The Pruchas and their friend, Kurt Schroeder, have been hunting shed antlers on my farm for the past several years (since 2003).   Some years they find only about 50 antlers and their best has been 110.  This year they found 80 sides and several dead bucks.  Never have they found so many dead bucks in the past.  I think some of them died from EHD (similar to blue tongue).  The last round of EHD came through here in 1998 when we lost nearly 40% of the deer off the farm I was hunting at that time.  This time around it was not nearly as devastating, but I have spoken with some landowners in parts of Iowa that have found more than three dozen dead bucks! 

There were two bucks that the guys found that I would say likely died from EHD.  One was a big basic 9 pointer with stickers that scored 170 gross inches.  The other was a 9 pointer (basic 8 pointer with a forked G2) that scored 150 inches.  Neither deer showed much sign of rubbing on the antlers and both appeared to have been dead for quite a while.  You can see both of these deer on the latest episode of Midwest Whitetail.

Noteably missing from the pile of 80 antlers (a few other friends also found other antlers so the actual number is higher) were two bucks.  One was the "Broken Beam Buck".  We had found at least one side (often both) from this buck for each of the past three years.  Last year, even though already very mature, he made a big jump from 160 to pushing 190 inches.  I last saw the buck on December 30 (with his beam broken off, thus the name), the evening Chad shot the big 8 pointer.  I hope he survived because he will be my best prospect for this season. 

The other buck that was missing from the pile was Will's buck.  Will Prucha found a side off him in March of 2008 and I saw him during the summer of 2008, but that buck didn't turn up during the fall and the guys didn't find either antler.  I had hoped he would be here because he is also a buck likely to be pushing 190 this year - possibly bigger.  That is not to say that he couldn't still turn up, but it would sure be nice to find at least one antler off him.  We found a few antlers from some of the nice young bucks we passed up, so they represent good seed for this fall. 

The "Great 8" was there again, so he will be high on the list of bucks I'll be trying to pattern this year too.  Overall, it was a good shed antler season.  I just wish we hadn't found so many dead bucks.

In about two weeks I'll bring you another shed hunting show from several of the other Midwest Whitetail hunters.  For example, Chad, Colton and Brett have found 150 antlers so far and one of them is a true monster.  So they are justifiably pumped for the new season.  I'll bring you their story, plus a story from Mike Earp in Missouri.  Mike tried to kill two great bucks fall and then recently he found both shed antlers from both of them.  That story should prove exciting, as well.  If you haven't subscribed, please do and I'll let you know when that show is on the site.