On Friday while driving around I saw an area that looked promising that I had never been in. Today I ventured back to that place with Aaron White and Sam Bartz. I’d never set foot in there, so I didn’t know what to expect. We split up and started covering ground. There was definitely good deer sign, but after about an hour, I hadn’t gotten any calls or text messages, so I assumed no one had found anything. I met up with Sam and we were discussing whether to keep at it or leave. While we were discussing this, we bumped into Aaron. Those of you who have met Aaron will not be surprised that he’d found three sheds! Personally, I expected him to have more! After all, he’d been walking for a whole hour! Ha, just kidding, Aaron! He had a matched set from an 8-pointer and a single shed, probably off just a 2-year-old buck, with 6 legitimate points! Sam and I were in shock. We continued searching. Sam came up with a 4-point side. He said he was walking down a deer trail when he came across my boot tracks. At a fork in the trail, I had gone one way, so he chose the trail that was only trodden by deer. Mere feet down the trail, he saw a tine sticking out of the snow and unearthed a shed! Aaron found yet another shed. This one must have dropped early. It was tines down and frozen to the ground. He was walking down a trail, came to a trail intersection, and spotted about a 2-inch piece of antler! We had to go to the truck for a hammer and pry bar to chip the shed out of the ice! Alas, I didn’t find any sheds. I did have an exciting moment though. I was walking a deer trail up a steep hill. I was about 10 yards from the crest when three deer, which had been spooked by Aaron, came barreling over the top of the hill and were quite surprised to see a shed hunter in their path! They split off in different directions at full tilt! So 5 sheds total for the bunch. Not a bad day! I didn’t get any pics, but I know Aaron and Sam did. Guys? I will post a pic from the other day. I went cross-country skiing on Friday, and after our ski, my friend Deb and I took a quick hike in a likely looking area. I found this little 4-point side mostly buried under the snow. It had been there for at least a year. Good time to be out in the woods!
That’s a great day! What was it about the spot that you thought made it look good? I always like to hear about the actual areas that people find sheds it. I have one spot that I would never have thought was going to be good and I consistently pull sheds out of it.
Comment by Nic D — February 3, 2010 @ 2:29 pm
Hey joe, not sure how I can post pics on your blog, but if youd like some pics of the days finds, ive got em on my facebook 2010 sheds album…Your call! Thanks again for the trip, it was nice not to see boot tracks everywhere. Ill pay ya back with a trip this spring to the spot we talked about. Its your turn to find a pile and my turn to just be the guide…. even though itll be virgin territory for all of us, haha.
Comment by Aaron White — February 3, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
i had a great time as well! lots of deer sign and very little snow made the shed hunting quite enjoyable. I agree with aaron too, we’ll all defiantly have to get together again to do some looking (soon)!
Comment by Samuel Bartz — February 3, 2010 @ 7:40 pm
Nic,
It just looked right. Had a lot of things going for it. South slope. Evergreens for cover. Plenty of browse. And besides that, it just “looked” right. Intuition, I guess.
Comment by joe — February 3, 2010 @ 8:21 pm
Aaron, is like the ultra mag of shed hunters. Great job on the finds guys! Always good to hear the stories.
Comment by Bethe — February 3, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
It’s always fun to be out there with other antler freaks. More eyes out there to find the treasures. Congrats on the new spot.
Comment by Jeff — February 5, 2010 @ 9:06 pm