sskybnd Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 i was reading an artical in the whitetail wisdom book, and they were talking about early season hunting deer around the soft mast, ive never hunt but the acorn mast, i dont think we have any soft mast still around by oct, just wondering if any one hunts the soft mast and what they hunt by, if you live in the south and you do, maybe you can tell me what to look for in the area of soft mast, we have very few apple trees around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebohio Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 The Wildlife Group - Soft Mast Plants Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Depends on what you have around, not too much a deer won't eat but some fruits seem to be like candy to deer. Some persimmons around on our property but we really don't have very many mature trees that produce(the few marture trees we have that flower are too far from each other), deer hit them pretty good where there are trees that drop fruit. I know of a farm up the road where there are or were some mature persimmons, real good draw. Only persimmon trees on our farm that produce any fruit are small trees. Deer love crabapples if you have any around, used to get deer under our crabapple tree in our front yard back before we had dogs loose outside. We used to have pear trees here and the deer hit the pears in the yard too and during daylight, unfortunately fireblight killed all our pear trees. If I was planting fruit trees for deer I would probably go with crabapples and pears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sskybnd Posted June 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 my friend has 2 pear trees loaded down with them, think if they make it from the birds and squerrls might be worth thowing some on the ground, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 my friend has 2 pear trees loaded down with them, think if they make it from the birds and squerrls might be worth thowing some on the ground, To hunt over or to get deer in front of a camera? Would check your regs to see it is ok, might constitute baiting depending on your regs. If it is legal where you are, would not see where it would be a problem, pretty sure deer would eat the pears once they found them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 I have three persimmon trees in my yard. They produce just as hunting season gets going good. I throw them out at the lease and the deer have them gone within a day. The area I hunt in Colorado has apple trees and the mulies love them. Find a tree and you'll usually find a few mulies laying near by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 About the only soft mast trees I'll hunt are honey locust trees. Deer love them down here as long as they are still moist inside the pod. Another plus for them is there aren't many critters that compete with the deer for those bean pods. We have a fair number of persimmon trees too but I basically quit trying to hunt them years ago. Why? Just about every critter in the woods here competes for the fruit. Coons will climb the trees to get to the fruit. It's also common here for armadillos to munch down on their fair share of persimmons too. Muscadine grap vines are virtually played out before the season opens here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 Muscadine grap vines are virtually played out before the season opens here. Will deer eat muscadines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 Will deer eat muscadines? They sure do here...only problem is they start dropping around the 1st of September here. By the time the season starts there's non left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 I have muscadines in my yard also, reckon if I picked some and froze them til season the deer would still eat them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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