Finding the "hot" tree

So what exactly are you looking for when scouting just any tree where deer are hitting? Also how long would you say a tree normally stays "hot". What is your strategy to find these trees. And is there any way to tell which white oaks will drop first?

I look for the one with the most/freshest buck sign under it. I don't have any desire to shoot a doe, so I don't waste my time on doe sign that time of year in my area.

I check all the oak trees I can find. any oak within a few hundred yards of a thicket gets checked if i can
I'm looking for alot of track, ground tore up and droppings. the tree usually drops for about a week I'm guessing. I seem to find them once they are about done for some reason. Idk how to tell which will stop first but if I can find one that's loaded and it's the only one in the area then I can just about bet it will be a hot tree when it starts

It's a lot easier to find a hot tree if you're hunting a place that doesn't have many oaks. In that scenario I typically just walk the smz with a climber on my back til I find one that's being hit hard. Several piles of poop is what I'm looking for.

On places that have a lot of oaks. I try to key in on pinch points in the vicinity rather than one tree specifically.

I have yet to ever find a "hot" tree. I know what to look for, just haven't come across one (as far as I know).

When you find that sure enough hot tree, you'll know it. The whole drip line area around the tree will be torn up with acorn husks and deer crap everywhere. I've never seen any evidence of a certain tree dropping earlier than others on a consistent basis. I'll go into an area with my climber on my back and look for a feed tree and climb when I find it. If you're ever lucky enough to find that one tree that is dropping before all of the others, you'll get a chance at one.

I slipped into a section of hardwoods with my climber on Oct. 21, 2013 at about 12:30pm to check some white oaks. The the ground around the first white oak I checked was torn slap up. I climbed another white oak about 25 yards up the ridge. There was a cutover about 300 yards up the ridge behind where I set up. At about 3pm I had one come in and get about 35 yards from me, but never could tell what it was. At 5:05 I heard something to my right and saw a buck coming down the ridge to my right from the cutover. I stood up and got ready. He was checking every white oak on the other ridge for acorns. Evidently, there were none because he turned and made a beeline straight to that oak in front of me. I shot him at 28 yards. He wound up being a 13pt.



The next season Emmett was hunting on the ridge that my 13pt. first came down over two oaks that were dropping and got this 8pt.



Every season since there has been an overload of white oaks dropping. When this happens you almost never find that one special tree.

That's 2 really nice bucks.

shaw , that is two nice bucks! and a " HOT" oak tree is one that is dropping acorns, and deer have found it ,and the droppings indicate that deer are feeding on the acorns. you need to hunt it mornings and afternoons , you never know when the deer are coming, but you can bet that they are coming!!

Got this one 2 days after Emmett got his. Shot this one on another ridge 200 yards from where Emmett shot his and 90 yards from where I shot the 13pt.

You and Emmett have definitely put the hurting on them.

If I'm not mistaken, I killed a buck the same morning you killed this buck. Must of been a good morning.

Hopefully this year there wont be such a bumper crop as last year. It was hard to pattern them last year on our lease.

Yep. Me and some others were doing a LFTT thread that morning. Something spooked some turkeys down in the bottom and a damn gobbler flew in and nearly landed in my lap.

Shaw it looks like you found the right tree to me!
Certainly the right area!

It’s fine to find the “hot” tree but, what you need to consider is how quickly that tree can be passed up when acorns from another tree start dropping. It happened to me last year. I hung a stand over what I thought was the hottest spot on our property 5 days before the season. Opening morning and for a few weeks after that I didn’t see a single deer other than a spike about 80 yards away. A couple tips I would give is 1) hunt the terrain when there are a lot of acorns. That means, hunt funnels and saddles where they can move easily. Get a topo map of your property and find spots you know they won’t move and set up on spots they will. The point with that is narrowing down the places they’ll be. 2) Stay mobile. The mistake I made was hanging an early season stand and having that stand as my early season go to. Had I been able to hunt that stand the same day I hung it, I would have left the woods with a deer.

I remember you posting those. Very cool.