shed hunting

[UNDBowhunter]

Found this shed last week before the snow storm. I have only found two this year....tough conditions w/ all the blowing snow now.

[Code-Man]

Saw a nice deer last night driving home. Honked to horn and he lifted his head about a 130-140 8 point with both sides ontop of his head still!

[scsavre]

I went out yesterday in the metro, I found nothing. I bet it is still too early around here. I saw a ton of deer though, none had antlers. I usually dont see many bucks durring the day though. My neighbor feeds the deer and all winter they have come out every night. But now they arent going to his feeder for some reason. Maybe they are just going later in the night or something. Hopefully they return so i can look to see if they are dropping antlers.

I found a peer white shed last year in ND. Not sure if that is normal or not. But it was cool to finally find one.

[certified jumbo]

I put in around 3 hours this weekend with no luck. Still stuck on number 8 for the year. I need to get the ball rolling again.

UND - very nice 5 pt find man!! Thats a good one.

CJ

[mwal]

Saw a fully racked 8 pt in Douglas Cty Wi yesterday.

Mwal

[InTheNorthwoods]

I picked up two this weekend, a small but interesting almost completely white left side that had a 2.5" brow and a bladed main beam with a crab claw started on the end, and a decent 4 point right side that carried very nice mass.

I also saw a ton of deer with a handful of bucks that were still carrying. But with the number of deer, I would say only 1 out of 10-15 deer were carrying antlers still. Most of those seemed to be 2.5-3.5 year old deer with some decent 8's and 10's mixed in. Overall, I think a bunch of antlers are burried at this point.

[JacobMHD]

Do you ever feel that the added pressure to the area is determintal to the deer staying in the area? In other words, does running through the woods put added pressure on deer thus forcing them deeper into the swamps or adjacent properties?

[InTheNorthwoods]

Do you ever feel that the added pressure to the area is determintal to the deer staying in the area? In other words, does running through the woods put added pressure on deer thus forcing them deeper into the swamps or adjacent properties?

Don't know if this was directed at anyone in particular, but I will take a shot at it from my perspective.

Where I was shed hunting, the deer were yarding up and coming from miles away. It happens every year in the same spots in this area. The deer are visible all day and are bedding in the fields and surrounding areas. So no, I don't believe it puts any pressure on the deer unless you are pushing them back and forth relentlessly, and only then is it the pressure of physical exertion. The deer are not hanging out in their core areas in this case, and the activity has no effect on where they will be come next hunting season, or the time of day when they are moving.

Overall, at this time of year, deer are very tolerable to pressure as they are generally hanging out close to a desired food source and/or wintering area. They aren't going to be pressured to move great distances as they are in survival mode and when spooked will likely only move relatively short distances out of sight.

[JacobMHD]

Good answer. I wasn't directing it at anyone in particular, just curious to see what people's thoughts were. There are two very nice bucks in my hunting area that made it through the season and I would like to track down their sheds. If I felt that the pressure would move them from the area though, I would probably leave them be and hunt them in the fall.

[Coach1310]

I think it basically boils down one thing... survival. The reason the deer are concentrated in these areas is survival.. cover, food source, safety. At this point in the year, there are not a lot of options to accomplish these three points, so unless you are chasing them around all day, I wouldn't worry. I think they are smarter enough to know you aren't shooting at them too, as they don't seem to book it quite as fast as during hunting season.

[shedaddict]

Great shed UNDBowhunter! Any luck on the other side?

[buglefever]

As an answer to the question about bumping deer while shed hunting...I normally start looking in january and I check some of the same areas every so often all the way to April. I agree that they're there for a reason and if they aren't harrassed they will stick around. Early on when there's snow, I usually avoid the thick stuff where they're mostly bedded. For one, the snow is deeper and it's harder to walk, and I this way I disturb them less. Last year in march i found a 170s set in a spot i checked the week before. It was freshly shed and I had searched that spot several times. What is interesting is that that same deer was killed this fall about 2 miles away. He was wintering where there was easy food.

[shedfreak]

Ive been out a handful of times now recently and have picked up 10 more in the process... I didnt have the camera along on a coupld of the trips, so im missin 6 ATLS... I had my 5 year old with one day just driving around looking for deer when I spotted an antler out in the open, I directed him where to walk, and when he got to 20 yds of it he spotted it! His first shed ever! when he was bringin it back to me I noticed ANOTHER one layin there, and i pointed for him to walk the other direction and he found it again, both 5 point sides! I think he's hooked! I dont think ive ever been happier.

Today I hit up some new ground with my buddies Sam ( Bartz) and Joe Shead. I ended up findin 4 freshies today, and I got to 20 the fastest I have ever done before so that was cool too.. The 20th one I earned.... Still dont know how I spotted it... took some work to get it outta the 6 inches of ice, but it was well worth it!!

[shedfreak]

GROUP SHOT SO FAR

[shedaddict]

Good looking sheds, shedfreak! Is it typical for you to find bigger sheds like the ones you've found this year or do you think that most of the smaller sheds get buried up faster and you just find those later. Looks like the snow cover isn't too bad for you there.

[shedfreak]

Id say this year is about the same as years past... ive only got two over 60 inches this year, last year I had 7, although its only february. But there are definitely some smaller ones buried... even a few big ones too. Snow is up to my knees in spots here yet.

[scsavre]

I have yet to find a shed in a very large river valley in the cities. I dont think they have starting dropping down here yet.

I have found lots of beds and still nothing. I even went way into some cattails today and nothing. Are cattails a good spot?

I think it is back to just walking the dog thru the woods rather than shed hunting, maybe i will stumble upon something. I just dont want to get burned out until i know there are some dropping.

[shedaddict]

Hey Scott, I have been out at least once a week in/around the twin cities metro and have not found any sheds. This is the first year that I've looked around here, but I've found some great spots that I will return to after the snow starts to melt. The guys at work that have places with woods nearby are saying that most of the deer are still sporting antlers. I don't think we have many deer yarding around the metro so the sheds that have dropped are more spread out than other areas. I talked to a buddy up in Washburn, WI today and a friend of his just picked up his 35th shed of the year already. That got me fired up to keep on looking!

[shedfreak]

Wow, 35 , thats impressive, February just got here! As far as cat tails, they are definitely a good spot if the deer are hangin in there... If the sign looked good by them, I would head out when almost all the snow is gone, but there is still ice in the tails, that way you can walk right on top and not get wet feet.. They are pretty difficult to spot in the cat tails, but in an hour last year we picked up 5 out of em and that was late march, maybe even early April.

[shedaddict]

I couldn't believe it either, but the guy owns an apple orchard surrounded by state land; the deer yard up big time by his place. I'm hoping to get up there to do some lake trout fishing/bobbing in early March. You can bet I'll be stopping by to take a look at them.

[shedfreak]

early march huh? Id skip out on the fishin and hit the woods if I were you!!!

[buglefever]

New report from NE Iowa! I have an alfalfa field where I saw the deer had dug up big time. I got permission and to my disappointment when I got there, I saw somone on a snomobile went around it a couple times. Then for a double whammy, after our new 4 inches of snow, the deer have hardly been there and the snow is almost knee deep. But I still figure I might get lucky so me and the pooch walked it. To my surprise I saw about an inche of a point sticking out of the snow and pulled out a heavy 4pt from a low 130s eight!!! What's even more funny is that the snowmobile ski was within an inch of it!

Last year I saw a ton of deer in that field and by the time I got in there the snomobiles had gridded it. So either I've got it wrong and they don't look for antlers or they only see the big ones. I only found 3 in there last year and they were all on the small side, though one was from a small buck that had one antler up and the other wrapped along his head like a club. And the one from him I found was the club still with dried velvet on.

[scsavre]

Shedaddict, thanks for the report. I live in bloomingon right on the mN river valley, plenty of deer but as we said i dont think the ants have dropped yet. I know i saw a couple missing a side at the end of Feb last year. So maybe i will put my game face back on then.

It just blows my mind that they have dropped antlers in North of MN and down in IA, but we have to wait in the metro.

Maybe i can just train the dog to find em for me.....

[Musky Buck]

Still waiting for them to shed, 5 weeks and good to go.

[certified jumbo]

sounds and looks like a lot of guys are having success!!! Nice pics shed freak, you've got some real nice antlers again this year. what is the main reason its hard to find a lot of matches up their. is it the pressure?? or are some falling on private lands you can't look on??

savre - i have a friend who looks for antlers along a small river in fridley. he has found 3 antlers so far, 2 were fresh drops yesterday (all 3 are big ones). but, most he see's walking around still have both sides. i think if you keep at it you will have success. i'm sure in your area there are large bucks and numbers of bucks as its a populated people area.

good luck.