Antler Drop Question

[----]

Ok, in over 27 years of horn hunting in the mid west, (mainly MN) Canada, Alaska and for the last 16 of those 27 here in MT, this is what I've learned:

Whitetail: Shedding will vary through out a herd and under certain situations may vary from year to year. Stress will expedite shedding, like extreme snowfall or food supply. I asked a MN state biologist why it seemed that the bucks in the southern part of the state shed their antlers earlier than the bucks in the northern part of the state. He told me that as near as they have studied to date that the food intake was the determining factor. The southern deer ate corn which caused them to drop sooner that the deer in the north fed primarily on browse. I haven't seen any factual proof of this but it sounds like a good theory. I've found no consistency as far as the size of buck dropping from large to small. I've found very small sheds in Dec. and I've found very large sheds freshly dropped in March. As a rule the shedding will occur when the testosterone level drops which is triggered by the amount of daylight and the same is true for the shedding of velvet in late summer/early fall. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but in all my years of observing deer or elk as far as that goes I've never seen a buck or a bull with antlers anywhere with a full hard horned rack in late May or June. I would say the peek of whitetail shedding late Jan. early Feb. in the northern tear states and Canadian provinces.

Elk: Of all the animals in the North American deer family the elk is the most consistent when shedding from large to small. The earliest I've heard of a bull shedding here in MT was Feb. 5th, that shed weighed 15#s. Right now (later Feb.) the large bulls are dropping and will be through late march and all the way down to spike which I've seen into the middle of May. In the third week of April in '97 I picked up a matched 300 class six point. A few minutes later I glassed three large bulls (one of which I'm sure was the bull that dropped sheds I had just picked up) all with antler growth beyond their bez points, then I panned down the ridge and glassed a number of rag horns and spike that were sill holding. To answer the question about an elk with so much antler mass being able to grow it at the same rate as a deer, consider the body size difference. A bull elk can grow up to 2" of antler in day during periods in June.

Moose: All of the bull moose I've observed dropped their antlers in Dec. through the first part of Jan. That goes for here in MT, MN, Canada and Alaska. Moose are alot like the whitetail as far as shedding from large to small, no consistency.

I completely agree with almost everything said here, the whitetail and elk match up perfectly with my experience.

It's interesting to me to hear you say with whitetail that size doesn't really matter, because I've always thought the opposite until this year. I went on a hike the first week of June and picked up some tiny brown horns and saw a couple toads still carrying. I also watched a 150 inch buck still carrying first week of February near Augusta, that surprised me.

The only thing I don't really agree with is Moose. I've seen little bulls carrying through February, although I've seen and heard of them shedding in December also. mtlion and I saw two bulls the first week of February that were still carrying 3/4 horns. They weren't huge but they weren't yearlings either.

 

[mtlion]

mtlion and I saw two bulls the first week of February that were still carrying 3/4 horns. They weren't huge but they weren't yearlings either.

Ya we know exactly how big one of them was. Randy11 backtrailed them like a blood hound and picked up the hours old shed.