Who Hunts Apple Trees?

[Meat Manager]

I have always had the most success near old apple trees. I am always scouting apple trees in the woods, anyone else use this obvious technique?

I hunt a public parcel that has an ancient orchard hidden in it (surrounded by a hedge of multiflora rose) and I scored two from my stand there in last years otherwise dismal season.

Oh yeah, and I have tons of apples on my property that i press...and I fill several lil spray bottles with concentrated cider and use them as cover scent/scent lure.

Edited September 2, 2012 by 7J Everyday

[WNYBuckHunter]

My most productive stand is right next to some apple trees. It is in a funnel as well, but in the years where there are still apples on the ground, its an absolute deer magnet.

[Cabin Fever]

I have apple trees around a few of my stands. It seems like the deer come out of the thicket earlier in the evenings to be the first ones to get to the apples that fell during the day! Or it's the last stop (dessert?) they make before heading to bed for the day.

[New York Hillbilly]

I have always used the same strategy. When I first started bow hunting almost forty years ago, I hunted from the ground. I always sat under the same apple tree next to a funnel between to hay lots. I used to pick up the apples under the tree and crush and rub them all over me, my clothes and my hat. The only down side was my hands would get all sticky which would drive me whacky and on warm days would have the flies crawling all over me. LOL! And while I never shot a deer from that stand because I was to afraid to actually shoot at one for fear I would wound it and not recover it (was shooting cedar arrows/two blade broad heads/recurve bow), I did have deer almost step on me in that stand. Exciting stuff!

Today I have about 70 Acres of scrub apple and tangled up ravines that never have a hunter step foot in unless to recover a deer that has been shot, that is the central part of my land. It is the safety zone/sanctuary for the deer and I (and who ever I have with me) hunt around it. Apple trees rule!

[growalot]

Yes sir ..it's about the only food source at camp and here at home I have over a dozen wild apples producing ......all dropping from early August through October...sweet reds to sour greens...the deer like them all...Thank Heaven for Johnny Apple Seed..

[nyslowhand]

Northern Wayne county = Apple country, orchards galore!!

Don't need to be a rocket scientist to know you'd better have a stand where the deer go to & from orchards.

Early mornings are best when apples are truely ripe. Generally pickers in orchards until almost dark.

Typically done the 1st week of Nov when drops are the final harvest.

Which is okay, the rut is getting in motion by then.

Yeah, I hunt apple trees! Yeah, I've had good luck! "You grow them they'll come!"

[arrow nocker]

i dont take car of mine.They are entangled with vines.makes a nice sanctuary but they fall early.As a matte of fact i was moving stands and clearing trails last weekend.One of my biggesy trees was bare of apples.But the ground was covered.All well,they still eat the sapling ends tho.

[sweet old bill]

love apple trees, just no apples by me this year. Does not mean the deer do not spot on the way to the field or from the fields to the bedding area...always sign in the area...

[Doc]

That goofy spring that we had this year brought on all the blossoms early with all the hot spring day-time weather, The frosts at night gave them repeated shots of sub-freezing temperatures. I watched the blossoms on all of my fruit trees get forced out and then frozen. I am not surprised that I don't see any apples. It's too bad because I do have some great stands that rely on those apples being there. So this year, I am working with other food sources.

[G-Man]

I love finding a tree with apples in a bad apple year. you will see every deer in the woods there. In a good apple year i look for a different food source as there are acres and acres of apples where i hunt and if they all have fruit you can't pattern anything. This year is bad apple and bad maast year in general by me. But with oct 1 opener i think i have a honey hole of a sm group of american chestnuts that seem to drop their nuts last week of sept/1 week of october every year, could never hunt deer then but the squirel hunts there over the years under them let me see a ton of deer waiting for the nuts to drop. this year the deer will be in trouble

[ants]

Apple trees are always a good sign. I have several scattered through out one of my spots. One of my favorite bow stands is right next to an apple tree.