First shed of the season!!!

[tughillhunter]

that is very cool. hopefuly ill find one this year. awesome find.

[erussell]

I think thats why I didnt see any deer today. I was looking down most of the time looking for sheds. Nice find!!

[josephmrtn]

yeah you write a book and tell us how to do it!!! lol yeah if i get time i will prob go out and stomp ground a bit....

[erussell]

yeah you write a book and tell us how to do it!!! lol yeah if i get time i will prob go out and stomp ground a bit....

I find the easiest way to do it is to break your land into grid squares and walk across the first grid move over 5-10 yrds depending on visibility and walk across again. Keep doing this till the square is searched and move on to the next area and do the same. May take a few weeks to search a good chunk of land but you will either have a hand full of sheds or you will know for sure they arent there. I find fields and field edges are the fastest, easiest and most productive. With woods being more difficult and mountainous terrain being almost impossible to locate a shed. Most of the sheds I have found on the mountain were by dumb luck. And upon looking around I can never come up with a good reason as to why it would be there. Wolly how do you search?

[WNY Bowhunter]

I find fields and field edges are the fastest, easiest and most productive. With woods being more difficult and mountainous terrain being almost impossible to locate a shed.

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!!!

Edited December 17, 2012 by WNY Bowhunter

[WNY Bowhunter]

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

[wooly]

Wolly how do you search?

I could go on and on about different terrain techniques, but in a nutshell......I follow the edges.

Even on ground that appears to be void of any topographical features, there's always some "soft edges" that bucks will follow, therefore narrowing down your search quite a bit. It doesn't make sence to waste time in unproductive areas when you can focus on the high percentage spots you learn over time.

In the country I hike, it's just a matter of connecting the dots. Slow down and take your time in productive areas and cover the ground quickly on everything in between.

I'm not crazy about searching fields and I probably sacrifice a lot of antlers because of that. Put me in a thicket all day long and I aint coming out empty handed,lol.

[wooly]

WNY Bowhunter- are some of those antlers smoke stained or are they just yellow in color naturally?

[BizCT]

You have some monster bucks in your area. Have you killed a lot of big bucks over the years?

[WNY Bowhunter]

WNY Bowhunter- are some of those antlers smoke stained or are they just yellow in color naturally?

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.

[landtracdeerhunter]

A very nice collection. How many hours of searching time could u guess?

[WNY Bowhunter]

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...

[landtracdeerhunter]

I can see what u guys see in shed hunting. I spent hour upon hour looking, finding nothing. Near ready to give up, finally found my first on a deer trail, last February, a little 2 pt.. Think the neighbors heard me, LOL. I'm hooked, already been looking the last week of muzzle.