Hi all,

When would you expect the Woodland Reds to cast their antlers?

I have got another chance at one of the big fellas up in Norfolk before the end of the season, Was thinking about early May but I think this might be a bit too late.

Any ideas?

FB

March/April - at least in the locations where I have been involved with Reds (Scandinavia and Austria).

- mike

FB,
We have had 2 very large/mature stags that have already cast in the woodland, usually its about the 2 week in march with us..

regards
griff

Often older stags will cast before younger ones. Now is the times of the young stags - having been harrassed by the older stags all season, they now have antlers but the old guys don't....

- mike

Seems to be the same as here in the States. I expect that in the next week or two, all my Stags will have dropped their antlers. I thought that they dropped a bit earlier last year ... I could be mistaken though.

The Whitetails are starting to drop, almost ran over a matched set two weeks ago.

Up here they atleast have their antlers all winter, should still have them up here..


Johan

FB saw one yesterday carrying only one antler!
I usually reckon Mar/April but this global warming is having some strange effects.

mho is right. I have seen big old Stags drop in January.

Normally Red stags cast between february-may. However, daylight and temperature do have an influence. The present winter being exceptionnally mild, I see Roedeer already shedding hair (normally april-may) and 3 weeks ago, I saw a 6-pointer already out of velvet (they normally rub in march-may).

I was out 2 weekends ago in a wooded area were I stock and came across 3 Sika Stags and the lead Stag had already droped 1 antler.

I crept up on a group of 22 reds on friday night, the lead stag was a big body weight (313lb carcass) boy with 6 points, of the other three stags all were spikers in velevet.

Was very surprised to see them, as this place has one small 10 acre wood in the midle of an arable patch miles from where reds are meant to be.

Client had mentioned seeing the odd red, but i thought she meant roe! two exceptionaly heavy carcasses and a panicked call to a keeper friend to come and help me move them proved me wrong. If i can work out how to get the photos of my phone i will post!

Red stags are actually out of season in May and should have cast long before that.

The old Germanic name for February was "Hornung", coming from shed red deer horns.