Late February Buck!?

If you are not a hunter or animal watcher (really the same thing) - this post may not mean a lot to you... but if I was in conservation, I might take notice. This picture was taken just the other day - in our field - and it clearly shows one buck still retaining his antlers (which are looking quite bleached).This is especially interesting since most whitetails shed their antlers a few months after their mating season in the November time frame comes to a close. And I have never seen, nor heard, of a deer all the way into the end of February still retaining antlers. By definition - antlers fall off each year and regrown the next. This guys is either very old - or he missed the memo...