couple questions for you PROS

[D Letho]

I Edited this post ! I should have known better to do a search before I asked . Sorry guys ! Here are two I couldn't find though !

1) If you find one , whats the general area of the other drop ( 100 yrds )
2) Are there any tricks you guys are using to find sheds . by that I mean are there special spots you will check and recheck .

I have got a pic of this buck a few times and one pic of him after season , so he made it . I would love to find his sheds . He is the reason I am going to start shed hunting !

Any help , I thank you guys !!!!

 

[conchito1985]

first of all finding match sets is hard i think. ive been shed hunting for 5 years and found over 30 sheds but only 2 of those are match sets. the deer doesnt always drop the antlers at the same time. ive been shed hunting before and seen plenty of deer running with only one antler on. the match sheds that i did find were less than 50 yards apart. bedding areas are the best places to check. you have to find the area where the bucks have spent most of the summer. it sounds dumb but when im shed hunting i try to think like a deer and follow the trails that look the best. check by fences by rivers and any where else where the deer might have jumped causeing the horn to shake off. also check the pine trees.

 

[Shag]

D Letho, welcome to the sport of shed hunting. As many on this site will tell you, you should be warned...this is a very addictive past time. Finding matched sets is usually a function of two factors, the first being luck and that failing, hard work. Finding matched sets off small bucks is hard. I've only found about 75 or 80 sheds all told since I started looking and I've picked 11 matched sets. The larger and heavier I think maybe the odds are better of finding both as a buck will not like the unbalanced feeling he has after shedding one antler and will rub or kick the other off (usually) but there are many exceptions. I think small crotch horns and the like may carry one side quite a while. If you find a big one you're going to be very motivated to search for the match, way more so than a small to average antler. I've found the largest ones I own in some cases right next to one another, to 25 yds apart to 300 yards apart. Worst case was about 3/4 mile away and in one case never found the other side. There are many factors that enter in. If yarded in deep snow and restricted to a small area quite a few antlers may be in a few acres. In Jersey like where you are, they're free to roam and you will have to be thorough and search a much wider area. I found a heavy side a couple seasons ago and was determined to find the other side as you are now. I searched for it every Saturday and Sunday and any other free time I had from February 24th or so until I found the other side about 3/4 mile away on about April 14th or there abouts. It was 7 weeks I reckon. Bedding areas, southern facing slopes with sun, woods/field edges and a few yards inside the woods edge, within hedgerows and search every single runway or travel area or funnel. Of course it goes without saying any kind of feeding area whether it be overgrown orchards, alfalfa, winter wheat or even hayfields, bean fields both harvested or uncut. Look for areas that are pounded and you'll get the feel. You get the idea. Hopefully Deershed will reply to your thread and he'll have good advice. Good luck.

 

[deershed]

Shag said it best with finding matched sets.It's either plain old luck or lots of hard work with still a little luck at finding them.
It's funny you ask this question now.I dug out my matched sets the other night to see how many were found together side by side or found seperate.Out of 29 matched sets,15 were found laying together and 14 were found seperate.In my case I didn't notice any difference in size of sheds in relation to weather they were found together or seperate.
As Shag already pointed out,you tend to look harder for the other side to a bigger shed.And of coarse the bigger sheds are easier to find.Almost all of my bigger sets that were not found together weren't too far from each other when I did find them.
As far as areas that get special attention that I recheck.I make several passes though all my areas though out the shedding season.Usually my first pass I get a feel for how much usage the area is getting.I look for fresh sign or deer sightings and keep track of any sheds I find.Depending on what I find compared to my other spots I hit the hotter areas first.
If I find alot of sign or find any sheds in a area I always search that area extra good my next time in there.Or if I have an area that's produced in the past I hit those areas hard and cover them good.
You'll get a feel for what areas to search and what to avoid.I was out the other day with a buddy and we had snow every where.Across this field was a hedgerow void of snow and out of the wind below a slight rise.I told my buddy I had a hunch about that spot.He thought it was too much walking just to check out that small hedgerow so we didn't go that way.A little later on the other side of that same hedgerow across another field I said it again.This time it was on the way back to the truck so we checked it out.
I gave him the honors while I walked further out in the field where the snow was.He didn't go 50 yds. up when he hollered he found one.I went over and gave him my congrats then told him it was my turn,I was walking the rest of the hedgerow.We didn't go another 30 yds. and there layed another shed.I spotted it a second before he did.lol They were off different deer,his was a fresh drop and mine a old shed from last year.
He asked me how I knew to check there and I told him,you just know.

 

[Shag]

D Letho, Deershed makes an interesting point and that is that, assuming an area has a workable number of sheds out there to find to begin with, some develop a real intuition for the whole thing and Deershed is one of those guys. He'd no doubt come into my area which is a really difficult area to get sheds in, and find sheds I can't find. It's years of practice and that intuition....

 

[Jonesy]

Shaq is right, the more you shed hunt, the more your eyes know what to look for. The main advice I could give is the more time you spend out looking the more you'll find. I don't have to much problems finding whitetail sheds, just check the areas they feed, they bed and the trails in between. Muley's are much more difficult for me. They seem to just wonder around. I've stumbled across muley sheds in the middle of nowhere on the windswept prairie.

 

[D Letho]

Thanks guys !
Besides finding the sheds them self , I think the hardest part of looking fro sheds is keeping your eye on the ground . I must have my self trained so well for deer hunting , I find my self giving a quick glance at the ground and the sweeping the woods line to see if I see any deer . I have to keep telling my self look at the ground more !

Once again thanks for the tips . Hope to be taking pics in the next few weeks for you guys !
Don

 

[IowaShedHunter]

D Letho,

Welcome to the site. Just wait until you are so addicted to shed hunting that it affects your regular hunting. When I gun hunt or when walking to and from my bow stand I tend to be watching the ground looking for sheds. It's cost me some good opertunities at decent bucks and does.

Sounds like a few of you are doing rather well so far. I've been out a few times, but work has taken up most of my spare time. Been working 65-70 hours a week and have taken up crow hunting lately. Man is that a blast! I have been lucky enough to find 5 sheds so far. Only 1 fresh one it's a decent one though 73 inches, 5 pointer. I found a good one that is a few years old during our late antlerless season. I have yet to put a tape to it and it's pretty rough, cracked and stained from laying on the ground for a few years. It was in the middle of a huge CRP field, I just happen to stumble across it. I'm guessing it will be close to 80 inches typical.

Well good luck to all of you.

Chris

 

[Bill M]

D Letho, I am no pro at it but by pure luck I found one set together. I found a good 4 point antler this year on a trail the deer used migrating to their wintering yard and figured no problem, I would find the match in a mile or two. After 3 outings and 10+ miles of snowshoeing that trail I came up empty. If he dropped it I would have found it because the deer never veered off that trail.

 

[TJF]

Shag and deershed covered it pretty well. If we find a bigger shed from an older buck, we will search the entire area out to 300 yards. Over half the time we are lucky and find the other shed.

The last 3 years we usually find 10 -15 match sets a year. Just to give you a perspective, we have found match sets where one shed is laying on top of the other and one match set was 5 miles apart. The latter match set was from the buck moving from a used up feeding area to another feeding area. Most times though we usually find them within a half mile or less.

I also agree, the more time you spend shed hunting the better you get at it.


Chris

Congrats on the sheds but I am disappointed in you. You should be shooting squirrels and forget the crows. What kind of shed hunter are you?? Squirrels are the problem, not crows!!

Tim

 

[IowaShedHunter]

Tim,

When my youngest Aaron was up over Christmas break we shot 37 of those antler rats in two days. Man we had a blast. I've been watching deer in my lease and I've only seen 2 of those antler rats on the feed. They run for cover when I'm approaching. I believe they are safe this year unless I drag the 22 with me a few more times. The snow cover is pretty deep here and the deer are bedded pretty close to the food sources. I really don't want to be stressing them anymore than I have to. A few have lost both sides, but most are still packing both sides in my areas. Probably be another couple of weeks before it gets rolling. Hopefully work will let up and I can start pounding the woods.

Chris

 

[deershed]

A little more insight on matched sets.This year was first time I ever found matching sets from the same buck two years in a row.And I did it with two different buck.
On the first buck it was over 2 months between finding both antlers and a good bit of ground between the 2 antlers last year.This year both antlers off that same buck were found together about 100 yards from where I found one of his the year before.3 antlers over a 2 yr. period were all dropped within 100 yds.of each other.The odd antler was the first found of all 4 antlers and early jan.

The second buck, his first antler last year was found on top of a hill on a small flat.The second antler about 200 yds. away down in the bottom flat of the creekbottom.This year one antler was on the side of that same hillside where one was found last year not 75 yds.from the exact spot.And the other just down a little ways further in the flat of the creekbed not 75 yds. from where the other side was found last year.This guy shed all 4 antlers within 300 yds. of each other and 2 each year were dropped within 75 yds.of each other.
It doesn't tell you a whole lot,but thought it was interesting.

 

[Shag]

I think it does tell you something. I've read any number of hunting stories wherein they killed the buck right in the area where the sheds were found. Perhaps a core area type of thing. The other thing that's interesting to ponder is the timing. I talked with a deer farmer who raised whitetails, two of them in fact, who told me an individual buck sheds almost to the day every year. Don't know if that's true for wild bucks. If it were generally true, you might have apretty good idea when to start looking in particular areas based on previous years dropping dates. Who knows.

 

[RFS]

Any match I have ever found was usually within 100 yards. I try to cover an area in a grid type pattern if possible using trees, rocks etc. as landmarks. How far you can see will dictate distance between sweeps. This may sound goofy, but I have found many using binoculars. Sometimes at a distance and sometimes close. Sometimes you can see only one or two tips sticking up and binoculars can help you tell if its an antler, or just a branch, without walking over there. Finding sheds is like spotting deer. The more time you spend out looking, the easier it gets. good luck.

 

[deershed]

I went out today and added 5 more to the pile.Two were from a matching set off a 6pt. that dropped them about 50yds. apart.
Then I found an old shed from last year that I had the other half to that I found last year fresh.These 2 sheds were found about a half mile apart and across a good size creek.There's no doubt the 2 sheds came from the same deer.These were off a big 6pt. with long main beams for a 6pt.and tines and pedicles matching perfect.

 

[Shag]

Uhh.....Deershed, I hate to sound critical but it sounds kinda like you walked by a few last year. Need me to come down and help you out so you don't miss so many?

 

[deershed]

Shag-I always leave a few behind so the following year when I get the bug and head out too early before they drop, I have something to find.