WNY Bowhunter

Congrats, I know you like sheds with character!!!

Thanks! Rescued it just in time. You can see where the rats starting gnawing on the tip of the G3...

Finally, found shed #1 for the season!!!

I'm been out a few times...no luck yet.

Checked my cams yesterday morning and found this... He dropped it sometime on monday. Headed back today to see if I can find them...

n It depends on different factors (environmental) that effect the stress levels of the deer. Typically, most bucks seem to drop from mid to late January into early February. Two years ago we had an unusually dry summer and then a big snow storm right after x-mas and as a result a majority of the bucks in my area lost their antlers at the beginning of January, 2-3 weeks earlier than normal.

Looks like you may have some good shed prospects any ways!!!

What makes CT deer look different than NY deer?

What makes these bucks look different than NY deer?

Awesome video. I had some good scrape action but I never tried my cam on video mode, maybe next year... Were either of those two giants killed?

I'd say that around 75-80% of my sheds have been found laying out in fields. Typically, I begin my shedding around this time and start out concentrating on hayfields (mostly clover but combined corn or beans are good too) where the deer feed during the night. It's helpful to have snow during this period so that it concentrates the deer and you can easily tell where they are focusing their feeding activity. I do a lot of scouting this time of year in effort to locate groups of bucks. If you find an area that is full of sign but only has does residing there then you won't find any sheds no matter how much time that you put in. I have several such fields that I walk every few days during Junuary when most of the bucks are dropping their antlers. I just cruise around the fresh sign looking for tines sticking up. As you get into March when the snow melts I finally hit the woods and brushy bedding areas. As you noted, I've found quite a few around hedgerow s and along wood edges. Here are a few examples of what to look for...

I have a couple of thoughts on the matter: First, the DEC ENCON dept. is SO UNDERSTAFFED as it is, they can not possibly enforce the regs that are currently in place!!! I know numerous people (average joe hunters) who shoot multiple bucks every season on other people's tags. I also know of a few scumbags who "night hunt" and they kill nice bucks every season (they did this past season too). There is little deterrent for them to stop. Two years ago a group of "punks" was shooting deer at night with a .22 on one farm I hunt. We found three dead bucks left to lay in the fields. I brought the DEC to the farm to check things out and I don't believe they ever followed up on it. Who can blame them; I just scanned the reg book and there are only 3 ECOs on duty in Steuben County (the 7th largest county in the state covering nearly 1400 square miles). On the other hand there are 17 listed ECOs for tiny little Suffolk County!!! The marine resources must take precedence over the rest of the state. On a personal level, I consider myself a "trophy meat hunter"...I hold out for bucks that are 3.5 years old and enjoy shooting does for the freezer. As a result, I've eaten quite a few bucks tags over the years along with a lot of tasty doe meat. For the past few years my favorite part of deer hunting has been watching bucks grow up on my trail cams...it's amazing to see what they can turn into with age. I get more exciting about the bucks that make it through season than the tags I punch. Only being able to shoot one buck doesn't make a difference to me. The DEC is not going to manage the deer herd any better. Our doe numbers (8P/8R) are way down but they keep throwing out more doe tags and people think they need to fill all of them. Two DEC technicians came to "age" the deer at my families meat cooler this past season. While trying to age the deer they didn't even cut the hide my the jaws to see the teeth...they simply stuck their fingers in the deer's mouth and felt the teeth,,,yet they were confident enough to blurt out answers like 2.5 or 5.5. One of the female technicians told my dad and uncle that the big bodied spike that was there was a yearling (correct) but it never would have amounted to anything because it's first set of antlers was not multi-branched!!!" What a JOKE!!!!!

I agree, the ears are one of the best features to identify individual deer.

I'm really hoping he'll stay a big mainframe 6-pt...

I also noted the notches in the ear but the new pics are fuzzy and the deer have "furrier" ears in the winter than in early sept. when the antlers pics were taken and these small notches could easily be cover up...

Finding that guy last spring was definately the pinnacle of my shed hunting career to date. I've never had him "officially" scored (my numbers are usually pretty accurate)...I came up with 170 2/8" gross nontypical. His bases are 8 1/4 & 8 1/2 around the corona/burr!!! I still have his jaws...I should probably send his incisors in to be aged. I figure he was at least 8.5 yrs old. Sheds are from 2011 rack...2012..2010... The set of sheds on the bottom were from his 2008 rack I believe...

This guy showed up on a couple of my cameras friday evening. It appears that he was shot right above the shoulders? Based on the shape of his face and ears...I'm 95% certain that this deer is a cool looking 2.5 year old buck that I watched all summer... I ended up getting about 30 pics and he doesn't seem to be any more run down looking than the other deer, but I'm betting that the injury has caused him enough stress to drop his antlers early. I'm really hoping that he will make it through the winter...

Had a taxidermist do it...about 3/4 of the velvet is intact...it was starting to dry out and strip when I found it.

I'm not certain how this year is gonna go. The warm weather so far has kept the deer spread out which makes the shedding tougher. I've made a couple of quick outings so far but won't get serious till the end of January...

I display the bigger ones and keep the smaller ones in a rubbermaid tub in the closet...

Decided to pull out the shed collection for a few preseason pics... To date = 145 antlers with the majority (110 of them) coming from the past 5 years of serious shedding... Three best deadheads...170" 17 pt...antlered doe...137" 8-pt In the center are two rows of matched sets = 24 to date

Got the year right this time around...

Need to delete this thread...

This is an antlered does that I found a few years ago...

I think it is...