SHED HUNTING, February 2006
 

February 23, 2006....

We recruited a buddy of ours to go shed hunting with us today in our area that has recently been productive. We were wondering if there was such a thing as beginners luck....There DEFINITELY is. Somehow Scott found four sheds today. Aaron and I have never even found four together in one day!  I guess we are good folks to go shed hunting with! 

Not five minutes into our walk, I heard Scott clearing his throat really loud. I thought he was just joking, since he has a habit of joking around. Then he said "Is this what we are looking for? Then he waved his arm to Aaron and I to come over. And sure enough! He found a year old shed. It was a beauty! What a way to start a day of shed hunting!

We took that antler back to the truck and then started walking again. Maybe twenty minutes later, I heard Scott clearing his throat again.........

This was a whopper shed completely buried (almost) by the snow. Again a year old shed!

Scott was having such luck because he was wearing camouflage pants. The sheds couldn't see him coming!

Then it was Aaron's turn. About five minutes after we started walking again, Aaron hollered out! Great as it lays pic! When we pulled it out of the snow we couldn't believe how long that tine was. The tine is 17 inches long, and it is  six inches around!

What a couple of hillbillies...with big antlers.

We walked about a half hour more, when Scott spotted this tine as Aaron stepped about four inches from it. Aaron would have walked right on by.  Another year or two old shed! Scott has sure worked up a sweat by this time!!!! He was dripping.

We were heading back toward the truck to drop off some antler, when I heard him quietly say "Aaron" ....I don't think Scott wanted me to hear him since I'd had yet to find one.
Finally he lands a freshie!

After Scott found three, I thought for sure it would be my turn since I'd yet to find one.... 

We were heading back toward the truck to drop off some antler, when I heard him quietly say "Aaron" ....I don't think Scott wanted me to hear him since I'd had yet to find one.
Finally he lands a freshie!

About 3 minutes after we started walking again....Aaron said "Should we get this one?" I couldn't believe it, I was only ten yards from him and I thought I'd totally missed it! As you can see, the only was you would see it is if you walked right on top of it! It was a year old shed!

So the boys brought home the bone today! I can't complain though! Aaron and I really wanted Scott to have a good day, and I guess he did better than I ever imagined possibly.

The best shed hunting picture I have ever seen

February 22, 2006....

We are blessed again with a glorious day of shed hunting !! This time with success for the two of us! We were hoping for a record day, maybe to find three or four, but you can't get greedy with antlers!
 

I was the first to spot those lovely brown tines through the snow! I felt a bit guilty after having such luck yesterday to find the first shed of the day! Another beautiful fresh moose shed!

Then it was Aaron's turn. Not sixty yards from my antler, he spotted these brown tines. We knew it wasn't a match, but a dandy antler at that!

A perfect day for shed hunting. Blue skies, light winds, and a warm 30 degrees for stomping the snow! We hiked about 3 hours; better prepared today than the day before.  We had snowshoes and our pack frame. Only problem is the deep snow gets hard on the dogs, a lot of times we'll look back and see Tundra lying in our tracks just looking at us! She is learning the art of shed hunting though! We've now found ten fresh antlers for the year, and Kodi had found three, 1-year old antlers.

February 21, 2006...

We've finally recovered from our shed hunting drought, and we are recovering strong!!!! We went out today in hopes of finding a shed since we've had really warm temps and the snows been melting like crazy. We kicked ourselves after hiking about a 1/2 mile from the truck when we realized how deep the snow was in places, and we didn't have our snowshoes on.  It was hard walking; sometimes you'd walk on top of the snow, then you'd fall through and it would be calf deep or greater than knee deep. We thought it would be easier to spot the antlers with the warm weather, we were wrong. We were walking through a little woodsy area between two brushy fields and I saw this brown point that looked like a small log pointing up through the snow.  The picture shows more than I saw, I only saw the tip.  The color was right, but I wasn't sure, so I watch ed Kodi as he came upon it. He instantly bit at it and I knew I'd found an antler. I didn't know if it was old or what though, and I thought the tine was rather large.  I hollered to Aaron and he came running, not knowing what I'd found. We started digging and more points began to appear, and we soon realized we found a whopper! This is the biggest antler we've found to date. It scores conservatively 65. It has a lot of mass and curve to the paddle and massive points. We tried looking for the other side, but the snow was >knee deep and an extra 20+ pounds wasn't doing me any good. We looked for about an hour more then headed in, planning on heading out tomorrow with snowshoes and a pack frame!

February 8th, 2006...

Day two for Kodi.... Another antler for the shed dog! It was again completely buried in the snow and Kodi only hinted to us by digging. Thank goodness for Kodi.... 

February 7th, 2006....

We have had quite a drought! No luck finding antlers for weeks now, and Kodi finally broke the bad luck. This antler was completely buried in the snow! He just started digging and we luckily paid enough attention to check it out! The top had a bit of chewing. Probably a shed from last year! Good Job Kodi....