Kurtish's 08' Shed Journal

[deershed]

Congrats!!

That's awesome to find one with all that snow you've got.And to think I was moaning about the 3" of snow I had.

What snow we had got washed away with the rain we had the other day.Now they're calling for temps. in the 50's next week.

 

[B&CMulies]

Nice find, snow is really melting here I am thinking about 3 more weeks and I should be pretty well off!

 

[Kurtish]

Not much to show for the walking that i've been doing lately. Febuary 6th i woke up and took a hike on a small parcel of public ground that is right next to the farm that i bowhunt. I had been driving by the public ground for the last few weeks and i kept seeing deer bedded and milling around on a south facing point, so i decided i'd start out there and then follow the sign where ever it led me. When i got to the point I had a feeling that there should be something laying there so i stopped and scanned around me, about 15 yards away i seen tines sticking up

[attachment=49341:jessies1.jpg]

Here's another look from the opposite direction

[attachment=49342:jessies2.jpg]

It turned out to be a pretty nice 4 point side with a cool stick hole in the beam. It was all that i found for the day but i was happy with picking up my first public ground shed and i have a feeling that it will produce a few more when all of our snow melts.

Sheds: 6

 

[Predator 1]

Great find! Sure looks like a nice bedding area...definitly keep tabs on that spot!

great pics too btw

 

[deershed]

Congrats and great pics!!

I'm glad I'm not alone with getting that feeling,there's a shed close.More times then not there's no shed though.
The sheds should be dropping steady real soon.....

 

[TazBux]

Great shed.Luvly looking area.

 

[MULIES4EVER]

I like that last pic. Very cool.

 

[whitem]

Finding them in snow is so awesome!. I love just seeing the tips and letting your imagination picture the rest before you pick them up.

 

[fossilman]

Nothin' better is there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kurtish]

We still have way too much snow here but I did manage to get out for 4 shed hunts in the last 7 days. On Febuary 21st I went and walked the fields at my "honeyhole" farm. It's going to be interesting to see where the sheds end up this year because the deer just aren't feeding in the fields with the hard crust that we have had on our snow since December. I walked 3 miles on the south facing fields and didn't find anything...I was headed back to the truck feeling pretty beat from walking in the 12-24" deep snow(it's really drifted in some areas), when I remembered finding a little dink right in the yard of an old homestead....It's an out of the way patch that the deer like to bed on. It wasn't too far out of my way so I figured what the heck. Low and behold there layed a nice tall tined 4 point.

[attachment=49758:jessies1.jpg]

That put a spark back in my step so I headed about a mile and a half north to another farm and covered another 2 3/4 miles with no pickups...I did find the remains of 2 different deer and a turkey that the yotes had taken down.

Yesterday the 27th I walked roughly another 3 miles and only found boot tracks from another shedder, I did manage to get a pretty nice pic of a few does that had found a bare patch on a little knoll

[attachment=49759:jessies2.jpg]

Today I took another fruitless walk giving myself a total of 10.1 miles in 7 hours of shedding(in the last 7 days) with only 1 shed to show for it. I just purchased a GPS so I'm going to log the miles and hours I spend for the rest of the year just to get an idea of how much ground I cover per shed found.

Sheds: 7

 

[deershed]

Congrats on the shed!!

I really like that pic of it too.
With all the snow you've got finding any sheds is great.Hope that snow starts melting soon for ya.

 

[Kurtish]

Today (2nd of March) I woke up early before work and walked a clear cut before heading to work. The temps were in the 40's and I figured that the snowmelt may uncover a few antlers. I worked some promising looking bedding areas but didn't find any....I made one last sweep down a deer trail towards my pickup and when I was about 50 yards away from my truck I looked down the hill to my right. About 30 yards off of the trail that I was walking I could see the smooth tip of what I thought to be a tine sticking up through the snow.

[attachment=49829:jessies2.jpg]

Here's what it turned out to be....nothing huge but it has a really nice dark base..almost like them chocolate beauties Pred finds

[attachment=49830:jessies3.jpg]

When I got to my truck I spotted this bald eagle perched in a oak and snapped a few quick pics before heading out

[attachment=49828:jessies1.jpg]

My walk today ended up taking me an hour and 15 minutes to walk 1.7 miles

Sheds: 8

 

[deershed]

Way to go!!Your doing great with all the snow you have.
Great pics!!I love the bald eagle pic.

 

[Kurtish]

The sheds have been far and few between for me this season and I was beginning to lose some faith that I was going to get into much. Since I last posted I've spent 8 and a half hours and covered 13.3 miles without finding squat. Finally some warmer weather hit and the snow has been shrinking day by day. Last sunday I took a short walk with my friend Eric and we covered some exposed spots on a ridgetop field. We were walking through some corn stubble and were only about 5 yards apart from each other. He turned to me and said "there is no way in hell we are going to spot anything in this corn" right at that moment we both looked down and spotted this nice little 4 point

[attachment=50232:jessies1.jpg]

We both got a pretty good laugh out of the statement that he had just gotten out of his mouth. That picked our spirits up and we continued covering the open ground but came up empty. The last couple of quick hunts since then hadn't produced anything.

Today I woke up a few hours early for work and headed out to my favorite spot. i went with the intention of picking up a match to one of my early season singles. I walked for about a half hour working over a south facing hillside and then heading up along the edge of a picked bean field. I stopped on a trail that I cut across and sure enough about 20 yards into the woods laid this really white 4 point.

[attachment=50233:jessies2.jpg]

As I got a chance to look it over I noticed unusual chew marks in it and the only thing I can figure is that a coyote had picked it up somewhere and just happened to drop it on this trail. I continued along grid patterning a narrow section of woods that was nearly snow free with out finding anything. It was getting time to head back to my truck so I picked a route back that would take me across an alfalfa field that the deer had really pounded in January. I came over a small rise and spotted this little 3 point that I've walked past at least a half dozen times...finally the snowmelt revealed him.

[attachment=50234:jessies3.jpg]

This was my first multiple antler day since january 8th so I was really pleased and I hope that this is a sign of things to come for me in the next couple of weeks. Todays walk totaled out to a little over two hours spent and 3.1 miles covered so that should help my shed/mile average a little.

Sheds: 10 (and 1 team find)

 

[deershed]

Congrats on your finds and Awesome pics!!

The deer in my areas have been holding on extra long this year and now it looks like there will be an eraly green-up this year.The temps have been in the 70's all week here.How many matched sets you have so far?

 

[MULIES4EVER]

Great pictures. Keep it up.

 

[TazBux]

Great pics and brilliant sheds.
That area looks luvly.Are they silver birch tree's? We had 2 in our yard once.I could never amagine them making up a forest looking area like that.wow

But them trees look very young? Did you have a fire go through 15 years back?
Very interesting indeed.

 

[Kurtish]

Taz, they are paperbirch. We didn't have a fire but that section of woods was probably logged about 15-20 years ago and that made way for the softwoods that grow there now. The ridges around my home were once mainly comprised of Oaks, which was due to fires that periodically burnt the woodlands. Since their is very little fire allowed to burn the woods now the softwoods take over when the chainsaws come in.

DeerShed, up until yesterday I hadn't found any matchedsets so their is plenty of lonely singles waiting to be reunited.

Yesterday was pretty good to me. It was a beautiful bluebird day and I headed out to cover some fields and one new spot. I started on a reclaimed ridge that I spent time planting trees on last year. The ridge was littered with deer poop but I didn't find any sheds so I headed to a large bottom field and covered the alfalfa strips that have recenly lost their snow....nothing there either. I then worked my way back towards my truck and stopped after a steep little climb. My GPS read nearly 3 miles and not a single bone to show for it, about five steps later I look up the hillside and see this old one laying tines down. "Bingo" and threw the old air punch up!

[attachment=50332:jessies1.jpg]

 

[TazBux]

Yeeehaaa!!
The area I'm shedn (always...no other) was riped and loged 80 years back for padocks.With only a few trees left.Most of wich would be 120/200+ years old and were severly burnt in 1917.Meaning they are realy just dead hulks of wood with new bark surounding the exterior.They constantly fall down and loose massive 1 tonne branches.We call them the widow makers.

 

[Kurtish]

After taking a few ATL's. I dropped down the hillside again and within another 20 yards I look up the hillside again and see this.

[attachment=50334:jessies2.jpg]

A little closer look

[attachment=50335:jessies3.jpg]

Finally my first matchset this year. A nice little 8 pointer with an acorn on his G3