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.

Fogged Over In Hibbing

So of all places I get to write this blog... I'm stuck in the Hibbing airport waiting for a taxi to come pick us up and DRIVE us to Thief River Falls. Oh yeah, it's 10 minutes past midnight right now. So let's do the math, the taxi should be here by 12:30am and we should arrive in TRF at about 4am. So far Delta hasn't been able to do anything for me. They think their taxi-ing me in the fog at 45 mph is complementary. Haha. Anyway, I might as well update this blog with the most recent happenings.

First of all, I took all my cameras down before I took off to Covenant Midwinter Conference in Chicago last friday. I got a few pictures the same bald bucks, a few new ones, but nothing that was too noteworthy. Just more wolves.

The best thing I get to write about is that after the Youth Workers Connection (Fri-Sun) I had to transfer from the Hyatt downtown out to the Hyatt O'hare, still in town, but by the river. Two years ago I took a walk one afternoon north of the hotel up the river bank. I went under a bridge and stumbled across about 8 deer including one decent shed buck. This got me fired up to find his antlers. I looked and looked, but there were also boot track in there. No antlers.

This year, I glanced at GoogleEarth before I transfered hotels and once I was checked in to the O'hare, I decided I should try to take a nap. I just about fell asleep, but I just couldn't. I don't know why. Anyway, I got up and decided I would take my walk then. I grabbed my hat and gloves and headed out of the east parking lot. The riverbank is probably about 100 yards wide at this point. As I went south, there were places where it pinched and there were some small drainages flowing from the streets into the river. Once I got past the biggest pinch (one that pushed me up on the street), it opened up to quite a stretch of woods. I dipped back into the woods and saw a few openings and sure enough there were beds and lots of fresh tracks. I circled around and followed the most tracks I could and the closer to these apartment buildings I got, the heavier the tracks got, it was weird. I angled back towards the main road running south and kept it to my right so I could comb the area on the way back. That's when I kicked up my first deer. It didn't seem too spooked, so I kind of followed where it was headed. I started to see more and more deer. Pretty soon I was in a little honey hole. Deer were jumping and walking everywhere. There must've been at least 20 deer in a 50 yard area. None were carrying that I could see. Soon enough I saw a shed buck and he was limping. His left front knee was broken and healed over. I slowed way down after I saw that buck. The tracks were thick. I scanned as best as I could and then after about five minutes I saw my first antler to my right - points down. Would've been not too hard to miss. So this corridor that I was walking through, was about 100 yards wide at the most between the road and a grassy opening. My goal was to walk close to the highway to make sure I didn't miss anything to my right. Sure enough that's where this antler was - about 50 ft from the sidewalk under some willows. The shed ended up scoring 63 5/8", which would've made him roughly gross 145". I'm pretty sure he was a four year old. There were a decent amount of people tracks on some of the walking trails, probably out walking their dogs. I put my money on that somebody else already found the other side.

We also got hit by a "record" snowstorm on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday so that pretty much shut down looking any more. We received around 20" of snow and had 45 mph winds.

They're Definately Dropping!

People have been talking that this year was an early drop for sheds. I've got 3 different mature bucks on camera with both sides off so far - before the 9th. Whitey was the first to drop (December 18th), then I figure Mr. 140 was next (pre-January 6th), and then Scabby 10 has dumped both sides (pre-January 9th). We're supposed to have -30 this weekend. I'm sure that will take care of the rest of the antlers. I put a camera back on the east side of John's farmyard and I'm glad I did. That's where both bucks have been coming in to scratch around the yard. The deer are still going back to last years' pile of sunflowers that were cleaned out of John's bins over a year ago. Yuck. That just tells you what the food situation is this year. Not good. The activity has slowed significantly on the east side in Rice's field. The beans are still number one, but there's been a little less activity out there. The deer are milling on grasses, goldenrod, and other browse. I'm sure they're into the cedars. My hunch is that they almost picked those beans clean. I'm sure there's antlers just south of the road on some private property. I'll call around the end of march to get permission. With the amount of snow we're getting, these sheds are going to be buried. There has been a lot more tracks through the cut from last winter NW of John's lately. My guess is that I'll need to spend some time back in the swamp on some trails before the ice melts (like last year). I really just want to find one antler over 60". That's like the hill I just can't see over the top of. I can't get past 60 at Minnesota Hill. It's possible. We know that for sure.

I've got plenty of pictures of timberwolves in the last 2 months.

December's End (Sit #28)

Well December Came and went - full of snow, and full of deer hitting the food HARD. I'm a little nervous that this winter could be a bad one for the deer. We've already got a foot of snow by January 1st and we're likely to get another foot before it starts to melt. I've tried to move some cameras around to get closer to the food sources, but I've been a week behind the movement it seems like. I'll get one week of good pictures and then it will die. The one camera that I have out right now is still on that bean field and I will likely pull it down here in a few days. The night of the 28th, I saw a really big buck in the headlights by the intersection west of the creek. I'm pretty sure it was Curly. I think he's coming from the west side of the highway. I just know he was wider than he was tall, which would suggest NOT Skysraper. At least I'm still putting 'pins' in the map. I may not find much for sheds this year if these deer keep hanging up on private land like this. I hope that a few make it to next year. I'll be in the same spot, with cameras set up a little differently. I know there will be beans up by the hill, around John's island, and throughout most of Rice's land north of Orville's mailbox. Should be sweet. Anway, so far I was able to connect with only a few of the bucks on the hitlist in December, but I've got three more cameras to take down yet. Mom & Dad got a picture of the buck I'm pretty sure is Mr. 140 in the shack field. Then there's another shed buck, The Contender, and Bullwinkle. Here's some new pics:

First Sheds of the Year - Now Just To Find Them!

Joe and I went out with the bows yesterday afternoon and before I got settled in I decided to check the trail camera I had out there. After several does, fawns and yearling bucks, I got two pictures of a buck that had shed both sides! I'm almost positive that it's a buck I nicknamed Whitey. In the picture, he's leaving a field and coming back through the swamp. His pedicles are still pink, so I'm lead to believe that his antlers are just out in the field behind him less than a couple hundred yards. The funny part is that the first time I laid eyes on this buck, he was out in this same field. I got pictures of him west a mile, south east about 3/4 mile, and now here he is again. It would be very interesting to see what his antlers score. I'm sure they're around 52 and 48 or so. He was a very aggressive buck this late summer. There were bucks that were four and five and they were all shying away from this big bodied three year old. I'm pretty sure he is three because of his short main beams. He's a very stocky deer and should grow into something good next year. I gotta scoop up those antlers. I also got another picture of Contender and one of another buck I had pictures of late summer, but haven't seen until this month. I'll give him until next year to name himself.

I also was able to get out to the camera that's been on the creek. My hopes were high and when I opened the lid and saw that the batteries weren't dead after 18 days, my hopes were even higher. I rifled through the 50 some pictures on there only to see 1 yearling buck and a coyote and everything else does and fawns. Needless to say, I moved that camera. I also made it northwest of the bus with the snowmobile and checked that camera. Those batteries died on the 15th. I debated leaving that one, but I figured I'd bring it back in a week or two. It was good to see a few pictures of Contender and I also got some pics of the buck I let walk on the 18th of November. I'm glad I did. He wouldn't score more than 105. He's got nice potential. He has a big body, but I can't see how he's more than 2 years old. Here they are:

Soybeans

Deer need food. Nothing complex about that. This time of year, it's surprisingly easy to get pictures of deer and/or bucks I've been looking for all season by finding the best food source. There is a bit of myth to be busted regarding 'food sources' though. Not every buck is going to choose an agricultural food source over their own survival. Last winter at this time, we were getting amazing pictures around some grain bins with spilled soybeans. However, the bigger bucks were only coming through for an hour or so once every week or every couple nights. Not consistent. The only thing that made sense at first was that there was a bit of 'second rut' activity going on. There were a few bucks who would pass right through and only give you that one picture every two to three weeks. Obviously they weren't as concerned with the food.

This year, I've pin-pointed the best three food sources - all agricultural remnants. I've set up five of my six Cuddebacks on the heaviest trails I can find heading to these sources. Even if I don't get any 'new' bucks, I'm hoping to get better pictures of a few of the ones I already know about. I only have one instance of a buck I'm pretty sure is Mr. 140, but I really don't feel 100% confident that it's him. I would also like to get a picture or two of Skyscraper out of velvet. That has yet to happen this year. Those really are my two goals. Beyond that, I would be fit to be tied if I could confirm if The Clown or WideWeb were still alive. Boy would that be something to see. An in-law of a neighboring hunter said he saw a monster at a half mile opening morning of rifle season. He was sitting up on the west end of the swamp, along the border. WideWeb? Anyway, I'm starting to get some pictures of some bucks I really haven't seen much of since late summer. Pretty neat. I just replaced a bunch of batteries, so hopefully I can keep my cameras out until New Years.

Black & Blue

I went up to the hill to do a few things and as I was hopping down from my endgate on my truck, my left foot (my first foot to hit the ground) landed on the slope of a track in the snow. I don't know if it was a truck track or a snowmobile track or what, but it was very uneven and I rolled my ankle hard. I came down with all my weight (and then some) and folded right to the ground. I heard my ankle pop or crunch. I rolled around in pain for a minute or two and then I told myself to get up and see if it's broken (which I immediately thought it was). I stood on my good foot for about a minute before I tried to put any weight on my left. Slowly I was able to put weight on it. I knew that it was a matter of time before it would swell and that if I was going to finish my project, I needed to get right back to it. That was friday.

Today, tuesday, I can walk on it without too much pain. I limp a little and I've been trying to ice it in bed.

Besides that depressing story, I still managed to check two cameras that were close to the main road. I was pleased to see some pictures of Scabby 10. He's a beautiful deer. Last year he was a marginal heavy 8 point that would've net somewhere around 120. This year he should net around 130. He's got a tiny bit more mass, he's got longer beams, and he added some G4s. His 3s might be a half inch shorter, but he makes up for it all around. He's very dark this year, which suggests at least 4, maybe 5 years old.

I also got pictures of the Pencil 7, which is now a 6! he broke of his left G3 completely. I got another picture of the little buck I'm going to call The Mouse. He's got 8 legal points, but wanted to be a 10 with double split brows. Next year he'll probably be that 12 point 120 as a 3 year old. If he makes it to 4, He just might be 150.

I'm hoping to check and move some cameras on thursday but for sure by the weekend.