SHED HUNTING THREAD - PICs INCLUDED

[trolloni]

After 6 outings here the last 2 weeks ive come to same conclusion, they just arent on the ground yet here in northwest illinois.Been to nice i think ,no deep snow all winter .Oh well ill keep lookin!Kicked out 5 bucks 2 days ago ,3 had full racks one half rack and one shed out.You guys are right about competition for sure, been seeing more boot prints all the time,3 to 5 years ago nobody hardly did it.

[shedfreak]

Yah I get some paddles now and then . Usually try it once maybe twice a year. It's a blast!

[shedfreak]

Congrats to tonka bass and his buddy on their awards at the classic this weekend. He edged me out for second place in the single side non typical shed contest. First place was 111 inches tonka was second and I ended up third with my 98 7/8 inch side. HUGE bones this year. Any other year and we both could have won it. No losers though when you have sheds of that caliber!

[TonkaBass]

Nice running into you! Sorry I bailed out a little early, we were gonna try and hop into a little chunk of woods on the way home. That was one AWESOME antler you had!!!! Great base on it!

[shedfreak]

That was my buddy Sam. He took it down for me. I couldn't make the trip

[hunter322]

found this guy the other day lookin for sheds!

[Musky Buck]

The melt has ruined the shed hunt in my area, dispersed the bucks before they shed them, or some of them anyway, oh well, next year.

[shedfreak]

Muskybuck. Since its ruined, care if I take a walk around? Youve gotta be crazy to believe there were no bucks dropping before this melt started!!! Trail cams can show racked bucks in march ANYWHERE. I could set up a camera here And catch some pics too however we have been picking up fresh bone since January, a couple in December. It's the same everywhere You will have early droppers , normal droppers, and late droppers. What you claim, eveey buck on your 40 drops the second week in march year in and year out is outrageous! Not only is it almost impossible, but it'd be soooo easy. Experts around the country have tried to come up with theories as to when and why buck drop, and there is still no conclusive answer. I would be willing to bet there has been more than shed laying on your property since January. Like I said just because trail cams show antlers and you don't find any in January or February doesn't mean they aren't there!

[TonkaBass]

I had to go to Nodak for a couple days for work this week and had time to walk a spot that was insane last year and got skunked! They never grouped up out there good this winter from what the locals told me. Either way the amount a waterfowl that has come through yesterday and today was insane out there! I should have brought a shotgun!

[Quackaddict9]

The melt has ruined the shed hunt in my area, dispersed the bucks before they shed them, or some of them anyway, oh well, next year.

You don't find em sitting on here typing this post...thats for a fact.

The grass is not tall, or leaves are thick, or anything is thick now and patted down. Go and look you might find something before it gets too late.

[Musky Buck]

You could walk around shedfreak but bring hip and or chest waders, there's nothing to look for though, maybe a buck or 2 have dropped the vast majority are just getting started and the deer are now not where they were a week ago and they took there headgear with them. That's why it's kinda ruined for this spring, the thaw came before they shed and now where they were is under water. I like late thaw for my area, keeps the deer concentrated more when they're shedding, now it's so unknown. Go find em, can't find em on here, well do you want me to tranquilize them and saw them off ? Most of them haven't shed yet in my area, we always talk about mid-march being the start of it but now there's no deer there.

[shedfreak]

WE always talk about mid march as the drop time? Or YOU do? Isn't it usually starting to thaw bu by this time!? Mid march! I am up north and it's usually 50 degrees! Next week spring starts OFFICIALLY! Your saying where the deer were hanging out is under water?? Which theoretically means there was a ton of snow in there. Why were they hanging out in the deepest snow possible? Where do ya live musky? I have no interest to go this year as it is march already and I have my own spots to hit. But I'd LOVE to come in late January or early February to prove your mid march theory wrong. That's the only time I'd come there. And you should have no problem, because I won't find anything anyways right?

[Musky Buck]

Let it fly Shed, the only thing you'll do is wonder why you wasted your time looking where so few have shed, when you are done I'll show you plenty of racked bucks on t-cam, all of us that own land in the area we all have t-cams and we all have noticed the same thing the past 10 years or so since we got the cams, we got good exercise in January and February and yes on occassion we find a february shed, but our t-cams say wait boys. Yes I own part of a swamp that's 2 miles by 3 miles long and it's been wintering grounds for the area deer for as long as there have been deer. The deeper the snow the more deer that call it home. My friend in Fridley called last night, none of the bucks coming to his feeder have shed yet that he's aware of, full racks and my area is like that 1, definitely if you want to drive and waste a few days you have my full permission to cover every square inch of it, meanwhile my uncles and I will laugh at what you're trying to do. I mean dude we have trained shed dogs at our disposal also, they are worthless until March.

[shedfreak]

Pm your address

[CC Hurl]

Hi Musky buck, I just noticed you mentioned shed hunting dogs. I have a Black lab I have been trying to train since he was 10 weeks old. I will say he loves to search for bones. I exposed him to bones as soon as I got him at 7 weeks. When I pull them out for some training he goes crazy with excitement.

He just turned a year old 3/5/12 and this will be my first year searching with a dog. I am not sure how this will go but I will find out next weekend down in the Red Wing area.

If there is any pointers you could give me that would be great. I have not been using deer antler scent when making him search out the hidden antlers. That concerns me as to how well he will do. He covers a lot of ground when searching and does not give up. Would you know were a guy could get some antler scent that I could pick up for training purposes? Thanks for your time.

[HooknHorns]

CC im starting to train my own dogs also for shed hunting and ive found scent at mills FF to have it by their dog training stuff.

Been doing this for a couple weeks now and im curious to see how well theyll do. If you search the web you should find more info if needed. Good luck.

[CC Hurl]

Hooknhorns, thanks for the tip. I will get down there and get some tomorrow. I to am curious to see how my lab (Boyd) will do. I have read a lot about it on line and have been working with him a lot. I need to start getting him on the scent of the antler now instead of his saliva. It is fun to watch Boyd search them out during our training. I use 4 and hide them in tree's, under leaves, swamp edges and then just on the ground. He gets them every time and does not give up until he does. I just need to stop training unless I have the antler scent.

Thanks again and good luck on your training.

[lungdeflator]

Up to 5 on the year after saturday. Found a nice match set 5 ft apart off a 2.5 yr old. I have pulled 3 out of our best spot around here, pretty dissapointing after last year. Still have ND to check though.

[TonkaBass]

Lung, I went to nodak last week and it was NOTHING like it was last year. Good luck though and hope you get them.

[DaveT]

Every time this thread gets bumped I rush in to see the new shed pics, only to find, much to my dismay, that it's you guys chatting back and forth. At least be so kind as to post some kind of an image, so my time isn't wasted. For example, here's a picture of Santa.

[tencountff]

That's funny! I keep coming back to see if the guy who got called out respond's.

Here's a pic. Not mine

[TonkaBass]

Yeah, I saw the shed nonteepical was talking about that the classic. It was found 12 years ago and had the match too.

[lungdeflator]

Tonka- ive been out there 2 times scouting this winter to find them. should be able to pull out a few. last year i didnt do as much scouting and was still able to find 9 and a moose shed ha

[TonkaBass]

Thats good. Yeah, if you scouted you should be ok. Post up some pics

[lungdeflator]

found 2 old ones on sunday. up to 7 on the year, my best year in MN yet! will be looking in ND friday through sunday