Greek,The federal parks are run by a government agency. Being most officials are corrupt. If you come over to the Hopewell historical park and post yourself just off their property one of the officers will chase some bucks to you for a couple hundred. Years ago they would do that for the hunters.But noyt anymore for free

My buddy found a 10 pt (5 on one side the 2nd wk of the season) and 2 days later they found the other 1/2 less than 200 yards away from the 1st one. This was this year sheds (bradford county).

We have in the past killed a few bucks (as does) that have lost there antlers the 2nd week of the season.... Usually 1-1/2 year old deer. We did kill a nice 8 point about 5 years ago that upon hitting the ground lost both horns.

I actually asked Alt about this at one of his meetings. He said that due to a poor buck to doe ratio and poor habitat (poor quality food & too many deer) that the bucks spend so long chasing doe they diminish there fat reserves early causing the testosterone levels in their bodies to drop which causes them to loose there horns early...Made sense to me as we hunt in the Mnts with no farm land around and alot of mast crop failures over the years and alot of deer running around and a poor buck to doe ratio.

Buck to doe ratio... as in 10 doe for every 1 buck... or 10 buck for every 1 doe?

The area that I bagged a shed buck on Friday had more bucks than doe...

See pics: http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/tm.asp?m=868021

In 2002 on opening day of the 6 day buck season I had a BIG buck walk under my stand that had dropped his antlers. This deer was older not one of these 1.5 to 2.5 bucks that everyone is saying drops them early. His head was wide and square and he had to wiegh in the 270lbs range! The buttons on his head were huge! Even from a long ways away I could tell he was a buck from his head shape. Then when he got under me I saw the two raw looking buttons about the size of the bottom of a beer bottle! This was Dec 6 or 7! I don't think age is the answer. I also noticed that some deer hold there velvet a lot longer then others. I wonder why? Do the deer that drop them early start to grow them earlier the next season? I would really like to know the answers to why some drop them so early and others hold them so late! Now I have to see what I can find on the topic.

my dad killed a deer in the 2003 first week of PA shotgun and it had already shed its antlers...the butcher claims that if a deer has been wounded in the balls by maybe an arrow or somthin..then it will result in an early shed

livbucks....I need to strongly disagree with both of your posts. First, as a general rule, the largest (as in dominant and old) drop first. Second, 95% of bucks do not hold until February. This is a very complex issue and one that is far to intricate for me to delve into at this hour, but I will say a few things. There is no "set in stone" shedding dates. Many factors dictate shedding times and they vary from year to year. Also, if you want to find the true "hogs", you better hang those guns up and put on the boots fellas cuz they are hittin the ground now. If you want to get em without chews, now is the time to start making your rounds. The big boys dump em first, and there is nothing worse than finding a chewed up whopper and saying to yourself, I wish I got to this earlier. Good luck

You can do that......disagree that is.
What you are saying goes against what my experiences are though. There is a late rut, whereas the does that were unsuccessfully bred come back into estrous and the yearling does come into estrous in early January. the mature bucks tend to keep their headgear intact for this activity. Let me say that there are always exceptions. The shedding is most of all influenced by the amount of sunlight absorbed by the whatdoyoucallit gland. That is why most bucks tend to shed around the same period. In my observations, the younger immature bucks tend to shed early as compared to the mature ones. I have seen a great number of bigger bucks with headgear attached around the first week of March many times, but I have seldom seen dinks with horns that late. Not to contradict you, but these are my observations.

i got a 8 point a few years ago in north ern pa. on the third day of rifle season when i went to strech him out to dress it the right horn came off in my hand by the time i got him back to camp the other one fell off a couple of old fellows told me that it was the weather that caused that it was colder than *ell that year i was just concerned about getting in dutch about the deer having no head gear if the man wanted to talk to me.