sampotter

You made my day Wooly! I just remembered josephmrtn had asked a while back about the easiest way to find sheds without having to walk too much even though he's probably the youngest member of this forum... So far I'm averaging more than 9 miles per shed...

whoops, your'e right josephmrtn

Bloat happens often in any dead ruminant regardless of the cause of death. The naturally occurring microbes keep on fermenting the food in the stomach as if the animal was still alive, but because it is dead it can belch or fart.

Wooly- I don't mean to hijack your thread but the buck boiler works really well. My Dad gave one to my brothers and me for Xmas a couple years ago (he keeps it at his house though...). It's a plastic bucket with an element in it. You add powdered Cascade dish detergent and the meat and gunk melts off in a matter of hours. There's no need to cut the back of the skull off either, I just hook the brains out with a piece of wire. Wrap the bases of the antlers with saran wrap to keep the bark in and the grease off. We've done 15-20 heads in the last couple of years, even some that sat around and mummified for a few years. The fresher ones come out a lot whiter. Here's my roadkill from Halloween:

Wooly- I highly recommend the buck boiler. It only took 5 hours after skinning it out to when I was able to hang this guy on the wall.

B+C verified that the submitted score is legit. Most guys don't understand how big those truly big ones are until ou see them in person. BPS had their trailer full of famous bucks on display not too long ago with the Breen buck among others. It is so hard to imagine a deer growing that much antler. Those deer are in a whole other league...

I bet if you invite him to your hunting spot to help you look for sheds he would oblige, so long as you aren't too far away...

Nice one Wooly

Phade- sadly i have not even applied. I tried to 2 years ago but they required my bowhunter's safety cert which i can't find. Last year i forgot because the app period is in june i believe. I hang my head in shame.

My girlfriend of nearly 6 years is from Iowa and her parents farm 800 acres there and in MN. She said she isn't marrying me unless I am willing to move there. Hmmmmm.... My ONLY hangup is the fact that my dad and I are partners on the farm I am on and have a significant amount invested.

Good info Phade- exactly what I've been saying all along. The only able-bodied hunters in NY that want crossbows for archery season in NY are the gun hunters that don't want earn the right to bowhunt by putting in the time.

Iowa

Wooly- I bet your one of those guys that looks at a nice buck on your wall and fantasizes about finding the antlers as sheds... I'll admit it- I do that all of the time. In fact, some days I'm not sure I would have rather picked them up as sheds and left him to grow another set.

I'm pretty sure I could do the same thing- must be quite a sight, several grown men sitting around fondling antlers...

Wooly- you made me look twice- the "grooves" are actually blades of grass. It's actually a pretty small antler off a yearling.

Got out yesterday and added a few more miles and 1 more antler. Fleur was excited to stretch her legs!

You got it Grow. It is being grown in Canada as a livestock bedding and biofuel alternative. It grows quite tall and thick, goes dormant in the winter (which is when it is harvested), and then regenerates fully from the roots again in the spring. It is expensive at the moment and can only be established by planting rhizomes.

Miscanthus is another good option.

It would be cool to DNA test them- the similarities are uncanny...

I see what you're seeing Wooly. My vote is no- extremely closely related bucks but 2 things throw me off- the burrs and the smaller, similar mass on both of them possibly indicating deer of the same, younger age. You'd expect a bigger difference in mass if it were the same deer from one year to the next?

If nothing else it's fun to have a friend along- especially one that gives you any shed they find, no questions asked... Watching them catch the scent of an antler and then hone in on it is as fun as anything too. For some reason deadheads never get me too excited. Maybe it's because they are usually young bucks that needed more time. I hoard sheds of all shapes, sizes, and condition. I have some that have barely any features that prove they are really even an antler.. I can't imagine selling, cutting, or giving away any of them as they all have their own story.

Nyantler- if you want I could bring the girls up and let them show you what they know...

That sure is true Wooly! I carried the biggest one out, but hung the 2 smaller ones in trees. I saw a post on Archerytalk in a thread about weird and freaky things seen in the woods. One guy said he saw deer skulls hanging in trees- and he was pretty freaked out by it. He was actually from the Syracuse area... I probably could've sawed the anlters off the 2nd little one for crafty stuff or trainers for the dogs. I'll be back through there in a month or so.

I've added a few miles but not much to show... “These are antler search and rescue dogs!” Miles: 27.1 WT Sheds: 3 Dead Bucks:4 Dead Does/Fawns: 4

Nice work Wooly. Too bad to find dead bucks like that though...