WNY Bowhunter

I guess you could mount them on this... http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/largeImagePopup.jsp?productId=742255&cImage=s7_229205_999_03 Sheds not included...lol.

It was more like a 3 week slump. It's hard to pick up sheds when they buckas are still wearing them!!!

Actually, I broke the ice with a small shed on 1/22 but hadn't found anything since then despite treking many miles looking for them. So, three down and 14 to go to hit my goal of 17 for the season.

Looks like a pretty nice one too!

Finally, luck was on my side today!!! I came across this nice fresh 10-pt. set laying together out in a hayfield. I have checked this field several times already but have come up empty. These babies weren't there last weekend and still have dried blood on the bases. Hearing of numerous people seeing bucks still packing antlers...

Zack, I have my best luck checking cropfields (clover, alfalfa) where the deer feed during the antler casting period. Also, hedgerows and brushy areas along fields are good producers too. So far, I have put in 23 hours since late december and have only found a single antler. Be prepared to do a whole lot of walking. Good luck!!!

Thanks guys. I set a goal of 15 sheds last year (ended up with 33). I'm sticking with 15 as my target number this year too, but hope to surpass it...

Well, I found shed #1 for the season today. Not a big one but it feels good to finally bring something home after 19 hours of looking over the past three weeks. The antlers should start dropping pretty good over the next couple of weeks!!! It used to belong to the buck on the right...

Yeah, you definately don't want to invade the bedding areas until you know for certain that the antlers have dropped. I've mostly just been checking fresh deer sign in cropfields, along hedgerows and litte brushy areas along the fields. Sooner or later I'll stumble on to one!!!

I've got 15 hours invested so far and have yet to bring one home. I think that most of the sheds still have deer attached to them!!!

I'm 100% positive that they are the same deer!!! In late December of 2010 a bachelor group of three yearling bucks showed up on my cams during post-season scouting. These three bucks stayed together all throughout the summer. This particular deer started off pretty unimpressively. Here he is on 7/3. I didn't think that he was going to be anything too great at this point. LFN was already a mainframe 8-pt with droptines beginning to form... By the end of August he had proved me wrong! I'm really looking foward to seeing what he is going to do this summer as a 3 year old. I'm thinking that he's gonna be pretty wide. Here's the other member of the trio that I called "Crab-Claw". He was a great looking 8-pt. as a yearling with really good brows. I though he was going to be heck of a two year old. Summer of 2010 (buck in lower left corner)... Summer of 2011. I was thinking he was going to do a lot more... I guess that it just goes to show that you never know what a buck is going to do rackwise unless he gets a fews years under his belt!!!

There are a number of counties in Regions 8 and 9 that produce record book deer every season...Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Genesee, Niagara...

You need to get out and look for those sheds in a few weeks!

What do you do with all of those skulls wooly? I usually just leave 'em laying in the woods unless the have some decent headgear.

Yep, been using Hevi-13 since '08. I'm currently shooting the 3.5" Magnum Blends. It's good stuff...kills 'em dead!!!

I can't wait to watch him grow over the summer. Hopefully, he'll have a good jump in antler growth from 2 to 3...

That's a heck of alot of effort sitting there wooly!!! You're off to a great start this year too.

Congrats, you're on a roll now!!! I've been out for maybe 7 hours so far in the past week and a half just checking out a few clover/alfalfa/hayfields. So far no luck. I think that most are still packing. It'll be a few weeks before I get too serious.

So, what's the story with that deer? How long have you been chasing him?

Here's a giant 10-pt. with a kicker that I was watching a couple of years ago in my hunting area...don't know what ever happened to him?

You must be mistaken...ain't no deer like that here in Steuben County!!!

Just look at the facial markings...the dark stripe down the muzzle...the amount of black on the edges of the ears. These markings don't change as a deer ages. Also, the two pics were taken from the same trailcam set-up almost exactly one year apart.

Another decent 2 year old 8-pt. that I watched all summer... Wide little yearling six that I watched all summer... This five point showed up during October and has stuck around...

This is the other 2 year old. He's probably my favorite trailcam buck of all time. Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped that this guy made it through another season!!! He was #1 on my "please don't get killed list". I've seen him several times since early december while spotlighting but haven't gotten any pics of him since early september. Went to take my cameras down tyesterday and BINGO...finally got him. He's pretty busted up...but alive and well. I am super pumped to see what he'll blossom into as a 3 year old!!!

This is one of the 2 year old bucks on the farm that I really wanted to see survive for another season. He made a great jump in growth from his first set of antlers. He was a regular visitor to my apple tree cam set-up all fall but disappeared in mid-October with no sightings since then. I figured he was dead. I was very surprised to see him show up again!!! He's the first shed buck of the season. Can't wait to see what he turns into this year... Last year he shed early too.