when do deer drop thier antlers

Its my first year bow hunting and I plan on hunting late season but I don't want to shoot any doe because I shot one already this year. I'm wondering when the best time is to get a shot at a late season wi buck, I'm hunting south eastern wi Washington county.

Poacher-- i dont know what part of wisconsin your hunting, but more often than not some bucks will loose there antlers before bow season is done so you do have to watch out if your trying to shoot a doe and dont want to kill a buck--shed

In wisconsin, i would say antlers would usually shed by end of february. So i wouldnt worry about shooting an antlerless buck during the late bow season. As far as getting a buck in late season, I would probably wait 2 weeks after the 4 day antlerless gun hunt for the deer to return to their normal patterns and move before legal light ends. If your zone allows you to bait then go for it. IF u dont someone else is doing it and taking all the deer from moving to you.

I've seen two half rakes this week already.

I heard if there are unbred does in the area that go into heat they will keep their antlers longer too. Not sure if there is any truth in it, I want to say I read it in a magazine somewhere.

The earliest I've ever seen was 2 mature bucks with their antlers falling off during the ML season as we drug them (Ashland Cty - Public land). We had deep snow early. The latest was 2 years ago in Marquette County (private land)....I found a mature 5 point side on Mothers day in the exact spot I'd been the prior week....no chance I missed it earlier. After a very easy winter. I think the earlier posters hit it on the head as far as when but these are my earliest / latest.

In the next couple weeks some will drop, nutrition plays a roll as well as if they sustained any injuries throughout the year. And the main component is when there testosterone levels drop with less sunlight and less rut activity. Uncle shot a "doe" during gun season years back that ended up being a shed buck. My earliest fresh shed finds were December 16th and December 19th both within the last 5yrs, one a 3.5yr old 10pt one a 1yr old 6pt--shed

Antler drop depends at least partially on nutrition. When I was a teenager, we had a small deer farm. Our bucks would not drop their antlers until March because they had large amounts of high nutrition feed (all they wanted). The wild deer in the same area (central WI), would drop them in late dec/early january, but this was in the 1980s when we had colder winters with more snow. With current climate conditions and in SE WI which generally has an abundance of feed, you should be fine through the end of bow season.

most of the time, deer will drop their antlers in late winter. lately, in SEWI, there have been antlered bucks still running around in late march. sometimes in the north they can drop in january if the winter is bad, but it doesn't happen very often anymore.