sampotter

Allegedly

The OG's sheds have surfaced. The indications are that the deer itself is real and free range.

At some point we found an old logging camp that was in operation sometime in the early 1900s. On the Sunday the porcupines were out. We saw four altogether. This little guy was only a few feet off the ground. Almost cute enough to pet… We rounded a corner of a skid trail, when Fleur, who was ahead of me 20 yards, took off after something. Thinking she had spotted a porcupine, or worse yet a bear, I yelled, “NO!” In a moment I could see it all: Fleur disappearing under a spruce tree on the side of the trail, a moose shed in said trail, and then a porcupine climbing the aforementioned spruce tree in a hurried, but slow fashion. I didn’t actually see the whole spectacle as it unfolded but this is what I think happened: Fleur came around the corner and saw a crime in progress; a furry rodent in the act of gnawing an antler to pieces. Fleur’s gut reaction was to protect the antler at all costs, so she took one for the team. OR, maybe she saw a large, slow moving furball in the middle of the trail and decided to give chase. Either way, the result was the same; Fleur acquired about a dozen fat quills and the antler was saved from the porcupine. There was even a mouthful (porcupine sized) of chewed up mushy antler left in one of the spots the porky was focused on. (Thanks for bringing up the porky question PWGUNNY) In this picture the antler is in the middle of the trail and Fleur and the porcupine are somewhere under the spruce to the left. Once I realized Fleur didn’t get quilled too bad I had her pose for a shot… Later in the day it was apparent Fleur didn’t learn her lesson from her previous porcupine encounter as she was pretty excited about this one that was fortunately out of reach. We only found the one shed but here is a picture that includes Dave’s (left) and my sheds for comparison. Stats as of 5/15/14: Miles: 226.1 Sheds: 35 -----WT: 33 ---------CT: 2 ---------IA: 17 ---------NY: 3 (Sam 2, Fleur 1) ---------OH: 11 (Sam 9, Fleur 2) -----Moose: 2 Antler pieces: 1 Dead Bucks: 16 Dead antlerless: 24 Mylar balloons: 40

5/17-5/18/14 I went to the Adirondacks with Fleur for a 2 day hike with hopes of finding some moose sheds. I’ve picked up two while deer hunting in the fall before, but never on purpose. Dave, the caretaker had found a really nice one while riding his snowmobile in April, so the knowledge that the other side was out there somewhere had me excited. However, the first order of business was to install a new (used) stove in Hunter’s Lodge. When Fleur and I arrived, there was a clear moose print in the mud right next to the porch. (bottom right corner) The stove installation went surprisingly well (Justin was almost hit in the head by the jagged edge of a falling stovepipe, but close doesn’t count), and Fleur and I were off on mission shortly after lunch on Saturday. The area we focused on was the general area I surmised Dave had found his antler. The terrain is relatively flat and the whole area had been salvage logged by IP after the microburst of 1995. A labyrinth of skid trails and new growth makes the area particularly attractive to moose. It didn’t take too long before we found a couple of moose leg bones in a small clearing. About one hundred yards away we found a few more beneath some spruce trees. Even though the bones were well chewed and weathered, I was hoping to find a skull to go with the few scattered bones. After a couple of hours and lots of circling, there it was! It turned out to be a bull that died after shedding his antlers. Apparently moose have no respect for their dead…

Thanks! We saw a porky in the Adirondacks last spring but I saw it first and called them away. I'm actually headed up there tonight to look for moose sheds. Knock on wood....

We searched high and low in the area where we found the big shed with no luck, so we made a beeline to a hill that I thought this particular buck bedded on. On the first pass I spotted this up ahead: It proved to be the match to the 1st one! My GPS said we were .46 miles from where we picked up the other one. I had this buck on a trail camera late last summer and had a hunch that I had seen him a few times before. I had picked up 2 different 3 point sheds on this farm in previous years (both lacked brow tines) and wondered if either could have been his. When I got home I dug both out of a box. The 1st one I compared was definitely not his, but the 2nd one sure was. The astounding thing is that when I turned the older shed over to see when I found it, the date said Aug. 2008! That makes this buck 9-10 years old today! Here are some trail cam photos of him late last summer. Stats as of 5/15/14: Miles: 207.4 Sheds: 34 -----WT: 33 ---------CT: 2 ---------IA: 17 ---------NY: 3 (Sam 2, Fleur 1) ---------OH: 11 (Sam 9, Fleur 2) -----Moose: 1 Antler pieces: 1 Dead Bucks: 16 Dead antlerless: 24 Mylar balloons: 40

It was big and slightly palmated, with all kinds of neat characteristics. Last fall’s scrape under a perennial hemlock rub.

Well, I went to Connecticut the first weekend of May for a visit the Bronsons at Maple Bank Farm and do some shed hunting. The weather was nice, the ticks for whatever reason were not out, but the mylar balloons were everywhere; I picked up 24 in two days. I decided not to post any more pictures of them as I am sick of seeing them. The 1st antler related find was this old 8 point deadhead. There wasn’t much left of it, but would have been a decent rack several years ago. I decided to leave it for someone else to find. Another dead buck. Fleur and were well into the 2nd day and had covered 12 miles or so. I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever find another shed when I spotted something up ahead. (Antler is the whitish object in the dead center of the picture)

Culver- go to post 2937 on this page. I didn't post the original pictures, just collected them into one single post from the preceding 90+ pages and summarized some of what had transpired. If you have a lot of time, start at the begging of thread and read the entire thing. It is amazing to watch the evolution.... http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2239340&page=98

Sadly, I just can't take my eyes away. The stuff that keeps piling up and I like collections, so I figured I would collect all the photo evidence into one single post for everyone to see.

You guys beat me to it! I was going to post the video, but I see someone already has...

The heat is off chasen now too. In the end it really wasn't about the buck referred to as OG, it was about Ohiobooners, a Frank Abagnale-type that faked multiple deer as legitimate, free-range kills. Heck, he even claimed to have found the sheds from the amish Shmucker buck and said he was 'so' close to catching up with that buck before the amishman shot him. The picture he used of the sheds was not his and was actually swiped off the internet....

Phade- before the AT thread got pulled down this afternoon there was a lot of evidence posted that made it appear that OB had never actually killed any legitimate big bucks at all. A Trophy Pursuit guy also posted pictures of OB with 3 different sub-100" bucks he had killed last fall. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but you wouldn't expect a guy with 3 gross B+C bucks to want to kill multiple immature bucks in a season... I read it somewhere in the AT thread, but one poster said something along the lines of, "all of these antler hoaxes make me want to x-ray my own racks to make sure they are real."

Thanks guys- the ups and downs of shed hunting, eh? Isn't it funny how you can walk all day, finding nothing, and then you come around a rock or bush or rock and everything changes? Gotta love it!

4/19/14: Day8, 9.3 miles. We didn’t find any sheds this final day but I thought for sure we were going to. We were on the opposite side of the pasture that we found the 3 sheds in the day before and I kept on finding BIG winter deer pellets. If didn’t know better I’d swear there was a moose on the loose. The last interesting thing we found on the trip was a dead coyote- that appeared to have been eaten by another coyote? The end of trip picture. 16 sheds (3 matched sets) and one cone-headed dog… I didn’t take pictures of them but I did find >15 dead does and fawns in one particular valley. The winter was harsh everywhere this year. 4/25/14: Back in NY on my day off a few days after we returned from Iowa I took the girls out for an 8.1 mile hike. It was 10 days after Fleur’s surgery and she still had a dozen staples in her belly, but I could tell she was raring to go. We started the day off with the customary balloon… We were poking around on a small island in a wetland on public land when I saw Fleur coming in my direction with an old shed in her mouth! She’s back in the saddle! It was an old 6pt side (the only one in my possession) that must have laid there for 10 years or so. I would’ve loved to have picked this one up when it was fresh. Not far away I saw evidence that this spot was still a favourite for big bucks. I spied a small forkhorn along the edge of a field on the way back to the truck. It wasn’t a surprise to find one more balloon to close the day out. Stats as of 4/30/14: Miles: 188.9 Sheds: 32 -----WT: 31 ---------NY: 3 (Sam 2, Fleur 1) ---------IA: 17 ---------OH: 11 (Sam 9, Fleur 2) -----Moose: 1 Antler pieces: 1 Dead Bucks: 14 Dead antlerless: 24 Mylar balloons: 16

I saw the glint of an antler in a dry creek bed from quite a ways away. I could tell it was a dead buck, but it appeared to have some nontypical growth…. Once I got closer I realized it was actually a set of locked bucks! I never thought I’d ever come across something like this. Jake Linley and I walked right past these last spring when the snow was so deep... You’d think the racks would need to be bigger for these guys to get locked, but they did and these 2 wannabe 10 pointers paid the ultimate price. A few miles later I spotted this shed on a steep hillside above me. A nice one with 7pts (there’s another point on the G2 that can’t been seen in this angle). A younger buck that could be pretty cool this year. I was standing at a 5’ high barbed wire fence that had some deer hair stuck in the top strands when I spotted the 3rd and final shed of the day. (Trained eyes will see it.) A close up. As sun bleached as it was, it was actually fresh from this year. This was the top strand of the high barbed wire fence. Looks like those bucks were cutting it kind of close…

Not much farther down the field edge I saw a glint of white and I confirmed it as an antler with my binoculars. If you have good eyes you’ll see it…. When I got closer I realized the other side was there too- an 8pt set! This one I spotted out of the corner of my eye. I could tell it was old and chewed but I don’t discriminate… p Wait a minute… It was certainly chewed, but actually a fresh one from this year. It would have been a solid 4pt. I’ve found fresh sheds that the squirrels had chewed, but nothing as bad as this one. The landowner has been cultivating the black walnuts on this property, so there is an artificially high squirrel population… A typical Iowa bluff country pasture. 4/18/14: Day 7, 11.3 miles. I don’t know if it is a good omen or a bad one to start the day off with a balloon? A little deadhead that had been there a few years. Hey! There’s the 1st of the day! Another piece of a balloon.

I don’t think I’ll ever buy a balloon in my life. These things are everywhere! Another dead, shed buck: Big rubs always catch my eye! We walked all day and were coming up the opposite side of the draw that led to the food plot and my truck was in sight when I spotted this one. Less than 5 minutes later I thought I saw something out of place on the edge of some CRP. About 20 yards away I saw this, but I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at; some kind of sea creature? Nope, just the most unusual shed I’ve found to date and a match to the small 4pt from a few minutes before. It was a good day, but we were pretty tired. 4/17/14: Day 6, 13.8 miles Bonnie and her mom ended up picking up Fleur this day, but she had to spend the rest of the trip recuperating with a cone on her head. So, Ruby and I were at it again. Right off the bat I saw this nice, heavy 4pt on a berm. Ruby bringing it to me:

4/15/14: Day 4, 7.3 miles. I took Fleur to a different vet on this morning to get a more thorough examination as she hadn’t really eaten much of anything in days. He was skeptical because she was still playful and energetic. He suggested keeping her there overnight. By 5 pm he was frantically trying to get a hold of me because she still had a bunch of blanket in her stomach that needed to be surgically removed. $1400 later she was on the road to recovery. This is what he pulled from her stomach. Fleur was safe at the vet office, so it was up to Ruby and me to make up time. We didn’t get out until almost 2 pm and also didn’t find any sheds. I did find this old wry-nosed buck skull. It appears he was born this way because he also has mismatched #s of molars, 4 on one side and 6 on the other. Apparently it didn’t bother him too much because he still lived to maturity. 4/16/14: Day 5, 13.7 miles. With Fleur recovering at the vet clinic, Ruby and I walked a new farm. The landowner suggested I park and start looking near a small corn food plot he had. Just inside the woods and still within sight of my truck we hit paydirt! Finally a shed with some size. 7 points! Ruby “found” it and brought it to me: About 30 yards up the draw I spotted another shed. It proved to be match to the 1st one and also had 7 points! We were pretty excited after having such a slow start to the trip. More Balloons: The buck that made this must have been angry:

4/13/14: Day2, 8.2 miles. got rained out towards the end but still managed to find 2 sheds Another old dead, already shed buck to start the day: It’s not much but I snatched it as the 1st shed of the day! I think there are some big bucks in town… My 1st fence post rub: Long lost in the CRP…now found. 4/14/14: Day3, 9.6 miles (didn’t head out until after lunch) Monday morning didn’t start out so hot. Fortunately, Bonnie and I already had business to attend to in town, so this was the perfect morning to get snow. This was also the morning that we took Fleur to the vet because she was vomiting up pieces of blanket she’d eaten on the ride to Iowa… Another possible EHD victim. Note the velvet still on the antlers: Despite the snow the cows were calving: Not fresh, but I claimed it as my only shed of the day:

An old deadhead that had dropped one antler before he died and the squirrels took care of the other: A lot of hair where a deer apparently didn’t cleanly clear a barbed wire fence: A nice rub: A sugar maple that appeared to be charred from a distance, but it turned out to be the work of a sapsucker: Balloon: It’s a boy! Another old deadhead with one side shed and the other side chewed off:

It's been awhile since I posted but I have been having a pretty good season... Another balloon, this one in NY: A quick weekend trip to Massachusetts in early April and started out with a balloon: I took my friend’s grandson (he is really excited about hunting) out on the 1st day along with his friend (the big kid). Somehow the friend was the only one of us to find a shed (forkhorn) even though he didn’t seem all that into it. I never found any sheds that trip but the girls seemed to enjoy themselves: A pretty nice red oak the beavers had girdled: Lots of balloons in Massachusetts: It appears that the celebrated graduate may have been the 1st for this family: A week later after an overnight drive we were in the sacred shed hunting ground of Iowa! Things were a little slow at 1st, but we managed to stack them up. 4/12/14: Day 1, 12.4 miles, 1 shed This small buck died in the late summer, possible EHD:

Keep after 'em Wooly!

Way to go Wooly! Really cool ATL. With that snow on the ground still, it appears you have a full month of prime shed hunting left...

I was in a bit of a hurry, but the antlers were 20-30 yards apart. She covers a lot of ground in a hurry. When I initially trained her 3 years ago the antlers would be out in an alfalfa field and I would set out 10. This is just basic, fundamental training here. Never hurts to get back to the basics, just like sports. So far, the camera has been holding up. I wasn't expecting stable footage when I put it on her. Hopefully I can get some action of her finding real sheds.