Shed season 2010 - 2011

[mbucks27]

Awesome videos wvhunter.  Wny that is one really nice set.  Too bad he wouldn't sell you the other but like you said maybe in time he will want to part with it.

I had the day off on friday so before going upstate i went out east for a few hours and found 6 more sheds.

The first one was on old one.

Then after searching around some more i found an old set probably from last year.  It would have been a nice set if it was fresh but they were all chewed up.

Then about 10 minutes later i found another set a rea small 5 point set

Now with 19 sheds total for the season i told myself im  not leaving until i find 20 which i did about an hour later

And here they are all together.

After shed hunting i went upstate to do some coyote.  We didnt get any coyotes but i did manage to find one more shed up there .

All in all it was a good weekend bringing home 7 total sheds.  Not too many weekends left before the spring greenup so hopefully ill be able to get a few more in the new few weeks.

John

[G-Man]

Still weeks away from greenup here, have 3 inches of frozen wet snow on the ground. moe in the woods. hoping maybe next weekend! Great finds by the way!!

[WNY Bowhunter]

mbucks27,

Congrats on the finds!  I'm trying to patiently wait for the rest of the snow to go so I can get back out there.  I'm @ 23 right now but would like to hit the 30 mark before turkey season rolls around.

[wvhunter1968]

mbucks....you have a good eye buddy! wow!

[Geno C]

No Geno I just got the property last year and didnt kill anything on it, I saw 4 giants there. I am finding the sheds on and around where I was able to get permission to look. The neighbors dont hunt but allowed me to go look for antlers. I am thinking in the next five years I might tag the biggest buck of my life, and least thats what I am hoping for lol.

hope you do, thats great lol

nice sheds and goodluck killing your big one 

[CantrellTaxidermy]

Thanks Geno

[burmjohn]

Well, I stopped to see the kid who found the other half today and he offered me $50 for mine but I turned him down.  Originally, he was supposed to sell me his, but apparently has changed his mind.  Reguardless, its a pretty cool looking set with a lot of character.  Hopefully, he'll need some money sometime and will want to part with it...

wow sick...

[erussell]

Spent 2 hours tonight on the south facing slope and found nothing but a bunch of big rubs. To much snow in the valleys still, maybe by june it will start to melt  :  Suposse to get another 7in by saturday so maybe by july.

[G-Man]

snowing again... just when the south slopes and fields were almost melted off..

[wooly]

Spent 2 hours tonight on the south facing slope and found nothing but a bunch of big rubs. To much snow in the valleys still, maybe by june it will start to melt  :  Suposse to get another 7in by saturday so maybe by july.

Not trying to sound like a know it all here, but dig up some aerial photos off bings birdseye view and hike some dark spots. Lot of times with a long cold winter like this they may have been hiding in that thermal cover. I've only found one field edge shed so far. You need to do a little homework and a lot of hiking these areas the way this winter has been.

Just a tip for ya.

I'm having a hard time myself dealing with the relentless snow and competion. They are out there, but It' been hard for me to find their wintering location this year for some reason. Keep at it and I'm sure one or a dozen will turn up sooner or later.

When you say South facing slopes, I hope you're not just talking vast hillsides. It's a great start , but the hotspots that melt off quick are gonna be key areas I'd check first melting out then cover the rest more thorough as spring progresses.

[erussell]

Most of it is open hardwoods but there are pockets of pine cover that I was checking out and the trails leading from one to another. Lots of droppings everywhere around the thick pines but no antlers. Must be doe groups. I hope the bucks just all wintered together and I'll all the sudden run into a dozen or so shed's. just have to keep walking and looking. I suspect they were in the thick pines along the creek but still to much snow down there.

[wooly]

Today decided to leave the fishing pole at home for the trout opener and "just take a walk" to the store checking out some creeks along the way. Good choice!  Just wish I'd have wore my boots and had my pocket cam with me. :'(

No tall tines in this field, but I did manage to stumble on this spiker....and it was fresh.

I was pretty happy about that seeing I'd already been through here a few times and found nothing. Sometimes it's just a matter of aproaching from a different direction.

So I get down to the crick and it's thick as pudding in the bottom.

I walk into a spot that trapped me with no way out other than the way I came in.

.....woah, right at the point of no return I spot this guy!

...as I'm snapping a few pics I notice this guy right beside him in the redbrush tangle.

Here they both are in the same shot. I only had my biggest lens with me and couldn't back up anymore for a better ATL.

So a nice match set oldie 7pt and a freshy spiker. I aint gonna complain about that when all intentions were to look for a fishing spot and grab a pack of ciggy's! 

Just as I found my way home, I found this little old shed head cranium capsule to end my smoke run for the day. ;D Now that I've reached my 20 horn goal, I can finally quit smoking! :

[fasteddie]

Interesting post Wooly . The pics made the story .......

[First-light]

Wooly, do you think it's the time you put in or your knowledge of where to look that makes you a pro at this? Probably go hand and hand. I'm going up next weekend I have some nice bedding areas a north facing slope and a field to check, what would you do?

[wooly]

Wooly, do you think it's the time you put in or your knowledge of where to look that makes you a pro at this? Probably go hand and hand. I'm going up next weekend I have some nice bedding areas a north facing slope and a field to check, what would you do?

Thanks guys.

Burt- I'm no pro by any means. If I had to pick one of the two that makes me sucessfull at it.....I can't... it is both!

As for your predicament, here's what I'd do. Cover the fields first. They will stand out here most obvious. I don't put to much faith in them because they are the areas covered first by any and all looking for antlers. If you keep tabs on the fields throughout the shedding season and don't have much competition, you can bring home a mess of horns if that's where they were.

From here I'd move along to your bedding areas. Try to cover as many trails as you can leading into these spots. You'll never accomplish it thouroughly enough in a day so sometimes you just need to go back and follow a different path. The terrain will tell you how fast or slow you need to move. Most of my sheds are spotted within feet of me so don't expect tall tines to jump out at you like a neon sign. One pass through an area that turns up nothing might turn up a few next hike. We never rescue them all. :'(

North facing slope, south facing slope, east and west. Cover them all in the same fashion. Obviously your souths are gonna melt out first and like I've said before, they are hot spots...but deer are free and travel where they desire so you can't rule out any other slope directions.

Once you get on some antlers, you start to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I've been hauling in a mess of oldies this year in one location and never found a freshy. Now that a few freshys are showing up at a different spot not far from here tells me where they've been spending their time doing daily things. My search expands now around this area untill I think I've covered it good enough before I move on to the next. You just gotta keep doing that untill greenup or when you run out of time or propperty to hunt. Heck even durring the dawg days of summer I've caught a few. If you're not looking you wont find them no matter what time of year or how good a spot.

Staying focused on picking out any piece of an antler or anything that looks like one I'd have to say will be your best bet.

Good luck!

[WNY Bowhunter]

Those are some good tips.  You certainly do seem to have a knack for shed hunting.  One thing I noticed though, by the looks of some of those old sheds, you seem to have missed a couple last year... .  Congrats on hitting your goal!

[wooly]

It's funny you say that WNYB, I just moved here last fall and I'm still learning the area. I'll gaurantee you if I were here last spring I could have saved a few of them from the squirrels! ;D

[WNY Bowhunter]

Are you done for the season now? I think I may head out here in a few minutes to see if I can't snag a few more...

[wooly]

Are you done for the season now?

 

Are you kidding me.....I'm just getting started!

Good luck today, maybe I'll see ya out there somewhere.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Nice finds guys. I finally got out for about 45 mins today, and found my first antler of the year, and the first on the new farm. Its an oldie, probably from last year, and its a break off, not a shed. Im guessing it was broken off in a fight, and I doubt the buck ended up living much longer afterwards. If he did, he would have been sore. I was so excited to find it, I forgot to get my phone out and take a pic of it on the ground lol.

[wooly]

That's not a broken antler boss, that's a shed!

Sometimes they come with a little skull plate on the bone.

Congrats!

[WNYBuckHunter]

That's not a broken antler boss, that's a shed!

Sometimes they come with a little skull plate on the bone.

Congrats!

Huh, I didnt realize that happened, never seen that before. Thanks for the info. 

[wooly]

Absolutely!

I've got a bunch of them like that. Sometimes they'll pop off with what looks like a cork or plug on the bottom of them. Other times there nice and clean cut and sometimes, just like yours, all jagged looking. I've never watched a deer shed an antler, but it's my belief these are the ones they kick off or rub off.

Either way....definately a shed!

[WNYBuckHunter]

I found it in amongst some brush next to a trail, I think there was a small tree there as well. No rub on the tree though. Maybe he knocked it off on the tree or brush while running. Im just glad to break the ice again, didnt find any last year, but I didnt get out much last year either. I dont think anyone shed hunts this farm, I havent heard any of them talking about it, nor have I seen anyone walking the farm, so I might have a good chance at finding more. I have alot more ground to cover though. 

[wooly]

Now your onto something!