sampotter's 2013-14 Shed Journal

[chiefbkt]

Awesome pics and great story line.  

[sampotter]

Well, I went to Connecticut the first weekend of May for a visit the Bronsons at Maple Bank Farm and do some shed hunting. The weather was nice, the ticks for whatever reason were not out, but the mylar balloons were everywhere; I picked up 24 in two days. I decided not to post any more pictures of them as I am sick of seeing them.

The 1st antler related find was this old 8 point deadhead.

There wasn’t much left of it, but would have been a decent rack several years ago.

I decided to leave it for someone else to find.

Another dead buck.

Fleur and were well into the 2nd day and had covered 12 miles or so. I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever find another shed when I spotted something up ahead. (Antler is the whitish object in the dead center of the picture)

[sampotter]

It was big and slightly palmated, with all kinds of neat characteristics.

Last fall’s scrape under a perennial hemlock rub.

[sampotter]

We searched high and low in the area where we found the big shed with no luck, so we made a beeline to a hill that I thought this particular buck bedded on. On the first pass I spotted this up ahead:

It proved to be the match to the 1st one! My GPS said we were .46 miles from where we picked up the other one. I had this buck on a trail camera late last summer and had a hunch that I had seen him a few times before.

I had picked up 2 different 3 point sheds on this farm in previous years (both lacked brow tines) and wondered if either could have been his. When I got home I dug both out of a box. The 1st one I compared was definitely not his, but the 2nd one sure was.

The astounding thing is that when I turned the older shed over to see when I found it, the date said Aug. 2008! That makes this buck 9-10 years old today!

Here are some trail cam photos of him late last summer.

Stats as of 5/15/14:

Miles: 207.4

Sheds: 34

-----WT: 33

---------CT: 2

---------IA: 17

---------NY: 3 (Sam 2, Fleur 1)

---------OH: 11 (Sam 9, Fleur 2)

-----Moose: 1

Antler pieces: 1

Dead Bucks: 16

Dead antlerless: 24

Mylar balloons: 40

[PWGUNNY]

Great journal.  I love the whole photo essay.  Glad to see Fleur back at it again.  Thanks for posting.  I will also say thanks for your post on AT on the OG thread.  You were able to sum up 3,000+ posts into a few good pics and posts.  Have your dogs ever encountered a porcupine?  It's one of the things I worry about when I'm in the PA woods.  My dog wants to hunt anything that moves and PA has skunks and porkies. 

[sampotter]

Great journal.  I love the whole photo essay.  Glad to see Fleur back at it again.  Thanks for posting.  I will also say thanks for your post on AT on the OG thread.  You were able to sum up 3,000+ posts into a few good pics and posts.  Have your dogs ever encountered a porcupine?  It's one of the things I worry about when I'm in the PA woods.  My dog wants to hunt anything that moves and PA has skunks and porkies.

Thanks!

We saw a porky in the Adirondacks last spring but I saw it first and called them away. I'm actually headed up there tonight to look for moose sheds. Knock on wood....

Edited May 16, 2014 by sampotter

[NFA-ADK]

Good luck up in the ADK, thanks for sharing, wow you cover some miles!!!  Awesome!

[ny hunter]

Great pics again thanks for posting.Good luck and can't wait to see moose sheds..

[sampotter]

5/17-5/18/14

I went to the Adirondacks with Fleur for a 2 day hike with hopes of finding some moose sheds. I’ve picked up two while deer hunting in the fall before, but never on purpose. Dave, the caretaker had found a really nice one while riding his snowmobile in April, so the knowledge that the other side was out there somewhere had me excited.

However, the first order of business was to install a new (used) stove in Hunter’s Lodge. When Fleur and I arrived, there was a clear moose print in the mud right next to the porch. (bottom right corner)

The stove installation went surprisingly well (Justin was almost hit in the head by the jagged edge of a falling stovepipe, but close doesn’t count), and Fleur and I were off on mission shortly after lunch on Saturday.

The area we focused on was the general area I surmised Dave had found his antler. The terrain is relatively flat and the whole area had been salvage logged by IP after the microburst of 1995. A labyrinth of skid trails and new growth makes the area particularly attractive to moose.

It didn’t take too long before we found a couple of moose leg bones in a small clearing.

About one hundred yards away we found a few more beneath some spruce trees.

Even though the bones were well chewed and weathered, I was hoping to find a skull to go with the few scattered bones. After a couple of hours and lots of circling, there it was!

It turned out to be a bull that died after shedding his antlers.

Apparently moose have no respect for their dead…

[sampotter]

At some point we found an old logging camp that was in operation sometime in the early 1900s.

On the Sunday the porcupines were out. We saw four altogether. This little guy was only a few feet off the ground. Almost cute enough to pet…

We rounded a corner of a skid trail, when Fleur, who was ahead of me 20 yards, took off after something. Thinking she had spotted a porcupine, or worse yet a bear, I yelled, “NO!” In a moment I could see it all: Fleur disappearing under a spruce tree on the side of the trail, a moose shed in said trail, and then a porcupine climbing the aforementioned spruce tree in a hurried, but slow fashion.

I didn’t actually see the whole spectacle as it unfolded but this is what I think happened: Fleur came around the corner and saw a crime in progress; a furry rodent in the act of gnawing an antler to pieces. Fleur’s gut reaction was to protect the antler at all costs, so she took one for the team. OR, maybe she saw a large, slow moving furball in the middle of the trail and decided to give chase. Either way, the result was the same; Fleur acquired about a dozen fat quills and the antler was saved from the porcupine. There was even a mouthful (porcupine sized) of chewed up mushy antler left in one of the spots the porky was focused on. (Thanks for bringing up the porky question PWGUNNY)

In this picture the antler is in the middle of the trail and Fleur and the porcupine are somewhere under the spruce to the left.

Once I realized Fleur didn’t get quilled too bad I had her pose for a shot…

Later in the day it was apparent Fleur didn’t learn her lesson from her previous porcupine encounter as she was pretty excited about this one that was fortunately out of reach.

We only found the one shed but here is a picture that includes Dave’s (left) and my sheds for comparison.

Stats as of 5/15/14:

Miles: 226.1

Sheds: 35

-----WT: 33

---------CT: 2

---------IA: 17

---------NY: 3 (Sam 2, Fleur 1)

---------OH: 11 (Sam 9, Fleur 2)

-----Moose: 2

Antler pieces: 1

Dead Bucks: 16

Dead antlerless: 24

Mylar balloons: 40

Edited May 21, 2014 by sampotter

[wooly]

Sweet paddle Sam!

Awesome find!

[sampotter]

Thanks Wooly!

[moog5050]

Very cool.  You two make a darn good team.