New Study Tells You How Far to Look for a Matched Set of Antlers

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Kearney recently finished a 13-year study that aimed to determine exactly how far apart whitetail deer tend to shed their antlers. Every February through April, the team—led by Brian Peterson—collected sheds from 38 private properties in the Central Nebraska Platte River Valley, ranging from small family farms to larger Nature Conservancy and Audubon properties. All said, they found 1,059 antlers including 113 matched sets of varying age and condition, from fresh browns to antlers that had been sitting for a year or two. The researchers recorded the distance between matching antler pairs.

The results were somewhat surprising. While the researchers hypothesized that larger, older deer would shed their antlers closer together, they found the opposite to be true. They found 70% of antler pairs from younger deer (1.5-year-olds) within about 30 feet of each other.

Older deer, however, tended to drop further apart. Only 41% of older deer (2.5 years old or more) dropped both antlers within 30 feet of each other. Meanwhile, 52% of these older matched sets were found anywhere from 30 to 1,500 feet from the other. The average distance separating an antler pair off a younger deer was about 140 feet, compared to about 400 feet for older deer.

All said, the results indicate that the best chances of finding a matched set—especially off a smaller deer—are within about 100 yards of the first antler. “Once you get out of that 100-yard circle, your percentages drop sharply,” Peterson told the National Deer Association last year. “You may as well continue on your search for other antlers.”

Ultimately, the results confirm what shed hunters have known for a long time, but understanding the biological mechanism behind antler shedding can help make sense of this phenomenon. Biologically, antler shedding is a highly regulated process that is influenced seasonally by changes in daylight. Light is detected by the retina in a deer’s eye (which acts as a seasonal clock), triggering a series of hormone pathways that cause a sharp drop in testosterone after the rut.

That testosterone drop sets off another series of events that causes specialized, bone-eating cells in the deer’s body to absorb a thin layer of bone between the dead antler and the living bone of the pedicle, causing fast weakening and a sudden snap. The whole process occurs relatively quickly, which could explain why antlers tend to fall off together—usually within a few minutes or hours.

But as the researchers note, whitetail can travel a long distance in that time period—especially younger deer, which tend to have larger home ranges. As Peterson notes, “There’s a lot of unmatched antlers out there that will likely never be found, whether they are accessible on the property you are searching or not.”

Additionally, smaller antlers tend to be harder to match up because of their size, which could have influenced Peterson’s results. “The average distance between antler pairs in this study was likely underestimated for both age groups and especially for younger deer,” the researchers write. Larger antlers are easier to spot, so the results might be skewed in favor of finding larger antlers—especially when farther apart. In fact, even though antlers from younger deer tend to be closer to each other, researchers found over twice as many sets from older deer as they did from younger deer.

That explanation is the most digestible from a common-sense standpoint. As most shed hunters can attest, spotting a forky antler in thick brush is much harder than a big four- or five-pointer. Realistically, a small antler might be close by, but undiscoverable unless stepped on. Ultimately, the researchers seemed to conclude the same thing, and also noted that as spring green-up progresses, antlers—especially small ones—get harder and harder to find.

At the end of the day, the research project likely won’t change a thing about the way people shed hunt, but it is a noble attempt to answer one of life’s greatest questions: how far away is the other side?