Shed Hunting?

[phil@thesidehill]

Any body do any shed hunting?

I'm just waiting for our final deer season here in PA to be over with on Jan 10th before i start to do some walking on food sources. I'll leave staging areas, transitions and travel corridors alone for a little while. I wont even think about bedding areas until march and winters grip is letting up.

I'll be running the cams and glassing fields when i can to try to get an inventory on shed donors. Last year i got permission to shed hunt on 199 acres very near to my property which is where i believe alot of the bucks i see come from. the land owner does not allow any hunting so its a bit of a sanctuary for the area, it has some nasty thickets and some old pine and spruce plantations as well as corn. once the deer hunting seasons are over I'll move a cam in there to get an idea for what bucks are around. I scout for sheds probably even harder than i scout for hunting. I have way more land that i have permission to shed hunt on than to actually hunt on so i kinda have to do more leg work.

I'm starting to get fired up now...sheds are hitting the ground all over the place. I know of a solid half dozen sheds that have hit the ground already.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

I shed hunt every day of the year. I am always looking for those dam things. I do it walking back and forth everywhere, to the stand, cutting wood, etc., its a wonder I get anything done! But the Barracuda is worse when she gets to go. Dawn til dark. She has got the bug since she found a bunch last spring!

 

[phil@thesidehill]

I shed hunt every day of the year. I am always looking for those dam things. I do it walking back and forth everywhere, to the stand, cutting wood, etc., its a wonder I get anything done! But the Barracuda is worse when she gets to go. Dawn til dark. She has got the bug since she found a bunch last spring!

I'm the same way...pretty much anytime I'm outside I'm looking for tines, beams, bases etc. I pretty never stop looking...but I really put the miles on "in season".
I used a shed to propose to my wife. She had been out looking for sheds with me before and never found any...so I made sure she found one...with a fake ring on it! That distracted her enough for me to get done on one knee with the real ring! I even planted the shed in front of a trail cam and had a bottle of champagne in my pack!

 

[SD51555]

How do you comment after that Phil? I guess I'll be the guy.

That's pretty inventive and original. Nice work. :cool:

Ok, shed hunting. I keep my peepers peeled during mushroom season in May. Last spring, my cousin walked right past one. The only reason I found it was because I had ripped the sole off the bottom of a shoe and I was walking barefoot back to the truck. Having stepped on many sticks, I knew this wasn't a stick. Looked down and sure enough, antler!

That's only the 6th antler I've ever found in my life, so It's a big deal for me. I found three monster halves by Houston county in one day, a dead velvet buck rack, and I stepped on a half eaten main beam when eyeballing a roof by La Crescent. This year I'm hoping to find the G2 from one of my cruiser weights that were fighting in the plot.

 

[Jordan Selsor]

I enjoy the heck out of this too Phil! I love exploring while shed hunting. It's one of the few times you can get out an really absorb your surrounding. I'm an active guy an love to get out an put some miles on the boots. I often find myself wondering when I find a cool little spot tucked away in a thousand acre block of timber if anyone has ever stood in this very spot an observed its beauty. The timber, hills an hollows are a mystery to me. I wish 100 year old oak trees could talk for I bet they would have some stories. I stumbled upon an old oak last year that had what appeared to be an old whiskey bottle that had grown into the tree. Wish I knew its story. An every once in awhile when I find a shed its just icing on the cake.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

How do you comment after that Phil? I guess I'll be the guy.

That's pretty inventive and original. Nice work. :cool:

Ok, shed hunting. I keep my peepers peeled during mushroom season in May. Last spring, my cousin walked right past one. The only reason I found it was because I had ripped the sole off the bottom of a shoe and I was walking barefoot back to the truck. Having stepped on many sticks, I knew this wasn't a stick. Looked down and sure enough, antler!
View attachment 3306
That's only the 6th antler I've ever found in my life, so It's a big deal for me. I found three monster halves by Houston county in one day, a dead velvet buck rack, and I stepped on a half eaten main beam when eyeballing a roof by La Crescent. This year I'm hoping to find the G2 from one of my cruiser weights that were fighting in the plot.
View attachment 3307

View attachment 3308

Like your signature says...get outside! Good luck finding those busted off tines man! I've found a few of those "false" sheds in the past....just never from a specific buck I was looking for.
One of the many things I love about she'd hunting is that with PA being a one buck tag state, it gives me a chance to "get" a number bucks.

 

[j-bird]

I have only ever found 3 sheds in my life - I won't look seriously until feb or march. It is normal for me to see bucks with both antlers into feb in my area.

My wifes grandfather found a full set several years ago 100 yards apart in the same cut bean field - that is a 2 liter bottle for ref. 13 total points - dual forked brow tines - this is the genetic potential in my area - these where found a mile as the crow flies from my place.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

I enjoy the heck out of this too Phil! I love exploring while shed hunting. It's one of the few times you can get out an really absorb your surrounding. I'm an active guy an love to get out an put some miles on the boots. I often find myself wondering when I find a cool little spot tucked away in a thousand acre block of timber if anyone has ever stood in this very spot an observed its beauty. The timber, hills an hollows are a mystery to me. I wish 100 year old oak trees could talk for I bet they would have some stories. I stumbled upon an old oak last year that had what appeared to be an old whiskey bottle that had grown into the tree. Wish I knew its story. An every once in awhile when I find a shed its just icing on the cake.

Yet another thing I like about shed hunting....walking new ground and finding vistas that others don't get to see. It seems I always find some interesting none deer related things....rusted out car carcasses, old farm machinery and implements, geocaches, rubber duckies, time capsules' balloons with messages taped to them from an elementary school 80 miles away....and so on,

 

[phil@thesidehill]

View attachment 3309
I have only ever found 3 sheds in my life - I won't look seriously until feb or march.
View attachment 3310
My wifes grandfather found a full set several years ago 100 yards apart in the same cut bean field - that is a 2 liter bottle for ref. 13 total points - dual forked brow tines - this is the genetic potential in my area - these where found a mile as the crow flies from my place.

Some nice sheds you have there! Wife's grandpa's set is unreal!

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Yet another thing I like about shed hunting....walking new ground and finding vistas that others don't get to see. It seems I always find some interesting none deer related things....rusted out car carcasses, old farm machinery and implements, geocaches, rubber duckies, time capsules' balloons with messages taped to them from an elementary school 80 miles away....and so on,

What in the world is a geocaches Phil? Never heard of this???

 

[j-bird]

Geodes! They are rocks that are hollow with natural crystals inside them. I don't know the science behind them, but I think that is what Phil is referring to.

My sheds are nothing special the set has been motivation. I know it's possible, I have even seen deer on occasion in my area that reinforce that it's possible - I just have not had a chance to shoot one.......YET!!!! I like the confirmation that the deer has survived and will more than likely be bigger the next season.

 

[TMIL]

I used to get paid to shed hunt, sort of. Early in my career (land surveyor) I worked outside ALL THE TIME. Construction and boundary work in town as well, but plenty of rural southern Illinois acreage surveys over the past 16 years. I've found 3 real big one's and left each with the property owner (one guy called me later and told me he found the match to his). I've walked across maybe a 10-12 sheds that might have been a 120+ deer. I'm a little surprised I haven't stumbled on more. I'm now licensed and 'running the show' so I don't get out as much as I used to, but when I get the chance I always keep my eyes open!

 

[TMIL]

What in the world is a geocaches Phil? Never heard of this???

www.geocaching.com

 

[phil@thesidehill]

I used to get paid to shed hunt, sort of. Early in my career (land surveyor) I worked outside ALL THE TIME. Construction and boundary work in town as well, but plenty of rural southern Illinois acreage surveys over the past 16 years. I've found 3 real big one's and left each with the property owner (one guy called me later and told me he found the match to his). I've walked across maybe a 10-12 sheds that might have been a 120+ deer. I'm a little surprised I haven't stumbled on more. I'm now licensed and 'running the show' so I don't get out as much as I used to, but when I get the chance I always keep my eyes open!

I know several surveyors and they pick them up while working all the time. Also have a buddy that is a forester and finds quite a few on the job every year! I used to have an outside job and have found quite a few on the job as well.....the good old days.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

Geodes! They are rocks that are hollow with natural crystals inside them. I don't know the science behind them, but I think that is what Phil is referring to.

My sheds are nothing special the set has been motivation. I know it's possible, I have even seen deer on occasion in my area that reinforce that it's possible - I just have not had a chance to shoot one.......YET!!!! I like the confirmation that the deer has survived and will more than likely be bigger the next season.

Tmil posted a link above to geocaching. Basically there's growing number of people using GPS units to stash little caches of random objects in very weird and random places. They record the coordinates and there are websites to upload these locations for othercachers to go find and add to the cache. Often times they containers like ammo cans hidden in a hollow log or something to that effect.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

I always like to take pics from the point that I have spotted them.


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[TMIL]

I found all 3 of the monsters before cell phone cameras. I wish I had pics to show you guys!

 

[phil@thesidehill]

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[phil@thesidehill]

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[phil@thesidehill]

There is a matched set in this pic