Yesterday (Dec 14th) I was doing a muzzleloader antlerless deer hunt. At 9:30am spotted a deer approaching and glassed it to confirm that it was antlerless. It presented a shot and dropped it DRT at about 60 yards. It proved to be buck that had already shed it's antlers, which is ~unusual as in this area (southern Michigan) as bucks routinely carry antlers into early January. The pedicles were kind of scabbed over and dry to the touch. It also had some visible injuries to it's hip and brisket area in the form of missing hair and abrasions.

This was part of a management deer hunt with biologists conducting a study on all the deer taken complete with ageing, weighing, and inspecting the deer. Proved to be 4 1/2 years old, weighed 162 pounds with no fat. The external injuries were consistent with being hit by a car (on the ass) and possible road rash to the brisket. No broken bones but there were some internal organ injury (consistent with bruising) that the bullet didn't cause.

When I saw the deer it was slowly walking through cover but at the time I didn't think anything unusual (a whitetail buck walking slowly) nor did I watch it long enough to note anything like that. After getting hit by a car the body went into survival mode and dumped the antlers early.

Also interesting was that I remained in my blind for awhile after shooting the deer and a flock of turkeys came along. They apparently were curious about the downed deer and went over to check it out.

I have seen them shed as early as middle of Nov. and as late as april.

I shot a doe once that was feeding in the middle of a flock of turkeys of about 50-60 head. At the shot, she dropped dead with her legs running as typically happens. All the turkeys surrounded the downed deer and some of the gobblers started flogging the doe. They beat up on that doe for probably 3-4 minutes before loosing interest. They flogged it enough to rip hair our all over her body that was available. It was an odd afternoon for sure, and I've never seen it again.