what deer eat in big woods ?

[wolf60]

My friend and I hunt public lands in s.e. Ohio. The last several years the mast crop has been really poor where we hunt. We need to know what the main food sources are when there is very little acorns or nuts for them to feed on. We are hunting in a big woods area with new pine plantations scattered through out the area.We tried hunting the edges between the woods and the pines but we have not been too successful. We would be thankful for any information that might help us narrow down where the deer are feeding and what they are feeding on. Since they planted the pines the number of deer we see has really dropped off. I would like to hear from anyone in a similiar situation and how they figured it out. I am not sure why, but last hunting season we hunted our usual stands and we saw almost no deer. With a little help maybe we can turn it around this year. I hope to hear from someone who can help us figure this out . Thanks

[FFKEVIN]

[font="Tahoma"]I also hunt sometimes in SE Ohio. Way different hunting. Big woods and not any farm land.

Two books I'd recommend are -

Bowhunting Forests & Deep Woods - by Greg Miller

Mapping Trophy Bucks - by Brad Herndon

The first book (Bowhunting Forests & Deep Woods) will answer a lot of the questions you are asking and the second book (Mapping Trophy Bucks) has been invaluable in learning to read aerial & topo maps to increasing my success. (Both kinds of maps are available free online)[/font]