Bucks shedding already????

After talking this w-end with a friend in NW MN to see how their muzzleloader season went he told me he had shot what he thought was a big doe. As he walked up to it he realized it was a buck which already had shed BOTH of his antlers. He had also seen 5 smaller bucks with full headgear on that sit. Man that seems very, very early to be shedding for me and when I checked my cam this w-end I got a pic of a 1.5 year old with only one side but was unable to tell if it was shed or broke off??? I know it can happen anytime around this time of year but here in central MN I usually see bucks consistantly in April with both still intact. This has me a bit worried as I planned to finish the season up in NW MN. Anybody heard of the northern bucks dropping early????? Although I’d be happy to end with an empty tag and a good shed!

It may have beed a rare case… however I did watch an 8pt. buck last year from the end of December to March and it never shed its antlers at all, which was the first time I have ever seen one not shed at all. The buck would come up nearly every day.

In the Ely area the bucks have been shedding since Thanksgiving week. I watched three different bucks shed their antlers on one of Ely’s webcams in one morning. The second week of muzzleloader my uncle and I saw several bucks that had shed already. Seems very early for our area up there, as most years it’s not worth shed hunting until late Feb or into March. Not sure about the reason they are shedding so soon, but they are, and it would be good to get out and look for them.

some have shed already

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It may have beed a rare case… however I did watch an 8pt. buck last year from the end of December to March and it never shed its antlers at all, which was the first time I have ever seen one not shed at all. The buck would come up nearly every day.

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Definitely not a rare case. A friend from MN, just killed a 160″, mid last week in Iowa, with ML. By the time the buck hit the ground one horn fell off. The second came off, during the drag out! Happens every year, ususally to the more mature/most stressed out from rutting deer.

I have heard of four cases already. The deer are stressed from the winter and snow is what I think

Here’s what I found on the subject.

Yearly antler cycle
Antlers are the fastest growing true bone in nature. They start growing in spring and continue through late summer. While growing, antlers are soft, warm (because of the blood supply) and covered with velvet. They harden in late summer/early fall and bucks shed their velvet in response to increasing testosterone levels. Bucks then cast their antlers in late winter/early spring in response to decreasing testosterone levels. Antlers are often incorrectly referred to as “horns” but they are distinctly different. Antlers grow from the tip and are shed annually while horns grow from the base and grow for the life of the animal.

big g

I think in Iowa there has been a few thousand reported as shed already.

I had a mid 140’s (10 pt) coming to my food plot below the house and it is now missing one side. On Saturday it was intact, tonight it is gone. I’ll take a little trip around the 2 acre food plot before the snow this weekend and might get lucky.

Good luck Lazy, post a pic if you happen to locate it.

A buddy of mine was out hunting this past saturday and saw one buck in se mn that had already shed, the rest of them still had thier head gear on.

I’ve heard of several bucks in Southern Nebraska that have already shed one antler or both. We’ve had a ton of snow down here too. Maybe they are getting stressed from the early winter???

my cameras are still showing them hanging onto their antlers…