first i want to say this is an awesome site! i recently got into shed hunting 2 years ago, and have been hooked ever since. last year was the first time that i REALLY put the miles on in search for sheds. i did ok, finding 14 on about 200 acres in Wisconsins swamps and hardwoods. all but 1 of my sheds last year i found while there was quite a bit of snow. i walked from late january into early april, but didn't have much luck finding anything when the snow was gone. i know that you walk the trails when there's deep snow, but what do you guys do when the snow is gone? walk whatever trails you can find, or do you just do a grid search in the areas you believe the bucks are? if you grid search, what distance would you recommend between my lines (keep in mind i look in pretty thick swamp land, but also rolling hardwoods) any info you'd give me would be much appreciated. i love just walking in search of bone, but want to find a way to do a little better when the snow is gone.
HANDS DOWN Grid search! That is the way I go and it is a lot of walking but you cover all of the property doing it. Take a friend, family member, or anyone else and you can do it a lot faster! Bedding areas and feeding areas are my main spots then fence lines and creek/river crossings are next. After a good rain is the best I have ever found a bunch! They do shake to get the rain off then plop plop so do the antlers!
Work the trails while the snow is up, pay attention to the areas they seem to congregate, come back after the snow is gone, find sheds. If you have ALOT of time, gridding is the best, if you are looking for bigger sheds, you can open it up a bit more, but if you are looking for everything, you will want to tighten up your search grid. Also, don't forget to turn around and check your back trail often, that big tree that you just passed might have one that isn't in your los on your first pass through
Depending on the time of the year it is i would say trails are great later in the shed season early shed season grid bedding areas as well as food sources and any and all travel routes in between. Deer are very predictable during the early shed season fresh out of the rut and looking to do one thing only get all that weight back on before the harsh winter. Food sources are number one, bedding areas are number two, travel routes to and from are number three.
If you have an App phone.... download "My Tracks" and do some gridding in bedding and feeding areas. Zoom out on the map and start connecting the dots coming off your previous line each time. I have found a good amount of sheds on rub lines inbetween bedding and feeding areas. Good luck, Dave
Alot of good info already and I would agree. I think right now if you have the snow depth we have FOOD/ BEDDING is the key. I have found 8 so far and all have been in or within 50 yards of a standing bean field. I know the matches to some of them are between this field and bedding but we have had 1-3" of snow of and on and that makes them tough to see. It's hard to believe and decent antler cant be seen in a couple inches of fresh snow but I've missed many. I will grid all this area after snow is gone and hopefully find many more. Good Luck!
thanks for all the help!!! trail walking really worked well last year, but i felt like i was missing a lot. grid searching seemed very tedious, but that's why i'll only do it in the key zones. thanks guys!!! found 1 this weekend while mainly checking on where they're the most active, but will post pics as the season progresses. mid February is when i'll do my damage... hopefully also, thanks for the tracks app idea, that'll help big time!!!
