White oak acorns?

[Brad6639]

I read in a magazine the other day that deer pefer white oat acorns in the early season, I have been wearing the white oak acorn scent wafers for the past couple years, but how do I find what a white oak tree looks like so I can find the acorns. They also said that the red oak acorns are bitter or sour, and that they dont liek them unless they are starving, is thsi true? Any advice for hunting over the acorns? Ill probly be using my ground blind most of the time this fall.

[revhard]

der will eat red oaks anytime, but do prefer white oaks over just about any othere food. the white oak has more of a coarse bark to it. google the image of one, it can be found really easy

[Tominator]

Red oak acorns have a higher acidity than white acorns. White oak has a rough bark and some of them look white or really pale.

White Oak bark

Red Oak below. Red oak is one of the few trees I hesitate to climb because it's pretty hard and pretty slippery.

[Brad6639]

Is the outer bark on the white oaks sort of springy, or softer? I think Ive climbed them before with my summit and liked them because they are soft and quiet to climb.

[Tominator]

Is the outer bark on the white oaks sort of springy, or softer? I think Ive climbed them before with my summit and liked them because they are soft and quiet to climb.

Ummmm, yeah, kind of. I think you maybe thinking of ash though. Ash tends to be pretty spongy. Excellent for climbing.

[MCH]

White Oaks in this area tend to have flaky bark towards the top. Meaning that the bark begins to look like it could fall off easily.

Another easy way to identify one is by its leaf.

Here's a white oak:

Notice the rounded edges.

Here's a red oak:

[rad_112176]

Great info guys. I have wondered the same thing before and nobody could really tell me exactly how to tell. Thanks.

[wtnhunt]

Yep, best way to determine the type of oak is to look at the leaves like mch posted to determine your acorns. There are several varieties of oaks and acorns. Most preferred by deer is the white oak, but they will eat others. In areas where there are an abundance of of white oaks that are producing, you might find that deer are about impossible to pattern, as they seem to kind of wander through.

[JimT]

Very good info.... I have a few white oaks marked in my gps so i never lose track of them.

[revhard]

Maybe its just the pic, but that first pic to me looks like a red oak also.. correct me if im wrong

[Tominator]

Maybe its just the pic, but that first pic to me looks like a red oak also.. correct me if im wrong

It is just the pic. White oaks, if they're big enough, will have a whitish bark to it, very light colored for sure. That's not the greatest pic of a white oak.

[Brad6639]

Now that I know what they look like, do all White oaks have acorns or do only the oldest ones? Is there any particular area they tend to prefer to grow, I hunt mostly hills and dont know where to start my search.

[MCH]

Had an old man tell me once that an oak's mast crop depends upon the amount of rain it gets in the spring and summer. From my experience, I've hunted over white oak trees that were just loaded with acorns only to come back the next year to find none.

[Guest gastj]

White oak (white, post, etc.) family have less tannins than the red oak family (red, black, etc.) Problem with the white ones is that once they fall to the ground they sprout once buried in fall within a couple weeks to month. Red oak family don't sprout till the following spring. So, white oak acorns don't lay around for very long. I hunt them early special if there appears to be a good crop of acorns. Hope this helps. Also get a good dendrology (study of trees) book for ID purposes

[Brad6639]

It would be interesting then, because we had a looooong drought and then towards the end of last month, flooding. It must have rained over a week in a row. We got over 6 inches of rain in one evening alone, and had it been snow, they said we would have had 16 feet of the stuff over the course of the week. We have had some spontaious weather to say the least.

[Guest realtrhunter]

Brad,

What type of area are you hunting? Upland, Bottomland? Let me know and I'll send you info about the type of trees that should be around. The area makes a difference because of the different subspecies of the red and white oak families.

[Leo]

Regardless of what kind of oak tree you are hunting near, you can absolutely take this to the bank.

Deer concentrate on the trees that are currently dropping acorns. If you can hear the acorns falling from your stand you are hunting it at the right time.

[rad_112176]

I have heard from numerous people that there is going to be a horrible acorn crop this year. Partially due to the late frost we got this year that killed off most plants and then with the little rain that we received through out the summer. I am going this weekend to try and find some trees with acorns and mark them on the GPS.

[Tominator]

Now that I know what they look like, do all White oaks have acorns or do only the oldest ones? Is there any particular area they tend to prefer to grow, I hunt mostly hills and dont know where to start my search.

Many a botanist has studied mast crops, and there really is no definitive answer as to why a mast is heavy one year and almost non-existant the next. There are many theories on the subject like rainfall, past masts, spring freezes, etc. but there is no one explanation or formula for predicting a mast crop.

I have found white oaks all over the place, I don't know that there is a rhyme or reason for where they occur either.

[rhine16]

I have heard from numerous people that there is going to be a horrible acorn crop this year. Partially due to the late frost we got this year that killed off most plants and then with the little rain that we received through out the summer. .

I've heard the same here, but all the oak trees are completely loaded.

[Smitteken]

I think the late frost hammered our acorns. The last two years have been a bumper crop, but the trees this year are bare. Its going to make early season kind of tricky. I guess I'll concentrate on crop fields and staging areas.

[Guest realtrhunter]

After confering with others here we decided that the largest picture that was cited as a red oak is in fact a Pin Oak.

The cycle of having large or small crops of acorns is now almost entirely recognized as being dependent on frost, water amounts and disease factors. The other reason is that oak trees cycle with large and small crops is to limit stress that the tree must undergo. It takes a very large amount of energy for a tree to produce acorns, therfore limiting its amount of growth and resistance to disease in large crop years. The off years are in place so that the tree can restore large amounts of energy for the next years crop and for growth.