clay said:
we have had some in the wild after they have been shoot ( nj ) in the 6 day firearm seson that had some pop off when we were draging them out ( dec 3-8 ) some say its how hard they breed ???? dont know ?
Clay he will be ok.......better they pop out early than the ones that hang on late and cause all kinds of problems....
had a shooter buck drop one side in the trailer last week, what a way to get to stay around for another year
Joined Oct 2009
3,165 Posts | 1+
upstate ny
I shot a buck this year that had shed one side. He had infection under the skin between the pedicles.
Also heard of a deer farmer that sedated bucks recently to send to the preserve and one side fell off when they moved him. They found infection under the skin when they caped him out.
What could be causing this???
Also heard of a deer farmer that sedated bucks recently to send to the preserve and one side fell off when they moved him. They found infection under the skin when they caped him out.
What could be causing this???
It doesnt surprise me. so far I think everything has came early this year. From fawns to antlers dropping, to even the weather. Could be such a thing as from the weather being so extreme this year in parts of the country (it was here atleast) that maybe antlers just didnt grow as strong as usual.
Ben I agree with you 100%, things seem to be all going early this year! No reason why antlers falling off wouldn't follow suit.
-Johnny B
-Johnny B
Joined Aug 2009
432 Posts | 0+
Illinois
I have one yearling that has shed one side and one that is done with both sides today. Our wonderful Illinois conservation dept. has a anterless only season in the middle of January! Ridiculous! I just cant figure out how and why hunters let this happen. Maybe im the only one that doesnt want to shoot everything? I sent a letter and will let you know if there is a response. I just wish I had wrote it sooner!
Current studies strongly suggest a linkage to early casting(sheds) with decreasing testosterone levels post rut, along with doe estrus cycles...Alpha bucks, or the more dominant bucks appear to be the most susceptible. Unbred does continue to release pheromones, while the bucks, mostly in free-ranging deer, are cutting nutritional intake, and responding to photoperiod late into rut, or post-rut...meaning nutritional stress is a factor. Generally, these early casting incidents are isolated, and vary from region to region...other anecdotal evidence includes injury, or physiological anomaly. So we're back to same song, different verse...whether free-ranging, or farmed deer, the best insurance is to keep them on feed, balanced to the best extent, to keep from robbing other energy partitions...
These idiots here in SD have the same thing, LATE "doe" season. The last 7 out of ten people I let go and shoot a doe actually ended up shooting button bucks. I've observed that button bucks are usually the first ones out to feed so if your out in the cold and the first antlerless deer comes out alone which chances are is going to be a button buck, guess what happens, dead button buck. I now only let a few kids hunt does and its always with me with them just to make sure it really is a doe. One of my good friends has one of the buisiest wild game proccessing places in the state and it makes me sick when I walk in and see all the old bucks that have shed and the button bucks hanging in the locker during the late "doe" season. Now the Game Fish & Parks throws in free processing vouchers if you donate the deer to the "hungry" so it's become the norm to go out and shoot does like prairie dogs just for something to shoot. Most of the public ground has very few deer left because of it, both from people shooting them and the added pressure of more people pushing them to places where no one can get to them. I'm certain when most people send in the comment card after killing there "doe" they will mark that they harvested a doe even when its a button buck so they won't look stupid. The public land will only be as good as the public will let it be and that is usually not worth a $#!@... I'm certain that's why the future of high fence hunting is going to become more popular, way too many over educated under experienced "biologists" ruining the quality deer populations all across the country. This BS that is getting preached by the QDMA telling everyone to shoot so many does is rediculious in most places. In the midwest the deer live in unlimited food sources, the last thing I want my bucks doing is running over to the neighbors looking for does so they get shot at 2-3 years old. If shooting more does makes the bucks move more then wouldn't it make for MORE car collisions if the bucks are having to travel twice as far to find a doe, maybe this is why the car wrecks stay high and people in some places aren't seeing as many deer????
Well my take on why they bring that late deer season in is to make sure the does are all bred and when a hunter shoots a doe they are killing 2 3 and in some cases they are killing 4 deer at once . Their way of lowering the deer count for the up coming year .
Missouri had a late season antler less but have now changed it so that it is November 27-December 8 before the bucks loss their racks and they have a 4 pnt rule meaning the buck must have 4 pnt on 1 side to be legal but still think they need to put a limit on the number of tags they sell doe and buck
Bruns Island Whitetails said:
1st one shed a couple days ago.
Illinois late doe season is a joke, should be outlawed. After all of the ehd loss in the area this year. Hunters not seeing many if any deer but still killing one if they do see it's just wrong. We are in for hard times in this part of IL as far as the hunting goes for years to come.
Oh guys, don't get me started...wait, you already have, ie ''Illinois' late season doe hunt''
I've been an outfitter(free range) in Illinois for 23 years. In the course of that 23 years Illinois has received millions and millions of dollars from non resident hunters, due to one thing and one thing ONLY...the whitetail buck that resides within her boundaries! And yet they fall WAY SHORT of doing anything to significantly protect the resource that is soley responsible for ushering in all this money. In fact, they are doing things that actually impede the protection thereof of our unique and incredibly valueable resource.
ILLINOIS - Are you ignorant...or just plain stupid...or, are your pockets getting padded somehow or other by the insurance companies that the protection of these other monies don't matter.
I'm in total agreement with sdbigbucks and have never agreed or adhered to the mind set that we need to kill off our does in order to have bigger and better bucks, not here in the midwest anyway where food is more than adequate!
BUT...if Illinois is determined, by whatever influence, be it ignorance, stupidity, insurance companies, or a combination of all three, then how about this?.........
Let's have our doe season in early October. This accomplishes 4 very important things:
1) Less button bucks will be shot because the longer winter hair is not yet present, hence making the ''buttons'' more distinguishable without the longer hair to cover them up.
2) NO CHANCE of a buck being shot as a doe because of an early shedding of his antlers.
3) The bucks will not have wasted their energies chasing and breeding these does for nothing, as in the case when these does are shot late winter.
4) And last but certainly not least, there will be more kids involved in the hunt if it's early and not late, hence escaping the normal harsh weather conditions of winter. If we don't get our youth started, we sooner than you think won't have to worry about our seasons...the late ones or the early ones!
Another thing Illinois needs to incorporate is an antler restriction of some kind. So many hunters that shoot the forkeys and the little yearling sixes amd eights will tell you they dont care about the horns, that they just want the meat. I say, then shoot a doe, and in order to protect the resource so should the State say that, and so should the insurance company. You say''Why the insurance company?'' When someone shoots a doe, at any time of the year, early, late, or somewhere inbetween, they are actually killing/taking 3 deer out of the woods and/or off the roadside.
So...forcing that meat hunter to shoot a doe instead of that little buck satifiies everyone's interests!
I just recently finished up a hunt with some clients over this last weekend. I'm in Joe Daviess County, which becasue CWD was discovered within it's boundaries last year, we are allowed to shoot bucks with unfilled gun tags during our 2 late season doe hunts.
We shot 15 deer: 1 nice buck(I'm happy to report with antlers), 7 does(one of which I happen to check when gutting, she had twin bucks inside her), 6 button bucks, and 1 buck that was already shed out that was AT LEAST 3 years old according to his body, his feet(hoof wear), and his silver dollar sized pedicles. To sum up our hunt - Nearly half of our deer killed were to a signicantly measure ''wasted''.
I've already written a letter to the State expressing the above, and I encourage all of you to do the same. Maybe it is more of a lack of knowledge(ignorance), of which we can fix.
But if the problem with the State is more of the ''pocket padding'' nature of a certain few, or of it's stupidity, then unfotunately, it's hard to fix either of those...greed or stupidity!
Bruns Island - Good for you in writing that letter, and I agree, we ALL should have jumped on this with both feet along time ago!!!
Thanking God often that there is more to life than deer...there really is guys!
I've been an outfitter(free range) in Illinois for 23 years. In the course of that 23 years Illinois has received millions and millions of dollars from non resident hunters, due to one thing and one thing ONLY...the whitetail buck that resides within her boundaries! And yet they fall WAY SHORT of doing anything to significantly protect the resource that is soley responsible for ushering in all this money. In fact, they are doing things that actually impede the protection thereof of our unique and incredibly valueable resource.
ILLINOIS - Are you ignorant...or just plain stupid...or, are your pockets getting padded somehow or other by the insurance companies that the protection of these other monies don't matter.
I'm in total agreement with sdbigbucks and have never agreed or adhered to the mind set that we need to kill off our does in order to have bigger and better bucks, not here in the midwest anyway where food is more than adequate!
BUT...if Illinois is determined, by whatever influence, be it ignorance, stupidity, insurance companies, or a combination of all three, then how about this?.........
Let's have our doe season in early October. This accomplishes 4 very important things:
1) Less button bucks will be shot because the longer winter hair is not yet present, hence making the ''buttons'' more distinguishable without the longer hair to cover them up.
2) NO CHANCE of a buck being shot as a doe because of an early shedding of his antlers.
3) The bucks will not have wasted their energies chasing and breeding these does for nothing, as in the case when these does are shot late winter.
4) And last but certainly not least, there will be more kids involved in the hunt if it's early and not late, hence escaping the normal harsh weather conditions of winter. If we don't get our youth started, we sooner than you think won't have to worry about our seasons...the late ones or the early ones!
Another thing Illinois needs to incorporate is an antler restriction of some kind. So many hunters that shoot the forkeys and the little yearling sixes amd eights will tell you they dont care about the horns, that they just want the meat. I say, then shoot a doe, and in order to protect the resource so should the State say that, and so should the insurance company. You say''Why the insurance company?'' When someone shoots a doe, at any time of the year, early, late, or somewhere inbetween, they are actually killing/taking 3 deer out of the woods and/or off the roadside.
So...forcing that meat hunter to shoot a doe instead of that little buck satifiies everyone's interests!
I just recently finished up a hunt with some clients over this last weekend. I'm in Joe Daviess County, which becasue CWD was discovered within it's boundaries last year, we are allowed to shoot bucks with unfilled gun tags during our 2 late season doe hunts.
We shot 15 deer: 1 nice buck(I'm happy to report with antlers), 7 does(one of which I happen to check when gutting, she had twin bucks inside her), 6 button bucks, and 1 buck that was already shed out that was AT LEAST 3 years old according to his body, his feet(hoof wear), and his silver dollar sized pedicles. To sum up our hunt - Nearly half of our deer killed were to a signicantly measure ''wasted''.
I've already written a letter to the State expressing the above, and I encourage all of you to do the same. Maybe it is more of a lack of knowledge(ignorance), of which we can fix.
But if the problem with the State is more of the ''pocket padding'' nature of a certain few, or of it's stupidity, then unfotunately, it's hard to fix either of those...greed or stupidity!
Bruns Island - Good for you in writing that letter, and I agree, we ALL should have jumped on this with both feet along time ago!!!
Thanking God often that there is more to life than deer...there really is guys!
Sorry Crocket never saw your response back to me......I honestly don't know why they drop early sometimes.......I know it can happen when their over stressed or at least that is what I have been told.........but I really dnt know for sure.....
crocket said:
Hey Crockett - As it pertains to antlers falling off, all things given the same, some drop early, some drop late, it's an individual thing.
Abnormally low nourishment levels, infections and/or some other kind of health issues are what cause them to drop earlier than a certain buck's individual normal time.