SoCal deer dropping bone?

[Aught-SixGuy]

So has anybody been out at all and seen whether or not bucks in SoCal are shedding yet?

 

[BAJA]

I see a spike buck on the hill next to my house all the time...Saturday I saw a group of five deer on the hill but did not see the spike or he dropped them already,,,One of the deer did have buck features so I'm thinking he dropped them already...I was talking to a guide and he was telling me he sees deer with antlers all the way into the month of March. So I think I'm going to head out Mid March when most deer are probably shedding

 

[thewolfman]

They dropping already...saw some bucks with no head gear...

 

[Aught-SixGuy]

Cool. Planning on hitting D-14 at the end of the month. Also gonna put my trail cam up to watch for bucks to be missing headgear.

 

[thewolfman]

Your location says Barstow and u gonna come that far to shed hunt and put a cam up???... good shed hunting

 

[Aught-SixGuy]

Your location says Barstow and u gonna come that far to shed hunt and put a cam up???... good shed hunting

Yup. Ain't no deer in Barstow lol. Hoping to find some sheds, I enjoy that stuff. Plus I wanna get my cam up early and be able to try and pattern bucks. Probably gonna get a second cam and really start scouting in the summer. I got a good area that has a lot of deer. I've seen 4 different bucks up there, one of which is on my wall. Gonna hit it hard after I return from my elk/deer hunt in Colorado. Do you shed hunt D-14 at all?

 

[thewolfman]

D14 is my home...but admit i m not much of a bone collector.... i rarely pick up a shed...but i do know where some big boys are at...i m thinking of giving my bow season some real effort this season...even tho i m really not a trophy hunter but a meat hunter...my biggest buck was a heavy 4x5...

I ve seen some very big bucks in D9 while i scouted...have u hunted there???...u should try that zone

 

[Aught-SixGuy]

Nice. Never hunted D-9, I do D-14 or D-17, and I did A-31 this year. I've only shot one buck, back in November in D-14. I missed a real nice forkie in D-17 some years back. I'm not a trophy hunter either. My trophies are the memories and a full freezer. I would like to take a good buck out of D-14 someday though. I love hunting there. So where do you usually see sheds? I really enjoy finding them, and I make hat racks and stuff out of them.

 

[TheGDog]

One of the deer did have buck features so I'm thinking he dropped them already...

n00b Question : When you say "buck features", do you mean genitalia? Or are there other features you are referring to? Such as??


I'm bothering to ask because on one of my scouting trips in March I jumped 3 deer... the first instant I saw them I wondered if one of them might have been a buck because it's color was a bit darker and the build looked a lil thicker than the other two. Not by tons, but just enough that I took notice of it. Once they finally turned their heads away from my direction, I dropped down to seated position where I was up above then and I tried my best with my Binos to inspect the head of that one. As best as I could see there weren't any "nub-holes" on the top of the head where antlers might have been previously.

And the more I thought about that incident that day... I shrugged it off because I remembered folks telling me that when not in the rut... that the two sexes tended to hang out in separate hurds, no?

 

[Aught-SixGuy]

Yeah, the bucks tend to be loners the majority of the time, but in the summer they will gather into bachelor groups. They tend to stay in more open areas while in velvet, so they don't damage growing antler. And since they spend so much time in the open, they are vulnerable to predators. Security in numbers, more eyes to watch! They're already starting to grow new bone here in Utah.