Had one last year that we were ready to cut down, just knew it was dead. The tree came back to life this spring. Now we had a few in the past that died very quick. My advice make sure it's dead before doing any cutting.
Norm

I'll try to post pictures of what i'm talking about but they're almost bare at this point and my major concern is how can they survive if they can create and store nutrients to weather the winter months if they've lost their leaves in the middle of their season?

It may not appy to pin oaks, but I did see trees today that are dieing...and their leaves are wilted in place. The trees are so stressed that some aren't making abscission layers to drop leaves...there's just no liquid going out to the leaves..so they wilt and die.