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Matched Sets

Big8s1992

Member
When a healthy buck is walking around with only one side do you guys generally notice he drops the other side fairly quickly/closeby? For those of you that have found a lot of matched sets that have NOT been laying in a bed together. What would be your guess for average time between one antler and the other dropping? A day? A week?
 
I’ve got a pile with one side!! I am a Horrible shed hunter & bad reference but a lot of bucks seem to drop at different times on me which spaces them apart a bit for distance. BUT…. By late season they usually have small core areas so even if a week difference on drop…. Bet most are <400 yard radius.
 
I've found many 100s of sheds.
Seems like most of the bigger ones I find are fairly close by each other.
And when I say (most), it's maybe 70%.
 
I think if I find matched sets, they are within eye sight. Otherwise I never do. Now we are in a highly agriculture area where trees are enemies to every farmer so the deer might leave the woods and walk 2 miles across chisel plowed fields to feed- if you don’t have permission it’s almost impossible a lot of times to match up.
 
Most of my match sets are bigger sheds. If I find a big one often times the other side is not far, often times within eyesight of the first one. Often times within 50 yards or so. IMO bigger bucks drop both sides about the same time. Of course my all time biggest shed I could not match up.
 
Several years back I found the left side of this set on December 15th, this buck carried the other side until approx. March 20th. The right side was found in the same core area within 200 yards.View attachment 124385
Dec 15 to March 20….that’s crazy. Dont think I’ve ever heard of something like that before. Dec 15 is awfully early, do you know if the buck had an injury?
 
I typically find around 20-30 sheds per spring on my farm so I guess that’s around 80-100 over the last 4 years and it seems like very rarely if ever do I find both sides laying together. It’s probably happened but I don’t remember it.

side note, I seem to have a really high number of bucks on my farm this winter and ive only had one picture of a buck that has shed so far. I’m very confident that 80-90% of the bucks are still holding on me. It’s still just a touch early but still that seems pretty high for this time of year.

What’s everyone else seeing?
 
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side note, I seem to have a really high number of bucks on my farm this winter and ive only had one picture of a buck that has shed so far. I’m very confident that 80-90% of the bucks are still holding on me. It’s still just a touch early but still that seems pretty high for this time of year.

What’s everyone else seeing?
I have a cell cam over a feed in both central and southern IA. Dont have a pic of a shed buck yet. Between the two cams the past couple weeks probably have atleast 20 different bucks on them. I use to start shed hunting in January, but now dont start until a week into february. Would find a few in January, but way to much walking etc. Better to wait a couple weeks yet.
 
side note, I seem to have a really high number of bucks on my farm this winter and ive only had one picture of a buck that has shed so far. I’m very confident that 80-90% of the bucks are still holding on me. It’s still just a touch early but still that seems pretty high for this time of year.

What’s everyone else seeing?
I’ve been monitoring two different groups of 6-10 bucks on two separate farms that have been pretty regular over the past few weeks. Not one of them had dropped in either group as of a few days ago. I’ve just started to notice a few dinks being shed on my trail cams and one nice 4 year old shed both sides in the last 2 days. I’d say 90% plus still holding by me in South central IA
 
I never saw or got a picture of this buck so I couldn't tell you if it was injured. After finding the 1st side I walked the property approx. every 10-14 days to try to match him up. I've always wondered if the messed up right side had anything to do with the early drop?
 
I already have 7 antlers this year...first one shed December 8th... Last night I did have 5 bucks with both sides, all dinks..nothing over 110" with a rack in the plots...
 
I never saw or got a picture of this buck so I couldn't tell you if it was injured. After finding the 1st side I walked the property approx. every 10-14 days to try to match him up. I've always wondered if the messed up right side had anything to do with the early drop?
Did you have pics of him carrying the 2nd antler for that long?
 
I typically find around 20-30 sheds per spring on my farm so I guess that’s around 80-100 over the last 4 years and it seems like very rarely if ever do I find both sides laying together. It’s probably happened but I don’t remember it.

side note, I seem to have a really high number of bucks on my farm this winter and ive only had one picture of a buck that has shed so far. I’m very confident that 80-90% of the bucks are still holding on me. It’s still just a touch early but still that seems pretty high for this time of year.

What’s everyone else seeing?
Last we looked, 8 bucks with 7 full racks and one half rack
 
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