52 sheds, 3 of them are not pictured here. (one is being mounted with its mate off a dead buck on a plaque, one went home with my nephew and the last went home with the guy that found it, his first shed) Another 3 antlers found on dead bucks, one single antler and one yearling 6 pointer. Starting to wind down around here, don't know if we will be adding that many more to the pile.....
Have you found the owner of the ones parked on the bottom right? Those are all outstanding, but where's he at?
I believe the 8 sets of antlers on the right (the ones that are back-to-back) are all matched sets. The bottom right pair were found about 300 yards apart, two days apart, for right now I am calling them a set, but I believe I have the matched set from last year, the right side is a dead ringer for this years find but the left side has some things that make me wonder if they are a match, but we haven't found anything else of that caliber this year, thinking he should be a 4 year old this year, although with the amount of time I spent in stand last year, I am wondering if this isn't a buck that my just winter in the area and live somewhere else during the course of the year.
wiaxle - you are a machine! Kudos bro. Ballpark - how many miles or acres do you think you cover over a single shed season? Do you spend most of your time actually gridding smaller areas or straight-lining (zig-zagging) through larger swaths of high-traffic areas? I've probably walked about 75 miles so far this spring - up to an even dozen. You're definitely burning up some serious shoeleather. I raise my glass.
I usually head out with about 2 hours of grace from the wife and a general idea of what I want to cover that day (specific area) I work my way over to that area relatively slowly and if I stumble across anything on the way that looks interesting I will spend some time in there. As for the looking method, with snow on the ground I just pound the trails, as the snow goes out pound the trails while looking for melt areas on the trails, or if the melted areas are close to the trails wander over and look at them. And once the snow goes out I will try to grid an area out, but one day I will go north/south then next time I am there I will work east/west. Distance and time..... Sheds: 52 (29) The first number is the total found, the number in ( ) are the ones I found Hours: 56.3 Miles: 106.0 So not quite 2 mph average, and I feel sometimes that is even to fast, but if I am a half mile in and it is 10 minutes from when I said I would be home.....well, what are you gonna do....
Seriously? I was wondering how many people grid out areas, I'm going to do that this weekend I think. Pending the snow holds off
Congrats WI. Nice selection. Hope you get a chance at one of those this fall. By the way.. do you have the sheds off the buck you took last year?
You mean this one? I don't think so. There was one that I watched last year that might have fit the bill for the one I got, about a 14" spread, tall tined, mainframe 8 pointer, with heavy bases, couple kicker points. (had him at 5-6 yards opening day of bow season, watched him all during rut) Really looked hard for his sheds but no luck finding them, heard reports from the neighbors across the road they were seeing something Feb-March that sounded like him, so he may have wintered elsewhere. Or, the DNR guy could have been right and the buck I shot 'was' a 3 year old (the way I look at the teeth says differently) and he could have just really sprouted in that 2 to 3 year old growth spurt.....dunno
Wiaxle, you are having a great season thus far, I've been keeping tabs on all your posts and finds! Keep up the good work, love all the pix! All these shed threads and finds like yours have me chomping at the bit, I've been waiting on mother nature and our snow levels to come down. Its finally time here in Northern Idaho, the conditions are as good as they can get right now, I got out last night for 3 hours and found 5 antlers , up to 9 sheds for the season on about 12 hours of looking thus far... and three dead deer
Thanks We are having our 2nd best year ever, only about 9-10 off of last years record year. The downside is, just as your season is ramping up, ours is quickly approaching an end, unless I can find some new ground to tromp around on, got a few leads, but shed hunting is really gaining in popularity around here and it is tough to find folks that will let you wander around their property (90% private around here)
you know what else blows my mind about your sheds... they are all FRESH finds for the most part.. I am lucky to find 50/50 fresh versus a year or two old... maybe its this terrain/brush cover that hides them so well..
