Sweatin' to the oldies..

[wooly]

About 2 weeks ago I got permission to shed hunt a local gun club propperty so I decided to hit that today. It's not all that big but it's got some good thickets and swamps I wanted to check out. No sheds today but I did come across a dead buck. It's been a bit frustrating to this point. All my dead bucks have been missing their racks before I could get to them.

The owner of the club told me they were having problems with one of the neighbors trespassing, littering, and hunting drunk. I found a tree where the DEC officer had thumb tacked his card to it in a ziplock. On the flip side it said..."call me, I have your treestands" LOL.

I know this dope and he's a real winner.

I didn't get far when I saw he'd been in the area recently.

I packed them out and they cleaned up pretty good,lol! The mountains were icy blue still so I'm pretty sure they're freshies,lol

I just got this propperty to hike so I don't need crap like that laying around and I'll get the blame for it and loose my new access. Last year I picked up 18 just like these not far from here.

Ive seen this guys land before. I swear he leaves a trail of cans so he can remember his way home.

[ny hunter]

Jerks like that should not be allowed to have guns.

[wooly]

With snow in the forecast tonight, I decided it might be a good day to go look for the mate to the big 5pt. No luck with that so I moved on to another block of woods.

Saw a few antlerless but nothing to get excited about.

I did however find another little horn. #9 is a fresh little spiker...maybe a 2pt with his point broke off near the main beam tip. Found another dead doe too. At least from 20yds away across a raging creek I didn't see any horns on it. Didn't take my big camera today so I couldn't zoom in on it.

[WNY Bowhunter]

What do you do with all of those skulls wooly? I usually just leave 'em laying in the woods unless the have some decent headgear.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Wooly, youre killing me. I decided I would wait till February to start shed hunting so I didnt risk pushing the big boys off of the property, but with all of the finds you are posting, I am getting tempted to go now. All of this snow will keep me from going out right now though.

[shawnhu]

Do you have frost on your lens on some of those shots?

[wooly]

First of all, thanks to all for following along. I was hoping I wasn't boring you all but I haven't seen many fresh pics rolling in here lately so I figured why not.

What do you do with all of those skulls wooly? I usually just leave 'em laying in the woods unless the have some decent headgear.

Depends...sometimes I just cut the antlers off the little ones and throw them in a seperate box. Other times I'll take the whole skull if it's not too stinky for my pack and a buck I like. I usually just throw the skulls in a snow bank in the backyard and by spring they're cleaned up good enough to hang on my shed outside as some rough euros.

Wooly, youre killing me. I decided I would wait till February to start shed hunting so I didnt risk pushing the big boys off of the property, but with all of the finds you are posting, I am getting tempted to go now. All of this snow will keep me from going out right now though.

I hear ya there. There's always the risk of bumping bucks by starting too early. I haven't really seen anything too impressive to worry about running off this year after season so my goal was to collect as many as possible before old man winter finally took hold. Looks like he's definately here to stay this time and things will slow down for me a bit now. Of course, I'll still be out looking for a few of those snowy ATL's and fresh drops but I'm guessing the bulk of my sheds from here on out will come in March and April primetime. Basicly what I've collected so far this year are just bonus antlers from small areas I've meticulously picked through. I'll give them another look when we melt out in the spring, but this way lets me concentrate my efforts on high percentage areas when all the horns have finally hit the ground!

Good luck when you do get out to cover some ground!

Do you have frost on your lens on some of those shots?

Hmmm, not sure why you ask that. Could be any number of things on my lens. My cameras really take a beating durring shed season. I'm pretty sure my little Kodak pocket cam has some dead pixels in the center of the frame...that may be what you're seeing.

[shawnhu]

wooly,

No, just a few shots seem blurry in the center, like a smudge or some water vapor on it or something. Otherwise, these photos are fantastic, and defiantely appreciate you posting them for the rest of us to see.

Thanks!

[wooly]

Thanks!

Yeah, that's my Kodak. I'm not sure how it happened but it's not on the lens.

I'll have to carry the Nikon all all my hikes from now on. It just gets heavy on the neck some days and sometimes I don't have room to back up with the 70-300mm lens on it.

[NFA-ADK]

Very cool, excellent pics. Thanks for sharing Wooly very cool.

[wooly]

Thanks NFA-ADK!

I wanted to spend the day hiking since most of the snow got rained away last night. I decided the best way to do this was to get dropped off down in town and hike my way home through the woods. Considering the distance, I expected to find more than I did but adding one more fresh shed to the season total aint so bad I guess.

Here's #10...a little 4pt side with a nice long,flat, brow tine and a little base booger point.

Also found another old dead buck to hang on the shed. We'll see how the weather pans out but right now it looks like the weekend will be best for the next hike.

[Fletch]

Thanks for sharing. Do you usually find so many dead deer?

[wooly]

Thanks for sharing. Do you usually find so many dead deer?

Usually between 20-30 fresh dead ones for the season but this year may be a few more with the lack of snow durring hunting season.

I don't count the old skulls that I find towards the total dead deer..only dead ones from this fall/winter. I think I'm at 6 dead deer so far (4 bucks- 2 antlerless)

Edited January 18, 2012 by wooly

[TreeGuy]

Awesome pics and so far looks like ur shed hunting is going great ! I only have one beef with you, put down the cam and shoot them coyotes with a gun !! :-)

[njg0621]

Wooly this is a really cool thread! Keep it up! I never find sheds....

[wooly]

Thanks again gang!

Feels like I've been going through a bit of a slump here lately so I decided to hit a new piece of woods today one block over from my usual area.

Last year there was a cornfield above this freshly logged area. I never got a good look the way I would have liked to with all the traffic in there so I picked apart the treetops today when I stumbled on another good 8pt set.

When I saw tines, I immediately began scanning a 10yd circle around it for the mate. I was a little discouraged when I didn't see it but as I sat down to take the ATL pic, there it was 3 ft away between the first one and the big tree trunk. I didn't recognize it right away with the tines chewed thin. Once I dug them out they were in pretty decent shape for a set of 1 yr old antlers.

#11& #12

[LIhunter92]

nice finds wooly, cant wait to start lookin for sheds

[CTHunter]

I went out yesterday to look at a piece of land that is supposed to be Open Space...not huntable, mostly swamp with a nice small brook through the middle. I was surprised to find out in the middle of the property was a ladder stand with camo screen around it. On the other end of the property was 2 more tree stands that comes out by a road. You would have to walk a long way to get to the one in the middle. Anyway did not see any horns but did find a young otter that must have died before the last snow. No marks on him, hard to determine what he died from. Off to other property

[wooly]

Thanks a bunch guys! Good luck next hike to you both!

My good fortune continued today when I rescued #13 & #14 for the year!

I've been meaning to check this place out for several years now but never got around to it. Well, it looks like I'll be making time to get back in here now. Got a couple antlers to match up now and saw 2 more bucks with at least one antler.

This one was kinda cool. Looks like he was coming down the hill and.......BOOP... it just popped right off and stuck here!

...and out of the snow.

After that I kept heading down towards a goldenrod patch I bumped some deer towards. The trails and beds in here were thick and fresh.

I kept checking all the empty beds when I finally found where a buck had lost an antler and put it under his pillow for me......"the antler fairy", lol! The bare spot to the right is his bed. The base on the shed was still blood pink.

At the end of the day I was a pretty happy hiker!

[Red]

^{wooly ive only really gone to look for sheds once in my life but after reading your posts and seeing your pics i went out today near down town buffalo i didnt find anythingbut i was watching a group of what looked like 17 doe and a nice 8pt buck a few hundred yards away i got to with in 20 yrds of the buck then they all spooked and took off 10 minutes later i caught up to 4 of the deer 3 came to with in 8 feet of me 2 were bucks that had shed their antlers and no blood was on their heads and the third had lost its antlers and was still bleeding on to of his bed. do you think the 8 pointer i had seen couldve lost both of his antlers with in 10 minutes?}

Edited January 27, 2012 by Red

[wooly]

Absolutely Red! If his noggin was still bloody, his antlers are in the area.

I can't say it was the same buck or not but you now know you got sheds on the ground there.

If you'd like I will come help you look for them but I'm not sure my skills are good enough for them Buffalo bucks,lol

Good luck if you get back after them!

[Red]

lol im pumped i cant wait to go back out in the morning. since its the city where hunting isnt allowed there are some really impressive bucks over there. i would love some company i tried to get a couple friends to come but as soon as deer season is over they dont want anything to do with deer. i also thought i found a bear track in a small clump of snow but couldnt be ceratin it sure was a big print. i also found half an arrow i knew i would end up comming across an arrow or empty shells down there. are you familiar with down town buffalo?

Edited January 27, 2012 by Red

[wooly]

are you familiar with down town buffalo?

Yup- not exactly what I consider prime shedding grounds but I know some of the areas on the fringes that hold some massive bucks but also see heavy pressure from other shedders. It's hard for me to leave a sure thing in my own neighborhood with potential to find antlers from bucks I can actually hunt but I've been tempted to try some of these spots from time to time.

I really hope you find a few in there this year. Sounds like your already having a good time out there and finding a bunch of interesting things. That's a big part of the fun to me!

Whatever you do, NEVER disclose your primo shed hunting grounds! Good luck my friend!

[Red]

yea theres definitelty alot of people that walk around down there looking for sheds there were a few sets of people tracks in the brush. im gonna give it my best tomorrow im looking at it as a good form of exercise and enjoying the animals,

thanks wooly good luck i cant wait to see some more of your finds.

[wooly]

I must have passed by these antlers 5x's already this year! No telling how many times last year! Todays rain washed away all the snow and really made the "oldie green" POP! lol

I had both in the same ATL 5ft apart but you couldn't really see the 2'nd one all that well.

Anyhow, now that they've dried out back at home they don't look half bad and the green has toned down quite a bit. It's a nice tall rack with a good sweeping mainbeams....#15 & #16!