What type of oak is this? I figure it's in the red family but don't know specifically what kind it is. Went to check on a property and these are dropping like crazy. About half of the acorns dropping aren't ripe.

chestnut oak

yes...

Cald oak

More specifically what we call a Mountain (Chestnut) oak. I prefer just "mountain oak". So it won't be confused with a swamp chestnut (swamp white oak). Deer love swamp chestnut acorns. They may eat the mountain oaks, but they don't like them. I've seen places with decent deer populations and you could roller skate on mountain oak acorns, with no deer sign at all.

Chestnut Oaks are in the white oak family.

BTW, the leaves and acorns look correct for a Chestnut Oak , but the bark does not look like Chestnut Oak that grows in our area.

Mountain oak is what I call them. Deer will eat them when they are the only thing around, but they get the "bitter beer face" when they do. Won't be worth a flip once other acorns start falling.

Yeah they are too hoppy for most of these Bama Bucks, they prefer the watered down pilsner white oak.

Thanks guys.

They won't eat the ones on our property even after all the oaks drop. They just rot.

I agree. Same here.

Its a Mountain Oak. this will be the last acorns deer will mop up and usually in late season unless you have hogs and they'll be gone when they hit the ground

Chestnut Oak is the proper name, Mountain Oak is hillbilly slang.

Don't overlook them early. You can kill you some deer on them if you hunt them before the white oaks start falling. Good luck.

Either a Swamp Chestnut Oak (Quercus michauxii) or a Chestnut Oak (Quercus montana). Hard to tell apart, some say they are the same tree. White oak family. Excellent mast.

Mountain chesnut acurns rot and sour fast on the ground not to mention high tannin levels. Seen deer walk plum over piles uvem. Swamp chesnut or cow oak as i callsem is another animal. Bark looks just like a white oak but they got cheanut oak leaves. Leaves look similar but you stand the 2 side by side an there easy to tell apart. Cow oak is my #1 go to oak tree, deer love them and call me crazy but the tannin levels in them is so low that when they turn brown on the limb just a touch and then fall you can just about eat the suckers, taste bout like an almond.

Had a few of those on our farm before timber was cut. Pretty looking acorns, but deer never ate them.

The tree in the pic is a chestnut oak (Q. montana). The leaves look similair to a swamp chestnut, but that is the end of the similarities. Bark and acorns are completely different.

Chestnut oak acorns have lots of tannins in them which make them very bitter. Unless there is absolutely nothing else to eat, they will lay there until they rot. Hogs will even pass them up if that tells you anything.

This, and yes deer will eat them and so do turkey's, as a last resort. There just happens to be millions of them in the mountains and that's where deer densities are at their lowest, unless there has been some logging operations. Huge open hardwoods can be like a desert to whitetails in the winter, not much food after the good acorns are gone.