How Far Apart Do Bucks Drop Their Antlers? Shed Hunting Tips From New Science

February 5, 2025 By: Lindsay Thomas Jr.

You just found a nice shed antler. How far away is the matching side? How likely are you to find it? We now have scientific data to help answer these questions, thanks to a new study led by Brian Peterson of the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK). The results provide tips for your shed-hunting tactics that might increase your odds of finding matched sets of shed antlers.

Brian is a wildlife biologist and coordinator of the online masters program at UNK, and whitetails are his primary research interest. In particular, Brian is a passionate shed hunter. Every spring for the past 15 years he has logged many miles on foot hunting shed antlers in the high-quality deer habitat of the Platte River Valley in south central Nebraska. He personally finds around 50 sheds each spring. He combines them with sheds found by his co-researchers, students and other shed hunters. Studying them produced earlier guidance on how hunters can read shed antlers for clues to a buck’s health.

Brian and his co-researcher Casey Schoenebeck examined distances between matched sets of sheds they found from 2010 to 2022. Every February, March and April for those 13 years, they thoroughly searched 38 properties ranging from 40 to 950 acres. All are located in high-quality wintering habitat along the wooded corridor of the Platte River adjacent to agricultural fields. They recorded the location of every shed antler and collected measurements from each.

Wildlife biologist Brian Peterson of UNK (left) and Bryce Sutton, UNK wildlife biology student, collect measurements from shed antlers. Photo courtesy of Erika Pritchard, UNK.

Some shed antlers are obviously matches due to being dropped very close together. To confirm matches dropped far apart, the team looked for symmetry in a specific set of characteristics. I’ll come back to this confirmation process later and how you can use it to confirm your own matched sets. First, let’s get into the results.

Likelihood of Finding Matched Sheds

One of the first lessons from the data: finding matched sheds is not easy! Out of 1,059 total shed antlers collected and evaluated, 775 of them were singles without a match. Counting the 142 matched pairs as one deer each, they only found a matched set for 13% of the bucks that contributed antlers to their collection.

“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,” said Brian.

Brian Peterson’s study collection includes 142 matched pairs of shed antlers, and he knows the distances between their drop locations for 113 of them.

I should note here that Brian said he sees very little damage to antlers by gnawing rodents. In many areas, squirrels, chipmunks, mice and other rodents will gnaw sheds for the mineral value. In some places, it’s rare to find an old shed antler without rodent damage. Many are completely destroyed if they aren’t discovered in the first year. But some of Brian’s matches were found as many as seven years apart. This means that in states where rodents snack on sheds, your rate of finding matched sets may be even lower.

Distances Between Matched Sheds

Out of the 142 matched pairs, Brian collected distances between the two sheds for 113 pairs. The greatest distance between a matched set was 1,144 meters (1,251 yards), while the closest was under 1 meter. Note: Brian collected distances in meters. Since a meter is very close to a yard (100 meters is 109 yards), I’m just going to report the data in meters.

The illustration below gives you a visual of how the matched pairs spread out range-wise. Most of them were found very close to each other, with half (56) of the pairs lying up to 10 meters apart. Another 27 pairs were found 10 to 100 meters apart. As you’d expect, fewer matches were found as separation distances get longer, with only seven matched pairs separated by more than 500 meters.

How did age affect distance between antlers? I would have guessed older deer – carrying larger, heavier antlers on average – would cast their antlers closer together than yearlings. Brian also predicted this hypothesis at the start of his study. But his results did not cooperate with his prediction. Most yearling sets, 71%, fell within 10 meters of each other. Of the older bucks, 41% landed at this close range.

Note: Researchers sorted sheds into the two age groups using a main-beam length cutoff, based on data from known-aged bucks in the same region.

How to Find More Matched Sheds

I saw Brian’s results as encouraging and actionable information. Half of all the matched sets were found within 10 paces of each other. This suggests that every time I find a shed, I should stop walking, scan the immediate area carefully, and do a careful search of the ground within a 10- to 15-step radius of the shed I found before moving on.

“If you find one, don’t be in a rush to keep walking that same line,” said Brian. “Slow down and make loops. Spin off from that central location.”

The author’s daughters hunting shed antlers in a food plot – and finding a matched set!

The only matched set I’ve ever found is a small 8-point rack, probably from a 2½-year-old. The two sides were about 5 feet apart in a food plot, but early spring growth of vegetation had hidden both of them pretty well (photo below). If I’d been in a hurry, I could have easily missed the other side in my excitement over finding the first. After reading Brian’s study, I’ll have a new rule: Pause every time I find a new shed and carefully search vegetation and brush within a few yards.

The author found this matched set about 5 feet apart, but weed growth in a food plot had nearly hidden both of them. Whenever you find one shed, spend time looking for its match within a 10-yard radius.

If you find a particularly large shed that you’d love to match up, then a hard search of a broader area is a good idea. Another 24% of matched sets were separated by 10 to 100 meters. Drop a pin on your onX Hunt app where you found the first shed. Then use onX to track your coverage as you run concentric circles around that waypoint out to 100 yards.

“Once you get out of that 100-yard circle, your percentages drop sharply,” said Brian. “You may as well continue on your search for other antlers.”

Matt Ross, NDA’s Senior Director of Conservation, didn’t have to work hard to find the 150-class matched set of Maine sheds in the photo at the top of the page.

“I was doing a timber cruise, and the right side was directly in my compass bearing about 100 yards in front of me, tines up in the snow,” said Matt. “I immediately ran to it, as if someone was going to get there before me! I had my chocolate lab with me, and as I was holding and admiring the right side, thinking about how my day was going to be wasted as I needed to go look for the left side, I looked over and my dog was sniffing the other antler under a balsam fir sapling.”

Do You Have a Matched Set?

Like you, Brian is working with wild deer. Often a match is obvious because the antlers are very similar and dropped very close to each other. With those scattered more widely, researchers cannot confirm a match with 100% accuracy without DNA testing on tissue still attached to fresh sheds. DNA testing is costly, but Brian has done this on a small number of matched sets. He used these results combined with data on known matches and previous research to develop a system using antler characteristics (detailed findings of Brian’s antler symmetry study can be found here). You can use the same system to confirm with high confidence that you found a match.

You can do the first step in the field. Turn the two sheds tines-down and compare the pedicle bases. Look at 1) the shape and size of the pedicle “seal,” or the perimeter of the base, 2) the depth of the base, meaning how far it extends out from the antler burr, and 3) whether the base is flat, convex or concave. Except in a case where a buck injured one antler base in the past, all these characteristics should be the same on a matched set of antlers.

“The pedicle seal is never a perfect circle,” said Brian. “It’s like a fingerprint, and it should be the same on both sides. Also, the shape of the base: If it’s concave, both sides will be.”

Pedicle bases or “seals” are like fingerprints, and the shape and depth of the bases of a matched set will be almost identical – as seen in these matched sets.

Next, take a few measurements when you get back home. The best measurement in terms of confidence in a match is known in the Boone & Crockett scoring method as the “H-1” measurement. It’s the circumference of the beam between the burr and the brow tine. 

The next most reliable indicator is main beam length. If the H-1s, main-beam length and pedicle characteristics all match closely so far, you have high confidence in a match using the most reliable comparisons. But if you need it, two more measurements can also be compared: H-2 and H-3. These are the beam circumferences between the brow tine and G-2, and between the G-2 and G-3. However, tine lengths, total tine count and gross score are less reliable for confirming a match. 

Don’t Give Up the Search

If you’re still hunting for a shed antler’s match from last year or earlier, you can use Brian’s information to go back to the place you found the first one and search again. Brian has found a number of matches years apart in areas that are thoroughly searched each year. 

Also, consider using my favorite method for finding more sheds: Prescribed fire! Do you have a target area where a shed’s match should have been found? Plan a fire. You’ll be improving deer habitat and exposing hidden sheds at the same time.

About Lindsay Thomas Jr.:

Lindsay Thomas Jr. is NDA's Chief Communications Officer. He has been a member of the staff since 2003. Prior to that, Lindsay was an editor at a Georgia hunting and fishing news magazine for nine years. Throughout his career as an editor, he has written and published numerous articles on deer management and hunting. He earned his journalism degree at the University of Georgia.