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Antlers?

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loneranger

Well-Known Member
Neighbor said he saw a pretty nice buck past Saturday. Kinda late for carryin antlers? Thot basically controlled by shortness of daylight?
 
I saw 6 bucks on Friday carrying both sides, I also saw 4 last night with both sides. Just starting to drop decent, another couple of weeks and most will have dropped.
I usually start hitting it hard the first week of March and i still see a few carrying antlers.
 
Pulled cams last week here and >80% were still packing both sides. I usually don't get out until the 1st week of March also unless I have a big boy that drops them early.Two years ago I had several bucks on one farm still packing on a March 21st cam pull
 
Now is a prime time for antlers to shed off, but I have see a deer with both antlers in early April a couple of times, but almost all of them will be shed out by mid March IMO.
 
Same every year, they can shed starting in mid to late December through April for many reasons though the majority shed in March. I think Loneranger meant longer daylight affecting antler drop, another of many factors. I usually don't get serious looking until close to the spring equinox when the amount of daylight starts to lengthen to more than darkness. Seems, at least for me, I find more after that happens every year.

I know of a 190 class buck that shed around May 3rd one year, found it hard to believe myself but it's fact and I have the sheds. He shed after beans were planted on May 2nd and found when the beans were picked in early November.
 
OK, I have not found many sheds ever in my area,,so I just assumed it happened in mid-winter like Jan-Feb. Guess I was wrong. I moved here from 300 miles north. Definitely shedding happens earlier up there.
 
Overall, I think its been a goofy year...this year I had pretty much every single buck shed on my farm by Feb. 10 in North Central IA... however most everywhere else, 95% were still holding on that date.. So its a real interesting thing to me how they do shed/when/why... I had one buck that always shed before Jan 10, and was the biggest on the farm..
 
Shortness of daylight - you are referring to what triggers the rut.

All depends on region. Well supplied food & "lower stress", my areas like that have a whole lot still carrying. Deer that were stressed, rutted hard or had any type of injuries dropped early IMO. Typical. Starts in late December with dropping from stressed animals (some severe stress, some not as much) and I've seen it go all the way into early April for some to drop, which seems insane but I've seen it.
 
I just read in some magazine shortening ofdaylight. Who knows? I am from the north,,300 miles north to be exact. Up there t was definitely done by now!
 
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