The most common period for Whitetail Deer shedding their antlers is February through March. However, factors such as; Geographical Region and Stress will affect this timing.
The Geographical Region bears the greatest influence on the Whitetail Deer, with the Northern Regions starting in January, Midwest in February, and the Southern Deer up to late March.
The Midwest Whitetail Deer
You will see a few bucks in January that have either dropped one side of their rack (antlers) or both, which would be your dominant bucks or those that have experienced a very stressful year.
If you are an Antler Hunter then you will want to focus on hunting for Deer sheds from the second week of February through March. Once the snow is off it will be more difficult to find the sheds and and by the time Turkey Hunting comes in or the Morel Mushroom season is in full swing the antlers may be well chewed by rodents. One way to do a mount of your Antlers.
Holding On To Those Antlers!
By February the Deer are already herded up so it’s a great time to see if the bucks have starting shedding their antlers. Here I have a small herd heading out to eat in the field (picked beans). The only buck in the group is a younger deer and has not given up his rack yet! I can see in the video he has one broken tine and one drop tine, so he will be a nice buck in two more years.