WNY Bowhunter

Shed #1 of the season (12/15/12)...

Decided to copy Wooly's idea and start a journal of this season's shedding adventures...

Some good points there... For me, it seems easier to find a deer's antlers than it is to kill him. In another 2-3 weeks they should start dropping pretty good. The whole key to finding sheds is to focus in on the winter food sources. I wait until all the snow goes in March before hitting the woods. I don't want to bump deer out of the area before they drop and I certainly don't want to comb the same area several times. On the other hand, I plan on starting to check a few destination feeding fields (clover/alfalfa) next week where the deer congregate overnight. I will continue to check these fields once or twice a week over the next several weeks. You can check these areas almost daily without impacting deer movement.

I started in late December last year and went through late March. It was a tough year for sheds as the deer never really herded up on the food sources and were pretty spread out. My strategy to begin with is to hit up the hayfields (clover, rye, alfalfa) and check them over and over usually once a week. I put a total of around 80 hrs in. Never found my first one until about the 20 hour mark. I spend 15 hours looking for the match to this one alone...

I saw Big Boy last night while spotlighting on the way home from work....he officially survived another NY gun season!!! I want to get my hands on those sheds badly. Now, I just gotta wait for them to fall off...

Nope, the biggest I've ever seen out here is a basket-rack 6-pt... .

I wait for next year too...

Nice!!! Where in Steuben are you from?

The yellow ones that you see (especially some of the bigger ones in the upper left line) are from my first couple years of shed hunting back in '04 and '05. I had them displayed in an area where they turned yellow. Now, I just keep them in a couple of boxes in the closet where they retain thier natural white color.

Here's my collection minus about 10 more that I've found since then...

This will be my 6th shed hunting season. Of the dozens of sheds that I've found over this time, I'd guess that 80% had been laying out in hayfields or along hedgerows in the fields. Most of the bigger ones have been field sheds. When I get to a new spot the first thing that I do is walk the edges of the fields and any hedgerows that might be there. I'm not a big fan of looking in the woods and absolutely HATE cornfields!!! Also, I walk transects lines out in the fields in order to cover all the ground and be sure to bring some binos!!!

It's the same deer. I too was quite surprised when the drops didn't show up again this year. There is an abnormal point on this shed where the droptine was last year. I'm hoping that the drops will return this coming antler growing season. It's a common misconception that a bucks' antlers stay exactly the same throughout it's life. Here are two other bucks who's antlers changed from 2011 to 2012... Buck #1: Buck #2: 2011... 2012...

The coming year will be the 4th year of watching this deer. He'll be 4 yrs old this summer...

All i want for x-mas is the sheds from the buck in my avatar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In 2011 he grew matching droptines... Post season and all busted up again...

Here he is in 2010 as a yearling 10-pt... Post season and all busted up...

I didn't look for the match too hard. He still had it on his head while walking away the other night...

Thanks. I still can't believe that it's only mid December and I have a fresh 61" shed in the bag already!!! I was planning on waiting until mid to late January before officially opening my shed hunting season...

This shed had 7 points over an inch, another that was broken off and the tip of the mainbeam was broken off... The tip of the beam was really cool...it flattened out.

As it layed when I spotted it...

I saw this buck that I call Little Freak-Nasty 4 nights in a row last week while spotlighting... I then spotted him again thursday morning with several other bucks and he was only packing one antler. I was surprised to see it gone already, he appearred to be healthy? Today, I went to check my trail cam and decided to take a little stoll along the ditch where he was the other night to see if he had dropped his antler nearbye. Realistically, what were the chances of that??? Pretty good in this case. I had only been looking for a couple of minutes and spotted it laying tines down in the hayfield!!! Pics to follow shortly...

http://www.growingdeer.tv/view/2012/12/14/why-bucks-shed-antlers-early-2/

I saw one of my hitlist bucks last night with his left antler missing. It was still there on saturday.

The gun was in the tractor!!! They lease the fields to work them but the owner allows no hunting on his property.

Here's the cell phone pic of Big Boy that my buddy took out the tractor window a few days ago. He WILL NOT get a pass (I'm not crazy) but I don't plan on hunting him. He's still alive for a reason... This is Little Freak Nasty. He WILL get a pass if I see him this weekend. He's nocturnal and I'm certain he won't show himself during legal shooting hours anyways... ,,,