Shed hunting is an exciting endeavor that many serious deer hunters, particularly in the midwest, take part in during the late winter and early spring months. Shed hunting provides a chance to take inventory and see what might have survived the harsh realities of hunting season, and the winter months that follow. But it can also reveal the deer that weren’t so fortunate.
Such was the case for Cole Lansman on a recent trip to the field in search of shed antlers. What started out as another unproductive shed hunt, changed quickly when Lansman discovered the trophy buck of a lifetime on public land in Iowa.
“I had been out shed hunting a handful of times this year and had walked about 40 miles without finding a single shed,” says Lansman. “Every time I went with a buddy, they would find a couple, but I just couldn’t seem to find anything.”
That all changed on Saturday, March 11th as Lansman made plans to shed hunt with his buddy, Liam. “We decided to go out and walk a piece of public ground I had already been on a month earlier. On that previous trip, we bumped several bucks still holding both sides, so we figured it would be a good place to revisit later. We had only been walking for 10 minutes when I came across a deer’s legbone laying in a CRP field next to a small pond. I stopped and was looking around for a anything else when I noticed a pile of bones and a deer head about 80 yards away across the pond.”
Lansman could tell it was a good buck, but had no idea just how good until he took a closer look. “I started yelling for my buddy to come check this thing out,” says Lansman. “We knew right away that we had found a once in a lifetime deadhead. I took him home, and my dad and I rough scored the deer at 229 inches.
Unfortunately, the deer seemed to have died from EHD. Lansman found the buck on a pond bank with 2 other dead does laying nearby.
Want to find more shed antlers? Watch the video below for a look at how to make it happen.
