2020 sheds
 

Anyone out looking / or found any sheds yet?

I'm still seeing bucks with their headgear on.
Haven't found a shed yet (But not looking very hard either)

Everything I'm watching has still got their antlers. I seldom see any Deer drop here before mid Feb.

Craig

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Saw 3 nice whitetail bucks yesterday along the highway all 3 still had both sides

I have some mule bucks at the house and the have horns still hoping they drop them where I can find them

I started looking pretty hard early last year and only found a precious few. Wasn’t quite worth the gas and effort. Ah who am I kidding? Yeah it was! Haven’t seen anything that has dropped yet but I know one guy who has picked three so far. With this cold snap, a guy might see a few on the ground though.

I’d personally wait until March, give the deer a break.
They don’t need to be pushed around in the bush, it just stresses them out and burns needed calories. March is a good bet that most have dropped. With the odd deer still holding.

Passed through the Rochester area on the weekend seen several Mule bucks with their head gear attached.

BW

Mulie buck in tuner valley dropped when I saw him yesterday, found one 4 point shed in the mountains while I was working the dog for blue grouse, no grouse but did end up seeing the whitetail that dropped it, still rocking the other side. NW of Calgary one of my rancher friends has started finding fresh ones in the bales... I’ll try and get a photo up

Hope this works...

Are you going to find the match and mount them?

Yeah I agree, if anyone does go out good idea to only hit the feeding areas.

if this cold snap doesn't last and the majority of the province has a mild winter I think you will be seeing a lot of bucks carrying into March, especially mulies.

Had three bucks in my back yard last night and all three still had both antlers.


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Didn’t plan on it

Î know a few people who have done this but I personally think you get more enjoyment from just tying them together and hanging them on a nail...or putting them on a shelf/table.
I’ll give you an example of what I mean...
I have a shoulder mount of a 220” nontypical whitetail on the wall and with it, sheds of his from previous years. Although friends and visitors do spend time looking at the mount...they spend as much, if not more time looking at and handling his sheds.
And right next to the aforementioned mount, I have the sheds of another whitetail that are from a 225” buck, along with a trail cam pic of him, and more sheds of his from previous years. People spend way more time inspecting, comparing, turning them over, holding them out as they would be on the deer’s head, comparing them to the trail cam pics of the buck...than they do at any of my mounts.
Sheds are just fun to hold and play with!!!

This!!!
At this time of year, try to find the easy ones...farmers haystacks, grain piles, and feeding fields. And try to do it midday when the deer are back in cover.
Last but not least, please make sure you obtain permission first before going out to look on private land!!! My neighbour has already had complete strangers walking into his backyard this week to go look around his grain pile. He was not impressed!

Was bugging old bitterroot after him mounting sheds on a skull and trying to pass them off as buck he killed.

Any of the buck's I have seen still have their head gear intact, Bentley area. first week of January. D.H.

Usually the only sheds you will find at this time off the year are moose sheds.

This cold snap might help speed up the shedding

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ae1d8f26d5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d0158157f5.jpg

Found this on a nice rub line a while back.

Saw four or five whitetail bucks between Marwayne and Cold lake on the 14th all had both Antlers still

Ain't got nuttn to do with it.

Around here, alot have already shed but we,re nut deep in snow and no one I know is looking yet.

Has a lot to do with it...

Out of curiosity, what is it you think that causes deer to drop their antlers?

God only knows but it ain't the cold!!

No, God isn’t the only one who knows, lol.


Here, read this, it will help you understand what’s going on.

https://www.qdma.com/causes-early-antler-casting/


The reason the cold effects antlers shedding is because they become nutritionally stressed, their body uses the food energy to stay warm, causing testosterone levels to drop, and in turn the antlers drop.

Yes...and no...
My 2 cents...
There are many factors that dictate the shedding of antlers...extreme cold weather is one of them but not the main one. If that was the case...I would have seen “bald bucks” during a few cold November’s where there were extended periods of cold weather as severe as what we are experiencing now. And in 35 years of hunting, I’ve never seen a shed buck in November, no matter how cold it got.
I’m very fortunate to live very close to an area which is an annual deer wintering and feeding ground...so I get to watch deer almost every day after hunting season. Some bucks I have watched for up to 6 years...and there are certain things I have noticed. The actual physical condition of bucks coming into winter seems to be what most influences the shedding of antlers. I have found antlers in December from some of the deer I observe....and there was always one common denominator with those extremely early shedding bucks...they were in poor physical shape at the end of November. A few of them were old timers that were past their peak and looked skinny and unhealthy...and a few were bucks that were wounded or had sustained injuries. And for most of those deer that dropped in December, it ended up being their last winter...they never showed up again in following years. The few that did return the year after having shed super early....had severely decreased in antler size.
For sure cold can be hard on deer...but our northern deer have adapted over time and are built for it. I have watched groups of bucks go through stretches of extreme cold weather in December and January but still not start dropping antlers much before late February and into March. So cold wasn’t much of a factor those particular years.
I think lack of nutrition along with deep snow after the rut when they are trying to recuperate might be bigger negative factors. They stress and adversely affect a buck’s health or ability to recuperate. Deep snow is the one factor that seems to negatively affect deer the most in my area. Not only do they have to work harder to move to and from bedding to feeding...they also expend more energy having to find and work to reach food through the snow. It also seems the coyotes harass the deer more in times of deep snow...causing even more stress on the latter.
I have never seen noticeably earlier antler shedding from cold weather alone..but the few winters where general antler shedding seemed earlier than usual were always winters with noticeably deeper snow cover than usual.
I’m not saying that cold isn’t a factor...I just don’t think cold alone to be as big a negative impact or physical drain to a buck’s health as deep snow and lack of good nutrition can be.

Yup .. has a ton to do with it .. stress / weather / feed / age