Dropping bone

[JoeRE]

A ton of bucks have lost their antlers already seems to me. I have been hunting the late muzzleloader season in IA...as of new years, close to half the bigger bucks have shed already. We have a fair bit of snow but not THAT much, 2010 we had 2 feet on the ground this time of year and they weren't shedding quite like this! Is that what everyone else is seeing?

Unless we get lots of snow in December, most hold their antlers till at least mid January or so here.

Everything seemed early this year locally, the rut overall, leaf drop, the fall in general...maybe the bucks don't know it is only the first week of January

[UntouchableNess]

I'm hearing similar stories about an early shed on-set. I've wondered whether the forage quality was poorer this year due to the drought, stressing them earlier.

I might pull trail cam cards this weekend, but was hoping to hold off until a week after all seasons close on Jan 10. Though I doubt many are hunting anymore in my area.

[Dewey]

Not good news for me since I am still buck hunting!

It's not really unusual though for bucks that ran hard during the rut. Especially since the rut this year seemed pretty intense at least around my area.

Last year around this time I had two mature bucks under my stand that had shed already. Why couldn't they do that with horns?

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[lynchpin]

NE iowa

Was hunting and filming two nights ago and came across a 2.5 year with half rack and my hunting buddy saw two shed bucks over the past weekend... Not uncommon... But seem to be seeing more than usual this year.

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