woolys 2012-13 shed journal

[wooly]

I suppose it's time to fire up my annual shed season journal. Now that hunting seasons winding down, I'll be getting out to hike whenever possible.

I'm not really expecting to come close to last years numbers but I'm gonna try like hell!

I'm pretty sure I left off last years updates with antlers #39 and #40, but I added 2 more unexpected oldies to the list durring August and September that I'll start off with here.

This first little 2pt side I found while helping my sister cut down some trees at her place over summer. I grabbed a bunch of branches and hauled them into the woods 20ft off the side of her driveway. Sis came along with an armfull and just about burried this little horn for good before I scooped it up in amazement!

#41 was a late summer reward after a hard days work!

This next antler I found while checking cams in September on a ridge I'd been down many times leading up to this find. It was hidden pretty well and dissapearing even more with the new falling leaves. Just one problem with this antler. After finding it and heading home, I stopped to break and snapped a few more pics. Once I got back on the trail, I realised I had forgot my antler. I turned around and looked and looked but still haven't found this one again,lol. It's high on my list of horns to find AGAIN before the snow starts flying!

That leads us now to the first hike of 2013.... even though it's still 2012.

I decided my first hike to check out a thicket close to home that greened up on me too quick last year before my final hike through it. I don't think I missed any but I did find my first dead buck of the season.

Hoping to have frequent updates once the freshies start falling, but untill then, plenty of oldies and deadheads out there to keep me occupied!

Good luck to all the shed hunters this season!

[Red]

This is a journal I loved folowing last year. I was just out on emery road driving toward center road at 430 this afternoon there were deer every were and a really big buck eating on the side of the road.

[mbucks27]

Look forward to following your journal this year wooly. I will start around January 1st. Hopefully it will be a good year for both of us!!

John

[wooly]

Lookin' forward to a few hikes with ya this year Red! I'm ready whenever you are!

We'll go find that big Emery bucks horns first,lol

[wooly]

12-12-12

Well guys, I don't know what to say! Some days I guess it's best to say nothing at all and let the pictures do the talking.

If anyone still wants to tell me that these deer here aren't in for a tough few winter months ahead in my area....... I'm all ears!

I hiked around for 6hrs today when I stumbled upon this guy right around 3pm.

I don't know if he's still holding the other half or not so I didn't disturb the area too much. Not that it really matters at this point. I've been through here an awefull lot lately while hunting, photographing, and checking cams in this overgrown goldenrod field.

Anyhow, the first antler of the new season is in the books and it aint half bad! Even got a cam pic of the ol' boy!

The ATL with the antler laying right in a fresh bed!

No blood on the base. I'm guessing he dropped this one earlier in the week or maybe last week before the rain. You can see the wax ring and there was still a little hair on the base.

Shed antlers- 1

Dead bucks- 1

Dead does and fawns- 0

[mbucks27]

Oh man wooly congrats on your first one of the year and its a good one at that!!! You are gettimg me pumped for shed season!!

John

[G-Man]

found a little half of a six in my food plot, have pics of the buck with both sides but missed the horn dropping and him afterwards.. looks like a bad winter heer as well at least for deer food wise.

[bkln]

Damn people, where do you find these things, I walked miles and miles in the woods before, during and after the season for the last 4 years and I saw zip....You either darn lucky or you live in a deer paradise...LOL

[Stretcher Guy]

I'm new to this , when do they shed this years antlers. By where I work is a really nice buck on private property. I would like to try and get permission to look for his sheds.

[wooly]

I think we're gonna see a lot of early finds this year! Good news for shed hunting, but maybe not such a good thing the deer are stressed so early.

It's still very early Stretcher Guy, BUT they can drop them anytime now untill late March that I've seen around here.

[Red]

Wooly I'm very excited to get out and do a few walks with you. I'm thinking I'm gonna try and get a day or 2 in with the muzzle loader then after that ill be ready to do some hiking. Very nice way to start out the shed season that's a very nice find and that's a heck of an eye you have I don't know how you seen that think in that tall grass

[wooly]

Wooly I'm very excited to get out and do a few walks with you. I'm thinking I'm gonna try and get a day or 2 in with the muzzle loader then after that ill be ready to do some hiking. Very nice way to start out the shed season that's a very nice find and that's a heck of an eye you have I don't know how you seen that think in that tall grass

Sounds good bro! I've already got a pretty good game plan for us on a few different spots we can check out.

There's actually a bit of technique to this instead of just blind hiking. You'll see after we get out a few times. It aint so hard to catch on and take what you learn back to your own woods with some sucess.

[Red]

That's what I like to hear I'm very eager to learn. I've only hunted my east aurora spot twice so far I haven't seen any bucks in there yet but. I think we might be able to find something in there. There's not a lot of wods there. But the strip runs right along the 400

[erussell]

Holy Crap!!!!Wolly you are a shed god!!! I was hoping to see a buck during muzzleloader but Im not to sure now. Guy over on the bowsite said he has seen up to 5 bucks who have dropped and pick up a few already also. I dont think it has anything to do with the weather. We have had worse weather in the past than we have now and the deer havent dropped this early then. Going to get on the shed hunting as soon as muzzleloader is over!!

Edited December 13, 2012 by erussell

[wooly]

I dont think it has anything to do with the weather. We have had worse weather in the past than we have now and the deer havent dropped this early then.

I agree with you on that erussell, but you have to look at the weather leading up to this point and future, not just in the now. It's safe to say we've been very mild lately compared to years past, but lets not forget about this summers drought conditions. Dang creeks turned into rock piles.., plots into deserts.., and swamps into prarie grasslands. Just a few ideal locations where rainfall was non existant, in essence affecting prime browse locations stressing these bucks going into the season. Not to mention the poor mast that G-man was talking about.

If we get hit with a good pile of snow here anytime soon, you're gonna see these bucks dropping faster than the flakes themselves...antlers and winterkill. They'll gather around any food source they can find even if it's not prime and use it up in no time forcing them to hunker down to expend less energy... or go off on a long venture till they find food elsewhere. That second option can have deadly consequences if it happens durring a severe cold snap or snow so deep it expends all a bucks energy to get from point A to point B.

A lot of guys tend to think I'm over reacting about all this and that's ok. I'm just speaking from what I know is happening/ has happened in my woods already this year and what to expect in the coming months any way it shapes up.

[sampotter]

Dang, already?

[wooly]

Dang, already?

Yes sir, make sure that pooch of your has a fresh flea collar on!

Might be pickin' tics after a few horns find him.

[sampotter]

Yes sir, make sure that pooch of your has a fresh flea collar on!

Might be pickin' tics after a few horns find him.

Iowa was terrible the third week of March last year. I crushed hundreds of ticks on my jeans with my trusty Leatherman last year. Several of the bigger bucks I still have on the trail cam are pretty thin. Maybe the rut was more intense than everyone thought?

[erussell]

I agree with you on that erussell, but you have to look at the weather leading up to this point and future, not just in the now. It's safe to say we've been very mild lately compared to years past, but lets not forget about this summers drought conditions. Dang creeks turned into rock piles.., plots into deserts.., and swamps into prarie grasslands. Just a few ideal locations where rainfall was non existant, in essence affecting prime browse locations stressing these bucks going into the season. Not to mention the poor mast that G-man was talking about.

If we get hit with a good pile of snow here anytime soon, you're gonna see these bucks dropping faster than the flakes themselves...antlers and winterkill. They'll gather around any food source they can find even if it's not prime and use it up in no time forcing them to hunker down to expend less energy... or go off on a long venture till they find food elsewhere. That second option can have deadly consequences if it happens durring a severe cold snap or snow so deep it expends all a bucks energy to get from point A to point B.

A lot of guys tend to think I'm over reacting about all this and that's ok. I'm just speaking from what I know is happening/ has happened in my woods already this year and what to expect in the coming months any way it shapes up.

It will be interesting to see. Here in Binghamton the rain capital of NY, we didnt see much drought. Maybe a few weeks where the lawns turned brown but then it didnt stop raining after that. Im still trying to fill tags right now, so no shed hunting till they are filled, unless I stumble upon something.

[WNY Bowhunter]

I saw one of my hitlist bucks last night with his left antler missing. It was still there on saturday.

[erussell]

I saw one of my hitlist bucks last night with his left antler missing. It was still there on saturday.

Thats crazy!!

[erussell]

Interesting article Wooly.

http://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/deer-hunting/articlecontent/1/2012/3191/when-do-deer-drop-their-antlers

One thing we do know is that after the rut, a buck’s testosterone levels begin to decrease, and when they drop to a certain level, antlers are shed. Since antlers shed at different times in certain areas and in certain years, something causes the testosterone levels to vary from area to area and winter to winter. Thus, the real question is, what causes the testosterone levels to drop to the required level?

We know that testosterone and mating are related, so high numbers of does could lead to late shedding of antlers. Here is how that works: Testosterone in bucks stays high as they chase estrous does. Does will only come into estrus if they have not mated, so when you have large numbers of does, they do not all get bred in the first go-around. When that occurs, hot does will still be popping up later in winter, and rutting bucks will be chasing them. The more does that are not bred, the later the bucks’ antlers drop. And once most does are mated, the bucks’ testosterone levels drop and so do their antlers.

One researcher working with captive deer suggested that bucks in poor nutritional condition, or those that are diseased, shed their antlers earlier than they would had they been healthier. Poor nutrition causes testosterone levels to drop and, as mentioned earlier, when testosterone drops, so do antlers.

Other researchers have found that older bucks often shed earlier, and suggest that this is due to the physical toll on their bodies paid during the rut. Chasing does, fighting other bucks and being too busy to eat — all reduce bucks’ body condition. Thus, when the rut ends, if they are really run down, their testosterone levels drop faster than normal. One New York study showed that 62 percent of bucks 3½ years old and older dropped their antlers by mid-December, while only 23 percent of younger bucks did.

Tied to this poor-nutrition theory is habitat. If habitat is over-browsed, then the body condition of bucks in the area will be poor. Since we know that testosterone levels drop when the bucks are undernourished, then poor habitat might also cause them to drop antlers earlier. In turn, I would suspect that deep early snows, which would limit food intake, also impact the time that antlers drop. In fact, studies show that farther North, where snows are heavier, antlers begin to drop from mid-December to late January.

If poor nutrition leads to early shedding, then good nutrition should lead to late drops — right? In fact, studies show that bucks from the Midwest farm country (where nutrition is very good) don’t begin to drop antlers until mid-January or later. Even though these bucks rut hard and their overall body condition is down, their testosterone levels apparently aren’t affected as much as deer from poorer habitats. Thus, they keep their antlers longer.

Good nutrition leads to one other factor that causes bucks to keep their antlers later in winter. When doe fawns have good feed, many of them will be bred in their first year. A study done in Iowa showed that almost 75 percent of doe fawns were bred, most during December, again leading to bucks keeping their antlers later than in other parts of the country. This correlation between good feed/habitat and antler shedding has led several researchers to conclude that antler retention is a good measure of the habitat. If the antlers drop later, those bucks live in good habitat. If bucks tend to drop earlier, such as mid-December to mid-January, those bucks live in poor habitat.

Earlier I mentioned that when you have lots of does, there might be some later winter breeding, and this keeps testosterone levels higher for longer, leading to late shedding of antlers. However, usually when you have high doe numbers, you get overbrowsed habitat and poor nutrition. As just mentioned, this leads to early shedding. No wonder hunters banter this about every year. So many variables can impact the time when antlers shed.

One researcher in Mississippi looked at the casting dates for individual bucks in captivity and found that as long as the environment was the same, individual bucks dropped their antlers about the same date every year. These captive bucks got the same diet all the time, thus their body condition probably stayed the same after the rut, year after year. The fact that they dropped their antlers on the same date each year suggests some kind of innate program within each buck that causes them to drop their antlers. That’s fine for captive bucks, but in the wild, other factors listed above come into play, causing the great variation we see in the timing of antler drop.

The question of why some bucks drop early or late is not easy to answer, simply because there are so many things happening in the deer woods that impact antler casting. Will knowing all this impact your hunting success? Of course not, but I hope that I’ve “shed” some light on why there is so much variation in the timing antlers are cast. It’s something to talk about the next time you and your hunting buddies get together.

[WNY Bowhunter]

http://www.growingdeer.tv/view/2012/12/14/why-bucks-shed-antlers-early-2/

[wooly]

I saw one of my hitlist bucks last night with his left antler missing. It was still there on saturday.

Man, that doesn't surprise me one bit! Hope he stays safe long enough to drop the other side for ya. I'd hate to hear he got popped by someone thinking he's a doe.

Now where was I......

12-14-12

Headed out early this morning to move the cams around and continue the search for "side B"!

I finally got them all where I wanted them to be and got back to horn huntin'!

For now, my main goal was to hit this bedding area where I found the first antler. I just had a feeling the mate was somewhere near bye if I could stay focused and not get discouraged looking through this dense cover.

Unfortunately, my first find of the day was another dead buck. I'd been finding fresh leg bones and hair that the yotes had spread out in the area but could never find the carcass. I never did find it, instead I located the skull with part of the spine that must have gotten dragged away.

A burly little 6pt. He'd been there a while and was really cleaned up right down to the brains. Most likely from early archery sometime or roadkilled....dunno....don't care.

I packed him up and headed back down to kill the day trying to complete my first set of the season. It didn't take long before I saw that big bone-white arch laying ahead of me!

I couldn't decide which camera to use for the ATL so here's a few from both to give you an idea of what this area is like!

... and a shot of the base. No blood on this one either but they don't get much fresher than this.

... and here's the days haul with yesterdays mate!

Antlers- 2

Dead bucks- 2

Match sets- 1

Dead doe and fawns- 0

[Red]

Dam wooly that's a very nice way to start the season very nice match

Edited December 15, 2012 by Red