OUTDOOR Tales and Trails

BY DAVE BECK

We are in the early stages of another season of the new year: The shed antler hunting season. I have been waiting impatiently for the first sign that it was time to go. Finally, it came to me in the form of a cellular trail camera photo of a whitetailed buck that had dropped his horns. WHOOOP WHOOOOOP! Game on!

I was antsy to get into the woods to find my first shed. Trying to find a shed this early and with this much snow makes the task of finding a horn truly a needle in the haystack kind of scenario. Having said that, going out and not finding a shed is way better than not going out to look for a shed at all. I strapped on my boots and hit the woods running. That last part was figurative, not literal, because of the depth of the snow.

My personal record of the earliest shed antler found is Jan. 1. My personal record for the latest shed antler found is Sept. 15. On that day, I was actually ginseng hunting. I came across a small patch of woods where the tree canopy prevented anything from growing. In the middle of that brown patch of leaves and dirt was a perfectly preserved fourpoint shed. I guess you just never know when and where you’re going to stumble onto a shed deer antler.

In a related shed hunting matter, I found one of the biggest antlers of my shed hunting career while sitting in my truck. I had just driven to a spot where there were two large fields separated by a long field road that led to the woods. I drove to the edge of the woods and parked. I looked to the left and there it was, a giant five-point shed sticking points up in the matted grass. I spent the rest of that day and the entire next day looking for the match, but I never found it.

As earlier mentioned, I never know when and where I am going to find a shed antler, which is why I was both surprised and excited as I crossed a ravine down in a valley. Seventy-five yards away and laying on top of the snow I saw the shed. The four points were facing the sky making it almost impossible for me not to see it. The tracks, if they belonged to the buck, were snowed in, meaning that it had been days since that antler dropped and landed in the spot. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to find the hardest shed antler of the year: the first one.

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