Apple trees

[Doc]

I never realized how dependant I am on wild apple trees. This year,there's not an apple anywhee in the valley. First time in memory. So a lot of the mashed down deer trails that went by a few of my more favorite stands are grown up with weeds. It's going to be a bit different this bowseason. Also, there are no acorns this year. So without any farmland, I am left with trying to puzzle out just what the critters are eating. I haven't figured it out so far .... lol. Just a little extra challenge this year.

Anybody else being thrown a bit of a curve by a lack of apples?

[G-Man]

Nope i love a bad apple year, takes some scouting but i found 5 trees with apples, trails wore down into mud. every deer seems to stop by and look for an apple, 3 days 122 pics 11 different buck. good early season till they are gone, then i move to my chestnuts,then corn and turnip food plots.In a good apple year i have 30 acres of apples a deer can go to much harder to pattern,and hang stands for! Food plots are a great draw especially in a bad mast year. I know everone say lime and soil prep, ph test... but a lot can be done with a rake, roundup and very little time.turnips are easy as are oats and other like grains. Doing anything is better than nothing and removes the dependance on the weather and mother nature to give you a good crop to hunt over.

[Cabin Fever]

I have scattered crabapple trees in the area. This year, some trees have a few apples, but others have none. I like hunting the crabapples next to thickets. It seems the deer like to get out earlier in the evenings to be the first ones to get to the apples that have fallen during the course of the day. Either that, or sometimes they step out of the thicket during the day to grab a quick snack, then head back to bed down again.

I also have large apple orchards ~300 yards away on 2 sides of my property. These trees have fewer apples than usual this year, but there's still lots of them! Apple orchards are more like hunting crop fields to me, as the deer wait until almost dark to venture out in them. Partially due to it being more open and the human activity that takes place in the orchard around harvest time.

[phade]

I wish the apples were a bit better. I had a huge uptick in activity and mature bucks when the apples that were left on the trees were falling. They are next to a thick bedding area with two water holes. Talk about traffic...As soon as the temps dropped, the apples dried up since there were fewer of them byt 75%, traffic ground to a halt...unfortunately that was timed with the velvet shed, and I haven't checked cams since that initial time when I realized everything pattern wise had changed. Hit me all at once. There are some acorns falling...I think it's just a matter of finding them. When you do, the hunting will be good since they'll flock to them in poor acron crop seasons...compounded by poor fruit season...bingo!

[phade]

I have scattered crabapple trees in the area. This year, some trees have a few apples, but others have none. I like hunting the crabapples next to thickets. It seems the deer like to get out earlier in the evenings to be the first ones to get to the apples that have fallen during the course of the day. Either that, or sometimes they step out of the thicket during the day to grab a quick snack, then head back to bed down again.

I also have large apple orchards ~300 yards away on 2 sides of my property. These trees have fewer apples than usual this year, but there's still lots of them! Apple orchards are more like hunting crop fields to me, as the deer wait until almost dark to venture out in them. Partially due to it being more open and the human activity that takes place in the orchard around harvest time.

The truth right there...I'm in the same boat with orchards. I think once my crabapples dried up along the thicket bedding areas...they moved a bit closer to the orchards and off my ground. Hoping harvest is short and fast...got some corn bordering both sides to help that draw...Almost feel helpless when you know why they left and can't do a thing about it, ha.

I'm getting my mexican hat ready...I'm sure at some point I'll hear the music again at harvest when the taters and apples are coming out.

[ants]

Same with me. I went out again yesterday and noticed the same thing. Some trees look good and others ...nothing. Fortunately I hunt a working farm, some corn still up, beans strawberry tops and two good food plots. Last year the trees were full of apples.

[growalot]

With all the food around the deer have destoyed an acre of elderberry brush by one blind....not looking good for that site other than a travel route.....I have 4 apple trees that still have apples and 2..one red one yellow wild apple trees that will hold tight to their mast well into gun season....The deer have been traveling the cut corn field eating what ever weed that came back...mostly timothy grass....I thought the oats weren't doing well until I realized....they are so short because of feeding...hitting the chicory in that plot hard as well...The doe and fawn lots and lots of them are staying so I expect the boys will be around soon...still nothing but buttons on the cams...or in the field at night

[Early]

A bad apple year requires much more scouting. Scout long and far, and you will find a tree or three with apples. They will be deer magnets: morning, noon and night. I have only found one so far this Fall, but it is loaded. Unfortunately, it is right next to a dirt road...in plain sight for all passersby. Fortunately, I know where deer have bedded for years that use that tree and others in the vicinity. I can set up well away from the road to intercept any apple pickers (sans Mexican hats).

[Doc]

Nope i love a bad apple year, takes some scouting but i found 5 trees with apples, trails wore down into mud. every deer seems to stop by and look for an apple, 3 days 122 pics 11 different buck. good early season till they are gone, then i move to my chestnuts,then corn and turnip food plots.In a good apple year i have 30 acres of apples a deer can go to much harder to pattern,and hang stands for! Food plots are a great draw especially in a bad mast year. I know everone say lime and soil prep, ph test... but a lot can be done with a rake, roundup and very little time.turnips are easy as are oats and other like grains. Doing anything is better than nothing and removes the dependance on the weather and mother nature to give you a good crop to hunt over.

Lol .... no, when I say there's not an apple in the entire valley, I am very serious about that. We had a forced blossom situation with super warm temps followed each night with severe frosts. Nothing survived.

We have no chesnuts, we have no corn, we have no turnips and it looks like even the red oaks are without acorns this year. They have yards and browse and that seems to have them in a very scattered feeding pattern that has left the trails pretty empty. This is the first time in about 50 years of hunting that I have ever seen this situation here. It's weird and is going to make hunting a bit challenging this year.

[G-Man]

doc, if you own the property, or have permission to drop a few trees, limbs, red maple are best, the fresh buds and leaves at ground level are an instant magnet...ever hear a logger say the deer come running to the sound of a chainsaw?? they are browsers first and this is a good was to bring them in, even a few limbs will do it as soon as they are discovered..

[Doc]

doc, if you own the property, or have permission to drop a few trees, limbs, red maple are best, the fresh buds and leaves at ground level are an instant magnet...ever hear a logger say the deer come running to the sound of a chainsaw?? they are browsers first and this is a good was to bring them in, even a few limbs will do it as soon as they are discovered..

State land .... unfortunately. But that's alright. It just puts the "hunt" back in hunting .... lol. I'm sure I'll do alright. It just will be a bit tougher than other years.

[grampsretired3]

No apples on my trees.We have at 24 to 36 apple trees we had a heavy snow at the end of March with trees in full bloom. area 9m