Nice work Tim! I FINALLY got back out with the snow melt at a managable level. Found 3 more yesterday. 1 small set and a 2.5 year old 4x side.. pix to come.
Nice job Troy !! I got skunked last night after work. I did find a match set tonight after work. Going to be a good buck if he gets a couple more years on him. Can you find the second antler in the picture ?? Tim
The Melts On Starting Monday the temps will be above zero for the 1st time in weeks and it doesn't let up there,will be +9 by Thursday, so should be back out next weekend for a look if the snow has melted much by then. Rocky
Here are the pix of the three I found the other day and then I found 4 more yesterday, one really nice 5x side..and another matched set of litte ones.. this is my 3rd matched set of 1.5-2.5s this year and all have been laying close! Go figure.. so 7 total bones since the snow thaw over the last couple days.... I'm at 23. Headed out the door here in a bit to hit it again.. it snowed (wet snow) 1 inch this morning.. but is already melting off.. Headed to some low ground to get out of the snow.
Found 4 more today. One was a set I saved from a watery grave. Then I checked out some CRP that had melted off pretty good. Found this 60 5/8 shed. and a smaller shed. Tim
Very nice Tim, dang good looking sheds there! Those pix in the ice are really cool. I tried gettting out yesterday but ended up getting hammered with snow and sleet. bagged it, hope to get out this afternoon, though. Good luck buddy, you still have a lot of snow in places.. same here.. over 2-3 feet in the norths.. some of my souths are bare but only in the lower elevations so I am limited to where I can go.
Man, you guys are killing it! I'm just about tapped-out, so it looks like you guys whooped my arse again! Congrats fellas on the recent finds, and keep poundin' it. Troy, have you spent any time looking for any elk/moose/muley sheds this season?
Found another today, little junker old 3x side..browtine chewed off..green.. long ass walk (5-6 miles) in pouring rain, thick brush all day was soaked to the bone right through all my gortex/waterpoof.... Got home; had to have the wife drive me back to my quad after I thawed out.. gonna hit it hard tomorrow, gonna get back to a spot I got to today and wanted to stay longer but had to leave, due to cold and night time setting in...got a little break in the rain..hope to head straight to the great looking spot I got to today.. I am shed hunting an scouting some new country.. very very good looking mountain.. a long pull for the common man so I doubt I gets hit very hard.. Fran, I have not went to either my elk areas or mule deer areas there is so much snow in those places I need to give it week or more... I may run across the a few elk sheds where I am now but not many.. I am really just getting started, this year's snows have been a nightmare, but it looks like its finally on the permanent thaw.. I have only been able to access about 1/3 of my good whitetail shedding areas due to snow thus far.
I'm going to look again this weekend then lay off for awhile. Our turkey season starts on Monday so my focus changes to birds.
Tyler and I snuck out after I got done working and I found 2 more. Tyler found 1. I was in a rush and forgot to grab the camera. I will just throw them in with tomorrow's finds if there are any. Tim
I've been off for my spring break, last wed I hit the highway to Montana, spent 11 hours thursday shed hunting with two friends in Mt. Half a day on Friday, found 17 total in MT, between my buds and I we found 60 total in those two days about 17 hours of shed hunting, (that pic of us 3 guys is the first days sheds that we packed out. We left a few junkers) over all it was the best two day stretch for both of them ever. Then I jetted 9.5 hours back to Hells canyon, slept a few hours at my bro's camp and caught a jet boat ride from my brother early Sat morning and found 19 but only packed out 17 due to two of them I couldnt safely get to in the bluffs..(same place my bro and I have already pulled 33 and 18 off of in seperate trips 4 and 5 years ago) I hit the road this morning and am now home today, 34 more sheds, mostly mule deer a few elk and a couple whitetails.. Great trip, walked my arse off, well over 20 miles in estimation. Haven't covered this much ground in 27 hours of shed hunting in a long time, especially as steep of ground as I was in Hells canyon.. Really put myself to the test, terrible weather in the steep stuff two, lots of wind and poured.. Saw over 200 elk and mule deer, about 30 whitetails.. here is a pic of my finds, I didnt take the time to take many pix either, the weather sucked and I was on a mission.. I am at 59 for the season now, resting today. (oh yeah found one little Junker on wed here at home before I left.. on my trip.. )
Great job !!!! You did a lot better then us. We managed 10 sheds this weekend with 5 a piece. This is by far one of the worst shed hunting seasons we've had in a long time. Our deer numbers are really down. I'll get your totals up to date. Tim
Awesome work Troy. I'm so jealous that you have the opportunity to access such diverse habitats and species for shedding. Two weekends from now, I think I'm going to go on my first bonafide elk shed hunt - heading to NW PA with my dad for a boys' weekend, and I'm going to make them all go out for a day of scouring the mountainsides for elk sheds. Our elk herd is WAY small, so finding a shed would take a miracle. I wanna at least give it a go. How do I hunt for elk sheds? Same as whitetails? Grassy areas, edges, etc.? Tim - why is your deer herd down? Tough winters or are they getting overhunted?
Fran, our elk, bulls will bachelor up during the shedding season. Here they are hiding from wolves, lions.. so they usually end up out in the bluffs on southern slopes. You dont have those predators so your bulls are probably just hanging out where ever the best food is right now. The big bulls have all dropped here, starting in late march..and some little bulls are still packing.. I saw a couple spikes still packing this past week...that was it, everything else had dropped. I'd find out where the elk in your area winter>>>>SOUTH SLOPES>>> and start there. Look for the newest grass and good browse. That would be cool if you got to find some elk sheds. I am gonna grind it out here in the souths for a couple more weeks then head back to Montana one more time. My bud just called me tonight and told me he got 5k more acres we can access. I still have snow in the norths here so its Montana or down in the river country until these norths up here burn off.
I really need to get a gps to track exactly how many miles I cover in a 10+hour day.. just out of curiosity..
Fran The biggest factor is the coyotes. In the last 5 years the coyote population has taken off big time. They are hammering the fawns in the spring. I would be willing to bet they are killing off 40% or more of the fawns. Usually when bowhunting you see more fawns then does in the early season. Now I see more lone does and very few fawns. We have been running the same area for years now. The first 3 years when we got seroius about shed hunting Tyler could only go out when I went out with him. 2001- 73 sheds 2002- 77 sheds 2003- 88 sheds Tyler started roaming while I worked. Now we started to cover the area pretty thorough. We were pretty consistant the next 3 years. 2004 - 133 sheds 2005 - 142 sheds 2006 - 148 sheds Corn acreage got big in the area. The deer population jumped. The coyote population was just starting to take off. 2007 - 167 sheds 2008 - 252 sheds 2008 was our best year. The deer where all over but we were starting to see a lot of coyotes everywhere. We did pick up one new spot which we only got to shed hunt that year so take about 30 sheds off 252. 232 sheds for the main area. Life was very good. LOL 2009 - 195 sheds 2010 - 130 sheds 2011 - 66 sheds so far. I doubt we will break 100. It is amazing how fast things went south the last couple years. I am not looking forward to the next couple years as I think things will get worses with the coyotes with the lower deer population and a high coyote population. Tim
