2020 Shed Antlers

[H20fwler]

We have found a couple sheds so far this year early,

Youngest son had a good day hunting them this past Saturday.

 

[DJN]

Nice finds! The wife and I went for a walk yesterday - more so because it was a beautiful day, but also with the thought of finding a shed, even though roughly only a third of the bucks have dropped around here. Not exactly giants, but we did manage two. Crazy how identical they are.

 

[bwoods11]

Quality sheds!

 

[SWIFFY]

Great pics Fowler! Love the SxS!! I’ve got 16 so far for the year. I know a lot of my matches are under the snow here. Just had some heat so I’m hoping I can scoop a few more this week!

 

[SWIFFY]

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

A couple from a few weeks ago. I haven’t been out looking just stumbled on them while checking a couple cameras.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[H20fwler]

View attachment 28138

Is Perkins starting to get the hang of it? He looks like a bundle of energy in that pic.

 

[roymunson]

You guys are much better at this than I am. I can't see em to save my life. I'm a miserable morel hunter too...

We've finally got the snow gone here, hoping friday afternoon to do some stomping.

 

[H20fwler]

Baby girl had a big afternoon yesterday, pointed two woodcock, flushed one pheasant and found a decent one.

 

[H20fwler]

Today, heaviest set we have ever found.

 

[H20fwler]

To give you a good idea of the true mass of these sheds ^^^^^^^ they look like they were shed last year and survived a year on the ground.
They each probably weigh close to four or five pounds. Darcy found the first and the youngest son found the second 25 yards away.

 

[SWIFFY]

Impressive fwler! Shes doing a great job and those are some nice heavy sheds! Does she ever point sheds or just retrieve them?

Perkins is full of pep and will get an antler if I point it out to him but he wont acknowledge one on his own... seems like training in the yard he does great but once there are bunnies and pheasants all over hes more interested in going after them. He just turned 1 on Wednesday so hes young. Hes got time to come around.

Any tips for me to train for antlers?

 

[H20fwler]

Impressive fwler! Shes doing a great job and those are some nice heavy sheds! Does she ever point sheds or just retrieve them?

Perkins is full of pep and will get an antler if I point it out to him but he wont acknowledge one on his own... seems like training in the yard he does great but once there are bunnies and pheasants all over hes more interested in going after them. He just turned 1 on Wednesday so hes young. Hes got time to come around.

Any tips for me to train for antlers?

The youngest son gets the credit on shed dog training with her.
He started early last winter working with her just playing fetch with smaller sheds a few nights a week. He bought some antler training scent online and started hiding antlers around the house having her find them while saying “find the bone”. Next he started working her outside in the yard and out in the woods, kept it up for a couple months.
By the time snow melted last spring she had gotten some good exposure, my son started using the first couple fresh sheds of the year that still had the wax ring on them to train her with. Then he started taking her with him shed hunting and letting her find and retrieve ones he saw first and really made over her and praised her for them, it also let her get a good nose full of fresh ones. Then as she found a few on her own she has just kept getting better at it. Whenever he took her out he would keep telling her “find the bone”.
A couple times last year while I was out at the farm filling feeders or messing with trees she brought me antlers she had just found and I made over her big time for the gifts.
This spring she has been using her nose to find them and sight hunting them. She just keeps getting better at it as she goes along, there is definitely a big advantage having her along shed hunting.
The youngest son has done a great job with her on this, I’ve pretty much just worked with her on bird hunting.

 

[Mortenson]

Any idea what became of that buck? He must be ancient. My dad and I have a nice shed pile, and our favorite set is the one that weighs the most, just a really large 4x4 that your hands instinctively reach for every time. Something about heavy bone in the hand. You and Darcy are having a good year.

 

[H20fwler]

No
The set was a few miles from our farm, haven’t heard anything about it being shot or seen. A kid killed a buck close to that spot around ten years ago that had tines like bananas maybe that one was it’s son or grandson.

 

[H20fwler]

Youngest son has had a good week so far shed hunting after work.

 

[H20fwler]

Son found this dead head yesterday. Kind of a weird one, it's been on the ground a long time looks like it may have been in velvet or something? What's left of the one base looks like it had some neat stickers on it.

 

[H20fwler]

A basket nine point dead head.

Darcy is still at it, sorry for pic quality it was off a vid.
Today

 

[H20fwler]

2020 has been the best shed season ever at our house. Pretty much all the youngest son and the dog.

 

[Telemark]

Bonzo and I are on the board. He found an antler out in a field I was hunting this fall, and we spiraled out til we found the other one. Pretty sure that's the stag I kept seeing on camera and during moonlight hunts. Can't wait to get a crack at him September 1st.