Antler drop in your area?

[pinetag14]

When do most of you start seeing antler drop? I am getting ready to close on 43 acres in Virginia and I have never had a place of my own so my camera experience is limited to pre/early season scouting on hunt club land. I want to put cameras out as soon as we close but I'm not sure how much info it will give me on bucks in the area if the antlers have already dropped. If nothing else I can get an idea of population and day/night time use for the property. I have heard northern states tend to lose earlier than southern states so I was curious to see what are everyone's experiences. Thanks for any insight y'all can give a camera newbie.

Also, I saw this online and wanted to try it out to hopefully help hide it from any prying eyes. Up close you can see it but at a distance it seems to blend pretty well. What do y'all think?

 

[Mortenson]

Looks camo'd pretty well! Especially the strap.

Congrats on the land. In my area, I'd take a stab that 65% drop between 2/1-2/15. Maybe 10% before that and 25% after. Last year was a very mild winter and quite a few carried later than what I'd call normal. I bet if you run cams thru March you'll still catch a few carrying.

 

[kl9]

I’d say at least 70% of my bucks have dropped already, which seems like a huge percentage to me. But trail cameras don’t lie!


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[Catscratch]

Most of the deer on my camera's are still holding. Only a couple have dropped anything yet.

 

[j-bird]

As far as hiding the cam - that looks great. However when I "hide" mine.....I tend to hide it from myself and I get videos of this fool looking for something in the woods!

My cam pull a few weeks ago showed all my bucks still holding, but I did find 1 shed as well. As long as you can get the deer close to the cam you should be able to tell if it was a buck or not (and I'm looking at the head)! If baiting is legal - putting out some corn to get the deer close to the cam may help. Lots of folks bait for cam surveys.

 

[pinetag14]

Thanks guys! I will be curious to see what sort of pics i get starting in March.

As far as hiding the cam - that looks great. However when I "hide" mine.....I tend to hide it from myself and I get videos of this fool looking for something in the woods!

My cam pull a few weeks ago showed all my bucks still holding, but I did find 1 shed as well. As long as you can get the deer close to the cam you should be able to tell if it was a buck or not (and I'm looking at the head)! If baiting is legal - putting out some corn to get the deer close to the cam may help. Lots of folks bait for cam surveys.

That's funny right there! Yes, we can use attractants (except during the various hunting seasons) but i'm thinking about steering away from that simply to minimize any potential disease transfer.

 

[Peplin Creek]

My bucks started dropping about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

 

[hokiehunter]

I'm in central VA. Mostly they seem to drop in February. Some drop mid January and some mid March even, but first 10 days of February seem to be when most lose them here.

 

[Bill]

Id say 50% of the deer on my place have dropped. Some of the little guys seem to hang on until April

 

[SwampCat]

Most are dropping about now around here. Put your cameras out as soon as you close. You will start seeing new horn growth sometime in April, anyway.

 

[Charles Clear]

I'm in western Pennsylvania. I pulled my cards yesterday and have 9 different bucks on my place still holding both sides.

 

[Native Hunter]

We hardly see any drop until sometime in March....

 

[pinetag14]

So it sounds like i might still be able to catch a few hanging on into March. That's good news!

 

[nitro27]

This one wishes antler drop would happen soon. Buck locked with another, body ripped/eaten.


http://www.grandforksherald.com/spo...-severed-head-discovered-set-free-snowmobiler

 

[davidhelmly]

I’ve seen a couple of bucks on camera that have shed but most are still holding, it’s usually early March before most of ours drop but I did find one Jan 1 this year.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I just looked at some cam pix sent from one of our camp members. Several bucks are still holding one or both sides as of Feb. 26th.

 

[H20fwler]

I think it is at the tail end here. Seems like it was an early drop this year everything I had on camera last week had shed already, guys started seeing shed bucks during ML the beginning of January. Last year we had a couple bucks still holding mid April.

 

[Bill]

I've got pics of deer that shed but I can't find one....and I've been looking

 

[kl9]

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[Bill]

^^^nice one!