bucks still have horns?!?!

A couple weeks ago i did a post about finding a little spike horn in the Goose island county park south of LaCrosse and seeing hornless and one horned bucks. Tuesday I was coming back from fishing yellowstone and had a basket rack 6-8 bounce across hwy 11 just west of Monroe, right in front of the truck.
yesterday I went out shed hunting in NW illinois where i do a little deer hunting. Found a steamin’ FRESH rub on a 5″ tree about 3 ft. off the ground. A hundred yds up the trail this bruiser comes busting out. Heavy rack, and he still had both horns. Things which make you go hmmmm….

Ted, I too seen a fresh scrape on saturday last weekend. Thought that was kinda odd, but maybe not…

big g

a couple years ago i live in kentucky in the cincinatti area and i seen an 8 pointer 4 x 4 in april im pretty sure it was april 13. i was totally freaked at this discovery.

Hi,

I mentioned earlier this week that I saw a buck chasing does in my backyard.

I wonder if our easy winters of late have somehow caused the youngest does in the herd that might not have been bread in the fall to continue to cycle throughout the winter?

The bucks are always willing, so if there’s a doe out there that smells hot its game on for them.

Whitetails are so adaptable to change. It seems logical to me that their species would be some of the first to start to change with the apparent climate change – even if it’s only a few year (or decade) detour from “normal” winter weather.

Fresh scrapes and rutting activity in Minnesota during the month of February is quite odd, isn’t it?

scott

i had seen a buck last april near holmen w/ both sides, but my freind that i shed hunt w/ found his first on dec.24th of this past year. yes dec 24th

In a field across the street theres a bunch of deer of all ages. As of a week ago there was 3 bucks that still had thier racks and i’ve been seeing geese coming back up north too. Talked to a guy in southern missouri by arkansas and he said the daffodiles are coming up about a month early, a few things is for sure, winter has been short and not as intense and it didn’t go down far in the south. Theres no ice here anywhere around the river, usually theres still ice above the dam befor it goes out in late feb till march depending on the thaw plus the snows all gone. Springs close because the saps starting to run atleast a month early but this is only feburary and march has alot of surprises when it comes to snow. I think alot of deer drop thier racks when its on the very edge of turning warmer so the nutrition can go to thier new ones instead of them using it to keep thier bodys warm. Usually its around late feburary to early march when the whole herd does it here and its probably the combination of a good or bad food supply and the temperature change that has to do with the timing of dropping them. Could it be certain individuals don’t have certain things going on to hold the racks or are these deer the real healthy ones in the herd because of the food supply and genetics. I thought i saw someone on the site here say that the toms are starting to seperate from the hens too.

guess it must just be this weird, weird winter….

Yeah the warmer weather may have something to do with it.