May is finally here! Although this is less than the ideal month to be looking for shed antlers, none-the-less, that is all we have left. I was approached by a local writer for the Grand Forks newspaper and he wanted to talk about looking for shed antlers. He was pointed my direction by my friend Zach a month or two ago now. At first I thought how cool that would be, but the more I thought about it, the riskier I thought it could be. First of all, now more than ever, people are beginning to see value in antlers and shed hunting has gotten pretty big across the US. This is fun to watch, yet means less antlers for the individual who grew up enjoying the time in the woods. After some careful deliberation, I decided to go through with the article and have the writer join me on a shed hunt this spring. We are going to approach the article from a deer management standpoint, not a tips and tricks article. Hopefully.
Anyway, I went out yesterday to see how much snow was left in the woods in order to make it worth it for the writer to drive up from Grand Forks. I got my chores done and headed out of town around 11:30am. This trip was dual purpose: I wanted to put out some of my trail cameras to begin tracking down the survivors of last years long winter. Hopefully Pencil among others is still doing fine. The antler growth should be well under way by now - at least an inch or three. I hung cameras over three mineral sites and tried to walk where I thought I might find an antler. I saw some decent sign as expected, but it wasn't until I returned to the Little Hill that the action picked up. As I was walking through where the snow had been packed down pretty good, I saw a little smooth curve that always makes me stop in my tracks. Sure enough it was a little skinny spike.
After I reviewed the trail camera pictures, it looks to have been shed after the 22nd of January. Number 13 for the year!
I moved along the south edge of the cedars as usual, debating whether that was worth it or not, since I've walked through them about 15 times in the last 4 years or more. This particular time, I was walking slower than normal when suddenly a white stick caught my eye. Could it be an antler? As I walked a few steps closer, it began to look exactly like an antler. From that distance away, I thought it might be from that bully 2 year old 8. As I got up to it, I could clearly see that it was not from this year. I figured maybe 1 or 2 years old. As I unearthed the antler, it pulled the sod and moss right with it. It had been frozen in the ground for some time. After I pulled some of the sod off it, I saw a double G4 on it! Hanger! This was shocking and amazing at the same time! I knew the buck, so I knew the year. He grew this antler in 2008. So if he shed this in 2009, this thing had been laying there for 4 years! Not bad shape for four years.
After I had my personal little celebration, I moved on keeping a slower than normal pace. I worked my way along the south edge until I got to the stump where I planned to hang my trail camera. Upon walking up to the stump, I noticed a little antler blatantly resting against the base of the stump.
Thats cool in and of itself, but here's the real kicker: Mom and I were just at this stump not too long ago and I don't recall there being snow then either. So, either this shed was there two weeks ago and was under snow, or it just dropped it within the last two weeks, which is possible. Either are crazy possibilities. So that makes three on the day for a year total of 15!
I was thinking it was time to be done and start my journey back to the truck. Right before I reached the turnaround point, I spotted a distorted shape lying next to the base of the big cedar tree. It was an antler. A really really old, chewed to crap, antler.
This thing had probably been laying here for years and years and years and how we missed it I'll never know. This does make me think that there are an awful lot of antlers that must get picked up by fox, coyote, wolf and carried around for short distances. Odd. So, even though I walked through some good sign on the way back to the truck, I wasn't able to pick up any more. Oh well. A four-shed day is great! I haven't had one that good in many years! I had a three-shed day earlier this year (January 10), but this was just great! All of this was to find out the answer to my snow question - and the answer was no, there's no snow left in the woods. We are officially underway!
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