The first official shed deer antler hunt is over. I went out prepared loading up my backpack with a few bottles of water and energy snacks ready to put in a four-hour hike that at times was slippery and slow. The unofficial time and speed calculator in my head said that I walked eight miles. The unseasonable temperatures made for a pretty good day even if I hadn’t found anything. That’s kind of a spoiler alert.

Every year it seems like finding the first shed antler is the most difficult shed to find. That same phenomenon applies to ginseng plants and morel mushrooms. The first musky of the year falls into that group as well. When that first one is in the backpack or in the boat it seems like the second comes much easier. 

My walk that day started off with me heading east into the sun. I was trying to decide how to navigate and hunt the hillside. Should I walk the field edge first and then catch a secondary trail inside the woods and follow that back?  Before I had a chance to decide I spotted a couple of curious sharp points on some bare ground. The object that held my gaze certainly looked like a shed, but I was only 15 minutes in and questioned my eyes. I started to walk in the direction where the sun seemed to be shining like a spotlight on the potential shed. A few more steps brought out the Joey Lawrence in me: “WHOOOOOAHHH!” It was A HUGE SHED! I eased my way towards it while searching the area for the match. The match wasn’t laying nearby but no matter, I was off to a terrific start.

My path was crystal clear now. With the thought of a potential match nearby I would walk every trail on that hillside, the upper field and the lower ditch. The hope was to find the other half from the same buck. Finding a half from a different buck wouldn’t be bad either because it would mean that there were theoretically two more halves laying around.

I stashed the antler in my pack and continued on with the confidence that I was in the right place at the right time. It’s important to remember that you can walk for a few miles or days only to miss a shed within a few feet or minutes and never know it. Think about that for a second.

With my thorough search of the immediate area complete it was time to expand the pursuit. That buck could have literally taken off in all four directions. There was also the possibility that it was still using the antler and I was looking for something that simply was not there, yet. Geez, not only is shed hunting hard on the boots, it can be hard on the brain as well.

I had probably walked about a mile and was still in somewhat close proximity to the first shed when I decided to look along a far field edge. On a guess I was just over 200 yards away from the first shed spot when I saw what I originally thought was a small tangle of brush some 75 yards away to the north. I pulled up my binoculars hoping to prove my naked eyes wrong, or at the very least, save myself 200-plus steps. Holy smokes, it was another big shed! My pace quickened as I made my way across the crusty snow.

It didn’t take long to match the pair up and see that they belonged to the same buck. I was grateful to the shed hunting gods for rewarding me. As I looked at the pair laying in the snow I had the same thought that all shed hunters have in this situation: how big will his sheds be next year?

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