With the whitetail hunting season behind us, hunters are left wondering what to do to stay productive and help their chances of being successful next year. For many, that activity is logging many miles on their boots looking for what is commonly referred to as white gold – the shed antlers of a whitetail buck.
I have friends who dedicate several weekends or more in pursuit of shed antlers. And I’d be lying if I said I haven’t done the same in past years. For many years shed hunting was simply a thing that I “had” to do. And as social media activity ramped up and hashtags become a thing, “shed fever” appeared to be running wild.
One particular spring, I looked at my phone that read 12,000 logged steps, and all I had to show for it was one chewed-up, ghost-white, three-tined antler that I would probably end up just giving to my dog. I was seemingly no closer to understanding the deer I was hunting, and hadn’t accomplished anything that I felt was going to help me fill my tag come October. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Am I just wasting my time out here?”
I know many of you will read this and consider it blasphemous that I would even suggest shed hunting might not be all it’s cracked up to be. That’s okay. I once felt that way too. But, let me explain.
First, I’m not crazy. Finding a monster shed on the snow-dusted ground excites me just as much as the next guy. And to be honest, I’ll likely continue to stroll through the woods a time or two when the season ends, hoping to kick up an antler of a surviving buck. But the point is, I’m not putting any stock into the “data” it gives me.
Before you grab your pitchforks and torches, let’s break down what kind of information finding a shed or two gives us and if there are more productive things we could be doing to better our chances in the fall. After that, I’ll let you decide if I’m still crazy.
I Found A Shed, Now What?
A few years ago, about a week after that deer season had ended, I got a text from a buddy of mine who wanted to walk one of my hunting properties to see if we could find any freshly fallen sheds. Feeling melancholy from an abysmal and unsuccessful deer season, I figured I’d join in. After all, maybe I’d get lucky and stumble upon something great.
After about three hours, I walked up an old logging road leading to an oak patch and stumbled upon a giant shed. I mean, this was truly an impressive antler. The G2’s were close to 13 inches, with the main beam well over 20 inches and mass for days. I couldn’t believe it, I had never had this buck on camera before, and I couldn’t wait to see what he would grow into that fall.
The problem is, I never found out. I placed cameras on seemingly every tree on that 180-acre parcel, planted food plots, created mock scrapes, and hunted my butt off. The buck never showed his face. Now, could that buck have died during the offseason? Possibly. Could he have found a new home just a few properties over? Definitely. But that’s my point. Finding a shed only proves that buck dropped his antlers right there. That’s it.
If you happen to have a great late-season food source and a hard winter, it’s possible that you may have “sucked in” deer from miles away. And while collecting their antlers is fun and all, when they return to their core home area come Spring, you’re no closer to filling your tag than you were before.
What About Taking Inventory?
The biggest pushback I get from hunters when I tell them my stance on shed hunting is, “What about taking inventory? Don’t you want to know which bucks survived?” Yes and no. Yes, because of course I want to know what bucks made it. Who wouldn’t? No, because shed hunting doesn’t tell me that. In fact, I would argue that if anything, shed hunting will only give me skewed data about which deer are roaming my farm when it truly matters.
Considering that almost all of us are running trail cameras these days, we will get a more accurate inventory and assessment of the deer on our hunting properties in late summer and early fall. Those trail cam photos will show us which bucks are actually on the farm and huntable, which is far more accurate than any shed picked up in March.
Time Better Spent Elsewhere
The major shift in my shed hunting position came when I had kids, and those kids began having a variety of activities and events seemingly every weekend (and most weeknights too). With my free time cut to nearly nothing, ambling around the woods to look for shed antlers began to take a back seat to more important hunting tasks. Things that would directly impact my future success and not simply reward me with another piece of bone to collect dust on my shelf.
There are countless projects I know will undoubtedly contribute toward my success come October. Below is a short list of tasks that I believe will have a higher return on investment than shed antler hunting.
Scouting
Yes, I know the first thing you’ll say is that shed hunting IS scouting. And there was a time when I thought that same thing. However, I’ve come to learn that while you can do both things simultaneously, it’s difficult to do them both well.
Serious shed hunting requires intense focus, your head on a swivel, and your legs covering ground as quickly as possible. Conversely, scouting requires you to stop and look around, analyze the sign you’re finding, and look for suitable trees to hunt from and locations to enter and exit.
If you’re going out scouting, do it with a purpose and with intent. Try to locate bedding areas & preferred food sources (both natural and man-made), identify travel corridors, analyze the terrain, and come up with a game plan to ambush a smart old buck on his home turf. If you happen to step on a shed along the way, considering it cherry on your scouting sundae.
Find New Properties to Hunt
It’s tough to fill your tags without good places to hunt. So whether you’re door knocking for permission, asking around for available hunting leases, looking for property to purchase, or simply checking out new pieces of public land, acquiring more ground and options for next year is paramount to every bowhunter’s success.
Treestand Prep & Maintenance
Once you’ve located a property to hunt and scouted to find the exact tree or location you’re going to sit, it’s time to work on tree preparation. Doing this work in the Spring before the temps are hot and the bugs are unbearable is one of the best changes I’ve ever made. It also frees up most of my summer to do more enjoyable things like going on vacation, hanging out with my kids, going to concerts, sporting events, etc. Just be sure to trim a little more than you think you need to account for summer regrowth. And be sure to check your locations one time before the season starts just to be sure you got it all.
Pro tip: If you’re a saddle hunter and plan on moving around a lot come fall, prepping your trees in the Spring can help tremendously. On private land, I often trim shooting lanes and install climbing sticks or screw-in steps to prepare for fall. When it comes time to hunt, you wear your saddle in, climb up the tree, hang your platform, and start hunting.
Go Shoot Your Bow
The boys over at Working Class Bowhunter said it best – GO SHOOT YOUR BOW! There may be nothing you can do during the off-season that is more important than becoming proficient with your weapon of choice. None of the property access, scouting, stand prep, food plots, or anything else means a thing if you fail to execute the shot when it matters most. So rather than spending that extra hour or two looking for a half-chewed antler, go shoot your bow instead.
Final Thoughts on Shed Hunting
The truth is, finding a shed is an awesome experience, and I would never suggest that you should totally overlook that. Shed hunting is a great way to get out of the house and beat that late winter cabin fever. It’s good exercise, a fun way to spend time with your family and hunting buddies, and it can be a blast. If you have been hunting a specific buck for several years and really want to find his antlers, by all means – go for it!
Just remember that when your time is limited and your ultimate goal is long-term bowhunting success and a wall full of trophies, there are more productive tasks that still need to be done.
