Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting This year's acorn crop?

What are you guys seeing so far?

Had a mess to clean up yesterday morning after two big white oak limbs fell in the yard overnight. Sounded about like a whole tree falling out there. When I checked it out, the limbs looked fine, but were absolutely dripping with acorns. Picked up six buckets worth that were just lying on the ground. I'm wondering if our wet summer is going to mean a bumper crop down here. We had about 26" of rain at my place in July and August.

Real dry until recently, don’t know if we will have much of a crop. I hope not

Big acorn years make tougher hunting here, in general.

What's an acorn? 😏

Fair point....lol. My wife was born in Oregon and grew up with northern parents. I had to remind her yesterday that they are aye-kerns, not aye-corns, when you live in Looz-iana (not Louise-iana).

I grew up in northern MN, so it took a while for the shock of so few trees to wear off when I moved here. Pretty much the only places to see a tree is along a river/creek, or in town. The rest have all been cleared for crop acreage.

Decent crop on my property in SWVA.

What you are showing resembles last year up this way.
I slipped into the white oak stand one day about this time last year to find limbs scattered all over the ground where bears had been in the trees stripping the nuts off.

Gypsy worms have been peeling off the leaves of my oaks for 3 years now.

No acorns and started logging off dead trees to days ago.

Same here until a little later in the season. Food plots don’t get hit too much until the acorns are gone or souring.

Big oak in the yard is dropping tons.

Haven't checked the hunting spots yet. Do that when I bush hog next weekend.

Probably set a stand close to a couple of big oaks and see what early season brings.

Acorn crop looking weak in PA this year.

Tons of them around here right now.

Central Maine is loaded. We don't have oak here.

After having virtually no acorn crop in North Louisiana last year, I'm glad to see it will be a banner year this year!! All the pigs I killed in December had hardly any fat on them. My uncle in Mississippi is saying that his oaks are loaded also.

Should be good hunting the ridges in central Maine this fall then.

We're loaded with acorns, persimmons and muscadines. Going to be a good year for the deer.

Haven't found a good oak nut yet this year--- all the fallen ones-- been attacked by the weevils

Here in SE Kansas I've seen almost a half inch of rain since late June. The corn burnt up, soybeans are being baled all over. The oak and walnut trees in the yard are pretty bare. 10 day forecast is all sunshine.

Serious question: what do you do with 30 gallons of acorns?

Looks like a good year down here. Hog and deer hunting should be good. But I never bothered to pick any up.

I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with them, but it wasn’t much effort to rake them into piles and shovel them up. I’ll likely put out a few piles in front of my game cameras and see how they do versus corn. Might also do a little research on planting some along the edge of my field and see if they come up.

We say aye-kerns here. I here somebody say aye-corns, and I'm like hmmm.

It looks like we are on a good crop this year here.

The acorn crop is always a huge factor in our success. Our place has some substantial oaks. If the crop is good, the deer tend to stay in the woods and gorge all night, and we hardly see them in the fields or during the day. Last year was like that. Judging from what's on the trees, this year could be the same.

The biggest crop I can remember happened in 2006. That year, the acorns were still dropping on the Rifle Opener in mid-November. I had a new stand set up near a massive oak. I was still bow hunting back then. Along about mid-October, I was on my way to this stand one morning when my flashlight fell on a bunch of deer rumps. There were half a dozen doe chowing down right at the ladder, and gobs more scattered between my stand and the old oak. I expected them to bolt, but they did not even look up. They were so intent on eating, they completely ignored me. I had to push past them to get to my ladder. I managed to get all the way up, and get settled in without disturbing them. Finally, just before legal hunting, they moved off.

The good side of the bumper acorn crop this year is the turkeys had a decent hatch, and I'm now seeing lots of jakes and jennys out in the fields. The excess of acorns will keep them fed over the winter.

Same here.

It couldn't hurt to plant them, but they may not be developed enough to be viable.

I'll let you know.

I'm curious about that as well.

Put a few in some sphagnum moss, slightly moist. If they're good, they'll develop a root radicle soon.

Haven’t been out yet, but if the shumard in my yard is any indication, it should be a good year. Last year was pretty good. My local WMA is on the West slope of the Blue Ridge and somewhat higher than here, so frost damage can happen there but not here, five miles away.

Oaks were loaded last year especially white oaks. Looks pretty sparse this year. NW GA.

We don't have shumards here in NW-PA, but I planted a couple dozen shumard x northern red hybrids. Hope to get some later drop times out of them.

They don’t seem all that tasty to the herd of squirrels in my yard. The drops stay on the ground a long time. The rodents much prefer the black cherries, my sunflowers and peaches, and the birdseed I put out, plus the peanuts I toss to them when they come up on my deck while I’m drinking coffee. If I’m not out, they sometimes come to the door and look in. One younger bluejay will sit in the tree next to the deck and squawk until I come out and toss a few.

A bunch of us were talking about this the other day when we were shooting sporting clays. We were standing under a white oak and the ground was covered. The one thing that we noted was that they were small. Maybe because it was so dry this Summer?

Bow season opened yesterday here. My son and I are headed out to the farm where we hunt this afternoon to check on the ladder stands and blaze some trails. All of my stands are in the middle of several oaks. I'll check out the acorn crop while I'm there today. We always do good on acorn years. Those oak trees are like a magnet for deer. Good times when the acorns are falling.

Hundreds of pounds of the things in my yard this year and still falling like rain. One of my better investments has been a Bear Cat lawn vacuum because raking all those acorns would be a real chore. Kind of a shame to landfill all those, but that’s where they are headed in a week or so.

Western Maine is going to suck for acorns. Gypsy moth really got hold of a lot of oak in Oxford County. Complete defoliation in parts.

Ours haven’t started dropping yet around here but it’s probably going to be pretty soon. Looks like it’s going to be a big crop.

10-4. Thanks for answering.

I'd be curious to hear how that goes.

Down here in SC, mast crop makes a big difference. Last year, we could barely find any acorns, deer hunting was rough, and the pigs were elsewhere. This year, the oaks look pretty loaded, and I'm optimistic. I hunt public land and have learned acorn crop directly correlates to how the hunting goes. I still hunt the hardwood--oak, hickory, and pecan--spots. Good years, it's fat pickings. Other years, you have to get creative.

(On my property, we watch the pecan cycle. This year is looking good there too.)

Went to my mature white oak hot spot yesterday evening, pile upon pile of very large deer droppings along with multiple piles of bear scat everywhere around the trees.

Fair to middlin here. The Sawtooths are more caps than nuts. Been a dry summer. In my area.

I dumped out a half bucket of acorns and a little rice bran midday on Wednesday in front of two cameras. Hit them with a little fruit syrup on top. Didn't take long for them to be found.

Trees are loaded in va.

None on the Red Oaks, White Oaks or Live Oaks at my place.

Up there in the redneck part of Louisiana.

It's like this all over the place in our white oak grove;

Still haven’t started dropping here yet. When they do start dropping they make a heckuva racket hitting the cars and the bed of my pickup.

This was the year for a bumper crop up here in the Midwest. Seven white oaks in my yard filled my 5x8’ utility trailer 10” high twice and I’m not done with them yet. I wish there was a market for these things instead of the local landfill.

Great pics J, Our crop looks really good and it definitely makes for tougher hunting. The deer run around all night like vacuum cleaners sucking up acorns.

It's been a very dry year especially during the the summer, I'm headed tomorrow to glass some trees, and set out a few blinds...

Just got back from placing a stand on my WMA. White oak acorns are conspicuous by their absence. In a good year like last, walking up the trail is hazardous, like walking on marbles. Did see some red oak. No bino so I couldn’t check aloft. No deer or bear poop to be seen either. Stayed away from some areas that were good last year as I want to hunt those soon.

Yesterday I heard the first white oak acorns hitting my truck. Bow season started today.

Acorns are falling by the wheelbarrow full here. I have one large oak that is difficult to walk past right now. A bunch of birds have been up in it and knocking a bunch out and it's like trying to walk on marbles.

What kind of oak and what area / zone are you in?

Not much to report from VT