LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015
Luckily, this morning I was able to get away for a few hours to a piece of public land to shed hunt. I have already been out numerous times but the snow has just been to deep for me to find any bone. My area over the past couple days finally experienced a big melt off of almost all the snow accumulation we have had piled up since the beginning of December. It was pretty wet out there today but I managed to stay dry for the most part, thanks to my Gore-Tex lined boots!
My morning started out slowly about an hour and a half into my walk I came across this old buck skull, his one antler had been chewed off by rodents. It’s hard to say how long it had been laying there, a few years at least.
The day started off with this old weathered skull.
Just 45 minutes and a few hundred yards later my eyes finally caught a glimpse of my first shed of the 2011 season. As I approached it I could tell right away that it was unique and BIG! A very nice shed it turned out to be sporting a double main beam. I found this shed laying beneath a white oak where it appears the buck was digging for acorns. It had to be an early drop before our snow hit in early December as there was a good amount of leaves on top of the antler. It sure felt good finally breaking the ice on my shed season, I would have been happy with a forky for the first pick up!
My first shed of the year came in grand fashion by finding this monster!
Only seconds later I spotted this shed not 40 feet away underneath another white oak tree. It appears this buck also lost his shed while feeding on acorns, although I do not feel this antler was dropped near as long ago as the first. I at first thought that it may have been a match set since they were so close. Although, with a better look I could easily tell that they were not a match however. Picking them up only confirmed my thoughts as they are both left side sheds. I had to leave not 15 minutes after I found these as I had to get home to my son as my wife had to leave for work. It isn’t easy leaving the woods when you know there may be the matches to these not very far away, especially when they were laying on public land. I hope to get back out tomorrow for a bit and put some time in the area looking to find the matches, or any other antlers laying around.
Only seconds after finding my first shed, my eyes met with this nice 5 point side.
