early drop

[moosehound]

Killed this buck on Friday of muzzleloader season. Doing some still hunting, I caught him standing on the edge of a bedding area. It was about 100 yard shot and he went about 15 yards and tipped over.

Little bummed when I got up to him and noticed he wasn't a doe. His front right hoof had been scraped badly and was swollen about 3x the normal size. Looked like a fresher wound. Hit by vehicle? Wasn't any damage to his body. My guess is after running does the last month and then add in the injury he wasn't going to make it anyway.

Looked like he had just dropped there was still fresh blood in the cavities. We tried to find the antlers but no luck.

Still very glad I got more venison for the freezer.

[Stanley]

Pretty early for sure.

[solocam88]

Looks like he had some big bases

[ Post made via Android ]

[dan]

Well that sucks... With a hurt foot, he should of made it just fine. I see some deer shed in December every year. Dave shot 1 a couple years ago while we were hunting the holiday hunt about 20 minutes after I warned him that bucks may have already shed.

[moosehound]

Looks like he had some big bases

[ Post made via Android ]

They were. Guessing he was 3 1/2.

[moosehound]

Well that sucks... With a hurt foot, he should of made it just fine. I see some deer shed in December every year. Dave shot 1 a couple years ago while we were hunting the holiday hunt about 20 minutes after I warned him that bucks may have already shed.

Yeah.....Just trying to convince myself he wouldn't have. I need to remember to start taking more pictures. His hoof looked like someone took a knife and sliced the top 1/3 of it clean off. It also looked like the coyotes had been chasing him around.

Never thought a buck would have been shed that early.

[Uncle Lou]

shootem and eatem (or fill the freezer).

Congrats.

[headgear]

This happens all the time in northern mn during muzzy season, late nov to early dec. A bud of mine shot an 8 point and by the time they tracked him he lost both of them. They were able to recover the horns but that was around Dec 1 several years back. With winter coming on strong this year I suspect a lot of them have dropped already.