I was thinking about all the sets I have found over the years. Generally speaking when I find a set of sheds from a 4.5 year old buck or older, the sheds are generally realtively close, say within 100 yards or so from each other. (always exceptions of course but generally) On the other hand sets from 3.5s and younger tend to be spread out greater distances. 2, 3 and even 4 or 500 yards apart. Rarely do I find a BIG set a long ways (over 200 - 300 yards) apart. I believe older bucks move less, are more strategic in their travel, conserve more energy as they get older and work those big hvy sheds off fairly quick once they lose one side. While younger bucks move more, pack sides longer and fruther than the older boys... What have your experiences been?
the weight of a heavier antler on oner side would be moe annoying to me, and gravity would be a greater facter. i can see where this would be the case (no experience though)
I agree Troy, most of my bigger sets have been closer together, usually within 50 yards. The biggest set I have found scored 202 6/8, but were about 200 yards apart. My biggest single side, 106 3/8, was from the same buck. I looked for two weeks for the other side, but could never find it. 4 months later, another guy found it 3/4 of a mile away. I was amazed that he carried one side that far.
Well I can tell you this the world record sheds from Illinois fell 1800yds. Apart. I couldn't believe he carried it that far. I thought I would find it within a hundred yards. Unfortunately someone else found the match on another property.
I concur and by biggest find so far were only 4 feet apart and I need to get them scored someday. Maybe I will go visit that Shed hunters show up near the Dells this year.
My largest match set is only a low 130's 8 point with a couple sticker points, I found those about 100 yards apart. I think the furthest I found a matched set apart was a 105ish 2.5 y/o 8 point, they were about 300 yards apart. Of the few big sheds I have.... I searched and searched and searched but never found the matches. These properties aren't very large though so they could have easily been dropped on a neighboring land where I had no chance to find them.
No doubt there are exceptions.. but as whole I am wondering what you guys see in general in accordance to set find proximity in relation to age structure of bucks? thats all.. From what I understand you have found a lot of sheds, have most of your set finds of mature bucks been spread out like your world record set.. 1800 yards? Or is that an oddity? Have you noticed anything different trend with younger buck set finds? Do you have a lot of sets from younger bucks or more from older bucks? Personally I have DOUBLE the "set" finds from older age class of bucks than the younger bucks. I believe we as shed hunters invest more effort in finding a big bucks set than a younger bucks of course but still for me the younger buck sets are always as a whole tougher to come by, Big woods bucks it is anyway. I know there are so many factors involved.. Just curious is all.. on your over all collection.
Thats a tough one Scott, I rarely run into a situation where I can't search for miles if need be! One positive for big woods shed hunting. Very little congregation of bucks though. Natural feed everywhere. I would think the right piece of ground with the "hot" feed in your area is gonna hold a lot of sheds..
Dan I was hoping you would chime in on this one, did you find all 3 of those sheds, the set and single in the same year? Was the set fresh? The Single Old or vice versa? Did the big boy shed consecutive years in the same area minus the one 3/4 mile shed he packed off.. interesting.. I have picked up a couple bucks sets in consecutive years on the same mountain sides.. its rare but some old bucks really like specific wintering spots, even in the big woods..
thanks, I am really interested to hear what all the guys from different habitats are experiencing... My shed hunting is mountainous big woods terrain, no agriculture for the most part.. yet the big bucks often shed within that 0-100 yard range quite often or at least thats been my experience on the old bucks..
I would agree. MOST of the time, the large sets we find have been fairly close. The exception I had last year was finding both sides of the buck I killed early muzzleloader season. His sheds were about a quarter mile apart. But, it was on a travel route from bedding to food and with a rough winter they were covering a lot of ground each day to feed. They were going a mile each night one way to a corn filed. That is not the norm for here. For us, I think the severity of the winter has some bearing also. On the other extreme, if it gets really nice very early in the spring, we find the sheds more spread out also. A buck may lose one side in the heavy cover and we may find the other side as much as a mile away if it has gotten really nice out.
Good points, easy winters often mean spread out Bucks here.. Tough winters often mean better congregation here in the southern slopes, those tend to make for my best shed hunting finds for #s.. converse to your tough winters, feed availabilty that forces deer to travel greater distances..
I like your thinking Shed. Last year while in IL I found a set of chewed up sheds that had dropped the previous year. They were laying right next to each other in the same bed. Later that day I found another shed 200-300 yards away from another buck (the buck I shot this fall). On my way back to the truck I found a really large rack that matched the old set I had found. I didnt have time to invest in finding the other side but it will haunt me that it was likely to be within 75-100 yards. The distance between the set from 2009 and the freshy (2010) was less than 100 yards. Here is a picture of them all together - and a picture of me holding the stringer of large antlers when I got back to the truck -
No, I found the set in 2002 and the single in 2003. In both cases, the sheds had been laying out there one year. There was also another set from this same buck found in 2002 that had been laying there for 2 years. Hopefully this doesn't get confusing, but here's how it went..... The set the other guy found in October 2002 was found within 300 yards of where I found the single side in May 2003. The set I found in September 2002 was found nearly 1 mile from those other sides. The other single from my May 2003 shed was found in October 2003 within 400 yards of my September 2002 matched set. Confused? It seems as though he was using that entire area to winter. I think he did a bit more traveling that would normally be done in the winter in the big woods because there was less snow and it was pretty mild. We have seen bucks winter in the same area year after year, yet others move around. One particular year we shed hunted an area that no one had ever been to. In the first 2 hours we found 54 sheds and a 3 sets from the same big gnarly buck. I wish I had some good pics of them. In total, we found over 80 sheds that year in about 350 acres and quite a few of them were from the same deer over multiple winters. Not the best pic, but you can see one of the sheds in Jill's right hand and a couple in Chad's hand from that gnarly buck.
My greatest series of sheds comes from a hometown buck where I grew up in MD. I found a set of sheds (yearling sheds) behind the barn in this little thicket (1997). Didnt think much of it until the next year when I found another matched set in nearly the same spot (1998). There were tons of old stumps, some dead falls and tons of greenbriar. The following fall (1998) I hunted close to there but with little trees to get in, the only spot to sit was ontop of the barn and it wasnt comphy. After the season I found one half to his rack (1999) but couldnt find the other. He had been seen a couple times but was otherwise a ghost. That summer I got my first trail camera, placed in in there and got one picture of him just as the season opened (1999)- I hunted hard for him, he was "huge" but my sightings of him went down, I didnt get any more pictures of him and didnt find any sheds that year of him (2000). I thought he was gone and gave up on him. 2001 while in the thicket thinking about the previous sheds I stumbled on a fresh shed. I was sitting on a stump meer yards from where I had picked up that first set back in 1997 and could see that long G2 sticking up. Shocked, happy, estatic .... dont describe the amount of emotion that ran through me. that was the moment I went from shed hunter to shed addict Here are the sheds from that special buck. Here is a picture for comparison - I never saw him again, never got another picture of him or found another shed from him. Who knows what happened to him. What I learned from him really changed me as a hunter and shed hunter.
I have 2 sets that were laying side by side from Mature Bucks but most I only find the singles from the big guys
You are 100% correct. It is all about crop rotation on the properties I have access to. I am not expecting a big year locally as most every property I have access to this year was in beans. The farms with corn are always the hot shed properties.
