sproulman

you are not alone, this is first year in 47 years of hunting the buck that i did not even see a deer in WMU2G ,clinton county,pa

we had 9 in our grouop and ,no deer.

there was 17 in about a 1 mile area in treestands ,1 buck was killed and only 1 seen.
i did not see doe killed in 2 weeks of deer in my area but saw at least 11 crews driving area, i think they got around 2 or 3 deer in say about a 5 miles area of driving heavy brush.

it so bad that this is first year i was only 1 in my area in muzzleoader season.

it was strange,did not feel like hunting to me .

lack of deer is affecting things,even tho i saw a ton of hunters this year the SECOND WEEK,more than i ever saw in last few years.

they all came back to kill a DOE, i cant understand people,lots of deer where they live, they come to clinton county, very few deer and try to kill what is left.

as for horns dropping, i have no heard of 1 deer killed as doe and it was buck that lost its horns..

in fact, i saw fresh rubbing on trees along road going to hunt on friday, so ,that buck still had its horns on.

livbucks

Pa bucks are still chasing late does here and there from what I've heard.
I see bachelor groups in March almost every year that all still have their horns. Very uncommon to have Pa buck shed before February at the earliest.

BTBowhunter

Just heard Sunday from a guy that stopped to pull a roadkilled buck off the highway and both horns popped off when he went to drag it by the antlers. They popped at the pedicels so it wasn't damage from the vehicle hit.

This was in SW Pa. As Greg said, this is very unusual here. ??????

Buck Hunter 1

We had the same issue about 10-11 years ago w/ horns dropping early. We shot a small buck off a drive, grabbed the horns and off they popped. My wife shot a buck and when we went to drag it out the horns popped. Her first buck,l I thought she was hoing to kill me as I "broke her buck"!

Pawildman

............Sounds like some of the larger racked bucks are dropping for sure. I've got a wide spike coming to our rear deck almost daily licking birdseed off the railing. My wife would sure like to see him in someone's freezer.........

livbucks

I have never seen them pop off in a hunters hand but I hear about it every year. Nature varies I suppose. I have seen plenty of half racks in my years, even in October. I wouldn't shoot a half rack at this point, even a big one. Try again next year.

bluebird2

That simply is not true. PA bucks can begin shedding in Dec . while some still carry until April. Some experts claim bigger bucks shed earlier than smaller bucks.

livbucks

Flies in the face of all my experiences. At least in SW PA. Up north I'm not usually around after December, so I can't speak for there. As a rule for my experience, if I see bucks in Feb/Mar with racks, they are older. I saw an absolute monster once in the Northern Pittsburgh suburbs and it was nearly April.

bluebird2

Does that mean it was really March and not April? the fact is that the science behind antler shedding in the wild is not fully understood. the PGC claims spike shed early and other experts claim big bucks shed early. But it is undeniable that some bucks shed in Dec. and some bucks shed in nearly April.

BTBowhunter

Never seen any studies on this but I've heard and read that It's all about the bucks testosterone levels. Cold weather supposedly has nothing to do with it. Typically if there are does still coming into estrous in the area, teatosterone levels will tend to stay higher and most of the bucks will keep their horns. I know that in areas where the doe fawns are healthy and have enough body weight, they van extend the secondary rut a bit and therefore the bucks keep their antlers a bit longer.