Besides food plots, what are the deer eating this time of year?

Early season had me spoiled with knowing exactly where they'd be. Having a hard time finding does.

What is your go-to set up for afternoons (besides food plots).

If you don't have any plots this won't help you but I usually hunt off of trails leading to plots between the bedding areas and thick cover. Most the deer I have in our property never come into a plot until right at dark. By setting up 250 yards or further I've seen a lot more deer and alot less tracking a shot deer in the dark

Swink, that is good advice. I have plots, but just like you, they don't show up there until after dark.

I hunted national forest land last Monday. I was setup at least a 1/4 mile from a plot on private land on a known trail that was littered with scrapes. Now there was still plenty of acorns on the ground but the spike I mistook for a doe still had wheat and looked like clover his throat when I was gutting him. So they are hitting the plots.

Depends on pressure, availability, etc. At one property I hunt this time of year the deer will be full of privet leaves, twigs, general browse from the forest floor. Basically anything green that grows at deer height and isn't holly.

At another property they will feed on these two hardwood knolls I have until late February. I was reviewing pictures from last year and I had deer on acorns as late as February 29. They are doing the same this year. Just the other day I had two deer spend two hours working a hardwood knoll around me, getting completely full in the process. They don't NEED the greenfields, but they may be preferable in zero/low pressure areas.

If you have a food plot that hasn't had any killing done on it this year I would sit on trails leading to/from it. Otherwise I'd just sit on any old deer trail this time of year as long as it leads to one of the three food sources listed above.

doe days are closed fyi. Ole spike did you a favor.

Anywhere that holds water and has acorns, they wash up in big piles when the water rises. Theyre wearing the ditches out in our smz's

[/quote] doe days are closed fyi. Ole spike did you a favor. [/quote]

I must have overlooked that when I was checking the rules the other day. It may have already been discussed somewhere else, but where did you find that? I thought either sex was legal on NF land. Is this new this year?

Neglected to mention that was with my bow, in which either sex is still open

honeysuckle and saw briars

Clorox soaked corn works well this time of year.

Yellow acorns

doe days are closed fyi. Ole spike did you a favor. [/quote]

I must have overlooked that when I was checking the rules the other day. It may have already been discussed somewhere else, but where did you find that? I thought either sex was legal on NF land. Is this new this year? [/quote]
There are only 10-12 days of doe days on forest land with a gun. They're labeled as open permit public land.