ACORNS, ACORNS, ACORNS

Despite a fairly normal start to the season, the name of the game right now is ACORNS. With an unusually large crop of acorns, whitetails seem to be making their transitions to the woods a lot earlier than expected. The 15th through the 18th, the bucks still seemed to be in their normal summer feeding patterns hitting ag fields and food plots. That has seemingly halted in most of the upper portions of Missouri, Southern Iowa and Northern and Western Illinois, just before the arrival of the cold front on the 21st.

INDUSTRY INSIGHT:
Even Midwest Whitetail has reported that their cameras are basically non-existent with bucks in their typical areas and on their field edge cams. They along with many other TV Hosts have moved their cameras in to the wooded areas with known acorn crops.

ADVICE:
Move cameras to into wooded areas that are not too invasive, especially areas within known oak stands that produce acorn crops. Most of these well visited areas should start to produce small scrapes, so become as scent free as possible before entering these areas. Continue to place secondary cams on well traveled or visited field edges just to gauge frequency of buck activity in those areas. Hunting field edges may still produce some activity as there is still a lot of ag crops in, however, the dominant activity definitely points to in the woods. Hunt stands within the woods, making sure not to enter bedding areas or invasive habitat, as the season is still very early. Don’t be discouraged when hunts do not produce a lot of deer activity in your area. Deer on acorns are browsing and browse deer are typically very tough to pattern. Still, the name of the game is acorns and you should be hunting where the acorns are.