Shed Hunting

christmas on. better to look when it hasn't snowed for a few weeks or in the spring when the snow is melting.

hit up the food sources and work your way through the area.
 
start around late december. I like to find them soon as they drop them, better chance of finding them. Found a lot of mine in corn fields as the bucks are digging in the corn they jar them off. Heres one i found Jan 2nd in the corn field on my bait pile in front of my stand. Dropped the night before.


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This is the best time of year to make friends with farmer/ranchers. The w/t are yarded up on open hill sides/fields trying to servive. The colder the better to see them at almost anytime of day. Farmers hate runing over expensive tracor tires($500plus) and are usually willing to let people on the land to look for sheds. We had 58w/t come across a hill side in our area just the other day. Moose drop in dec and w/t start in jan right through till april. With a good spotting scope you should be able to check a lot of barley fields now for deer that are still packing one or both antlers. In some cases you may be able to see the sheds from the road also. This time of year you can also see the trails from bedding areas to the feed ground. I like to check from a distance early to see if any good bucks in the area first before I start messing around. Good luck----Cowboy
 
A guy on the OFAH website just posted some trail cam photos from last week with 2 bucks still wearing their antlers. As soon as the snow melts should be the best time.
 
Thanks for the info.
I have seen 2 different bucks in late January still wearing their antlers.
I have access to over 700 acres with lots of deer. Just started looking this year and hope to find some.
 
I once found both sheds (whitetail) sticking up base first in the melting snow of spring. They appeared to be in exactly the same relationship as if he was still carrying them on his head. He must have put his head down to feed just as the antlers were ready to drop and I guess they both stuck in the snowpac at the same moment. I am still using those smallish 4x4 horns for a rattle in the fall and they have produced a couple of bucks for me. I think they are a little bit magic.:D

Anyway, I bet nobody else has found a shed set in that configuration.

I was driving along a semi-developed road allowance in my truck and just happened to spot the bases sticking out of the snow although I wasn't shed-hunting at the time. I had a hard time believing my eyes.

With regard to the OP,s original question I find the most productive time to go looking is once the snow melt is well underway in your particular neck of the woods.
 
Here are a matching set I found last year. I think it was in March-April after most of the snow was gone but not all.

I randomly found a moose shed in this cut block, which was perfect for game to winter in, so the next day I came back with my dog who I have been training to find sheds to look for the other moose antler. My dog helped me fine the other moose antler after 3 hours of looking. Just before heading back to the quad I wanted to check out a little corner that looked good. I found the first one of these whitetail sheds and just about s**t myself, then I looked 10 yards down the trail and there was the matching shed!! Best whitetail sheds I have ever found. Those G2's are 13" long.

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Nice pics of your sheds you guys.
204Saskman, I like the decor on your table, not sure what you are planning with the soothers but I do know that RUTR at Tims starts tomorrow.
 
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257Roberts said:
Nice pics of your sheds you guys.
204Saskman, I like the decor on your table, not sure what you are planning with the soothers but I do know that RUTR at Tims starts tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Thanks lol. the boy was up and he was being fed when i got home with these and i had to snap a few pictures of them. The bases on the split one are around 9 7/8" round. The other is an inch smaller.
 
In my experience the most productive time to look for sheds is Late March through to the end of April. Basically the time when there's still a couple inches of snow left until the new greenery is out. I know that a lot of deer in our area have started shedding. I've seen trail cam photos of antlerless bucks, as well as a giant shed that a friend of mine picked up on December 14th, while hunting!
My dad & I have logged a lot of hours walking around during the winter, but have only found sheds from March on.
The most productive areas to look are field edges. I can't tell you how many miles of deer trails I've followed through corn fields without ever finding one cast antler. The majority of sheds we've found have been within 15' of the field edge. The one benefit to walking around during the winter is it will give you a good idea of the deer's winter patterns. This will help you out a lot, and gives you a starting point for next year's search. Sorry I don't have any pics, hopefully I'll be able to post some soon!

Good luck!

Tim
 
Do mulies drop later than whitetails ? I have three mulie bucks hanging around my yard, all still fully antlered. And it has been bloody cold here too...
 
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