What’s the feed?

[Ringbill27]

Morning all,

Hunting in northeastern MN public land and the land consists of aspen regeneration, pine stands, clear cuts and swamps (cattail, spruce/tamarack, or Alder/willow). Mostly thick cover.

There is no AG or acorns. I’m struggling to figure out what they are eating and use that to locate them.

When you don’t have AG or acorns what do you look for when looking for the feeds?

PS. The land I’m looking to hunt is not the land from my previous post. I swear I’m not a newb. This land is just different from everything I’ve hunted in the past.

 

[Ditt44]

Browse. What other trees are in the area? I hunted for a number of years in north central PA, Potter County. The lease we had was about 1,700 acres of mostly Beech, some hemlock/pines and maples. Not an Oak to be found as they were all timbered out decades ago. The deer would eat the tiny Beech nuts. You were lucky to even see an actual squirrel. Turkey numbers were decent though but they had a much more diverse choice for food.

A few areas had been clear cut several years earlier and the regen was so thick you couldn't fall down in most of it. The best way through that stuff were the bear 'tunnels'. A few open areas were being slowly turned into food plots but the soil was awful.

The deer up there chewed on the young browse and I suppose whatever greens they found attractive. Decent herd numbers but the total lack of Oak trees was really hard on me to adjust to. I grew up hunting tight hollows littered with various Oaks and your problem there was that the Oaks were everywhere

 

[Ringbill27]

Browse. What other trees are in the area?

The trees in the area consist of the following
Aspen/poplar
Birch
Maple - mostly red
Balsam fir
Pine - Red, White and Jack
Spruce - White and Black
Tamarack
Ash - green and black

No oaks or beech

It’s a small sample size but a large portion of the woods up here look like the picture below.

 

[Ringbill27]

I grew up hunting tight hollows littered with various Oaks and your problem there was that the Oaks were everywhere

I’ve been hunting large oak forests for a majority of my deer hunting career. This year I have the opportunity to hunt close to home during the week and I’m looking to make the most of my season.

 

[LostArra]

Forbs (aka broad leaf weeds), greenbriar, poison ivy? I used to always spray poison ivy until I realized it can be a deer magnet.

 

[wind gypsy]

https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/gtr/gtr_nc065.pdf

 

[Ringbill27]

Forbs (aka broad leaf weeds), greenbriar, poison ivy? I used to always spray poison ivy until I realized it can be a deer magnet.

You aren’t going to believe this but poison ivy is almost none existent up here.

 

[wind gypsy]

Can be pretty tough up there. They seem to walk all over browsing on stuff in every direction. Clear cuts or openings offer more opportunities for stuff at browse height with early secessional growth.

 

[Macintosh]

Sounds like a big salad bowl. Ash shoots are deer candy. Red maple is almost as good. Poplar shoots can also be really good. Birch is good. Deer will browse all of these, sometimes heavily.
If the deer are eating pine and spruce you have a problem. But they like to hide in it.
Beech nuts as mentioned can be a huge draw, but not consistent and very seasonal.
You didnt mention, but other stuff maybe in the area is shrubs and trees like witchhazel, dogwoods, blackberry and raspberry, etc. ther’ll be some forbes and shrubby plants the deer eat, do some Google searches for “top deer food sources”to id what you can find there and see what is getting browsed. you could do worse than to find a clearcut in the area and look at the regenerating plants and see what is being browsed, keeping in mind itll change thru the season. Low deer density it wont be heavy but you should find some browse activity. Its all but impossible to pattern deer in areas like that (at least for me) so you really have to be aware of food but hunt sign and terrain and vegetation transitions as much or more than food, because food is pretty evenly distributed everywhere.

This could be helpful: https://deerassociation.com/know-your-native-deer-foods/

 

[Beagle1]

If it’s green and below shoulder height the deer will be eating it. I would concentrate on any pockets in the woods that get extra sunlight. The green growth there should be noticeable.

 

[Wolfshead]

Buckthorn
Red-osier dogwood
Raspberry/blackberry/briars
Maples

 

[sconnieVLP]

Sounds like they have good bedding cover availability and no destination food source. In that case, I’d probably start focusing on terrain features and edges to find the common travel routes rather than try to find a needle in a haystack of what they are feeding on any given day.

Look for anywhere that multiple types of cover converge, can be a hard edge (fresh clear cut meets old growth) or a soft edge (two types of cover meet, ie deciduous hits pines or similar). You’ll probably find sign along those edges, then either sit some of those trails and observe or hang some cameras to figure out how often they are using it.

Same for terrain, find some terrain funnels that are naturally going to consolidate movement. Set your line intervals as low as they can go or go into 3D mode and exaggerate the terrain in OnX. The lidar layer in Spartan Forge has been really helpful for this as well, allows for a really good look at what’s under the canopy.

 

[Ditt44]

Lots of great input! I think my experiences in 'new' areas lacking both mast trees and crop fields really means you are hunting terrain more than what's growing on it, in many ways.

What sconnieVLP said... Natural funnels, multiple little 'hollows' where they merge, water sources, finding bedding areas etc. When a deer can pretty much stand up from it's bed and eat, like my time in northern PA, it makes you work harder finding those natural areas and any transitions from cover to cover.