Time for the Annual Early Shed Thead
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Zbone
25-Dec-17
I'll start it this year... Seen a shed buck today, he was carrying both sides a few days ago, but has now cast both sides... He hung around the backyard for a while during late summer and early fall but disappeared during rut but showed up again shortly after gun season... I suspect the gunners around the area pushed him back into the neighborhood...Attached is a photo of him in October... As can see he's a freak rack due to a healed over broken front left leg which likely caused the character... I was looking at him the other night and he now he looks skinny and the broke leg as really swelled and worsened, and suspect reason for early shedding.... Am curious if he'll survive the winter...
From: t-roy
26-Dec-17
I’ve seen a few with one side missing here in Iowa.
From: skipmaster1
26-Dec-17
I saw a deer get hit by a car on Saturday as I pulled out of one of my hunting properties. I stopped to help drag the deer off the road. I realized it was a freshly shed buck. I went back later with a brighter flashlight to look for the antlers and to get my buddy to age the deer by tooth wear. The deer was* 5.5-6.5 years old. We thought the accident may have knocked the sheds loose but couldn't find them. I eventually found them by following a deer trail that sort of paralleled the road. They were 50 yards away on either side of the trail, where the deer jumped a stone wall. He lost them and got hit a minute later. Not how I want to find sheds, especially from deer using property I hunt.
From: Charlie Rehor
26-Dec-17
Shedding, So sad, but I still have 3 weeks of the BEST whitie hunting left to go:)
From: Scrappy
26-Dec-17
T-roy stop talking like that I still have my late season tag to fill.
From: t-roy
26-Dec-17
Me too, scrappy!
Charlie....I was scared to death this guy’s antlers were gonna come off in my hands, loading him up in the truck! January 6th.
From: ROUGHCOUNTRY
26-Dec-17
Yep, my buddy picked up this big set in eastern Montana while ice fishing yesterday.......they look like they've been there for a little while too.
From: fubar racin
26-Dec-17
earliest iv found a shed was a whitetail shed on jan 23 but iv seen alot of 1 antlered forky mule deer durring our early december seasons just never gound them.
From: Huntingpooch
26-Dec-17
Shed one side already
Shed one side already
This one dropped one side on or before Dec 11th. Was hoping to get a crack at him during late season but will have to wait until next year now.
From: Scrappy
26-Dec-17
I know the feeling T-roy, I took this one the morning of January 10th this past season. Fully expected him to knock them off after the shot.
From: Scrappy
26-Dec-17
From: t-roy
26-Dec-17
Nothing like waiting till the last possible minute! Congrats. A good taxidermist can fix em, though.
From: M.Pauls
26-Dec-17
Picked up one side this past week here in MB.
From: EmbryOklahoma
26-Dec-17
An old tax attorney acquaintance of mine arrowed a buck in late December, up in NW Oklahoma. On its death run, it knocked off one side. Just like it had shed it. It would've netted (typical) in the upper 180s and at the time would've been the state record. It would've been short lived as state record, as it was topped 3 more times by another bow kill and then two gun kills (190s) a few years later.
From: LINK
27-Dec-17
LINK's Link
From: t-roy
27-Dec-17
I think his beer must’ve gone bad in the hydration bladder.
I did like his backpack, though. Is that the new Eberlestock mylittlepony XP?
From: LINK
27-Dec-17
I think that was a Tenzing pack... Bill Busbice Special.
From: Elkhorn
28-Dec-17
Found one today looks like it was there for a few days. Long beams and fairly wide.
From: Zbone
01-Jan-18
Little forky behind the house showed up on December 31 with one side shed...
From: ROUGHCOUNTRY
03-Jan-18
My buddy is tearing up the early droppers in eastern MT
From: bumpinblaze4x4
09-Jan-18
Found the left half of my 2017 target buck yesterday in addition to two other fresh sheds. I had a picture of him on 12/31 as a half rack so i spent a few hours scouring that small area yesterday and found his left side and two others. His left side measures right around 74"; high hopes for next year!
From: Zbone
15-Jan-18
"Little forky behind the house showed up on December 31 with one side shed..."
He show again last night still carrying one fork... Interestingly, I think most bucks shed both side within a couple days of each side, but this little guy is still hanging in there...
From: bumpinblaze4x4
15-Jan-18
Zbone: That's my experience too. My buddy was scouting a field friday evening (from the road) (season in IL ended yesterday) and saw his target buck feeding on greens. When he went to his stand saturday afternoon he found one side and found the other side 75 yards away on sunday.
That said, I have pictures of a buck 3 weeks ago that had dropped his left side, as i went through the camera he still had the right side on his head 11 days later. You never really know. In my experience if bucks are left unpressured they will usually drop both sides within 100 yards but that is mainly due to winter feeding/bedding patterns. I still think most bucks drop both sides within 48 hours.
From: Zbone
15-Jan-18
"I still think most bucks drop both sides within 48 hours."
Yeah,I kinda agree and always thought that too until last year when one in the backyard carried one side for almost another month and now this little forky carrying over 2 weeks... Learned long time ago, never say never when it comes to whitetails...8^)
From: Zbone
15-Jan-18
Day off today for the holiday and too cold for me (now days to hunt) so catching up a little inside and pulled backyard trail cam card which batteries been dead for months and found this guy... November 26, earliest I come across here locally...
