# Do deer eat hickory nuts?



## cmmtyu (Feb 1, 2009)

I have a new place to hunt this year and it is covered in hickory nuts. Does anyone know if deer like these.


----------



## dray223 (May 19, 2010)

they don't seem to eat them around here.


----------



## jporter1 (Aug 4, 2011)

Not to my knowledge, the hulls are evidently to hard for them. Because they taste better than acorns to me. lol


----------



## evansarchery (Jun 10, 2003)

Yes they do. They will choose other options first, but they will eat hickory when other preferable food sources are not available. I have seen them many times eat the pignut hickory, maybe due to the hull being thin and case not as hard.


----------



## breiner11 (Apr 29, 2005)

If there are no acorns around they will


----------



## Fortyneck (Oct 8, 2010)

breiner11 said:


> If there are no acorns around they will


+1 ^


----------



## -bowfreak- (Oct 18, 2006)

breiner11 said:


> If there are no acorns around they will


I will also add that they will only eat them if their is very little readily available food. I wouldn't say they are starving if they eat hickory nuts but the cupboard is pretty bare.


----------



## Viper69 (Feb 4, 2003)

Ive never seen them eat them.


----------



## cahelle1 (Nov 24, 2008)

the bears do


----------



## I like Meat (Feb 14, 2009)

Never seen them do it.... to hard to chew.....but squirrels love 'em ...... I have limited out many times near a good hickory tree or grove.....


----------



## M.Magis (Oct 2, 2003)

Deer can not, and do not, eat hickory nuts. Unless you all have a totally different hickory nut than the two we have around here, they are MUCH too hard for a deer to eat.


----------



## old Graybeard (Nov 3, 2005)

I have had a stand in a group of hickory trees for the past 5 years because of their location. I often watch the deer reach up and chew off some of the leaves but have never once seen them try any of the nuts.


----------



## Viper69 (Feb 4, 2003)

m.magis said:


> deer can not, and do not, eat hickory nuts. Unless you all have a totally different hickory nut than the two we have around here, they are much too hard for a deer to eat.


x2!


----------



## doubledwv (Jul 20, 2011)

I have in my front yard a hickory tree, I call them pig nuts, there a smaller nut than the large hickory nut, they do eat them when theres not much left for them to eat,


----------



## WEEGEE (Oct 13, 2007)

never seen one eat hickory nuts..seen them eat birds ,but not the nuts.
but i've eaten the deer, and the nuts,and the squirrel, that eats the nuts.
but i've never eaten a bird, with nuts...


----------



## Stanley (Jan 18, 2005)

With the amount of teeth deer have it would be impossible for them to crack the hull of a shag bark hickory nut.


----------



## B&C_less (Jun 10, 2008)

Now they'll probably come out with a hickory nut "cruncher"


----------



## Epinepherine (Mar 4, 2006)

A stand I've hunted out of for years has 4-5 hickory trees 30-50 yds to the south of it. In over 10 yrs of hunting that stand off and on, I've never seen any sign of deer eating them.


----------



## pbuck (Mar 30, 2010)

They WILL eat what we call a pig hickory nut. I killed the first deer I ever got mounted while he was crunching away on them. Fact, I set up in that area because the deer where eating them every night. That said, I've never seen them eating a shag bark hickory nut.


----------



## daltongang (Jul 29, 2009)

Some years they walk right past them, then the next time they can't pick them up fast enough.


----------



## fryguy519 (Mar 6, 2010)

I hunt a place with a lot of hickory trees around and have never seen a deer eat them. Hickory nuts are rock hard.


----------



## Twitch (Oct 14, 2007)

I've never seen deer eat hickory nuts.


----------



## mikel m14 (Jul 24, 2006)

I have also never seen deer eat hickory nuts


----------



## Liv4Rut (Mar 24, 2006)

I have never seen deer eat hickory nuts as well. I have hunted out of many hickory trees and they never eat them.


----------



## ridgehunter64 (Jul 26, 2011)

Yes,

Beyond any doubt deer do eat hickory nuts! I have a video of a deer eating a hickory nut that is 2 minutes long. He rolls the nut in his mouth like a jawbreaker. I live in northeast Iowa and I often feed hickory nuts to deer in an inclosure at a nearby park. The buck is a 160 inch 10 pointer this year. They roll them around in their mouths and it makes lots of noise and guess what. The other deer hear it and they come running for hickory nuts. 

One of the funnest things I have enjoyed about returning to this site after a long break is all of the slamming of products. The best one is all of the jokes about the Kruncher call from Hunters Specialties. The fact of the matter is that it really makes the most sense. When I watched the instructional DVD it made perfect sense to me. I have since used it with incredible success in calling deer to my location on the ground in early season. I called or "grinded" 4 bucks from 75 yards to directly below my tree last January that I got on video. Also the constant rythmic grind of the call in a cupped hand does relax them. Laugh about it all you want. 

Remember that you guys don't hear like a deer. You can't feel a vibration of a foot stomp through the ground at 20 yards like a deer. Your mom didn't grind on food constantly when you were in her womb and your brain didn't form around the sound of KRUNCHING and grinding. If it did when you heard the sound it would mean something to you. 

My brother used to eat Captain Crunch next to me and I could hear it. 

Yes deer do eat hickory nuts and it is very loud and can be heard at a good distance.


----------



## nockedup (Nov 5, 2007)

How many guys on here have the name "ridgehunter..." ?


----------



## Fortyneck (Oct 8, 2010)

Question: 

Do deer eat hickory nuts?

Answer:

There are many types of hickory nut deer eat some and not others.


----------



## 3Dblackncamo (Jul 22, 2009)

wild hogs eat hickory nuts hull and all


----------



## td051 (Jan 14, 2007)

They will if they have to, but nothing like white acorns! I've seen deer up north eat them but not where there is better food. Sounded like they were chewing on rocks.


----------



## Red57 (Oct 20, 2008)

apparently you guys have different nuts.


----------



## BLan (Aug 16, 2010)

I live in an area called Hickory Grove, wanna guess why? I've not seen any evidence of the deer eating the hickory nuts.


----------



## goathollow (Jun 18, 2008)

I can't tell you how many hickory trees we have on our 72 acres. We have both shagbark and pig nut hickory trees and I have never seen a deer eat a hickory nut, be it the pig nut or shagbark variety. With that said, that is the nomenclature we use around here when discussing hickory trees. Maybe there are some other sub-species of hickory trees in other areas of the country that have nuts that are more to a deer's liking.


----------



## Marvin (Feb 17, 2005)

all i got


----------



## ridgehunter64 (Jul 26, 2011)

*hickory nut video*

As I posted earlier I do have a great video of a deer eating hickory nuts with the shag bark hickory tree in plane view beside it. The deer feed heavy on them and there are many white oaks on the property as well. It may be that the nuts are more tasty being in a fertilized food plot. My family also eats these nuts and they are hard as hell and take a hammer to break. I am computer challenged so tell me how to get the video loaded.


----------

