I went out early yesterday afternoon for a long and leisurely "roam about" in the valleys and foothills around Dillon, Montana. I had along my Nikon 12x binoculars, my Chocolate Lab, some treats and a couple of cool drinks. What a grand venture!
The sun was out and it was unusually warm - about 42 degrees when I left! The first stop of my sojourn was at my friend and neighbors place. I have been keeping an eye on his place as Ron and his wife are in Thailand for a 3 month long sunbreak! From his rear deck I could see NO LESS than 400 Mule Deer in the stubble of a cultivated field. I put aside my security duties and retrieved my binoculars! I could see 3 medium size Mule Deer Bucks with only one horn apiece. They each had shed the other horn. Then on closer inspection I saw Buck Mulies that had shed both horns and several smallish Mulies that still had both horns. The point is they are starting to shed their antlers in pretty good numbers. I will be searching for their sheds real soon, it looks like!
My next stop was at a cultivated field that had about 100 Whitetailed Deer spread out across it. Just a few bucks in this field and again some had one horn and some had both horns. But no real mature Bucks were observed here.
I travelled a ways further east and soon came across several large herds of Antelope. The Antelope have long since shed their horns and in fact the Bucks are pretty well along in regrowing their new horns.
The recent warm weather has melted about all the snow in the valleys (and most in the mountains!) and I was keeping an extra close eye out for gleaming antlers in the many shortgrass fields I passed. No luck.
I saw one large Whitetail Buck bound into the willows as I drove toward him and he had both his antlers still attached.
Next I came to a vantage spot that allowed me to view a long ridgeline that usually holds wintering Elk. It was not long until I spotted a herd of about 150 Elk. There were only a few small bulls in this herd and they all had both their antlers still attached. This vantage spot was exactly where a local woman had been walking her dog about 3 weeks ago and she had two Wolves approach and attempt to attack her dog! I looked for Wolves but none were seen!
I turned around and backtracked toward home. More animals were visible now and both Whitetails and Mule Deer were intent on feeding and watering near the creek I was following. The creek this time of year is normally fully frozen over but this year it had open spots in it where the flowing water was easily accessed by the Deer.
No Fox or Coyote were seen but now the Geese were flying and several huge flocks were observed! The Geese were landing with virtually no circling and that reminded me of our mild fall and the lack of Geese arriving before the January 15th closure of the Goose season! This was the first year I did not add some Geese to my freezer since I moved to Montana 7 winters ago! Oh well there will be plenty of Geese next year!
I did spot a large lone Mule Deer Buck coming toward me from the sage covered foothils. Half way across a cultivated field he stopped and eyeballed me and the VarmintMobile. He never came any closer. He was down to one antler but it was a nice one! I am sure he went 25" to 26" spread (back when he had both antlers!). And it was a thick horn! It had 4 points and a smallish eyeguard on it. I marked that spot and will return some sunny morning soon to search for his sheds! I am sure this was a 4 1/2 year old Buck and that is rare around my corner of the state! Most get cropped off by Hunters (and other predators!) before achieving that age.
All in all just a grand afternoon in Montana! The sunset as I drove west toward home would take 3 paragraphs to describe so I will leave that to your imaginations!
How about horns being shed in your part of the world? Has it started as yet?
Aaahhh... Montana!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy, that is a nice descriptive narrative of what was obviously a great day afield. I am jealous. Here in Georgia we have been having goofy weather, alternatively wet, unseasonably warm and exceedingly cold a few days later! I have a corn feeder out back of my home which is in a large suburban community to attract the deer from surrounding large forested greenbelt. I see the same groups of deer at regular intervals and they all seem to still have their antlers at this point.

I wish I had an area where I could spend a day like you enjoyed, maybe if I ever reach that promised land called retirement......

Regards--D.

Some nice mulies near my shop.Was out on my skidoo and saw a bunch of does so maybey they are starting to shed here too.. Craig in alberta.

Varmint guy,

Thanks for the report, wonderful! Dillon's a pretty wonderful place.

Al

Varmit guy, Good report - that sounds like some nice country. One question, I was under the impression that antelope had horns that are made from hair and that these horns could not be shed like antlers. Can you help me out on where my logic went wrong? Thanks

dexter,

Antelope have horns, but they also shed them and regrow a set each year (like antlered game). Its the only exception to the rule.

Kinda like the Larix genus of trees. Its members are coniferous and deciduous at the same time. (ie. is cone bearing, and has needle leaves and sheds them annually).

Cheers
Canuck

Dexter & Canuck: I have been busy of late and missed your inquiry til now. Antelope, I think, are my favorite Game Animal to watch in the wild! I have seen them do some amazing things! I have also witnessed at least two hundred of them being born! I have also watched whole herds jump fences. Many people claim that Antelope can't jump fences and indeed they would rather wriggle through one or scoot underneath the lowest strand. But on many, many occassions I have seen them speedily jump over the top strand of a barb wire fence or a "pig" type fence. I have also seen them on many occassions jump across "cattle guards"!
Another thing that fascinates me about the Antelope is the very early rutting season of the Antelope! I had always wondered about this fact as the Antelope breed earlier than even the much larger Moose and the Elk and even the Deer. My wonderment hinged on the fact that the fawns need to be born at the optimum time each spring which does coincide with the Moose and the Elk calving, and the dropping of the Deer fawns. So the time in early September that the Antelope does are actually impregntaed always struck me as odd! The gestation time then til birthing in late May and early June was 10 months (referenced at 252 days! - compared to Deer at 192 days!)! This is far to long a gestation period for a 5 to 8 pound Antelope fawn! I always just assumed that the lack of body fat on an Antelope caused the embryos slow growth throughout the winter and spring. I was somewhat wrong in that assumption. I found out about 15 years ago when reading a technical report on Antelope that even though the doe Antelope does get pregant in the first week of September - the fertilized Antelope embryo is held in suspension in her reproductive organs. It does not grow appreciably at all for several months! The doe Antelope does not commence final or full growth initiation of the embryo until she makes it through the winter in good condition. Any length of undue stress on her and the doe Antelope simply self aborts her embryos! And she will be barren that year!
An amazing adaptation the Antelope have evolved there!
Again I point to the fact that the Antelope do not have hardly an ounce of fat on them to aid in making it through winter! They eat often or they die! The good news there, is that the Antelope can eat sage which is almost always exposed to their foraging needs! Even when other grasses and such are covered in ice or deep snow they can almost always get to sage and fill up on that poorly nutritious plant!
Indeed the Antelope do shed their "hair like" horns each year! The horns begin loosening about November 20th or so in Wyoming and Montana anyway! I have a whole cardboard box of shed Antelope horns that I have collected over the years! I spend a lot of time afield in the winter and if the snow is not to deep and the wind has moved the snow into thin places the black sheds really stand out! They are though usually much harder to find and shorter lived once shed than Deer, Elk or Moose horns (antlers). The creatures (rodents and Porcupines) that eat the sheds usually make quick work of the Antelope sheds. I seldom find them hardly ever even by late spring. They have mostly been eaten by then.
I also have many Antelope skulls that I have found when I have been afield and had some of my own skulls boiled out and "Beetle processed". The buck Antelope skulls have two prominent boney protrusions about 4" long that are a permanent part of the skull. The horn sheath grows each year around and above this protrusion. Very similar to the protrusion on Bighorn Sheep skulls. And again the Bighorns never shed their Horns they continue to simply add on or grow each year.
Indeed the buck Antelope do grow larger horns each year as a normal progression. The trophy buck Antelope are only slightly larger body wise than a first year of maturity buck but the horns somehow have grown apprecialbly larger due to, I am sure, more hormones of some kind building up in their systems?
Thanks all for the kind words and observations. Good shed Hunting to those of you who indulge!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy,

Glad to see there is someone else amazed by antelope. My area is surrounded with sheep fence and antelope jump these fences everyday around here. I didn't know that they could self abort, thats amazing. The antelope rut is also quite amazing. Those poor bucks tear full speed back and forth across pastures all day long. I think if people would just stop and watch rutting antelope they would see some of the most action packed wildlife behavier there is. I once found a buck who had his horns caught in a fence another buck was bashing him with his horns. I was able to get within 10 feet of the fighting goats before the one ran off, the other soon freed himself and ran off too. You didn't mention how vocal antelope are, they can bark pretty loud! Antelope are often disrespected as they are easy to hunt comparied to most game but if one would just sit and watch them different times of the year they are a pretty cool animal.

WB

Antelope shed the sheath not the entire horn. In mid november usually. A true horn not an antler like the deer family. Antelope are my favorite to hunt and eat.


Last springs find!

Mostly my sons finds. I would be out today if I wasn't on call!

What on earth do you guys do with all those sheds Randy?? Derf

Well, my ol buddy up north, , I was told they make great aphrodisiacs. I have chased my wife around the house with the biggest 6 point, poking her in the butt! It don't work!!!!

So they are piled in my garage, we sell them from time to time, buy hunting gear. My son sold about 400# last spring and will sell more when he finds a buyer. He and I will gather about 600# to 1000# each year.

the bull elk are still pack'n in s.e. b.c.

Wyoming Ben: I have watched the Antelope speed across the fields and the prairies for literally hours on end during a day of rutting! It exhausts me just to watch them tear after each other! During the heat of early September and they seldom stop for water!
I have personally paced a herd of Antelope at 58 MPH and then had them cross the dirt road in front of me (58 was as fast as I would go on that dirt road!) and then they really torched off the speed! Left me in their dust! I am sure they are capable of 65 to 70 MPH! Several times I have had herds of Antelope or singles run along side my vehicle and then run in front of it as if to say - beat ya easily!
I once saw a doe Antelope nearly kill a Fox! She had a fawn and the Fox somehow got to close to the fawn (I am assuming) and the doe ran that Fox for 20 minutes! She would dart in front of the Fox as it was trying to evade her and the Antelope would kick the Fox as it crossed over the top of the Fox. The Fox's tongue was dragging and it could only barely keep out from under the Antelopes hooves by turning sharply and trying to accelerate away! The doe easily kept up with the Fox and it was a long time eluding her.
Yes I did forget to mention the various snorts, barks and wheezes that Antelope are capable of making! One certain bark they make means OH Hunter! You have been spotted! Better luck tomorrow! I hate to hear that bark!
I have an "Antelope Call" that I use to stop trotting Antelope with. I never shoot at running Antelope anymore and haven't for 25 years now! I learned that lesson long ago! A couple of "barks" on that call and usually even the oldest Buck Antelope will stop and look back at me!
Long live the Prairie Speedsters!
The Antelope.

Kudu56: YOU ARE THE HORN MAN! Wow, what a batch of horns! Good for you and your sons. That is an impressive batch of bone there!
Now to the "sheaths being shed" part of your posting. I am no expert but it is my understanding that just like the Bighorns the Antelope have this bone protuberance from their skulls and the "horn" or "hair sheaths" grow around that bone protuberance. The Antelope though shed their "horns" yearly while the various Bighorn Sheep never do. The Bighorns hair sheaths just keep growing and adding to the "horn" mass year after year. Once dead though and after some drying the Bighorns "horns" easily slide off the bone protuberance.
I see the Buck Antelope here during their shedded time and the "bone protuberance" is visible. It is blackish in color (can be mistaken for small horns, though this coloring of the bone is from a waxy musky leftover coating that clings to the "bone protuberance" from the previous years hair and wax (horn) buildup.
So maybe our differing views are just semantics but I contend the entire horn is shed from the Antelope Buck each fall! I have heard they are the only creature to actually shed their "horns".
I could be wrong but thats the way I undestand it.
Again congrats to you and the sons for the great haul! I feel happy when I get 10 or 15 sheds in a year!
Keep after'em!
And good luck when you do get out!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

My son who guides in Nevada in the fall spends Feb. to May antler hunting. It is a border line addiction with him. He does it on foot or horse back.

The best tool we use and have success with is a good pair of binoculars. It also helps to know where the elk were when they had horns and where they are without.

This is one of the more interesting and intellectual posts I've seen here in quite some time. I've seen many people do the typical antelope hunt-drive around, shoot a box of shells, finally kill one, go home. It's amazing that people could hunt antelope like this all their life and never just sit back and watch them for awhile. I love watching antelope in late September.

Here in Sask we have early seasons for archery and muzzleloading. Archery season is right in the main rut and most years MZ season catches the last week or so. A decoy is leagal and is used by some durring the rut. The deke is a silouette of a buck antelope. If you can get to 200 or 300 yds and pop up the decoy you better be ready. A fellow I know set up his decoy and had a buck rush in and knock it over before he could nock his arrow. Needless to say few would be foolish enough to sit behind a deke when the truck hunters mentioned above are out with their long range mags.

A couple of friends were out Feb 12 this year and saw many mulies and whitetails carrying antlers and even two antelope bucks with their horns. This is unusal as in Oct or Nov many antlelope bucks have lost horns.