Monday, February 4, 2013

A Matched Set! # 9 & 10

I made it out to the woods on Wednesday morning. I went out there to take down my last camera, so I only had about an hour to walk around. As I was getting closer to my camera I spotted something up a head in a little staging area where there was plenty of deer activity. I saw what only looked like tines of an antler and as I got closer... BAM! there were two antlers! A set? I'm still about 50 feet away at this point and I'm really hoping that they are to the new buck I wrote about in the last post. Sure enough, I see what has to be a long browtine. I was so pumped! I snapped a few pictures and scooped up my first matched set of the year. The sheds measured 45 and 46" So he would gross about 107". That's not much, but his brows were 4 6/8 and 5". Hopefully he puts on some height this next year. Both bases were very bloody so I assumed they were both extremely fresh. I also assumed that he shed them at the same time, because of their proximity to each other.
I pulled the memory card and learned that he carried the one side for about 28 hours before coming back and shedding it right near the other side! That blows my mind.
The next day, three new yearlings came into the camera for the first time. They were all still carrying antlers. I know that most bucks have shed by now, but there's always a slim chance that a new buck (that's still holding) could move into the area. I'm off to San Diego for a week and so that should finish out the early season of shed hunting. Now we'll slow it down until mid-end of March when the snow starts to recede. I'm at 10 for the year before February came. That's probably my best early season ever. Hopefully I can find some new spots to look over when April comes.

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