Saw a shedded buck

[Monster Raxx]

My buddy filmed one when we were hunting in Iowa.

[PLB]

Christmas time is pretty normal in the Northwoods.

[JoeRE]

Ahh don't I don't want to hear that! Late muzzy starts tomorrow for me!

On the bad winters its pretty hard for me to find a buck with antlers still on when it gets close to January 10th around here, the end of late muzzy season. On the mild winters, like last year, most bucks kept their antlers till close to the end of January. The latest I have seen a hard antler on a deer was April 17th, it was a little half rack and I am not sure what was going on there....must have been something wrong in that instance. I have seen a few in March, including a couple last year with the mild winter.

The earliest I have seen bucks shed...I am not sure, definitely have seen a few by this time of the year over 15 years of hunting late season. The vast majority of bucks I have seen shed in December were not healthy, most had a leg shot out from under them and the antlers drop off in short order after that. Put down two big 4.5+ year old shed bucks last year around the holidays that were just about done in, one with a bullet still in his broken shoulder and the other with a hind leg just about shot off.

I am curious if I will see more shed bucks this season just because it seemed to be such an intense rut around here and bucks may be more worn down than usual....hard to prove that though.

[Schultzy]

2 years ago when we had a bad winter (lots of snow and cold) bucks were still carrying late yet. I haven't seen a correlation yet with bad winters and bucks dropping early.

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Seen a hunting video a couple years back where a guy shot this huge 160 plus buck and when he grabbed the rack for the hero interview the right side came off in his hand!! You should have seen that guys mouth drop open!!!

A couple winters ago, I was finding sheds in December/January when we actually had a winter that year

[BigHills BuckHunter]

I had a trail cam up several years ago overlooking a small plot. Had a buck come in with one antler and got a dozen pics of him. Then the antler fell off in front of the camera. I was pretty excited to see a nice 5 point shed laying in front of the trail cam when I checked it. This was January 7th 2010. The buck had a broken leg from the year before.

[JoeRE]

I have personally shot two bucks in the late muzzy season that had both their antlers come off when they went down, I have heard of it happening to a couple other people too. Don't remember exact dates but it was around the holidays, both were wounded from shotgun season though. Nothing a couple screws couldn't fix