Buck Shedding Already

Got this pic today. He still had both sides in a pic on the 17th. Pretty early to be shedding but I've seen them shed in December before.

some usually start about the 3rd week of December.... another reason not to like the Dec. kill all the antlerless season..... there may not be that many dropped bucked killed then, but IMO, one is to many .. ... same for the urban/reduction zone thing going all the way to Jan. 31st and allowing firearms at that time ... should be kept archery only ..

That, and button bucks... is why EVERY hunter should ALWAYS carry a GOOD set of binos!!
I never shoot a "doe"... not even with a bow... without glassing them first!

Not trying to start a fight but words like "every" and "always" might not apply. Different hunters have different priorities. I carry and use binocs extensively but I would not hesitate to shoot a shed buck. More meat. I do not care much about antlers and since we shoot about as many does as we do bucks in IN, the biological management arguments don't seem to apply. But I am open to other points of view.

I try my best not to shoot fawns though. It's just not worth the effort for 25# or less of meat. I did shoot a late season doe fawn last year though. Sort of a snap decision.

We have plenty of deer in Indiana so we should have lots of tolerance for different ways of looking at hunting them.

Back on topic, the buck walked past that cam again last night, still carrying the right side. Always interesting to see how long they carry one side. Some of the bucks I've watched can take a week or two to drop the second one.

Stick, does he have any distinguishable markings so you will know it's him once he drops the other side?
Would be cool to know how long it takes!

The owners of the farm I hunt were up last weekend rabbit hunting and found a fresh five point shed. Checked the trail cameras yesterday, but no shed buck photos yet.

That's part of what I don't like about the late antlerless firearms season. Bucks are NOT the intended target of that season. Hunters just get a pass for shooting shed bucks due to the human error factor....much the same reason it is legal to shoot a bearded hen turkey in the spring.

Bowbo, he has a big ol' gouge in the middle of his forehead that he got during the rut in November of 2017, which is still visible this year. So I can recognize him from that. Also notice his unusual light colored muzzle, which also makes him easy to recognize. You can still see the gouge in this recent pic.

Yessir, definitely recognizable!
Keep us posted on him.

Update....after 18 days still carrying the right antler. Still getting pics every day or two. This was last night:

Well it took quite some time to finish out this story. The above buck that I posted about, carried that right antler for a long time....until it finally dropped on Jan 25, 2019. In spite of a lot of shed hunting, we never found either one of his sheds in 2019.

And unfortunately, the buck was never seen again, after the spring of last year. Even though he'd been an every-day regular on the farm for at least 3 years. We'll probably never know what happened. Could've been road-killed, maybe died of natural causes, or maybe just wandered off to live elsewhere, for reasons known only to him. I sure would've liked to see how his rack progressed with one more year, but that was not to be.

This year, the wife & I were out shed hunting on Feb 23rd, and with her eagle eyes, she came across a shed that turns out to be that left side he dropped way back in Dec 2018. Apparently last spring in 2019, we'd walked within 20 yards of it, but somehow missed it. Amazing that only the brow tine was chewed off. It'd been under flood a few times, and the mud coating and leaves must've kept from the squirrels from finding it.

Hope at least he was able to pass his genes to a few buck fawns.