Guys, all the calculations of birthdays and what not are fine but, take into consideration a wild deer may jump a fence and cut his leg causing him to shed early do to stress or infection of some sort. Also weather relates to when they will drop as well. Howabout being near a food source or having to travel long distances to find food. I believe there gonna drop when there ready, literally you and i have no idea if he was injured during the rut or his body is stressed due to a long rut. The fact of the matter is we all need to spend more time afield in hopes of stumbling across some giant sheds. However i do agree there is some science behind all of this im just not sure how big a roll it plays in the grand scheme of things. I can tell you this theres nothing better than walking up on a shed laying on the ground and bending over to pick it up. And just glassing the surrounding area for a glimpse of the mate. I have been from northern illinois to southern illinois and the deer all hold late in the south and drop early in the north, is it weather is it birthdates who knows i just know i wanna get out there and find them before the tree rats do.
I'd say the entire shedding process is being WAY more over thought than it needs to be. Testosterone levels drop, the headgear drops. Injured deer results in headgear lost much quicker. I don't believe nutrition plays a big role in SHEDDING although some claim otherwise but do believe it plays a big role in growing the headgear. I've seen perfectly healthy deer lose sheds early, and I've seen them lose them late on the same properties and I've seen the same deer shed around different times each year. The antlers cleave at the base when the testosterone levels drop off and they become heavy enough to fall off or get knocked off by something else.
All things equal bucks shed their antlers due to a decrease in testosterone, photoperiodism (links into the decrease in testosterone) but the most important factor is genetics.
when i went to conservation school our professor said if you put a buck in a room with light all the time the deer would not shed and the rack would keep getting bigger and bigger. but if you turned off the lights it would shed it in a day. so i thank it has something to do with the days getting shorter and longer the cause the bucks to shed there racks.
Thats a crazy thought Stickem'. Did anyone ask him why the racks harden and are in there most secure state during the shortest days of the year and loose there strenth and fall off when the days start to get longer again? Dave
I know having a food source around will have bucks keep there racks longer. Last year our neighbor had roughly 20 acres of standing corn and not 1 buck had shed by the end of January. We had over 15 bucks on camera that year and finally a week into February 1 buck shed. 1 of the bucks we had history with and he had shed out by MLK day in 2009 and in 2010 he still had his rack on March 3rd. We still had plenty of bucks with both sides in March and had 1 buck that still had his rack on April 20th.
While I commend Outdoordave on his dedication, I am sorry to say that you are way off. If any of that was the case it would of been well documented years ago. From what I have read in scientific and wildlife journals, it is entirely based upon hormone levels and stress. I think that stress can be broken even further into weather (more depth of snow than temps) injury, and rut behavior. Animals, in that 2.5-3.5 age class tend to go rut crazy and will chase themselves into poor health. This is what I have read, if you guys want some good proven facts you should check out wildlife journals and shy away from a lot of these magazine writers......... One of my other problems is with a lot of facts coming from captive deer....... Dont relate what captive deer do to wild deer when health is a factor....we all know deer are in a pen to make money, and healthy deer produce more money than stressed out unhealthy deer. later
And, kudos to the guys sighting the photoperiod........ hopefully that makes sense to everyone....otherwise you guys wont be getting your fresh estrus urine in October if we get rid of false photoperiods.......
As has already been said, it is hormones that effect the casting of the antlers, and those hormones are mostly effected by photoperiod. I actually just wrote up a full article on this topic, pulling data straight from the 2011 QDMA Whitetail Report...so this is pretty well researched and proved. You can check it out here.
