Oaks

[nhbuck1]

What should I do if I have mostly red oaks on my property? Am I hunting the wrong area? How can I find the whites?

[Mitch Edwards]

I've seen a lot of deer eat red oak acorns. If that's what you got hunt them. Any acorn is better than none

[nhbuck1]

Weird there's a ton in my stand wasent one deer last night around, very odd to me

[Sam McMichael]

While they may prefer white oak acorns, they will certainly eat the reds. Hunt over them.

[A.S.]

they will eat the red oak acorns IF they don't have something they prefer more.

On the property I hunt, they will hit the white oaks first (if there is a crop of them), then hit the reds afterwards.

If they aren't hitting your reds, perhaps they are feeding elsewhere right now.

[Marc B.]

I've killed several deer over red oaks, if that's what they have they'll eat them.

[woodchucker]

Whites are sweeter tasting... The Reds are more bitter. They will eat the Whites first, sometimes traveling miles to find them. Whites "normaly" develope a good drop every 2 years, as opposed to every year, like Red Oaks. However, each individual tree is different and one may develope a good crop, where one only yards away may have none?! No need to worry though, when the Whites are gone, they will quickly find and clean up the Reds!!!

[nhbuck1]

How far can I expect the whites to be from reds?

[Zwickey-Fever]

They grow, or can grow side by side,,,spike them with Jobe's fertilizer spikes every spring and late fall around the drip line and you will be amazed on how many acorns you will have. I call it my poor man food plot.
 White oak acorns are sweeter then red oak acorns. Deer will eat both. Better then white and red oaks are chestnut trees. Deer go absolutely crazy for them. I have planted nearly 30 of chestnut trees throughout my property here and plan on planting more of them. You need to plant more then one for pollination. Usually no more then 20ft from each other.

[Duncan]

Will definitely eat the red oak acorns but if there are whites close by they will eat those until gone. Then the red oaks get hit so don't give up on it. They may pay off later in season. Some years there is simply a glut of acorns and they can be difficult to pattern then.
There are several large reds within sight of my house and deer are always on it when the acorns start to drop.

[bucknut]

Have you cracked any acorns open to see if they are any good? I have killed several over reds and actually prefer them. I have seen them walk past White oaks to get to one special Red. I am referring to Northern red oaks. There are several varieties and the deer definitely have preferences.

[Bowwild]

The Woodchucker chucked some woods truth. Right on.

[Mint]

The white oaks up north have LIGHT grey bark and the leaves have round lobes. The red oaks have dark grey bark and pointy leaves.

I would scout your property and see if you have any white oaks. On long island the deer will hit the white oaks first but will eat the reds too. It all depends where they are bedding and where they want to go. Where I hunt they will feed on the oaks on there way to farms south of me to get the standing corn. But once it gets cold they really slam the oaks.

[smokin joe]

Be patient. They will come to the red oaks, but will do so later in the season after they have been feeding on the white oaks.

[maineac]

A couple of things, up here in the north we have fewer varieties of oaks, you will be dealing with basically Northern red oak,and Northern white oak.  Here in Maine we have scarlet, black and bear in the reds but they are located in very small areas mostly near the southern border.  Same for any of the whites that re not the Northern white oak. Around me on the coast whites are almost non existent because they were harvested so heavily in the 1800's for ship building.  We are having a HEAVY red oak drop around here.  Deer have to move very little to fill up, unless they have a certain stand they are preferring.  I would assume they would bed right there.  If your woods are like mine the deer don't have to travel to security cover because there is so much young growth including spruce and fir that they bed almost anywhere.We also don't have the deer densities they do further south, so you have less deer to see.

[nhbuck1]

went out and scouted today not a single white oak on the property but loaded with reds everywhere any other suggestions?

[bucknut]

Look up pics of Northern Red Oaks and seek them out. The deer seem to prefer them over the other red varieties in my experience.