Shed hunting is certainly a whole lot tougher this time of year than it was 2 months ago, but if you can get over your fear of snakes, ticks, chiggers, and whatever else might ail you, there are usually still antlers to find.

Try to concentrate on areas of your property that have year-round canopy.  Why is this important?  Year-round shade will discourage undergrowth from forming, and these areas are often the only places where you can see the ground once spring has officially sprung.  Examples would be blocks of planted pines (15-20 years old), holly thickets, under a dense thicket of cedars.

I went out yesterday for a couple of hours at the study site and managed to grab up three.  None of them were fresh, but an antler is an antler – especially in the middle of May.

#1

Close-up

Half of a 90″ 8 pointer.

#2

Just barely left of dead center.  This one was a pretty nice antler.  Probably more like a 120-125″ 8 point.

#3

Very chewed-up antler tucked in beside this fallen pine tree.

Well, I hope everyone has a great tail end of the week.  I’ll be leaving out early in the morning and hope to arrive in Kansas by 6 or 7 Thursday evening.

Plans are to hang stands (maybe a little shed hunting too) on Friday, do a little turkey hunting Saturday morning, hang more stands during the day, more of the same on Sunday, wrap the weekend up with a good cookout, and be back to Alabama by Monday afternoon.

The X factor is certainly the Neosho River.  Hopefully, the river will come down a little from its current flood stage so we can get to all the stand locations we hope to reach.  If not, well that will just leave more time to find antlers and hunt turkeys.

Have a great weekend, and I look forward to sharing the trip with you next week on The Outdoor Smorgasbord.

Didn’t use my camera as much as I usually do today for whatever reason.

But I did head down to the study site and attempt to dart deer this morning.  Nothing doing except some shed-out bucks and a buttonhead that was much too far to attempt a shot.

I did hear quite a chorus of turkeys though.  I had several single hens come through all emitting their own version of turkey talk.  Some cutting, putting, even a little purring.  The gobblers weren’t far off either, but I never laid eyes on them.  Definitely got an earful though.

After trying to dart deer, I put the walking boots on and went shed hunting with my advisor from Auburn Univ.  We picked up about 15 antlers, most of which were old and chewed.

However, I did manage a nice 5 point shed that was fresh and we tag-teamed on 1 side apiece of a 2.5 year old 8 point set.

The 2 other fresh antlers were small, probably yearling bucks.

To boot, we even threw in a little fishing and managed to pull out a handful for the freezer.

Good day to be alive.  Sorry no pictures, but maybe I’ll snap a picture next trip of the sheds that we found.

Yesterday, I saw some really pretty Red Buckeye trees that were flowering out down at the study site. Red buckeye flowers are prime hummingbird nectar sources, though otherwise the plant has little wildlife value.  The small fruits that are produced are poisonous to humans.

Mom and dad were in from North Carolina to visit for the first time in Alabama, so we headed down to walk the woods and see if we couldn’t scour up any antlers.  Fortunately, we found several but most all of them were old and chewed up.

Dad did manage to find this set down in a marshy creek bottom, but they were a couple years old at least.  The other antler is in the position of a capital “L” directly above the other antler.

I thought the other interesting thing about the day was that we saw 4 groups of turkeys, but each group consisted of only 1 turkey.  All lone hens, so if that helps you plan how to go after an Alabama turkey in the morning…

I headed out to hunt a rare NNW wind at my study site to try and dart a young deer to mark with ear tags and freeze branding.

Hung over 4 weeks ago, I finally got to sit in a loc-on that I knew would produce given the right wind.  At 8:05, I was proven right.  4 deer – 2 does and 2 doe fawns – approached to within 15 yards.  Money.

This little doe probably didn’t weigh over 45 pounds, but she got some really nice jewelry out of the ordeal.

While I was waiting for her to wake up from the deep sleep, I took a 30-minute walk and found a shed from last year and my first fresh one of the year at the Alabama study site.  Look carefully and you can see the old one’s tines sticking up to the left of the dark trunked tree in the left half of the picture.

Close-ups

The freshie had some mulie genetics going on.

This old antler looks ginormous, but it really wasn’t very big at all.  Probably only a 110″ deer or so.

By the time I got back to “sleepy head”, she was just getting her legs underneath her.  A good day to be at work!

Well, before we get to the totals.  Here is a close-up of two of the skulls we picked up on the final hike of our shed hunting trip.

Danny’s big 7.

Allan’s 11 (adding the broken brow).

But here is what you’ve been waiting for.  The group shot at trip’s end.  Remember I set 40 as a reasonable goal for sheds picked up.  Well, we broke through for the goal + 3.  43 sheds made the trip home to North Carolina and Alabama.  In addition to the sheds, we collected 12 sets of antlers off of dead bucks. 

Pretty outstanding numbers if you consider we shed hunted 14 hours over the course of 1 1/2 days.  Legs were sore and thighs were scratched (I’ll buy a pair of briar pants one of these days), but the trip was a great time spent with my dad and 2 great friends.  We keep raising the bar every year, so only another 12 months to see if 2010 can upgrade the numbers a fourth year in a row.

Located another dead buck at my study site here in Alabama yesterday.  It appeared as if a scavenger, probably a coyote or fox, drug the skull and associated headgear down from the nearby hillside into the field where I could see it.

To the left of the enclosed hunting stand.

Getting closer.

Propped up.  About 17 1/2″ 8 pointer in the low 120s.  Good mass and eyeguards, just a little weak on tine length.

Thanks for waiting for me, I was chasing deer around all day yesterday with a dart gun, so I wasn’t able to push the second day of our shed hunting adventure through onto the blog.  But here we go…

Ambitions were high to greet sunrise with antlers already in hand.  Wishful thinking…  Breakfast was served by 8:30 a.m. (good job dad on the sausage, eggs, and onions) and it was off to the woods.

First stop was a small clearcut bordering a cut corn field, early successional quail area, and pond.  Last year, we literally jogged through this area for about 15 minutes and snagged 4 or 5 antlers.  Not the case this year.  We only managed 2 dink skulls and a fresh 3 point side (20″ main beam).

Dad did pull a good prank though.  He had smuggled a shed from years past into his jacket and only 10 yards from the truck threw it in the trail.  He let Danny think for 2 whole hours that he had picked up a freshie just steps from the beginning of the day.

After a lunch of deer bologna, cheese, and crackers, it was time to get serious.  We headed to the Chesapeake Bay and started brush busting around the thick cane on the shoreline.  Some serious trails to say the least.

Dad and Allan took one side and only found 1 old antler.  In the meantime, I picked up my first ever side-by-side set.

Picture didn’t turn out quite as good as I hoped, but you can see enough to know that size was a little lacking in this matched set.

100 yards later and Danny started doing a little dance by the water’s edge.  PIG! Forked G2 shed with mass to die for.

ATL

In-hand

Before we got picked up by the truck, I ran across a buck (a trend that would continue) with tremendous potential.  I didn’t take a picture, but the buck was a yearling that would have been a stud in a couple years if he maintained his shape.

With the ball starting to roll, it was time to check for the match to Allan’s first shed on day #1.  We combed the little patch of brush to no avail, but dad stumbled on another buck (this is the trend I was talking about) that pushed 120″ with an awesome kicker coming off the base.  It was a stinky ordeal getting the antlers, but we finally succeeded.

With 5 hours of daylight left, we decided to throw all our eggs in one basket…head for where the oodles of deer were out feeding on the evening before.  Good decision…

Read the rest of this entry »

1,800 miles later, I’m back in the office.  Very long and exhausting 5 days, but 100% worth every minute.

Left the office at 5 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon to pick up Kara from work and we headed east to North Carolina.  Factoring in the time change, we hit the pillows at a little over 2 a.m, but not before a good omen???  They say “third time’s a charm” and I definitely saw an albino deer for the third time in my life on a country road leading to my parent’s house in Alamance County.

The alarm clock rang early and it was gear collection time.  By 8:00 a.m., we had driven across the county to meet the other members of this year’s shed hunting team and we were on our way to the Eastern Shore.

After an hour of cleaning up our living quarters (a story in and of itself), we hit the woods.

Not 5 steps inside the woods, I strike first…and second…and third…  Within the first 250 yards, I scraped up 3 old sheds.  One was a heavy, palmated 5 point shed.

White antler tips on wet leaves GLOW!

It was time for the other guys to have some fun.  Danny picked up an old shed and a dead spike, before spying an 8 point set laying 10 feet apart.  90″ range, but fresh and we are off to a great start.

By the time we had reached the dried pond bed that we were walking for, I had snagged another old shed and this fresh 3 point.

Dad came around the corner and found a fresh 4 point, and Allan kicked off his findings with the nicest shed so far… a 50-55″ fresh 4 point side.

We picked up a few more small, but fresh sheds out of crop fields on the walk back to the truck before driving back to a pine clearcut.  We got skunked in there, but picked up a fresh 4 point side out of a cornfield and my smallest shed ever (2.5″ spike) out of cut beans before darkness fell.

When we were leaving, about 70 deer (all antlerless, grin!) were pouring into the fields.  I think we might be coming back here tomorrow.

Before we could get back to the house, another cool experience.  We were glassing 5 or 6 six deer in the fading light when one stepped out from behind the other and revealed 3 big blobs of white on its fur – piebald.  After staring at its hide for 30 seconds, someone else noticed it was still packing a 3 point side that stretched a little beyond its eartips.  Should be a very unique trophy in 2009!

Day #1 ended with 14 sheds in the bag and a little spike skull.

Check back tomorrow for Day #2.

Sorry the blog has been inactive for a couple of days…some computer difficulties at the office…  yipee!

A humorous prelude to my Chesapeake Farms shed hunting trip that will kick off on Thursday afternoon and carry its way through Saturday morning.

The participants this year are as f0llows:

First up – “the Rookie” (to Chesapeake Farms that is…). Allan Webb brings the most recently trained eyes to the detection of fallen bone.  Just Sunday evening, he scoured an Alamance County field and picked up 13 antlers.  A semi-amazing feat in North Carolina.  His careful attention to detail and preparedness for the unexpected (angry squirrels cause we steal their calcium) should help him find plenty of bone in MD.  No Allan, you can’t shoot the geese at the Farm and your bowfishing equipment has to stay in the truck.

Next up – a repeat visitor to the shedding honeyhole.  Danny Shanklin will bring his laid-back personality and voice to the woods of eastern Maryland.  His quietness should allow him to stalk and sneak up on the wary white-tailed deer antlers hiding in the bushes.  Last year, he pocketed over 15 sheds in a little over a day, including a massive high 130’s 8 point set.

Third – my dad, Mike Karns.  He is also a repeat offender in stealing antlers from squirrels, rabbits, and whatever else finds them tasty in the woods.  2 years ago, we squeezed in 4 or 5 hours of shed hunting before a Nor’easter blew in with sub-zero wind-chill temperatures and snow flurries.  He pulled 4 or 5 fresh antlers in that amount of time though.  Interestingly, he didn’t pick up a single small antler…all medium to big.  I guess the little ones aren’t good enough for him.  He’ll be the oldest member of our shed hunting crew, so remember dad…slow and steady wins the race.  Just pickin’.

Last but not least – “the veteran”, myself.  I’ve picked up over 100 antlers at the Farm in the last 3 years, but struggled to keep pace with even a rookie in the art of shedding last year with Danny sneaking around in the woods.  With more luck than it will take to win the Maryland lottery, I could conceivably top my best shed of 93″ with a 95-100″ NT antler that has been missing in action for 2 years now.  One can dream!

So, 4 guys, 3 days, a little rain in the forecast, binoculars, 900 miles, and a good time.  How many will we find?

Check back in next Monday and find out.

If we manage 16 hours of shed hunting.  2.5 antlers per clock hours would result in 40 antlers.  2 antlers/hour = 32 total.  3 antlers/hour = 48 total.  Hopefully we can end up somewhere in the middle around the 40 mark.  Sounds like a good goal to me!