If you've spent enough time in the deer woods, chances are you've experienced the euphoric sensation that prefaces the realization that you just stumbled across a shed antler. But few hunters—even those who spend the better part of their off-season shed hunting and scouting—can say they've ever found a matching a pair right next to each other. Shed hunting continues to grow in popularity for a number of reasons, too: you don't need a license, anyone can do it, there are technically shed antlers out there year round, and finding a high-quality shed is simply hard to beat.
Perhaps the only thing that makes shed hunting enticing than actually doing it is seeing footage of a deer casting off its antlers, and knowing there's gold out there waiting for you to take a chance. If you're new to the shed hunting game, you should know actually capturing a moment like this is extremely difficult. And if you're ever lucky enough to actually see something like this in person, you can be sure you'll never be so lucky again.
Fortunately, there are more trail cameras in the woods than ever before these days, upping the chances of someone catching that exact moment when a buck's antlers become loose enough to fall off. That's the case with today's video taken in Connecticut. This big buck walks perfectly into frame and stops to shake himself dry. This action finally loosens the buck's antlers enough to send them flying, much to the surprise of the buck!
It seems like one or two more videos hit the Internet every year showing this rare moment. It doesn't matter how many times we see this. It just never gets old, especially if you're a die-hard shed hunter who has always wished it would happen in front of them!
One thing we've always enjoyed about these videos is simply watching the reaction of the deer after the antler pops off. Most of the time, they seem genuinely startled when it happens. This buck got a little bit of extra surprise when one of his sides bounced off his back as he was running away.
Still, he's probably happy to be free of the burden of his old antlers. They do seem to bother the animal after a while if they haven't dropped yet. Big thanks to YouTuber Tom O'Reilly for sharing this awesome footage with the world!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram For original videos, check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
READ MORE: TRAIL CAMERA CAPTURES THE EXACT MOMENT A BUCK SHEDS HIS ANTLERS
