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sampotter's 2015 Shed Thread


sampotter
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Well, like the rest of you, I've had a really slow shed season.

 

I went to southern OH to my friend's place to get away from the snow a few weeks ago. It has been getting logged since 12/1, so the deer were along the fringes of the property for the most part. We walked pretty hard and managed to find two, which is better than none I suppose. One is off an old acquaintance of mine, a buck I call "The Challenger". I now have a matched set off him from 2012, and singles from 2014 and this year. He should be 6 years old this year. He would've scored about 140" last fall, but most of is in gnarly 6" bases and nearly 8" brow tines. 

 

As it lay:

 

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Ruby bringing it in:

 

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Tired girls:

 

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I spotted this forkie in the mouth of a ravine the next day:

 

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A week later I headed towards my in-law's farm in Iowa. I got in the area early morning, and because my friend was flying into an airport in Western WI that afternoon, I killed some time by shed hunting on a WI farm. Towards the end of the day I spotted my first ever WI shed. Ruby was quick to scoop it up so I didn't get a good ATL:

 

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About an hour later I spotted a 14" shiv in the leaves...

 

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It proved to be a match to the first one:

 

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When my friend Jake and I finally arrived at my in-law's house, this was the sight that greeted us. My mother-in-law and her friend spotted this mint set in the grass below my in-law's grain bins while on their daily walk. They are about 65" each. I'm pretty confident the buck will only be 4 this year. Jake and I drooled over them all week.

 

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The first morning we stopped at a neighbor's house to fondle this 178" rack he found last fall. I had this deer on my trailcam one night in November...

 

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All amped up, we walked for 2 days straight without finding a shed... We did find lots of boot and ATV tracks (all private land). Most of the landowners were surprised when we told them what we found. On Day 3 I finally spotted some bone!

 

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Later that same day we circled back into a thick area we had been near the day before. We just found more ATV tracks, so we popped back out onto a field edge and followed it back towards the truck. I had walked this same edge following ATV tracks the day before. As we discussed and cussed our luck and the trespassers that poached our spot, I glanced across Jake's line of travel and spotted golden tines at the top of the field! Jake was some sad.. he actually was closer to the shed than me by a couple of feet.

 

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I proved to be a big fatty that measured 58". It ended up being the biggest of the trip.

 

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We headed to a different farm that afternoon. The neighbor told my father in-law that he and his family picked up 26 sheds a couple of weeks before. Jake found 1, I found zero. The farmer called another landowner and got permission for us in another spot. I found this dink 3 point side right in the yard. Jake ended up finding the matching side 1/2 a mile away.

 

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On to new ground the next day, I found this decent 4 point side:

 

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We moved on to another farm where I got skunked, but Jake had a hot streak and picked up 5! I was supposed to follow a field edge and he was going to come up through a ravine. Well, he beat me to the top and poached one along the field edge about 5 minutes before I got there,  a touché if you will to me spotting the one in front of him 2 days before. 

 

The next day I saw this one in a hayfield:

 

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Fleur bringing it in. A 5 point yearling side, that buck has a ton of potential!

 

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Jake had to leave but I kept at it for a couple more days. The last day, while I stopped to get my sandwich out, I spotted this little forkie right under my nose. We all almost missed this one.

 

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With 1.5 hours left before I had to pack up to drive back to NY, I took a half-hearted walk in some thick CRP across the road from my in-law's house. Reuben Cary, an old Adirondack guide once said, "Don't curse yer luck til yer git home!" AKA- don't give up! Tines amongst the grass were an awesome sight in that sea of grass and weeds in the last 1/2 hour of my trip!

 

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Ruby and Fleur with my finds:

 

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Mine and Jake's together:

 

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I went out here in NY a few days ago on some public land and managed to come up with 4...

 

I found my 2nd hanger ever in an apple tree!

 

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I found a ton of feeding sign under an apple tree and thought, "Geez, there has to be a shed around here somewhere."  There was:

 

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There was a ton of sign under the hemlocks. I knew it was just a matter of time...

 

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Fleur bringing it in:

 

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About 20 yards away I spotted this oldie:

 

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I didn't expect to see a porkie in my area. They are the only thing worse than squirrels when it comes to sheds.

 

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We found 10 dead fawns that day and one dead buck that had already shed. The deer we saw that were alive looked like death warmed over. This winter was a killer here in the NE.

 

Miles: 126.2

Sheds: 15  (OH-2, WI-2, MN-0, IA-7, NY-4)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm still at it... Although it's definitely been a tough year for shed hunting.

 

I took the dogs out to some state land on 4/24/15 and it snowed a couple of inches while we were there. The only thing we found was another porky!

 

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Last weekend I took the girls to the Adirondacks to look for moose sheds. On the way in we hit up a known deer yard and hit pay dirt! In fact, I spotted the first one from the truck while getting rid of the morning's coffee...

 

(Dead center of the photo to the left of the largest spruce)

 

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Fleur found a little one after I walked right past it. As always, Ruby tried to steal it:

 

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A little while later I found another small one:

 

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And one more jackalope-sized shed to round out the day:

 

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We also came across this balsam that must have been struck by lightning. I have never seen a tree so completely obliterated.

 

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A view from a nearby stump.

 

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Most of the splinters of the tree were within a 30 yard radius of the stump, but I was still finding pieces over 100 yards away.

 

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We didn't find any moose sheds but I did get a photo of a bull already growing his new set in the end of January:

 

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It was still a good trip.

 

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Sheds: 19-  OH: 2, WI: 2, IA: 7, CT: 0, NY: 8

Miles: 187.86

Time: 135 hours, 24 minutes, 7 seconds (according to Trimble GPS app)

 

 

Edited by sampotter
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