Just why do whitetail bucks spend so much time and energy growing antlers each spring and summer only to shed them months later during the winter? “Scientists have pondered it for years and we still don’t know,” says noted Iowa whitetail biologist Dr. Mick Hellickson, who points to a couple of solid theories. Some scientists believe bucks shed annually so they’ll have the potential to replace damaged antlers. If a buck had to live his entire life with snapped tines or a broken beam he couldn’t fight his rivals or posture for does. A second theory suggests that bucks shed and grow new racks 10 to even 30 inches larger the following year to keep pace with their increasing weight and girth as they [...]

Saw on Facebook where a hunter named Trevor found these big sheds one day last week in Iowa. And John wrote to me and said: “(Antlers) already dropping in southern Wisconsin! Old massive broken off warrior!" It’s getting to be shed-hunting time! Have bucks started dropping antlers in your area? Have you started looking yet? Here are some great shed-hunting pointers when you do start hunting for bone. Send me pictures of any big sheds you find this spring, good luck.      

Young hunter Nolan Neace sent this to the Sportsman Channel Facebook: Just wanted to share... I shot this late season monster on 12/29/14 with my Hoyt Faktor at 40 yards; 13 points with drop tine. Northern Indiana. Great buck Nolan, as I always say on Big Deer TV, “hunt hard till the bitter end, you never know…” Your reward was a dream buck with a third-beam split drop, I don't think I've ever seen one like that before.      

Bob sent this series of cam photos from Eastern Maryland taken about midnight on December 27, 2014. They confirm that in most parts of the nation whitetails do some breeding from mid-October through December/January. The majority of the breeding takes place in early to mid-November, during the “peak rut,” and that is when most of the adult does are impregnated. But if a doe is not impregnated then, she’ll recycle into estrus some 28 days later, during a “late rut” that typically occurs in early December. These pictures prove that there is a “third rut,” or at least some final sporadic breeding going on in late December. An adult doe that is somehow not impregnated during her first and second cycles [...]

Hello Mike: On the 28th day of the October 2013 Indiana archery season I arrowed a buck that I had never seen before. I had 9 different bucks on camera but no images of this particular buck. It just goes to show how mature bucks will travel out of their core area in search of that first estrus doe, so always be on the lookout and ready. He came in at 30 yards to a drag line I had drug to the stand. This had been only my second sit in this particular set, which also brings the point that while over-hunting the same stand can definitely hurt your hunting, not over-hunting it can bring great results. Keep up the good [...]