Angling for antlers
I first read this when it was shown on “The Shed Antler” blog and I have to say that is one fine collection of antlers. I have been collecting them for quite a few years but have not had as much luck as the guy. It truly is a lot of fun and exciting to boot.
Steve Zappala takes his shed hunting seriously.
Steve Zappala has found more than 300 deer antlers since he began collecting them in the 1970s. He is holding the skull and antlers of what was an 11-point buck. He found the skeletal remains in Camillus in 2002.
Beginning in early March and continuing through mid-April each year, Zappala scours woods and farmland throughout Central New York looking for shed deer antlers on the ground.
“It’s like an Easter egg hunt for adults,” he said. “It’s a great scouting tool for the next fall’s hunting season. Now’s the time to get them while they’re fresh, before the squirrels and the mice chew them up.”
Zappala, a painting contractor from Liverpool, is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing. He said he’s been shed hunting for more than 30 years. He said he’s found more than 300 and given many away.
“There’s that down time in March between the end of small-game season in February and the beginning of trout fishing season April 1,” he said. “Why not make good use of it and go out and find some stuff?”
Bucks shed their antlers annually during a period stretching from late December through March, depending on the deer, said David Riehlman, a senior wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The antlers fall off the deer’s head in two somewhat symmetrical pieces and don’t always land in the same place. Occasionally, a deer will be spotted during the winter sporting only half of its antler rack, he said.
The shedding of the antlers, along with their rapid replacement, are triggered by hormones, which are triggered by day length, Riehlman said. During the deer’s early years, the antlers usually grow bigger each year until the deer ages beyond its prime.
“It’s amazing how fast they grow back,” he said. “Antlers are among the fastest growing tissues in the animal kingdom.”
Initially, the antlers are composed of soft tissue filled with veins. By August of each year, they begin to calcify, becoming hard bone for the fall. They’re shed after the rut, and the process starts all over again, usually in April.
hat’s where shed hunters like Zappala come in. They’re competing with small animals, which chew on them for the calcium and phosphorus.
“At this time of year, the woods are wide open, all the leaves are on the ground and you can see a mile,” he said. “The best day is a dreary, overcast day. Your eyes won’t get maxed out by the sun and the antlers tend to shine when wet.”
Zappala, who is self-taught, said it’s easy once you understand a few basic principles.
“The first trick is to find out where the deer are feeding,” he said. “Typically, it’s a corn field, a corn lot, soybean field, winter wheat.”
Next, look for the nearest thicket/cover area near the food source where the deer bed.
“They’re going to bed down as close to the food as possible,” Zappala said. “They don’t want to walk two miles to get a corn cob. It’s all about conserving energy.”
Other tips include using binoculars to scan the landscape, and on sunny days getting the sun at your back, rather than in your face. Concentrate on the southern and western slopes of any hill, where the deer get the most sunlight during the day. Look for large concentrations of deer droppings.
“And look for a lone or singular pine tree,” he said. “The bucks like to bed underneath them to keep the snow off their backs. They’ll bed there continually, day after day.”
He said he often brings his two dogs, Ry and Carmen, a pair of chocolate-colored Rhodesian Ridgebacks that love to go in the woods but aren’t too interested in deer antlers. They occasionally lead Zappala to dead deer carcasses, he said, or areas where there’s lots of droppings, which they often gobble up.
“My friends call the droppings smart pills. By God, if they’re eating smart pills, they’d be working for NASA,” he joked.
Zappala said he found his biggest sheds to date only two weeks ago at an Onondaga County location he’d rather not reveal.
“It’s an 11-pointer that’s going to score more than 161 (inches gross, using the Boone and Crockett scoring technique) next year,” he said.
His advice for the beginner?
“Don’t give up,” he said. “It’ll be like that eureka moment. Oh my God, I’ve done this. And after that, you’ll develop an eye for the terrain, the habitat, the tines.”
“Once you get involved, you’re done. You’re going to turn right into a fruitcake. I know guys who really get into it.”
By David Figura
Staff writer - The Post-Standard