Antlers Fly Off After Buck Shot During PA Deer Drive - NW PA Hunting Stories

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Question For The Community
25 Comments
43 Upvotes
  • Joseph's avatar

    Damn. That’s kinda early for them to start dropping.

  • David's avatar

    that's what I thought at least for the area I'm in I've never heard of one this early. that's why I wanted to ask just curious.

  • John's avatar

    @Joseph thats what i was thinking too..

  • Wade's avatar

    Sometimes they’ll run into a tree and knock them off. I’ve had them do it in bow season before

  • David's avatar

    right on! clean off like that though? did they break or the whole antler came off like that?

  • Eric's avatar

    David, I too am from NW PA. It’s probably pushing 10-12 years ago now, but a fella I used to work with was showing me pictures of a big buck he had on camera. The deer lost its first antler about a week before Christmas, and the other was gone within a couple days. Anyway, both antlers were shed by Christmas. I’m an avid shed hunter, and I always seem to find a mid January shed, but I put a lot of miles on to get it. And then I typically don’t find another one until March when the snow starts to taper off.

  • David's avatar

    right on thanks for your input! I know around here it's usually winter time just thought this guy was early. keep after them sheds they're fun to find you can learn a lot from shed hunting!

  • Tyler's avatar

    Always early to mid December here in my part of Missouri.

  • Wes's avatar

    I found a fresh shed once on December 10th.

  • T.D.'s avatar

    Did you notice if the deer had any prior injuries? We had a deer shed early one year and the only thing we could come up with was bc of the injury he got in bow season

  • Marc's avatar

    There have been some pics of deer in NH that have dropped as of a week ago

  • Justin's avatar

    I have heard if they have an injury the will shed them early.

  • David's avatar

    actually he did loose one of his dew claws and his hoof was all swollen and infected... I never gave that a thought but just made me curious to what others have seen I know there's a wide range of time for them to drop and circumstances but I appreciate the input have a good night

  • Ice Fishing's avatar

    Something similar happened to me around this day last year, but I think it was from the buck slamming its head on the ground after it got hamstrung by coyotes. There’s a pic and story in my trophy section. Crazy stuff. Antlers came right off, no blood or anything.

  • Shayna's avatar

    Did he have an injury? They shed early sometimes due to that. Like T.D. mentioned.

  • Brant's avatar

    It’s all about stress, I chased this guy 2020 in PA and he had a very very hard rut, front shoulder injury I assume from fighting and continued to chase extremely extremely hard (I believe he was a 3 year old at the time). He dropped his antlers around first week of rifle. He was around a 150” 14 point that year.

  • Fraternal's avatar

    Myself and a buddy both had the same thing happen to us a couple seasons ago in late November. His had lost one before he shot and lost the other while we were hanging him, mine the antlers were laying under him when I got up to him.

  • Fraternal's avatar

    @Fraternal north central PA

  • Samuel's avatar

    Same. NE PA, 12/1. Maybe the warmer Temps and lack of acorns? Gypsy moths hit the area pretty hard

  • David's avatar

    nice buck!

  • Wade's avatar

    @Tyler I’ve never understood why those deer shed so early. I stopped coming on late hunt because of it

  • David's avatar

    gypsy moths are no good

  • Jesse's avatar

    That’s not unheard of. I’m in potter county and it’s typical for a few to shed in rifle season. It’s more prominent to happen on a year the food might be a little tougher to find. The years we have good feed, they tend to hold a little longer. I passed one last week that was shed.

  • Tyler's avatar

    @Wade always early December here

  • Robert's avatar

    Last of February in Alabama

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David's avatar

David B

Pennsylvania

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