Watched 9 bucks in a bean field yesterday, all still in velvet. No hard horn pics from my cell cams yet either.
Not a single buck out of velvet for me yet and I'm getting several bucks on camera daily. Middle TnLots out of velvet now on my cams in middle tn
Every so often I will se weird patterns like this. I often try and link it to any myriad of causes, but to date, I've really not been able to pin it down. The only thing I've found that is clear is the link between acorns and sign-making (many more rubs and scrapes during a good acorn year), and slight changes in peak rut activity due to acorns/food quality and availability (in high food availability/quality years, peak breeding will be a week or so early, in very bad food years, up to 10 days late).This year more seem to be holding on to velvet longer.
BSK, any theories on why? It may have already been mentioned but I'm too lazy to read.
Other than consistent rain, maybe covid? We blame everything else on it.