# white oak acorns as big as golf  balls at swallow creek  this week



## Quail man (Sep 16, 2010)

you better wear your hard hats in the woods this week, was at swallow creek this week, acorns are as big as golf balls, lots of bear sign but didnt see anything but turkeys grouse and a bunch of deer, white oak and red oak acorns everywhere tho


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## ripplerider (Sep 16, 2010)

Glad to hear it  they're pretty scattered where I've been scouting (mostly Union Co.) You sure they werent chestnut oak acorns? They seem to be unusually large this year.


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## gobbleinwoods (Sep 16, 2010)

What I saw was lots of Chestnut Oaks dropping large acorns.  I believe the Chestnut is technically in the white oak family and does have a sweet acorn just like the true White oak.  Bear do like them a lot.


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## Lake_and_stream (Sep 16, 2010)

Not sure either but we have had some good rain around ellijay/blue ridge  the ground is covered in accorns. All shapes colors and sizes.


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## bowbuck (Sep 16, 2010)

I'm thinking the huge ones are mountain oaks.  There seems to be a enormous crop of those this year. But I wasn't there.


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## Unicoidawg (Sep 16, 2010)

I went up on Tray yesterday (Swallow Creek is on the backside of Tray) and yes there are some white oaks falling. I also saw some golfball size acorns faling, but they were Chesnut oak acorns. I have lived up here my entire life and I have never seen them this big. The bad thing is the animals usually eat the chesnut acorns last after everything else is all gone. Also watch were you step boys Mr. Copperhead was all coiled up just chilling when I came within a hair of stepping on him.......


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## bowbuck (Sep 17, 2010)

After reading this thread, I did a little research and what I had always called mountain oaks are chestnut oaks.  I don't think I have ever saw a deer eat them and have never really hunted them.  In my recollection they usually just rot on the ground.  I had always thought they were high in tannic acid but from what I read they apparently aren't that bad.  I'm gonna have to really watch this year to see if anything is eating on these.


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## Unicoidawg (Sep 17, 2010)

bowbuck said:


> After reading this thread, I did a little research and what I had always called mountain oaks are chestnut oaks.  I don't think I have ever saw a deer eat them and have never really hunted them.  In my recollection they usually just rot on the ground.  I had always thought they were high in tannic acid but from what I read they apparently aren't that bad.  I'm gonna have to really watch this year to see if anything is eating on these.



The ones I saw were falling like crazy and the ground was covered up. There was no feeding sign around at all........ Like you said, during turkey season I usually find them lying around rotten. Not saying they won' eat them, but I just haven't seen it.


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## gobbleinwoods (Sep 17, 2010)

I will tell you that I found a couple chestnut oaks with branches broken out and others that had acorns on the ground thick one day and all gone the next and it wasn't hogs as the caps were still there.   Bears do eat them.


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## Thunder Head (Sep 17, 2010)

It might be a soil thing, I have never had much luck seeing deer around them either.
 Here around Toccoa i have better luck on red oaks than whites, as far as deer are concerned.

Will the bears stop climbing trees after they start falling heavy?


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## Jeff1973 (Sep 17, 2010)

Deer will hit the Chestnut oaks on years when the whites seem to fail, i have killed some deer with a bow on chestnut oaks in the past, but the whites oaks failed that year, they are also a little higher in tannic acid.  bears will feed on them though, i have found alot of older sign where they were climbing them a few weeks ago.  its seems the climbing has really slowed down since the acorns are on the ground.  i had a very close encounter just yesterday afternoon with a bear, i was sittin on the ground and he was only 14 yards from me but could'nt get a shot at him, it was too thick, he came in to these 2 white oaks like he was on a string, wind switched on me and he was off like the wind, it sure was fun though, be back after em soon. good luck


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## Unicoidawg (Sep 17, 2010)

I'm not saying they won't eat them........ What I am saying is in my experince they'd 100 to 1 eat White Oaks and Red Oaks over the Chestnut Oaks. That being said a bear will pretty much eat anything to survive. He's just like you and I.... would you rather have a big juicey ribeye with all the trimmins or a slice of nasty spam????


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## tree cutter 08 (Sep 19, 2010)

i've always called them mountain oaks. i thought the chestnut oaks died out due to blight back in the 30's. to my understanding they were huge trees, 6 and 7ft at the base. very high dollar lumber. could somebody clarify this? was it the american chestnut?


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## Nicodemus (Sep 19, 2010)

tree cutter 08 said:


> i've always called them mountain oaks. i thought the chestnut oaks died out due to blight back in the 30's. to my understanding they were huge trees, 6 and 7ft at the base. very high dollar lumber. could somebody clarify this? was it the american chestnut?





The chestnut oak and the American chestnut are two different species of tree. The chestnut oak is alive and well. The American chestnut  was wiped out by the blight back in the early 1900s, except for one old tree, that I think is in the Pine Mountain area.


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## Unicoidawg (Sep 19, 2010)

tree cutter 08 said:


> i've always called them mountain oaks. i thought the chestnut oaks died out due to blight back in the 30's. to my understanding they were huge trees, 6 and 7ft at the base. very high dollar lumber. could somebody clarify this? was it the american chestnut?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chestnut
American Chesnut are no longer around...... I would have loved to seen them. The say you can see old stumps the size of small cars up in the Smokies.....


Here is a wealth of info on the Chesnut Oak. Like I said not saying they won't eat them, but they prefer others way more. From what I saw up on Tray the other day they are not gonna go hungry this winter. Those things are dropping like crazy.

http://www.wildwnc.org/education/trees/chestnut-oak-quercus-prinus-fagaceae-beech-family


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## LanceColeman (Sep 19, 2010)

Unicoidawg said:


> I went up on Tray yesterday (Swallow Creek is on the backside of Tray) and yes there are some white oaks falling. I also saw some golfball size acorns faling, but they were Chesnut oak acorns. I have lived up here my entire life and I have never seen them this big. The bad thing is the animals usually eat the chesnut acorns last after everything else is all gone. Also watch were you step boys Mr. Copperhead was all coiled up just chilling when I came within a hair of stepping on him.......



So was that you on the top side of the shallow ridge across from the subdivision where I put my buddies Barry and Jimmie?? You walk up on a couple fellas Thurs eve huntin with longbows??

Or are you the guy in the white toyota hunting the funnel just below glass house??

And fear not boys..... the lil rain that came in Opening morning seemed to have loosened the white oaks. Grounds covered with them and the bears have stopped climbing. matter of fact the white oaks are so thick on the ground up there right now a Bear would have to move maybe 20 feet all day to get his belly full.


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## tree cutter 08 (Sep 19, 2010)

yea just done alittle research, several diffrent species. american was the on that died out. mountain oak acorns are usually the last acorns to be picked up by game, they will eat them though.


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## Unicoidawg (Sep 19, 2010)

LanceColeman said:


> So was that you on the top side of the shallow ridge across from the subdivision where I put my buddies Barry and Jimmie?? You walk up on a couple fellas Thurs eve huntin with longbows??
> 
> Or are you the guy in the white toyota hunting the funnel just below glass house??




That would have been me, but there was a nissan from towns co already there. I hunted a little ways back down the Mtn. I didn't see much bear or deer sign, but I almost stepped on a copperhead. Nope, I was in my black extended cab tacoma. Give me a shout one day and we'll go chase'em......


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## LanceColeman (Sep 20, 2010)

I aint much on chasin em U.D. I just like puttin other people up there to chase em. I don't chase em much because when I do I normally wind up gettin one and then I hafta deal with the stinkin thang.

Those two fellas with the longbows are GON boys as well. First one was Barry Duggan, second one down was Jimmy "Jamboga" Boyles. I had been watching them bears on that ridge for about  a month and a half before they got here. Watching em on another rdige down the road as well. Had one climb a ridgeline and pop up 6yds from ol Chris Spikes. joker never turned sideways on him and that swirlin wind got him "located" 

Wish we would known that was you. We were the group camped up on the left just above the subdivision before the oak flats.

OH!! And here's sumpin for ya..... THERE ARE ACTUAL CHESTNUTS in the mts.

Yea...... I liked to have flipped.... but I found four lil groups of saplings that ALL actually had chestnuts on them (still green as gourds). They lil trees..... and throwing lil chestnuts... but I brought a branch in to camp and showed the boys. I dunno if those lil fellas will survive...... but it sure was cool to see em...... AND MARK EM FUR FUTURE HUNTS.

ALSO FELLAS...... Unicoi is dead right on the oaks. The big ones you see are "mt. oaks" or "mt. chesnut oaks." and they big and they everywhere, and they are the absolute LAST acorn the critters go after. It's almost like they prefer them to lay on the ground and start wrinkling a bit before they eat em. red whites and chestnuts abound this year. But reds and chestnut oaks were all over the ground before season.......... and bears were STILL climbing whiteoaks. That should tell you something right there. They would rather climb a whiteoak and eat whiteoak acorns than eat reds and chesnuts that are covering the ground.

*IF* there's whiteoaks acorns?? forget all others..... only other thing you can find thats better is some of the lil persimmons that you happen upon on the edges of some of the ridges.


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## Dana Young (Sep 20, 2010)

Lance what you are describing as chestnuts may well be chinquapins a close cousin to chestnuts tray used to be covered with them. they are about head high and the nut is about the size of a small marble. bears love them. I hope they are chestnuts but they sound like chinquapins.


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## Nicodemus (Sep 20, 2010)

Down here, the swamp chestnut oak acorn is  a favored food source for deer.


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## Unicoidawg (Sep 20, 2010)

Lance, Dana it may also be some of the Japanese Chestnuts that were brought in as well years ago to try and restart some type of Chestnuts regrowing around here. There are a few down around the park at Unicoi and they produce every year. The Forest Service supposedly at one time was trying to use the small saplings from the Smokies and the Japanese to make a hybrid and bring back a type of "American" chesnut tree. Here is a link to some good info comparing the two....

http://www.mindspring.com/~psisco/www/japanese.html

This one is long but it has info on the restoration efforts using the asian speicies
http://www.elmpost.org/chestnut.htm


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## LanceColeman (Sep 20, 2010)

A chinqopin to my knowledge is an actual acorn (least thats what I was raised callin em). This aint no acorn. this is a good ol genuines looks like a porcipine egg CHESTNUT. Lil green spiked up joker growin in a cluster.

NOW...... U.D. Could be makin a real good point here. As we know a chestnut while still in it's spiked shell is a growth the size of a big chicken egg. these were not. These would be like....... banty eggs. HA!! Almost like a miniature chestnut. They were smaller than the chestnuts that grow on the chestnut trees here at the house. But when ya opened that joker up?? it was a chestnut in it.  But the lil trees were covered up with them.


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## Dana Young (Sep 20, 2010)

A chinquapin is for all general purposes Identical to a large chestnut they tend to grow in old clearcuts or along old skid roads or around areas where beetle killed pins have fallen and let in plenty of sun light deer and bear both love them they are not acorns and grow in small pods that are alot smaller than regular chestnuts.


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## Unicoidawg (Sep 20, 2010)

Dana Young said:


> A chinquapin is for all general purposes Identical to a large chestnut they tend to grow in old clearcuts or along old skid roads or around areas where beetle killed pins have fallen and let in plenty of sun light deer and bear both love them they are not acorns and grow in small pods that are alot smaller than regular chestnuts.




Dana, I don't know about the ones Lance is talking about. However, the ones at Unicoi have gotta be chestnuts as there were always more than one nut in the bur. The differences are small but they aren't identical according to this.  

http://www.acf.org/Tree_ID/ckapin.php


The American Chestnut Foundation. I have spent a good bit of time reading up here. Very informative site.
http://www.acf.org/index.php


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## LanceColeman (Sep 20, 2010)

What I would like to know is where in the world they gettin in to all the persimmons! I checked the ones long down the loggin road... bare. I checked the ones off the north side of the long ridge above the sub. still green as a gourd. I checked the one above cheese dairy, looks like a bear stripped every limb out the po joker a good two weeks ago, I checked the ones way out hickory nut. not enough ripe ones on the ground to account for the amount of seeds I'm seein in the scat. Somewhere them buggers have got in to a grove of em (way too much to be from a single tree unless itsa huge tree) and I'm betting considering the greeness of the higher persimmons. that jokers down on a spring creek bed more than likely down around andrews cove.


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## tree cutter 08 (Sep 20, 2010)

those bear sure have a nose for them. lots of seeds in the scat i've found, and have'nt found the first tree where their getting them


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## Quail man (Sep 24, 2010)

yeah i was wrong about them bein white oak acorns we dont have any chestnuts down here looked kinda the same but the bark was different


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