S
SoleSearcher36
Guest
Started shed hunting "back in the day" as a teenager and used to spend a ton of time doing it. Yes I miss the pre-ATV days and the reduced competition that went with it but it is still fun and addictive. Just got back into chasing them after about a 6-year hiatus and having alot of fun. I have 4 sons now and have been having a ball helping them learn to spot sheds this spring. It all started out with a few whitetail and muley antlers with my youngest.......
Then we headed off to visit my mom and shed hunt during the boys' spring break. Dad got a day with a buddy to hit some long suspicious country I thought might hold sheds.
My buddy and I put in 15 cactus filled miles and turned up some bone but it was all old stuff with just a pair of browns mixed in.
Although an old, chalky white the consolation prize of the day was this massive 3-pt antler(H4 over 6")
I knew going in that we were too low for this years sheds but it was still fun finding some from the old days. I think we ended up with around 20 for the day between the two of us. Throughout the rest of the week we checked alot of new places and found an antler here and there including a fresh 180" set(no atl unfortunately) We did find where some lazy bastard had ridden literraly every sage flat and chained area on his quad........even riding up and across many cedar benches in the area. Virtually every clearing we walked into during about 6 days of hikes had his tracks in it.(same riding pattern and same tread pattern) Definitely a candidate for a high-country-tuneup. He should have looked a little closer tho since we found our two best brown sets within 30' of his tracks. He was obviously a "commercial" shedder as he intentionally drove away from a number of sheds that were just cracked/rough enough as not to bring hard white prices. We finally got into a little concentration the last two days and found 15 each of those days. Here are some pics from the trip.
My 7yr old Noah with his matched set ATL.(his twin "hunter" found a set the following day)
Noah and my oldest taking a snack break.(the other twin hunter stayed home sick that day)
The following day it was Hunter's turn to go with just dad and in three hours we found 15 including this half of a matched set.(other side is about 20' away and barely visible in the sage...
At the end of the trip we got them and us all together for a pic or two at mom's house.(mom had a shaky hand taking the picture...sorry)
Last weekend another non-hunting fishing buddy and I took a walk in an area I had found some sheds back in '06-'07. Wasn't too impressed with what we found....the deer have really gone downhill here I think but we managed to find 22 antlers for the day in about 12 miles of hiking including a really big typical shed I had missed a few years ago. Again I don't doubt we were too low for the freshies and we found only one small brown 4pt shed. I never met a shed I didn't like so it was a fun day even with the chalky ones.
If my count is right I think we are at around 106 for the year....muley,whitetail,elk all conditions combined. Having fun anyway getting the boys out.
Then we headed off to visit my mom and shed hunt during the boys' spring break. Dad got a day with a buddy to hit some long suspicious country I thought might hold sheds.
My buddy and I put in 15 cactus filled miles and turned up some bone but it was all old stuff with just a pair of browns mixed in.
Although an old, chalky white the consolation prize of the day was this massive 3-pt antler(H4 over 6")
I knew going in that we were too low for this years sheds but it was still fun finding some from the old days. I think we ended up with around 20 for the day between the two of us. Throughout the rest of the week we checked alot of new places and found an antler here and there including a fresh 180" set(no atl unfortunately) We did find where some lazy bastard had ridden literraly every sage flat and chained area on his quad........even riding up and across many cedar benches in the area. Virtually every clearing we walked into during about 6 days of hikes had his tracks in it.(same riding pattern and same tread pattern) Definitely a candidate for a high-country-tuneup. He should have looked a little closer tho since we found our two best brown sets within 30' of his tracks. He was obviously a "commercial" shedder as he intentionally drove away from a number of sheds that were just cracked/rough enough as not to bring hard white prices. We finally got into a little concentration the last two days and found 15 each of those days. Here are some pics from the trip.
My 7yr old Noah with his matched set ATL.(his twin "hunter" found a set the following day)
Noah and my oldest taking a snack break.(the other twin hunter stayed home sick that day)
The following day it was Hunter's turn to go with just dad and in three hours we found 15 including this half of a matched set.(other side is about 20' away and barely visible in the sage...
At the end of the trip we got them and us all together for a pic or two at mom's house.(mom had a shaky hand taking the picture...sorry)
Last weekend another non-hunting fishing buddy and I took a walk in an area I had found some sheds back in '06-'07. Wasn't too impressed with what we found....the deer have really gone downhill here I think but we managed to find 22 antlers for the day in about 12 miles of hiking including a really big typical shed I had missed a few years ago. Again I don't doubt we were too low for the freshies and we found only one small brown 4pt shed. I never met a shed I didn't like so it was a fun day even with the chalky ones.
If my count is right I think we are at around 106 for the year....muley,whitetail,elk all conditions combined. Having fun anyway getting the boys out.
