Hunt the falling leaves!
Whitetail Deer
Contributors to this thread:
Everyone is hunting the rut and it is time but when you get a frost and fresh leaves fall you best get in that area of the woods.
Deer are opportunist and with a fresh food source these leaves are tasty magic the day they fall. That’s where the does will be and the bucks will be close! Good luck all! C
Yes Sir, shot a doe friday morning munching down on the fresh yellow leaves the snow caused to drop all at once.
I’ll put it to the test in the morning!
Any species of tree leaves prefer one over the other?
Here in Wisconsin and Iowa the Leaves have fallen from trees the past three weeks and the oaks and hickory will continue to shed for next three months . Pretty much covers entire season . Been frosty every morning also. Best of luck !
This is messed up. We don't have falling leaves !! LOL!
rk, yup
must be another CT thing, what a place!
I’ve been told they love the leaves of Osage Orange trees.
one winter I watched a doe eating dead leaves off a tree limb. I thought to myself, that doesnt look tasty
More than a few times I watched does feedind on newly fallen leaves after it snowed. Nothing better than live decoys.
From what I’ve observed they seem to prefer the leaves of the Acer genus over most other types
Been targeting deer eating sugar maple leaves for over 20 years. On private ground with little understory, with permission I will often bend over small sugar maple saplings that have started to turn and, tie them off within reach of the deer, next to travel routes. Then I climb a tree within easy range and get ready. When they see them, they come running. And they always see them if the understory is lacking. It is the simplest bait in the woods and, it works like a charm. Especially in stands that are over browsed.
The leaves stay fresh only a day or two and being opportunist they jump on em! In Rhode Island yesterday Matt told me they were focused on the Yellow Maple leaves. It depends on where you’re hunting. Good luck!
They like elm leaves around my house for sure.
They eat all my Sassafras leaves first.
Somebody been reading the Wensel books? ;)
Years ago I had a buck come in behind my stand. I kept hearing a slurping sound thinking "what the heck?" he finally got around to my right where I could see him and he was slurping up yellow maple leaves almost as fast as they fell. Never offered me a shot, but his girlfriend did the next evening ; ) Kinda funny to watch.
I have never heard of deer eating leaves you learn something every day
All my hunts are hang and hunt. Whenever I have to trim shooting lanes if the limbs have green leaves I make sure to throw them out in front of my tree like a failure pile. The same thing if I have to cut down any saplings I make sure to just hinge cut them so they live a while longer so the deer cant resist stopping by to browse.
If you kill something over those green leaves, does that turn it into a “success pile”, scrappy?
Most of the time a failure pile is made out of corn. T-Roy I sure hope SitO doesn't find out I've been using a failure pile of leaves.
Caught a herd of does eating the maple leaves by the garage this morning. They are kinda gangsta around my house, they just stand there and stare at me, like whatcha looking at white boy.
We had an ice storm once on Halloween, the leaves were still on. That weight brought down a lot of leafy stuff and the deer were really hitting the frozen treats.
Yep, deer in my area love Acer rubrum leaves this time of the year. Ive watched them select these leaves from a mix of sweetgum, oak, hickory, laurel bay, ash etc.
We have only had one or two frosts here this year too, very unusual for here, and very mild October. Halloween it was almost 70F, next day it cooled off considerably, but the high wind is what took the leaves off, definitely not the frost this year. Nov is still kinda mild, but I'm not complaining, winter is still 5 mos long here. The deer have been in the ag. fields, so I'm not counting on fallen leaves this year. Ruts kicking in, found a nice fresh scrape Sunday where my target buck crossed daily last year.
with all the other food for them to eat you would think they'd leave them alone :0) thats a jok, ah say thats ajoke son
Justin,
First time I have ever heard that strategy. Awesome! Your forestry expertise really helps out a lot. Thanks, I will try that next year.
I don't know if any of this is a real strategy...but I just had a couple of dorks in Sitka gear rake my yard for free
Baiting with leaves - now I've heard it all! :)
My leaves are spread out over 800 acres so it’s hard to pinpoint where to hunt
I have noticed for several years that when fresh leaves are falling they seem to be preferred over other food sources. I have stands in place to try and take advantage of this situation. It seems that they only hit them for a few days.
5 minutes ago from stand!
5 minutes ago from stand!
Five minutes ago from stand.
Leaves? lol nothing but ice and snow here. Good luck hunting!