My point: At a glance, you might form the opinion that the McAlester plant is overcrowded with deer, yet it still produces many excellent racks and the deer there still seem to be in relatively good health. Though not usually as big-bodied as are deer in northern, central and western Oklahoma, quite a few of them grow trophy antlers.

I don’t know that anyone has ever analyzed data on the sites producing the biggest, heaviest racks, but I can tell you my opinion based on 15 years of hanging around check stations in counties all over Oklahoma waiting to shoot photos during muzzleloader and gun seasons. Here’s what I’ve found to be true: Big-bodied deer tend to come from areas with at least some open pasture. Deer tend to run slightly smaller than average in areas where the habitat is mostly dense forests.

But then, I’ve seen trophy racks in both kinds of places. I’ve seen 150-class racks on small woodland bucks that dressed out at 90 pounds or less. And I’ve seen 200-pound bucks in western Osage County that carried just so-so racks.

This isn’t proven biology, but it indicates to me that bucks feeding more on forbs and grasses and open-ground plants tend to have better nutrition than those depending more on forest mast crops.

Our perceptions of what makes good deer habitat is probably distorted by the fact that we are in the woods mostly during a short time of year -- October and November. During that brief window, we see deer eating fruits and acorns and we tend to think that an area with lots of oak trees is great habitat. But the deer live there 12 months a year. They have to eat well during the other 10 months in order to be fat and healthy during the fall. So an area that has a mixture of open pastures and dense woods may have greater potential to grow bigger, fatter deer.

That doesn’t mean that acorns aren’t important. They definitely can guide early-season bowhunters to a good spot to hang a tree stand.

If you hunt during the earliest weeks of archery season, finding a place where white oaks, bur oaks or other white-oak family trees are dropping acorns can be your ticket to success. Most members of the white-oak family of trees drop their acorns a few weeks earlier than do those in the red-oak family. White oak acorns tend to be bigger and sweeter as well. Deer often flock to spots in which such acorns are falling in late September or early October to get their share of a highly favored food source.

The fact that there are some white oaks on your hunting property doesn’t necessarily indicate that the property supports or attracts large numbers of deer, but it can tell you where those deer might be on opening day of archery season.

DEER SIGN
This may be the most overrated factor in judging habitat. In some areas deer sign is easy to see. In others it’s much tougher. I’ve hunted places that were crisscrossed with deer trails as big as cattle trails. They had lots of soft soils where trails are easily made. I’ve hunted others where the soil is all rocky and gravelly and where trails and deer tracks are far harder to see, even though there are lots of deer around.

To find scrapes and rubs, some hunters believe, is to hit the mother lode. And I’ll grant you that finding a line of active scrapes can help you choose a good spot for hanging your tree stand. But just because you don’t see scrapes or rubs doesn’t mean there are no bucks around.