SHED HUNTING

If the groundhog sees his shadow, do we get 6 more weeks of shed hunting? (We better get a LOT more than that! I get most of mine in April!) I’m really glad to hear that some of you folks are getting some sheds. Sounds like Bill is doing pretty well in Iowa and I’ve heard of some folks picking up some big ones already this year. During January I wasn’t too excited about shed hunting, but now I’m getting the itch! I took a walk for a couple hours afternoon. It’s been an exceedingly warm winter with only an inch of snow on the ground and bare ground in a lot of places. Very unusual. I headed out to a place I haven’t been to in about 3 years. It’s a popular place in town and I just get tired of looking at footprints everywhere. I decided to try there today because I know people find some big ones there, and somebody’s gotta find ‘em, so why not me? There were footprints in there today, and it looks like the shed hunter was accompanied by a dog. This place gets POUNDED. So imagine my surprise when I found a year-old 5-point shed on the ground. Those footprints passed within about 10 yards of the shed. I guess no one gets ‘em all. Glad to be on the board. The first one is always the toughest. Plus a lot of bucks are still carrying, but I think it’s about time to kick it into gear!

1st shed of 2012

I was pretty busy today, but it was so darn nice out I snuck out for an hour this afternoon! I spotted two bucks, both sporting full headgear. I wish I’d have brought my camera or video camera. They weren’t big, but I want to get some pics and videos of bucks. I guess it gives me an excuse to go back out!

Joe

I was just kind of thinking, what would you rather find: A shed or a skull with antlers on it? I suppose there are a lot of variables to consider, such as size of rack, if it’s a buck you know of, and of course if it’s even legal to take the rack! I’m voting for sheds. Any opinions out there?

Joe

Some of you may be wondering if I actually still shed hunt, since I really haven’t gotten out this season! Well, I finally got out for a walk today. It was so strange. My eyes certainly weren’t in “the zone.” Looking at the ground just felt foreign today. Hope it comes around. I am starting to get the itch a little, finally. Came up empty today. Congrats to those of you who are finding sheds. I am working on finding a way for you to post pics to my blog. Bear with me, I am technologically challenged! But I would love to see pics of your sheds! It would be a lot more interesting than my endless blathering! Keep after ‘em!

Joe

Saw a couple bucks today, both with full sets of headgear. One of them I saw while driving. The other one was about a 2-year-old 8-pointer. I’ve been meaning to scout an area for deer hunting a little more, so I took a walk with the shotgun under the guise of grouse hunting. I kicked up this buck and he stopped at 75 yards and looked at me. Five minutes later, I saw him again. He wasn’t too concerned about me. I do a lot of shed hunting in urban areas, and it’s not unusual to see these deer show little concern for people because they see them frequently, but this buck should have known better! He lives where people rarely venture and where I hunted several times this year. I believe I saw the same buck a week before our rifle season. He decided to make a rub after seeing me, yet he never showed himself during deer season. He’s a step ahead of me I guess. Didn’t come home with any grouse or any sheds today, but what a nice excuse to get outside. I still haven’t really gotten the shed fever yet. Soon though.

Joe

So it was about 100 degrees out today and I finally decided to take a little walk. It was so warm out I felt like I should be checking for ticks afterwards. Well, no sheds today, but it was nice to get out. Had a Van Halen song stuck in my head today, “Why Can’t This Be Love?” There’s a line in that song that says “only fools rush in.” Now that term has been in use for centuries, yet here it is, 2012, and we still act like fools rushing in. Get to the point, Joe, you’ve been spending too much time outside! Ok, here it is: how many times have you spotted a shed lying on the ground and literally ran to it? Be honest! I know I’ve done it! The point is, when you finally see that shed lying there, don’t run to it. It ain’t going anywhere. That’s when you should start searching doubly hard for the match. Last year I spotted a small shed from about 30 yards away. I picked it up and stood there checking it out. I was thinking, well, where do you suppose the other side is? It was literally right under my feet. Sheds don’t always fall off at the same time, but the odds are better within a short radius than farther away. So next time, don’t run to your shed, but instead, look around for the match. How’s that for a strange tangent off a Van Halen song?

Hey folks,

Starting to see some increased traffic online here, so I’ll try to keep the posts coming. I’m hearing from a fair amount of people who are finding sheds. That’s good to hear! Keep after them. Again, I’ve been fishing and haven’t thought much about sheds, although I do have a little scheme up my sleeve. More on that later. But for right now I’ve been playing with some racks laying on my living room floor, just waiting for me to mount them up. I’m lacking in the motivation department on that. But if you can believe this, I like to pick up and play with these antlers. Go figure. And what I’m seeing is that those pedicles a lot of times are not mirror images of each other. On the 9-pointer I shot this year, the left pedicle is noticeably taller than the right pedicle — almost half again as tall. This seems very odd. When I cut the racks off the deer I kill, there seems to be a lot of variation. Sometimes the antlers come off the skulls at different angles. You’d think skulls would be very consistent, but they’re not. I’ve found dead, shed-out buck skulls that have amazingly large pedicles. And what’s interesting is a buck’s skull grows as it ages. They get wider with age. It seems strange to think that bone as solid as a skull expands, but it does. The bases of sheds are one thing I look at when I try to determine if I’ve got a matched set or not. They are often quite similar, but just keep in mind sometimes they look very different.

Hi folks,

I wanted to start off by apologizing for not being on top of this blog a little more. Some folks have been posting and I really appreciate your comments. I’m getting a lot of spam right now, so it’s been overwhelming trying to separate the grain from the chaff! Some of you have already been talking about finding sheds! I’ve been hearing a few reports of locals finding them as well. As for me, I haven’t really gotten the itch just yet. I’ve been focused on ice fishing and I’m having fun with that. We actually have almost another month of bow season here and I keep kicking around the thought of doing that too, but haven’t put anything in motion. This promises to be a really interesting winter here in northern Wisconsin. We’ve had very mild temperatures and there is less than an inch of snow on the ground! That’s all subject to change, but so far it’s been mild. We’ll see how much that affects deer movements. In a winter with more snow the deer tend to get more concentrated. If it stays like this, they may be a lot more scattered and sheds could be tougher to find. The good news is, with no snow, the sheds won’t be buried. Good luck to everyone!

Joe

This time of year it’s nearly impossible to turn on the TV without seeing some Christmas special. Every time I see Santa’s sleigh being pulled by big-racked reindeer, I have to chuckle. Hollywood isn’t as smart as it thinks it is. All reindeer, or domesticated caribou, have antlers, both males and females. Of course, these large-racked reindeer we see on TV would be mature bulls.  Mature bulls shed usually around November. By Christmas time, only juvenile bulls and cows still possess antlers. Young bulls shed in spring while cows shed later in May or June, just prior to calving.  So Hollywood got it wrong! One of the most memorable shed hunts of my life took place well north of the Arctic Circle near Deadhorse, Alaska, right at the top of the state. While caribou hunting, I managed to find about a half dozen caribou sheds from both cows and bulls. I also got my bull on the first day of the hunt. Caribou will forever be one of my favorite animals after that experience. The animals themselves are incredible and the habitat they live in is just amazing! Anyway, in more pertinant news, I have heard of a few fresh whitetail sheds being found. It’s game on! Merry Christmas to you all!

Joe

Hey Shed Heads,

It is pretty exciting to know that we are now just days away from shedding season! The first bucks will actually start dropping in late November and I have no doubt that someplace, somewhere in North America, a fresh whitetail shed has already hit the ground. A surprising number of bucks will start shedding in November. I must admit, I’m not quite ready for the bucks to shed, because I have a valid buck tag and muzzleloader season starts today in Wisconsin. I will be hitting it hard this week! Luckily, in preparation for my muzzleloader hunt, I managed to stumble across a shed a few days ago while scouting. Gotta love those November sheds! With this shed, I have tied my second-best season of all time, numbers-wise. But this season clearly ranks better for me because almost every shed I found this year was close to home on my own turf and those are the sheds I treasure most. Here’s hoping I can find the owner to this shed this week with the muzzleloader!

Joe