isn't available!

RE: Red Oaks
 

Beechnuts

RE: Red Oaks
 

Everyone always says they like the white oaks so much. They do, but they eat all of the reds too. The white oak produces much smaller crops around here than the reds. They do like beech nuts and hickory nuts too.

If the acorns are there they will come!

RE: Red Oaks
 

Any of you guys crack open and taste the differnce between acorns?

RE: Red Oaks
 

Ron,

I know what you mean by lack of oak trees. I have a camp in Handcock county and there are very few good stands of oak around. The paper company cuts the big mast producing trees and what's left standing is too small to produce. If you've got red oaks and no white oaks your reds will be a perfered source of food. If you have reds and white the whites will take precedence.

Most of my hunting grounds are void of good white oaks. The property I hunt in New Hampshire is covered with beech trees. Problem is there are so many of them they don't concentrate the deer. IMO the key is to find the best food source in the area and get between it and their beds.

Where about in Maine Ron?

RE: Red Oaks
 

I recently read this information from Quality Whitetails magazine.
Deer prefer the white oak acorns over the red oak due to the lower tannin content. Tannin is a chemical produced in plants to deter predators from eating them. You can taste the difference in the two. The red oak acorn is much more bitter. The tannin also causes trouble for an animals ability to digest protein. Deer's saliva contains compounds that bind to the tannin and reduces the protein digestive problem. The red oak family acorns contain 2 & 4 times the amount of fat content compared to the white oak.
Also the red oak group produce larger acorn crops when compared to the white oak.

RE: Red Oaks
 

Where they grow close to each other Id list them like this

Sawtooth oak
White oak
Red oak

Chessnut oaks are prefered in Pa where I hunt .

RE: Red Oaks
 

Few oak trees may be bad for the deer, but it's good for the hunter. Try to find out which stands (or even singel trees) will be dropping acorns. The end of august is a good time, get some binos and really scan the treetops. White oak acorns are harder to see until they turn brown.

We've had "bad" acorn years when I lived in NH, yet when we shot deer, they had acorns in their rumens. So they are usually out there somewhere. If one side of a ridge has none, check the other side. Check areas of different elevation. Check trees around swamps and on knolls, etc. until you locate them. Than plan access routes for prevailing wind direction.

Early season you can catch bucks feeding acorns, especially whites as they drop earlier. Later, bucks may be skirting oak ridges or flats on ridges to scent check does that will be feeding, so look for the trails they will use, and set up downwind of those trails. You may not see the oaks, but you may see more bucks this way than if you are in the feeding areas.

Deer can't afford not to eat those acorns. By nature they are browsers, eating a variety of foods as they move. But acorns will make up the bulk of their diet when available, unless there is something more nutritious. In Indiana where I am, they feed heavily on soybeans and corn. They do get overweight, but they have low cholesterol.