The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - I thought that the rut was over. It's apparently not.

603Country · February 27, 2012, 01:30 PM

Soon after deer season was over I quit seeing any bucks at all. Does were everywhere. I wondered if the bucks had dropped their antlers, but glassing the deer told me that they were all girls. So where did the bucks go? Darned if I know, other than maybe they just stood in the ponds and soaked their overused reproductive gear for a couple of weeks. Then about a month or 6 weeks after the season was over, I had a nice buck under the yard feeder. And now, last evening, there were the 5 bucks I saw and the definite signs of rutting. Very odd.

As for when the bucks drop their antlers, I have a cousin back in Louisiana that has his woods wired with game cameras all over the place. He's been doing this for many years and has photos that probably number over 50,000. He had 3000 pictures of a big buck I shot a couple of years ago. Anyway, his digital records show many long-term bucks (starting as 4 points, then being 6 points and more, as years pass) with antlers; just one remaining antler; and no antlers at all. All of this has dates and times, and he tells me that certain bucks seem to lose their antlers are just about the same day each year. And he showed me proof of that. And further, he even had photo evidence of a few deer that showed almost exactly the time of day that they lost the first antler and then the second antler (20 minutes later, in one case). That's a little bit overboard for me, but it was interesting to see the data.

February 27, 2012, 01:30 PM	#5
603Country Senior Member Join Date: January 6, 2011 Location: Thornton, Texas Posts: 3,998	Soon after deer season was over I quit seeing any bucks at all. Does were everywhere. I wondered if the bucks had dropped their antlers, but glassing the deer told me that they were all girls. So where did the bucks go? Darned if I know, other than maybe they just stood in the ponds and soaked their overused reproductive gear for a couple of weeks. Then about a month or 6 weeks after the season was over, I had a nice buck under the yard feeder. And now, last evening, there were the 5 bucks I saw and the definite signs of rutting. Very odd. As for when the bucks drop their antlers, I have a cousin back in Louisiana that has his woods wired with game cameras all over the place. He's been doing this for many years and has photos that probably number over 50,000. He had 3000 pictures of a big buck I shot a couple of years ago. Anyway, his digital records show many long-term bucks (starting as 4 points, then being 6 points and more, as years pass) with antlers; just one remaining antler; and no antlers at all. All of this has dates and times, and he tells me that certain bucks seem to lose their antlers are just about the same day each year. And he showed me proof of that. And further, he even had photo evidence of a few deer that showed almost exactly the time of day that they lost the first antler and then the second antler (20 minutes later, in one case). That's a little bit overboard for me, but it was interesting to see the data.