Deer shedding horns

Here in lauderdale county done seen 2 bucks with one horn missing and damn season still open. Neighbors seen one with both horns done gone . Just don t understand the thinking why we have such a loooonnng deer season ..

Seeing the same thing in Lamar Co.

I’ve got a pig of a 7pt that has already dropped both sides. I’ve got a couple of other bucks that are missing 1 side. Bullock county.
This is him 1st time I had him on camera:

This is him the night after I missed him the morning before. CNC came out and was convinced it was a clean miss. Photo confirmed that. He dropped his right antler sometime between the morning of the 29th and the evening of the 30th. He had both sides at 620am on the 29th.

This pic is from Feb. 4 missing both antlers. If you look closely, you can see the pedicle on both sides.

Yep. Seen quite a few. Bucks back in bachelor groups. There’s absolutely NO reason for the February extension in most of north AL. None at all. Start writing letters. I mean it.

I’ve seen several in Fayette, Marion and Lamar brought in to processors for the last 5-7 days.

Deer in the north loose their horns before the season is over no different than here. I've seen racked bucks chasing doe during turkey season

I actually got one on camera the other day that had done shed.

The rut is all over the place. They start a lot later where I live than 5 miles down the road from me. They're getting after it around my house now. Yes I'm in Jackson county too

I think stress can be a cause of early shedding

That’s the thing. It’s not stress induced early shedding. It’s normal shedding they go through every single year. But yes you’re right. Stress does create hormonal imbalances and early shedding can be a result.

That and poor diet and weight lose . Yeap

I know wounding one will making them drop

Antlers…..

And the rut just kicked in around here about 10 days ago.

Gotta love SW AL - the deer and turkey rut at the same time.

Who do I write letter to? I be glad to do whatever . We really need change .

Nobody says you have to hunt in February so don't hunt in February. I spend a lot of money for my hunting area and the more available days the better. All my bucks are still fully horned and had one chasing this week in north Alabama. Where I previously hunted in north Alabama, the rut was late Jan, early Feb.

Need a two week rifle season, who do I write a letter to?

When i hunted Lamar one year in early January the deer was already losing them . I think it depends on how harsh the rut is . They get run down and lose their testosterone .

Here in Missouri, 7 of the 8 bucks I had on camera yesterday were still holding both sides, only one had shed and he was a younger buck.

State data would indicate that we should be in the secondary rut period here in Marshall County but I have pics of one the last two days that dropped already.

They are dropping where im trapping at in Guntersville

Crazy situation in the Southeast with different rut dates. Just crossing the Chattahoochee River results in a 2 month difference. I am convinced it is a result of deer being imported from other areas of the country to repopulate the south years ago. It is early spring here now with azaleas blooming and the bucks are gettin after it. My brother killed a really good one with a doe on Monday morning. After hunting other areas of the country with November/December ruts, the situation here seems goofy as hell.

I’m gonna say that the combination of the hard freeze we had limiting food along with our over harvest of bucks is causing a lot of stress on the ones remaining……The only places that should even be thinking about dropping right now are areas that had a November rut

Exactly. Bottom part of the state where I'm at needs to have a season from December/January to the end of February to cover the rut. Further north they really need to close it January. Dividing up the season by zones is a great idea, but it needs to be a little more pronounced.

Some areas of North Alabama have a January rut……Its interesting looking at the data so far for the last 8 days……As you would expect the counties showing the biggest increase in harvest over this time period have been some of the southern most counties……except for Madison, Marshall, and St Clair which are running about the same rates. I’ll post the final numbers in a few days showing this.

In just the last couple years I’ve seen wide-open chasing in Jackson county on 2/10. Seems to me the extension was/is warranted. That said, I’m not an expert in the field like you, so I’ll defer. Just pointing out that our rut does extend into Feb.

What you may have been seeing is activity from the second estrous cycle in that area where the initial rut was early Jan……That’s one month later from that time frame…..That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Feb extension was warranted in that area if it was indeed the second cycle. It would be like south Alabama hunting through the end of Feb…….

What really dictates the question of “Is it warranted?” for many of these north Alabama counties…….is the question…..”Can the area handle the extra buck harvesting from hunting that many post rut days??”……For most areas I’m gonna say that answer is probably no…..or at least they would be better off long term to shut gun hunting down either Jan 15 or Jan 31 depending on the rut timing....maybe a little more accurate dividing up of the zones up there… …….Those dates I posted in the other thread did have some thought put behind them.

Whew thanks!! 🤣

We agree. Wow. You’re actually right. 😂👍

Well even a broken clock is right twice a day!😂

As long as you still believe that the answer to over harvesting bucks is to shoot does to “balance out the ratio”……then we may be agree on the problem but we still don’t on the solution.

That’s “a” solution under some circumstances. Not all.

…..and those circumstances mainly exist in a text book……In most real world situations across Alabama if an over harvest of bucks is occurring it means you need to either produce more bucks to meet the demand or reduce the amount being killed…….All that killing does will accomplish in these situations is lowering the number of bucks produced and exacerbating the problem of there not being enough to go around.

I’ve never seen a deer with horns, where y’all seeing all these at? All the deer I’ve ever seen had antlers

CNC, there are properties in AL that have moderate annual doe harvest and very little buck harvest and the balance of sex and age ratios offers phenomenal hunting opportunities. Get outside your bubble and understand that deer densities are not low everywhere. They’re actually quite high in places. The counties I primarily work have areas with very high densities. Since buck mortality is higher than doe mortality due to the stresses of breeding and fighting, some doe harvest is absolutely necessary to continue to maintain that sex and age structure.

Whether you will ever believe it or not, I’m going to state facts again. You will not recover from the consequences of having a population heavily skewed in favor of does by not killing deer. It don’t work, won’t work, never has and never will work. The population must be brought down to a level where the bucks available can breed the does in a timely window, so they’re not coming into estrous again a month later. It’s a never ending cycle that will not correct itself if bucks are being over harvested. There’s too many stresses on a population like that for it to flourish.

As for this ridiculous extension into February that has absolutely ZERO biological justification, my concern is the same as yours, and was stated before it even came into being. Bucks are already being over harvested across large areas. This isn’t the same hunting environment of the 80s through the early 2000s. Deer populations are not expanding into areas they haven’t been for decades. They’re leveling off with what the habitat and cover can support, and what people are willing to tolerate. They’re also receiving high amounts of pressure because now that the playing field is equal for the 1 acre landowner, with a feeder and cell cam, that can kill 3 bucks (and will just because they can). High buck harvest in these areas is leading to an even worse sex ratio that’s causing more stress, longer breeding seasons and higher mortality on bucks. It’s absolutely insane. I’ve watched people over the last few days and they’re literally panic killing now. They’ve waiting until February to “fill the freezer” and they’re shooting whatever they see. Shed bucks, racked bucks, does and fawns. The additional buck harvest those 10 days add to the overall annual harvest is in the hundreds of bucks per county. Not all counties, but in some. Those are bucks that otherwise would’ve been recruited into next years breeding population. They’re not now. It’s kind of like the scenario you and I debate so much and disagree on the solution. You will not correct it until the buck harvest decreases. It’s a never ending cycle.

I live back in the hills and the last 4 days have been crazy. From rut till about 5 days ago, there were very few shots being made 1-3. These last few days I heard about 6-10 every day. Of course those may not be kills, but I watch the people coming in and out and the pressure was up when the deer needed a break the most. The fact we have a 3-month deer a day season is absolutely insane.

That map is wrong. Our area of Monroe county hasn’t had a February rut in all the years we’ve been hunting there. Our records show that Jan 18-25 has been the peak time in the 10yrs we’ve been there. Only a couple good bucks have been killed on our place in the first couple days of February. Most years hardly any deer are even seen. This season the peak was Jan 25-28. It shut down completely after that. I have some friends that in Clark Co. on the Tombigbee. Their rut peaks about the time ours shuts down. Around the last week of January.

Back on topic, I'm up north of paint rock on the county line. I pulled cards this afternoon and the bucks still had both antlers here.

Also have you all seen chart?

I just dropped a buck off at the processor and they are being careful unloading them. They had 2 today that the horns pulled off dragging them out of the back of trucks.

They also pulled fetuses out of 2 does while I was there. According to the chart, they were 25 days old, both carryingtwins.. They pulled 2 yesterday that were estimated 61 days old. All deer were killed within easy driving distance from processor.

I’m gonna take the high road on this one and just let you believe what you want to believe…..I would point out though that when folks have to start resorting to personal insults its typically a pretty accurate reflection of the weakness of their argument.

What are you talking about? Personal attack?

Comments like “Wow!!.....You’re actually right!!!”…….”You need to get outside of your bubble.”………..”Whether you believe it or not……”……and so on and so forth………combative type language outside the scope of the mere “facts and data”…..I mean don’t get me wrong, I have skin of leather a saber tooth tiger couldnt knawing through at this point so its not that my feelings are hurt or anything…..But those comments just portray an arrogance about your statements that says that you don’t even entertain the thought that you might actually be the one that’s wrong……

So I’m just gonna let you believe it for now and maybe as we go down the road a little farther you’ll have a more open mind to other ideas……..I would just point out that 15-20 years ago, “the experts” were telling us you couldn’t kill too many does. The “experts” actually get it wrong a good bit…….I’m just suggesting that you crack that door open a little wider to the possibilty.

I ain’t mad at ya though……You’re still my boy……..

Oh mercy. Come on CNC. I’m simply stating that it appears you are under the impression that the entire states deer herd is getting to a low or critically low level and it’s not sustainable. That’s not the case. There’s a LOT of deer in this state. Some areas have populations as high as they’ve likely ever been since European settlement.

My “you’re right” comments were a joke. We actually agree on more than you think. I’ve been wrong a lot. When I am. I admit it. Ask my wife.

But I will say this. We both have very valid biological concerns over the sustainability of a lengthened season in areas it shouldn’t be occurring.

Good night Sam..........

So are they dropping horns or antlers?

should be dropping left horns because they aren't bringing anything constructive (other than a limp grammatical correction) to the discussion.

I think the falling of antlers and the removal of fetuses at the process is a pretty good indicator that the season (in that area) is certainly too long. By a good margin.

horns are for honking and sheep

Good grief man. It’s called a joke and lightning the mood

It’s gonna be a loong off season, I can see it already

tradbow showed up out of nowhere and has declared what an expert and how serious he is about all things deer except for proper anatomical references. Seems like a pretty important item considering horns don’t shed. It isn’t a grammatical correction it’s just fact. I thought this forum liked facts.

Retread troll

THE problem. Years ago, the Clearwater region of Idaho had a very strong population of mature bucks. The season in those days ended around Nov 20. They extended that out significantly and started allowing nonresidents to shoot two bucks a year (Unit 10A). That resulted in catastrophe and they have since corrected those mistakes but the damage is long lasting. IMO, the season should NEVER include the 2nd rut cycle. That is when the mature bucks are at their most vulnerable.

Edit: Barbour County Alabama has 5 distinct ruts. One county! How do you set season dates with that kind of mess to deal with?

Do like Louisiana did. There’s some areas here you need the season dates and a road map to know if your season is open. It may be open on the south side of a certain road and closed on the north side of the same road on the same day. You have to do some studying here before you just go hunt certain areas. Season may not be open.

This is happening here right now . 2 guy on road behind my house hunting when I came home from work. Hunting on neighbors property. Dang it almost middle feb.they will shoot whatever they see after I passed on every deer they will see. If they haven’t had enough hunting or killed one by now time find another hobby. Season been open since October 15. We are very over populated with deer in my area also . Seen 31 yesterday in one hay field . Don t think the land can substain the amount of deer we have much longer. .

One of my target bucks in south walker county dropped his 2 days ago

My bad thought we were in the serious deer talk forum?



Got it, let me post a bunch of nonsense, so you can see progression before joining some serious discussions. My bad for not letting the discussion get sidetracked because someone mentioned one easily understood anatomical nomenclature incorrectly.

Both of you have posted here and contributed absolutely zero to the discussion. Thanks.

Found a fresh shed yesterday in cullman co

Nothing new in Lauderdale. See them every year in late January with one side missing. I’m sure I see others with both sides but can’t tell. But with a December rut it’s not a shock they do really.

I’ve done found two matching sets in Tennessee about 5 miles north of the line. Found them both in January. I find them every year Rabbit hunting in January. I do think the lack of food may have caused a higher percentage to drop extremely early this year.



Idiots in Montgomery don’t care. They chasing the mighty dollar and government CWD grants.

Can’t argue with facts like these