Strange observation

[Jeff Roark]

Today while still hunting I made what I think may be a strange observation. It may just be coincidence, but what I noticed today is where there are squirrels, there is deer and deer activity.

I awoke a little late this morning and just decided to walk up the point in front of the house here and just see if there was any activity. I hadn't been in the woods 10 minutes and two does came down the ridge directly at me. I just froze and let them pass on by after a 25 minute stand off! While I was in the stand off the squirrels were running all over the place. I continued on and where there was squirrels, there were sign of deer. Once I started seeing fewer and fewer squirrels I noticed there wasn't hardly any deer sign. It made me stop and wander if there is hot squirrel activity it may also be the place for hot deer activity.

I was thinking it may be the food source, as I was on a white oak stand and when I moved out of it into the big beech stands I seen hardly any signs of life.Do you guys think there could be anything to this? It may just be an inexperienced woodsman thinking a little too hard!

[Jeff Roark]

oh yeah...Today I also heard for the first time really aggressive grunting. It was like a really heavy loud grunt. I heard several softer grunts along with the two really loud blasts. I was really pleased to get to hear this.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I guess maybe I take too much for granted, but I used to say I was going squirrel hunting for deer.
My father, uncles, and grandfather taught me this when I was just a pup years ago. Where you find squirrels you will find hard and soft mast....acorns, beech nuts, hickory nuts, persimmons, ect.
They basically all eat the same food, turkeys also. Turkeys love acorns and other hard mast that they can swallow easily to be ground up in their gizzard, but they are also where the biggest, juiciest grass hoppers are.

I'm glad you made the connection, and sorry that nobody ever clued you in on that.
Although it doesn't always mean that just because there are a ton of squirrels in an area that there are also a ton of deer, but it's a good place to take a closer look around and it sounds like you did just that.

A good solid indicator that deer are actively feeding in that particular area is droppings. Where you find lots of piles of milk duds is where you are almost guaranteed to see deer. Also look for deer beds nearby. Remember to move with the food if you have enough ground to do so. One day they may be working an oak ridge, then 4days to a week later they may be working a cut soybean field, then a month later they may be hitting the clover fields. You need to be able to move with the food to stay on them.

Good Luck!

[DannyBows]

SEMO_HUNTER said it perfectly.

[Jeff Roark]

Originally posted by SEMO_HUNTER:
I guess maybe I take too much for granted, but I used to say I was going squirrel hunting for deer.
My father, uncles, and grandfather taught me this when I was just a pup years ago. Where you find squirrels you will find hard and soft mast....acorns, beech nuts, hickory nuts, persimmons, ect.
They basically all eat the same food, turkeys also. Turkeys love acorns and other hard mast that they can swallow easily to be ground up in their gizzard, but they are also where the biggest, juiciest grass hoppers are.

I'm glad you made the connection, and sorry that nobody ever clued you in on that.
Although it doesn't always mean that just because there are a ton of squirrels in an area that there are also a ton of deer, but it's a good place to take a closer look around and it sounds like you did just that.

A good solid indicator that deer are actively feeding in that particular area is droppings. Where you find lots of piles of milk duds is where you are almost guaranteed to see deer. Also look for deer beds nearby. Remember to move with the food if you have enough ground to do so. One day they may be working an oak ridge, then 4days to a week later they may be working a cut soybean field, then a month later they may be hitting the clover fields. You need to be able to move with the food to stay on them.

Good Luck!

Well, I guess I did make a good observation. This morning it looked like there had been hogs in there. I also know that 2 or 3 deer can make a gob of sign in a short period of time. Over the next few weeks I'm going to really apply some pressure to those squirrels in that area!

and SEMO, you should not take that for granted. I never really had anyone to show me much about the woods. Also, being away from hunting for nearly 20 years I have forgot many of the things I learned on my own as a youngun about the woods.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I'm still learning Jeff and it's been nearly 30 years since I took my first deer. I'm amazed at some things I witness while I'm out there and think to myself how strange that is that I never heard or saw that before.
This year when I killed my coyote with my Bear Grizzly, it was eating a opposum that it had just killed, I had no idea they would eat those?

Best thing we can do to make us better hunters/woodsmen is to observe and pay attention.