Shed Hunting - When do you start looking?

[slick814]

I'm looking at doing some shed hintnig this spring.. first time I'll actually be lookin' for them, though. So that brings me to ask, when do you start looking?

Is it a matter of just knowing that they've been starting to drop their antlers and heading out, or is it better to wait for most of the snow to be gone before you head out?

I'm thinking March sounds good, personally...

[surewood]

When the snow is almost gone.

[benelli_dude2002]

Found my first shed out on the ice while riding on LOTW on Christmas day 2007. Nice 5 point about a half mile from any island. Must've been there a while cause the tracks were all snow covered. But yeah I would double what surewood says when the snow is almost gone. Happy shed-hunting! B-dude

[luedke]

found a shed early to mid december. that is really early

[Shoot2Kill]

It's hard to say - there are areas of the country where the deer are dropping sheds right and left, but then there are areas where they are still packing both sides and will be packing both sides for a while.

Best advice this time of year is to just walk the open fields and the edges of the timber - don't go into the timber and push the deer out.

I wouldn't wait till the snow is all gone....since they drop randomly and if you're not getting snowed on every day they'll be much easier to find with the white background. Plus if you wait till March that's another 2 months the tree rats have to chew up the ones that are already on the ground.

My advice...don't wait....if you've got the time, go out and at least walk the edges...it will help you determine which areas to really focus on once you really want to hit the ground hard. Good luck to you!

[Duncan7709]

Just today I saw a buck that had already dropped one of his antlers. You could start looking right now.

[walleyeking19]

where should i look? should i look in the corn fields or look in the woods? which one is better.

[Shoot2Kill]

 Originally Posted By: walleyeking19

where should i look? should i look in the corn fields or look in the woods? which one is better.

You look wherever the deer are right now. Scout in the evenings for fields where the deer are feeding - then walk the fields, field edges, fence rows, timber edges, south facing slopes, tops of hills, etc...until they have all dropped I'd stay out of the timber. Best advice is to walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, and walk some more. When your legs feel like falling off, walk some more. I like to say "walk till my hips bleed". There is no substitute for covering a lot of ground in the success of a shed hunter.

[slick814]

Thanks fopr the help guys - unfortunately for me, the area that I'll be hunting in is a bit farther away then I'd like it to be, so my times there will be limited. It is, however where I grew up, so I've got some ideas as to where to be looking, and my dad says that he has yet to see a deer that doesn't have both sides still on. It's been -20 and then some up there. Which brings me to another question... how much does the temperature have to do with antlers dropping? Anything at all?

One nice thing about them still ahveing antlers is that he's been able to make a pretty good estimate as to which ones made it through hunting season. He's been able to identify all but 2 of the bucks we had been seeing previous to bow opener, and there's 3 more that he'd never seen before. looks like our little herd is doing pretty well.

[shedfreak]

id say start looking NOW! I found my first one this year dec.15th. I found 3 more since then. Ive had a dry spell for the past 2 weeks, but there are definitely some on the ground. There is a post in the hunting section of the forum called SHED HUNTING. There is already 11 pages of posts on there, you should all check it out. I look only on public land because my private land is 5 hours away. The only negative of public land is that you dont have it to yourself, but you can definitely have sucess. Last year was my 1st year looking, and I found 29. I cant give away all my secrets, but early season scouting is key! locate the early winter bedding areas, and the where the deer are traveling to and from. try not to spook them out of there by looking TOO early. Good luck guys! Hope to see some pics upcoming, there is already some good pics on that other forum. Give it a look.

[JohnD]

I normally start looking in February, but we've had so much snow in SE MN this year tomorrow will be my first time out.