New York Mast Crops

[Izzy]

I have noticed some of the red oak in my area are heavily laden with acorns so Im thinking this is gonna be a good year for hunting oak ridges.I dont have a lot of beech trees around here but for those of you who do, what have you seen of them?I will be hunting some areas with a lot of beech trees but wont be checking on them until August.
                     Thanks,Izzy

[NYRON]

Here in the Finger Lakes, production of both hard and soft mast seem to be excellent this year. My apple trees are loaded and the red oaks seem to be coming on nicely too.

It should be a year of plenty for both deer and hunters.

Ron

[geno]

Funny, I was going to start a thread on this same thing..Here in MO. the mast crop is so thick the trees Oak, Hickory, Persimon, Wild plum, have already droped a lot of their crop and they are still more full than I have ever seen..No need to hunt fields this yr.Oh yea my place in southern MO. has enough rasberries to feed an army.

[Stone Knife]

It looks like the beech are doing good around here, that is compared to last season when we had no beechnuts at all.

[Keith Deters]

Beechnuts are always spotty.  Even in good years, some trees are better than others.

The hickories near one of my areas are loaded.  Come on squirrel season....

[adkmountainken]

i will be in the woods this weekend to check on the beech. HEAVY apples and hickory, not sure about the acorns yet but i see alot of squrriel cuttings in the road so they must be after them.

[philil]

I thought red oak acorns hung on the trees for two years before they fall down?

Anyone else heard of that?

[sweet old bill]

Is the red oak way down on the list for deer eating...

I know that white oak is on the top of the list, but was told years ago that red oak the deer would leave alone as it was very sour taste to the deer.

I see lots of both the mast and wild apples are on the trees.

[sweet old bill]

[Stone Knife]

Bill in some spots were I live there are white oak, but right in my area there are none red oak is king. I have had people tell me that red oak acorns are only good for chipmunk food, all I can say to that is deer must like chipmunks because I have killed a lot of deer under red oaks.

[Jerry Jeffer]

There is a difference between what deer prefer, and what they will eat. Red oak do take two years to produce the acorn, but the second year is when you see the nut. I have hunted oak flats that were almost all red oak. I could hear the deer coming from them chomping on the acorns. Any way, I have not noticed anything significant around here yet.

[Izzy]

In my experience white oak are definately preferred but deer do chow on red when the white are not available as in most of my hunting areas.Beech trees are my favorite food sources to hunt.I am going to try to grow some whites next spring to plant in Herkimer.They may not produce in my time but someone will benefit from them.

[Jerry Jeffer]

30 years before a white oak starts producing acorns.

[ishiwannabe]

I have also noticed a large mast crop on all the trees around here. I am lucky enough to have a few spots that have five or six large white oaks(surrounded by red oaks) and these spots always show heavy use.
Another thing I have noticed, a lot of very nice bucks in velvet compared to other years. Multiple sets of twins. Large numbers of poults.
Yes, it should be a very good year.

[bbassi]

Around home it doesn't seem like the acorns ever last until the season starts. There may be a few left, but we must have too many tree rats.

[Stone Knife]

Maybe you should shoot some of them Brent, their better eating than deer anyhow.    

[swampbuck]

Brent does bait and shoot them LOL oops I mean he shoots them outta the bird feeder.As for tasting better than deer I guess that'd be up to the individual I'll take the deer meat over the cleaning process of squirrel's which isn't bad if their still warm but they hold their skin pretty good when cold

[larry]

Herk, look into sawtooth oaks, they say they start to produce mast in 7-9 years. supposed to grow in this climate, I planted some a few years back from acorns, but the squirrels dug them all up and ate them.  :(