"Mike O" writes:

I have a large, mature oak tree, about 40 feet tall, the trunk is
about 3 feet thick at the base. The tree appears healthy, but there
are a number (about 10) dead branches near the bottom of the tree.
The largest of these branches is about 2 inches where it exits the
trunk, although most are around 1 inch. They have no leaves on them
at all and they smaller shoots break easily. Also, most also have
very blunt cut ends where it looks like they were pruned years ago (by
the previous homeowner). By far, most of the tree is fine, with very
full, green leaves.

I'd like to remove these dead branches, but I'm not sure when is the
best time of the year to do this. I've done some searching, and found
information regarding pruning live branches, but not much about the
dead ones. Some of the articles I've found state to trim only during
winter, but that would be much harder to identify the dead branches.
Other articles say mid to late summer (starting late June) is OK.

The dead branches are all fairly low (reachable from the ground with a
pole saw), and finances are somewhat tight right now, so bringing in a
professional isn't really an option.

The branches are dead.

They don't get deader at any particular time of year.

Cut them off anytime.