Tips & Tactics

Know Your Nuts

Know Your Nuts

By Ken Piper

Acorns are not like wine, and white is definitely better than red.

Acorns are one of the white-tailed deer’s favorite foods, but getting a buck isn’t as simple as finding an oak tree and setting an egg timer until a bruiser walks in.

There are several different types of oaks, and the subtle differences are important. Deer prefer white oak acorns, which taste sweeter than their red oak acorn cousins. While it takes two years for a red oak acorn to mature, the trees still produce nuts every year since not all the acorns started growing in the same year.

Acorn production varies greatly from year to year, depending on factors such as rain and heat. The most effective time to hunt near a good white oak tree is in a poor mast year – a year when there aren’t many acorns in the woods. The fewer acorns that are out there, the better chance you have of concentrating deer near a producing white oak.

Finally, if you need help telling the different oaks apart, look at the leaves. Red and white oak leaves are similar, but they have differences that will allow you to make an immediate identification. Both are lobed, but the tips of red oaks are sharp and pointy, while white oak leaves are rounded and smooth. Also, the lobes of a white oak leaf will be very uniform in size all around the leaf, which can help you set it apart from bur oaks and post oaks, which have enlarged lobe(s) at the end of the leaf.

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Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd