One of my target bucks shed one side today. Found that to be very early for north Texas.

Deer sick

I think so

Kinda wondered about sick as well. Has been hitting the feeder very hard the last few days and staying for 30-45 min at a time. Until 4-5 days ago had barely seen since before rut.

Doesn’t look injured. Wonder what a deer could catch to make them sick like that?

Just something I’d never seen before. Might be older than I thought he was. Not a trophy but a nice 8 I was gonna let someone take.

Keep us posted sir and good luck

Could he have broken a side off?

I really don’t think so. There is nothing left of it, at all. Haven’t had a totally clean angle yet, but don’t really even see where it was.

App is messing up or I’d pull a pic from this morning versus this evening. It’s like it disappeared.

Deer get sick and their bodies adjust to getting well. This is one of the very few things which can cause the animal to subdue its desires for pro-creation, diminishes the production of testosterone and thus, results in early shedding.

I have seen sick Bucks loose antlers early. Wormy or injured or just sick who knows.

I agree with all the input that the deer isn't healthy. I shot a "doe" a couple years ago in Mid-Dec in Breckenridge TX. I noticed that she had a badly fractured front leg & the knee joint was as big as a softball & she wasn't putting any weight on it. I shot her to put her out of her misery & when went to inspect her I noticed "she" was a buck that had dropped her antlers early. My opinion is that her body was in such bad shape she dropped her horns early.

Funny thing about the story is I hunted the same stand the next morning & noticed a bobcat feeding on the deer. I got out of the stand & snuck to within 15 feet of the feeding bobcat before he noticed me.

Well if you are in an AR county he's now legal.

2020, even the deer are doing crazy stuff...

Good point

I don’t think he is. He doesn’t have an unbranched antler, it’s just gone.

Cleared the SD card and he hasn’t been back to the feeder since yesterday. Halfway wonder if he died.

I wasn’t going to shoot him but taking an old friend out next week who has never shot a deer. This was one I had sort of circled but there are others.

Just not something I’ve seen before.

I'd run that by the county game warden first. I'm not saying you are wrong but if that antler fell off / broke at the pedicle, it's no longer a "point", as I understand. I believe there needs to be 1" of measurable antler to be considered a point. Now...................if the other antler falls off, you have yourself an anterless deer

It isn't unusual for deer to loose their antlers in December, especially if there is nutrition issue...

On camera over the past 30 days I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of bucks which now have only one remaining antler. A few have a brow on that side which remains, however most have completely lost the one side. IMO they are not dropping them, but breaking them off fighting. We have also seen excessive broken antlers this season, as well as undeveloped antlers, i.e. one side doesn't grow like the opposite side. We have been very dry the past two seasons, and our biologist believes the antler issues are all related to nutrition, or lack thereof.

Well on my lease here in Woodville TX, I had one spike like that. Now there are 2 more spikes, a 6 pt and a 8 pt that have lost one side of their antlers. Don’t know if it was from fighting or what. May they r shedding early, or just need more protein.