Anyone home????

[Tom W.]

It's mighty quiet here... did anyone get to turkey hunt?

Or are you all geared up to go fishing?

[Graybeard]

My shortness of breath makes climbing those hills about impossible for me. I've not been turkey hunting in several years now. As for fishing I'm waiting on those new ones we've tossed into the new pond to grow big enough. Then we'll be doing a LOT of fishing.

This forum has always been a slow one. We've got a LOT of Bama folks who use the forums but for some reason not many who want to post to a state specific forum. I keep hoping some day it will take off but so far it never has.

[Almtnman]

I missed out on hunting this past season and haven't had a place to hunt for the last couple of years. So I've been checking around and now have 3 private properties that I will be able to hunt next season, a 33 acre plot, 60 acre plot and a 100 acre plot. They are in different areas but not far from me and not far from each other. I'm thinking the 100 acre plot might turn out good as it has a creek running through the middle of it and deer love to run creek banks. I've got to go scout it out sometime soon. I already checked out the 33 acres and it's loaded with white oak trees, but the freeze we had has wiped out the acorn crop for this year. Guess I'll have to fertilize the honey suckle patches heavy.

[Graybeard]

The freeze should have affected ONLY the white oak crop NOT the red oak crop. So you need to be finding some red oaks that will be dropping as they will be pulling the deer in the absence of white oak acorns.

[Almtnman]

Thanks Bill, I didn't know that about the red oak crop. I do know that they also seem to like acorns from the blackjack oak tree. I sat on the side of a hill once and watched 11 deer in one herd browse on blackjack acorns for a half hour or so. Most of the oak trees around here in the mountain areas are the mountain oaks or turkey oaks as some people call them. Great big acorns that the deer just won't eat at all that I know of.

[Graybeard]

Red oak acorns take two years to form and drop unlike white oak acorns that form and drop in one year. Thus those acorns formed last year will be dropping this year and because they were able to take the winter fine they will not have been bothered by the late frosts and freezes this spring.

Deer definitely prefer acorns from white oaks but will eat those red oak acorns if that's all there is.

I'm not familiar with what you're calling a mountain oak. I do recall seeing some few trees that are I think properly called turkey oak from the shape of their leaves looking much like a turkey's track as I recall.

When you gonna be ready to go ride around and look over CWMA?

[Almtnman]

The mountain oaks usually grow on sides and tops of mountains like we have around here. They have very large acorns about an inch to inch and half long. I have a tree manual downstairs and could probably describe it better reading from there. The bark on these oaks has large grooves and deep bark. If you see one, you'll always recognize it from way off.

I would like to ride around the CWMA area if I could find some time. I've got to scout out the 100 acres that I have been given permission to hunt. I'm staying kind of busy helping out at the church with different things right now. I want to go with you over there and look the place over though when I can get some extra time to go.

[Almtnman]

I looked the oak tree up in my manual and I think the one I'm refering to is called a Chinkapin oak.

[mbp708]

If you are talking about the same mountain oak we have, the leaves are the same as a chestnut. Not to be confused with a swamp chestnut(which is in the white oak family) which has the same leaves but the bark looks like a white oak. Deer here will eat both but they prefer the swamp chestnut over the white oak. Mike

[Almtnman]

If you are talking about the same mountain oak we have, the leaves are the same as a chestnut. Not to be confused with a swamp chestnut(which is in the white oak family) which has the same leaves but the bark looks like a white oak. Deer here will eat both but they prefer the swamp chestnut over the white oak. Mike

That sounds like the same oak that I call a mountain oak. I notice that the deer around here won't have much to do with the big acorns that it produces though.

[mbp708]

Kinda strange some of the mountain oak acorns they eat as soon as they hit the ground but some lay there all season or until the hogs find 'em.