Originally Posted by N2TRKYS
Originally Posted by Mbrock
Originally Posted by burbank
Sounds like an early rut to me.
Nope. Same as every year. Nothing different. We have native AL bucks beginning to drop antlers right now, just like every year. I told the folks in charge years ago and they acted surprised when reports started coming in to Montgomery of shed bucks being killed in February. Nothing unusual.

I don’t see them start dropping antlers until Spring.
During the 10 days in February 14% of bucks being dropped off at a very well known processor have one or both sides recently shed from deer in Fayette, Lamar, Marion and Walker counties. Peak shedding is definitely March, but they start the end of January and early February. What leads to early antler casting? Stress. What makes it worse? Skewing the ratio to more females by allowing 10 more days to kill bucks. It is absolutely having an impact. I told them it would then, and they didn’t care, until the calls started coming in from hunters and processors. The hunters here hate it. The processors hate it. They didn’t want it. I don’t talk to anybody who likes it, except for the occasional blood lust hunter who can’t get enough. It didn’t have support then. It don’t now. It’s not supported by the public or the biology.