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.

Sheds # 7 & 8 - The Year Of The Yearlings

Even though the weather has been anything but beautiful, I was able to get out to check my last camera and look for a couple antlers. On my way out, I came across another yearling shed and thought I may have matched up a little guy I found earlier this year... nope. Turns out there are just tons of yearling bucks this year. We got about 3-5 inches of snow up in the big woods last week and so I'm thinking that this buck lost this shed last night sometime after the snow stopped falling.

I checked the camera and as they were uploading, I said to myself, "I want something to surprise me." All of a sudden a new buck popped into view. He's a buck that a friend of mine got a few pictures of on his soybeans in late November/early December. He looks to be a three year old with good brows, but not much else. I struggled to identify him then, and I'm no closer now, although he still looks very familiar. He would probably score around 115-120, which is average for our three year olds. The cool part is that he came in to the camera on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th (several times). I hope that he continues to linger until those antlers fall. They'll only score about 45" each, but I'd love to have them.

Also, there was a buck that showed up that had freshly shed his antlers. What buck is this and where did he come from. This card pull had a few new bucks that had never been to the area yet. That gives me some hope, just in case more bucks are holding their headgear yet.

After that little jaunt, I stopped by a standing bean field and was able to pick up another antler in a matter of 35 minutes. I gridded nearly the entire field and on my last pass, I spotted a dark spot at about 30 yards. As I got closer, I thought I was on to a really nice antler, but because of the way it was laying and the mass on it, it had me fooled. I realized it was just a yearling that looked like a little moose paddle.

Either way, the trip was worth it. That makes 8 antlers for the year so far. Unbelievably, 6 of those 8 are from yearling bucks. I really need to stumble across a good antler. They're out there.

Picked Up Two More!

Although, they're not anything worth bragging about, I managed to find two different yearling bucks' antlers. I have trail camera pictures of the buck of the second shed. So that brings me up to 6 so far for the year. I should be able to make it into the double digits this year, unlike last year. Hopefully I have a chance to make it down to Whitewater to put some miles on.

Three Shed Day!

As word spread that we were going to get a pretty severe snowstorm, I rearranged a couple things so I could get out in the woods on Thursday the 10th. With a warm front moving in right up until the Arctic front collided with it, it made it all the way up to 45 degrees on the 10th of January!
I started off the day by checking the cameras incase they would tell me anything about where I wanted to spend my time. They didn't tell me much more than I already knew, so I decided I would grid the cedars and try to stay to the west of where I found shed number one, since I thought I covered the immediate area pretty well. I found some good sign and although my first few passes didn't produce anything, I knew that there was a narrow strip of cedars on the opposite side of a trail that could hold some deer. Ever since the October ice storm, the deer have been eating cedar boughs. I think it was something to do with the actual ice and heavy freezing sweetening the cedar boughs, but also, the heavy snow and wind knocked down several trees that has been providing an awesome secondary food source for these deer. Having said that, the little strip of cedars had ample sign like this huge rub:

 As I was skirting around the south edge (the sunlit edge) I spotted a pedicle shooting out of the snow! Knowing which bucks had shed and which ones had not, I was pretty positive it was the scrubby 3 year old 10.

As I got closer, I could confirm my suspicion. I was very optimistic that the other side would be nearby. I'm not sure why I thought he would've just dropped them together. This was the buck's right side and according to the pictures of this buck shed out, his right pedicle looked a few hours fresher than his left.

So, the scenario I built was that this buck was bedded in these cedars (only carrying one side) during the daytime of the 3rd of January and when he got up, he shook it off his head. He was nowhere to be seen on the evening of the 1st all the way until he showed up on the 3rd. So I'm guessing his other antler is on the ground somewhere in transit from his little excursion on the 1st and 2nd. It could easily be a mile away.
After I got my photos and video, I scanned that little area pretty good and I must've done a good job because not 50 feet away was another antler! Too bad it wasn't from the same buck.

This little guy was from the yearling 6 (our next local trophy). Oddly enough, I was really hoping to find one of his antlers because of how many dozens of photos we've got of this particular yearling. He is definitely the most local buck we know of. He has spent his entire life within our property. I was starting to feel pretty good at this point and really wanted to find the match to either the 2 year old 8 or that 3 year old 10. I gridded most of the likely areas but I needed to get out the west to check another camera.
I made it out there and wouldn't you know it, right in a patch of cedars, there was a fat spike shed!

This is from a 3 point buck that had good mass for a yearling. His pedicles are very fat and his rack was shockingly wide. It'll be really cool to watch him grow up, too.
After that, I pretty much had to get back to the cabin as dad drove up and we were going to drive to another farm a few miles west to look at a field of standing soybeans. Well, we found plenty of deer sign, but found zero antlers. The only explanations I could think of were A) somebody had already walked these fields or B) the bucks in the area simply hadn't shed yet. I hope its the latter and we can get back out there in a week or two. All in all, it was a great day for Minnesota shed hunting.