JagMagMan

OK, we know that White Oak accorns are a deer' s favorite food! Find them, find deer!
I' ve been on properties that White Oaks were scarce. When I found a small patch of White Oaks, there were deer trails everywhere! Easy hunting!!!!
The last couple of proprties that I have hunted have had scattered White Oaks.
Seems that if you were not in a pine thicket, or overgrown clearcut, you were on a creeekbed with White OIak accorns everywhere!
With the good mast crops of the last couple of years, it makes it hard to set up over one good White Oak flat. Soooo, what am I overlooking? Besides White Oaks and funnels, what should I be looking for?

BOWFANATIC

Bedding areas!


In fact I make it a priority to have at least one good stand in between a bedding area and a water source.

kevin1

What BOWFANATIC said ,
plus this , white oak acorns are not necessarily a deer' s favorite mast food . In my area they prefer persimmons over acorns when both are available . Deer eat hundreds of different foods depending on what is at it' s best at the moment . As Rack Attack would put it and BOWFANATIC just said , " Hunt the beds , hang the heads" . When you can' t determine where they are haunt their hotel .

CatskillHuntr

Do you mean Strategy?

Rack-attack

Yea ,I agree.

I used to make this game harder than it needs to be – rub lines, ridges ,scrape-lines, funnels, food patterns, moon, temp, gravitational pull , bla..bla…bla…… I am not saying you can’t use these, or that guys aren’t successful doing so, but it can be much simpler IMO.

For the past 7 or 8 years all I ever hunt is bedding areas. I pretty much ignore everything else, and it has worked out very well for me. I am either right on the edge or smack dab in the middle. It doesn’t matter what they did at night, where they ate, what rub or scrape line they worked – when the sun comes up their coming home.[8D]

The big drawback is that it is high impact hunting – easy to ruin a spot. So you need to have many stands set up on different bedding areas and all sides of them. And all this work has to be done well before the season – winter is best.

I also take a lot of chances with the wind – that’s probably why I get busted more than most. On an afternoon hunt I never want the wind blowing directly from the beds to me – safe yes, good no. Older bucks don’t like the wind at their backs and will often exit the bed via the oposite side you are on. So I play a cross wind or a wind slightly angles into the bedding area – safe no, good YES. I have taken a good number of bucks that where just 20 degrees or so from my scent . Talk about being nervous…LOL

Give it a try and good luck

Solax

Rack-Attack,

THANK GOD, somebody finally gave a " Hunting for Idiots" answer. I' m not the best hunter and I read everything I can get my hands on about hunting. I think the reason I' m not very successful is because I' m trying to do too much. This year I' m changing my whole attitude and I' m gonna go with bedding areas and funnels and most importantly......wind. Thank you for supporting my decision (indirectly).

I really don' t think it' s as hard as so many people make it out to be. I think a lot of the stuff we read and end up believing is marketing, people just trying to make money. I' m not buying a single scent, call, etc. this year. I' ll let you know how it turns out.

rockytop

Well, now that we got the big-uns figured out, I' ll just go kill me a mess of big bucks this year Darn good strategy rack attack, you get a little closer to the beds than I do but we' re in the same ballpark. My hunting area is limited so I don' t like to go busting right in the beds but I try to get them coming off or on the bedding area depending on the wind. Like you said, Rack, it' s easy to screw a place up and I don' t have that many to screw with.

buckshot47

If you have alot of white oaks try fertalizing certian trees. We have found that deer seem to prefer acorns from the fertalized treesmay give you the small advantage that you need