The February Lull

I don't know of a February that I haven't looked for sheds for a very long time. This year we got plenty of snow and it's made looking around here fairly futile. The only problem with waiting is that from the time deer are actually shedding antlers to the time you can get out there, their patterns can and most likely have changed rather drastically. It will be essential to figure out where the deer were from Christmas to the end of January. That is where your odds are best. Notice I didn't say that's where you'll find your sheds. Buck behavior overlaps the general herd's behavior at this time of year, but it's not nearly as consistent or as confined as the does and fawns area of bedding. Bucks may travel through and past the 'bedding areas'. They may even bed with the does, but if you take into account the times of trail camera sitings, the bucks are coming in a good two hours or more after the does are. This leads you to one of three conclusions. Either the bucks simply are not on their feet as early, they are spending a lot more time browsing in the woods before they cross the road, or they are coming from a much further distance. My thought is something between the last two possibilities. I believe that when heading back to bed, bucks take the same trails as does and fawns. Somewhere along the way, possibly based on wind direction etc, these bucks veer off the trail and bed down by themselves. Sure a buck can drop his antlers right on a heavy trail, but if you calculate time spent feeding and time spent bedding, the time they are in transition is puny in comparison to the previous two. Deer cannot afford to burn calories needlessly.

Yesterday I was thinking about the shed hunting in an unknown environment, say down in Whitewater. I don't know what those deer do during the wintertime. I can only imagine that if they leave the corn standing, that the deer would be drawn in to it like a magnet. Here's where it gets tricky. Whitewater State Park also enjoys plenty of other hunters and I would guess appropriately - many shed hunters. I suspect that the majority of these shed hunters hit the food sources because they're easier to access. This is what got me thinking. A deer's travel and bedding is in relationship to food this time of year. Food is number one. Safety is number two. Rest (conserving energy) is number three. In percentages, it may look something different. Although deer do spend a great amount of time feeding in the winter, they spend more time bedding. If a person was to base their odds of finding sheds on location, they would need to base their decision on where the deer are spending the most hours per day. Deer spend from 12-18 hours a day in and around a bedding area. They spend roughly 4-6 hours feeding per day. that leaves a span of less than 8 hours in transition per day. All this is to say that when I cross boot tracks in a food source, I'm not going to let that bum me out. I know that I need to find the heaviest travel in and out of the food source in an attempt to find the bedding areas.

When you find beds, it is very helpful to stop and analyze the where and whys of the deer's preference. Is it open to sunlight? Is there browse nearby? How far am I from the hottest food source? How many deer does it look like are bedding in a 50 yard radius? Can I tell if they are buck beds? Are there tracks confirming that? As you start to notice trends in the deers preference of bedding areas, other areas might come to mind. As I mentioned Whitewater, it makes me think about the terrain differences. There will be steep hills, gradual ridges, and gorged out valleys. The south facing slopes will be the warmer ones and the ones that I believe deer will prefer. Not always, but most of the time. Finding benches and places of less stress also will pay off. Like I said, number two priority for deer is safety this time of year. Survival is always number one, but certain times of year survival means different things. Winter time brings about that switch. Food trumps safety. Anyway, safety includes thermals and wind currents. Deer will often times bed facing a direction they cannot smell. The will put the wind to their backs so they can smell what is behind them and see what they cannot smell. This could create many unique situations where the terrain has such exaggerated changes.

Hopefully when this snow melts down a bit, I can afford to spend some time in the woods. There are lots of antlers that I would love to find. Nobody has broken the 60" mark at Minnesota Hill. This could very well be the year. Stay tuned.