What happens to deer hunting when acorns are abundant?
Heavy mast years scatter deer across thousands of acres of forest, and food plots stop producing daylight movement. Deer stay in the timber, feeding on whatever they step on, and most hunters report a 'slow' season because pattern-based stand setups collapse.
Strategy shifts away from food plots and ag edges toward the timber. Find the freshest dropping white oaks — clusters of two or three productive trees within a few hundred yards of bedding produce more than any food plot during heavy mast.
During rut weeks in a heavy mast year, bucks have to travel more to find does because does are scattered across food. That's one place hunting actually improves — cruising bucks during seeking become more visible because their travel distances expand. See state mast reports for the year's heavy-vs-light picture.