Strange shed hunting observations

Just want to put this out there, as I have no answer. I found 13 sheds last year and about that many the year before, but only 3 this year. I have a friend that hunts and finds a lot and he's only found about 3 as well. I have some farmer friends that farm 6,000+ acres in some prime Jackson Co. deer terra. The guy that drives the spray rig found one match set in a wheat field a few weeks ago, that's it. The spreader truck driver has found none, and a few years ago he filled the floor board of the spreader truck with sheds. The farmers say some years, everywhere you go there are sheds, some years they find few to next to none. This winter there was not a lot of food in the woods late so the deer hit the fields. Everyone thought it would be easy pickings for sheds in wheat fields this spring, not so. Any ideas guys? I guess it's somehow food related other than that, we haven't a clue.

Would like to hear from Dr.D, BSK, Matt as well.

Interesting observation. Maybe they've expanded their "normal" territory where you'd find sheds in search of better food sources since this winter was a little rougher?

I'd say 100% food related unless ya'll had a huge die off.....

I saw an eight point 1 3/4 year old yesterday with both side still up...

I guess, but we hunted quite a bit in wheat fields and the farmers were spraying and spreading in them but very few were found. My friend still had some standing corn, I think he found only 1 near it. Dang mystery for sure.

were the deer hitting the wheat fields hard in Feb/Mar???

Could be hitting the honeysuckle in the woods, might try there....

Don't know how hard they were in the wheat in Feb and March. Most of my plots have a good stand of perennial clover. And the deer have been pounding them, for months. I always find a few in them, this year not a single antler. Of the 3 I've found, one was in a wide fencerow/ thicket that divides two fields, one with wheat the other cut soy beans. The other two were found in the woods on old skidder trails.

If there's been a die off, I 've not seen any and haven't heard of anyone else finding any.

I do think they are holding them a little longer this year for some reason. Had a guy tell me he saw 3 good bucks about 10 days ago and they all had both antlers. My son and I checked our plots Friday and I hunted another area in the woods yesterday and found none in the last two days. It's all a dang good mystery to me. Probably has something to do with our crazy rut this season, weird rut, weird antler shedding season.

I found one side at least a year old, and that is all I've found turkey hunting. Have a picture of a 5 pt. that has shed.
Based on this season, it could be possible that we don't have anywhere near the number of bucks we normally have.

Down here in pike and south Montgomery county area we still have our cameras out and what I'm seeing according to pictures is that a lot of our bucks seem to be droping their antlers late this year. Some have shed one side and some still have both antlers. Last weekend I got five bucks on film and I'm talking about three mature deer and all five still had their full set of antlers. On another camera I have a spike and a four point that have shed one antler each. Both of these bucks had shed a month ago on one side and they still have not dropped the other side. Unless they have this week. I've got another buck that dropped one antler about six weeks ago and he still hasn't dropped the other one. This is a bit odd to me. I've found matching sheds many times over the years within twenty yards of each other but I really don't know what's goin on with them now.

Preferred food related or availability of food related. We found quite a few this year. Found 4 in a food plot of brassicas, wheat and clover. Found a few more just outside our clover fields.

A couple weeks ago one of my neighbors saw and 8 point with 3 does. Still toting both sides. Don't they hang on longer if they are in poor condition? I figure with the poor acorn crop and the long colder than normal winter they were hurting by spring green up. Actually our woods are JUST getting green now. Honeysuckle is about 6" tall. Ladino clover just started blooming.

Until my alfalfa field got knee deep I was checking it often. I haven't found one yet. I KNOW they're wearing out the alfalfa field.

I don't know a lot about it, but this idea found it's way into my mind. We all know that genetically engineered foods affect growth and development. Could it be that these foods are affecting the hormone that causes the antlers to turn loose? More and more people are feeding these growth enhancers to their deer herd, so could that be seriously affecting the shedding season? Hey, just saying.

Actually the healthier the deer the longer they will hold their antlers within reason obviously.

How so, NightHunter? Isn't antler cast related to hormones (testosterone) and its decline after does have been bred? I know it's not good to try to simplify it that much but we're almost into May. It does seem much later than usual.

If bucks don't drop antlers until the next 10 days or so, and they don't start growing-showing for a month, would we possibly see more bucks in velvet by the time bow season opens in October?

We lost a lot of bucks up here in the north end of the county to EHD.

I've heard and read the same thing several times. Bucks in our area must be mighty healthy then, despite the cold winter with little food late.

the deer I've observed have dropped pretty much the same times/rates as normal. I saw bucks drop as early as Jan, and saw one buck with both sides last week. Most dropped in late Feb/March..pretty normal.

I don't know if a "healthier" buck will hold antlers longer as much as it is a sick/injured/run down buck will drop earlier than (what we would call) normal.

I'm with ya, ours, in normal years, seem to peek 2-3 rd week of March, with some as early as first week of Feb. and some being about now for the late droppers.

My reading on the subject continually showed that poor nutrition, being diseased, i.e. less healthy deer have a reduced testosterone level which is one of the main hormones that drive antler production and casting.

Basically, less healthy deer = less testosterone = earlier antler cast.

Not my research though...

Huh. That's interesting. Thanks.

We pretty much walked the 800 ac around our camp the last couple of weeks turkey hunting. I walked every plot,fire lanes, woods roads and woods. Even walked alot of a clearcut and found zero sheds this year. This weekend I even went walk through some of our big creek bottoms and still nothin. No more bucks in Monroe co. I guess. I noticed the same thing here at home in SW louisiana. I always find lots of sheds on our farms. This year I haven't found any and we had a late green up here. I think the critters are getting them as soon as they fall.

Bucks that are injured or sick will drop early, sometimes very early. I had a very thin buck near my place that dropped in January. I've seen northern bucks drop in Dec when sick or injured...saw a huge buck that got EHD and really never recovered lose prolly 40" off his new rack compared to the last year. He dropped in Dec, last rack was about like the one the year before(small).

critters ain't eating the antlers in a month er two......

This. They don't get 'em that quickly.

We found 6. All from around March 6th thru March 16th, including a nice matching set.

That being said, I have a new lab that I'm training to shed hunt, so I've spent a lot more time looking this year than years past. Based on no food in the woods I was really expecting to find at least one in each field, but did not. Was a little surprised.

Along the same lines (possible effects of a harsh winer with little mass crop) I killed 3 turkeys this season at our farm. Their weights were 17, 15 and 15. I've killed over 30 turkeys at our farm over the past 15 years and prior to this year only one weighed 17 pounds and it was at the end of the season and run down. Based on this I can't help but be concerned about the health of the deer. Not saying they died, but just don't expect to see good horns this year (on average). Also did have one die of EHD next to us.

If you KNOW of one EHD death, I'd bet ya'll had a LOT more than one dead from it....

I looked a couple of weeks ago for hours and didnt find a shed where i will pick up two every year in the same spot. so i dont know whats going on this year with them.

yea... unfortunately, probably so. I know a few other guys on here have mentioned some on their land near us. Seems like it hit far North central to NE Jackson Co.

with that said, i had several cameras out all season and never got a pic of what appeared to be an unhealthy deer. So did my neighbor...same for him, but he's the one that killed the deer with EHD.

I still wonder if we didn't have a Bluetongue/ EHD outbreak is some areas of the state? I think herd population is WAY down in some areas, down too much for liberal doe season to accout for it.

Didn't see or hear of any in our part of the county, may have been a few but I heard no reports. I didn't notice any that looked unhealthy last Summer or Fall.

Possibly. Stuff happens every year. Some years are worse than others, and especially in years of low rainfall in summer.

Agree, but last year was one of the wettest Summers on record. Adds to the mystery.

you most likely won't see or get pics of EHD infected deer. They feel like chitt and don't move at all. Two, four days and they are dead. Dead deer around water in Aug-Oct are more than likely EHD deaths. Dead bucks found later with very sharp beading on the antlers are also most likely EHD deaths, died in very late velvet stage...Aug/Sept.

Wet summers won't stop it, dry summers may make it worse but it has killed deer around me the last two years.

I will say this for a fact. I'm not sure how protein type feeds or natural wild browse affects the timing of a buck dropping his antlers. But it's an interesting thought because ours for the most part in Pike and south Montgomery county as I stated are certainly shedding late. Our deer have been on protein feeds for a while. Our bucks seem to be in great condition. I do believe that a bucks overall health does have a lot to do with when he sheds. That's just my thoughts. Our bucks have been eating protein type feeds for longer periods of time. Do you guys think this is why they are dropping late? So far I have not picked up a shed around our several feed troughs. I have picked up one shed after season and it was last years shed.

Tbone, if you boys are really feeding a lot of protein food , not just a bag here and there, enough to make a difference in other words, you have healthier deer. Healthier deer hold antlers longer and in your case could be a benefit of your feeding program IMO.

If they hold their antlers longer, does that mean a shorter growing period for them to put on new racks? (less development?)

No, because the antlers grow very slowly for the first month or two anyway. A healthy deer coming into antler growing season will grow better antlers than the same deer run down from winter/rut and dropping early will.

I've heard and read antler growing was like compounding interest on $, starts slow but the growth increases , more and more.

I'm thinking your right 2dogs . Yes we do feed high protein and have been a while. This seems very logical to me. Judging by what we see I believe our over all herd is in great condition . Seems this winter was pretty hard and no doubt supplemental feed seemed to have helped our herd in general. In my opinion that is most important at the time they seem to be most vulnerable to natural issues a deer goes through especially after the rut starts winding down. I've allways noticed a heavy increase in bucks both mature and young on our feed stations right after or at the ending period of the rut. That's what we refer to as post recovery. Our bucks ; and does really hit the feed hard during this time usually February and March more than any other time. I believe that is important for a good start for the following year for the deer. Every year about April when all the new growth starts the budding process I have noticed the bucks visit the protein feed less often and seems to keep this pattern through out most of the summer months. The does on the other hand seem to increase their use of supplemental feeds and tend to stay on a fairly frequent schedule at the feed stations. They seem to actually increase the time they spend at feed stations. Now I'm not saying our bucks stop using them but it's almost like they regulate them selves to just the amount they need. I am going Friday / tomorrow and check a camera that I've had out for a while. Last time I checked it was about two weeks ago and most of our bucks were still full antlered then.It will be interesting to see how many if any of those guys are still carrying their antlers. I will post again tomorrow night for you guys who might want to see what happens on our cameras. That's about it guys and thanks for reading what's going on at our place.