Another Good Day! - Sheds 17, 18, & 19

Spring has been a long time coming! Now that it's here, It won't be long at all before these antlers disappear under fresh new grass. We've combed through some of the areas that I was anticipating would produce for us. There's still some areas that I'll need to go through this week, but we're definitely running out of time.

On Saturday, a friend and I went out to two spot that I had never been. The fresh deer sign wasn't very good at all, but somehow after walking for about 10 minutes, I walked right into a buried set from a 2.5 year old buck.

It probably has laid there for at least 1 year, maybe two. The funny part was that when I spotted it, I only saw the one antler - even when I was right up to it. Then my buddy said, "Well don't you want it's mate?" I said, "Are you messing with me?" The match was literally ONE FOOT away from the other and I just couldn't see it. He could see from where he was standing and I couldn't. I offered it to him and he said no thanks... "just wouldn't be right". I would have eventually seen the other antler when I pulled the first one out of the leaves, but it just goes to show how tough it can be to see an antler. I've drastically slowed down how fast I walk and it's paying off. We saw tons of rut sign, but the food sources nearby just got pounded this fall and so they didn't winter around there. 

Next, we headed to Malung to a spot that I've had my eye on and just recently got permission to walk through. Same thing - tons of summer and fall sign, but nothing for winter sign. I managed to kick a couple geese off their nests. One goose only had one egg and the second goose had six magical omelets waiting to be cooked up!

 After we had combed most of the property and started thinking of heading to the truck, I came up a ridge away from the river bottom and looked to my right. BAM! Tines! Right as I saw it, my phone started ringing, it was my friend who was with, but I hadn't seen him for a little while. He was calling to tell me that he just found a little fork antler. I told him about mine and he came right over to take a look. The closer I got to it, the better the mass looked. It is a little bit different when you have no clue the history or life of a particular buck. Still exciting, but not as exciting as knowing the buck. This antler looked like it also had laid there for at least one year, probably two. It measured 58 6/8", which is not only my best shed of the year, but I believe it's my best Minnesota shed ever! Kinda sad, but I'll take it!

April Showers Bring May Shhhheds?

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!

Finally Back At It - Maybe.

Mom wanted to head out to the woods on Saturday and who could blame her. The sun was beaming, the snow was thinking about leaving and Steph was tied up with friends. So mom and I walked two spots and came out with one antler. First we walked up by the gravel pits to see just how much traffic there had been at the mineral site. The deer definitely know where it is now. This will be the fourth spring that the deer have used the site and there really isn't much left of the stump. I can't wait to see who strolls through there this year. I should get my cameras out in about another week or two. May 1st is almost here! That blows my mind. Last night we got another storm that donated us about 2-4" of sticky snow. School was two hours late on April 15th. What a contrast from last year!
Anyway, then mom and I parked on the road and walked north and east and north and east until we came up to the Little Hill. We skirted the south edge of the cedars and headed east until we hit the stump and continued along the south facing edge. Mom was checking out some isolated clusters of cedars when I walked slowly along a trail that I had about 10 times this winter. All of a sudden there lay an antler.

It took me two seconds to recognize which deer it was from - it was from the chunky wide spork that I found one side to in early January. Pretty cool to have both sides to a yearling. So that makes antler #12 for the season - 4 decent ones and 8 yearlings. We walked over to where I thought that 2 year old 8 would've dropped his antlers and had no luck. We'll definitely have to cover that spot one more time when all the snow goes, which will be around May 5-15. That's ridiculous! We are only going to have 2 weeks of "good" looking.  Oh well. We'll take what we can get. We also found a dead bald eagle on the walk out. Looked like someone shot it from the highway.

Good Friday - Still Too Much Snow

Well, it's Good Friday today. Last year at this time, we were in the woods looking for dinosaur bones! There was no snow left (virtually), even in the cedars! This year is very different. We've had about a week of temps hovering around the 32 degree mark and thankfully some of them were sunny. I would say that it's going to be another 2 weeks before it's worth charging out there. The problem is that with such a narrow window of time before green up, a person doesn't want to walk the same place twice, so there will be many trips out to the woods in those four weeks. Really, there's only a few places that are worth walking through, but others still have that mysterious "what if...". Pencil is the number one priority. I might take some high school kids out to the refuge and try to cover some of that area while I wait for the snow to burn off a little more. Hopefully we can find something worth hunting.

Is It Ever Going To End?

Today is Monday, March 18th and we are getting dumped on with snow. There is still a hefty amount of snow and it doesn't look like I'll be in the woods for another few weeks. It's probably a good thing, though, as we close on our house today. That's right! Moving Day! There's a lot to take care of, and even though this long winter will inevitably result in a poor year of growth for the bucks out there, I will be able to focus on the necessary and more important things at hand at home. I have been asked to help write an article on shed hunting for the Grand Forks newspaper and although I'm excited for it, it made me hesitate a little about getting more and more people introduced to the sport. That means less antlers for us. Regardless, I think it will be an opportunity to share some knowledge and hopefully pass on some helpful advice. 

Also, Steph and I were promoted to 'regular' ProStaff for Midwest Whitetail. That's exciting. So I need to write a bio for us and send in a photo or two for them. Hopefully within a month or so I'll have Pencil's antlers at home to look at.

Shed #11 - A Speck In The White Desert

Nothing to exciting, but I felt I better write about it before I forget about it. I was out on Tuesday the 12th and walked the standing soybean field one more time. It took me quite a while, but I was able to spot something over my right shoulder. It was a small tine sticking out of the snow. At first glimpse, I never really know what it could be, but as I walked in closer, I soon saw that it was quite small. This always begs the question, what would a big antler have looked like. It also let's me know that I'm doing a pretty good job of scanning the area around me if I can spot one this small. The snow kept it up, so I'm sure it's relatively fresh. Here it is:

Nothing big, but another one for the tally. I have no trail cameras out right now, which is always an odd feeling. But, it won't be too long before a few get put out over mineral licks. I'm really hoping this snow depth doesn't lead to suffering deer or a late growing season. We definitely could use some sun. It's supposed to get above freezing today. Let the melt begin!!

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.