South Facing Slopes

hunterd · Jan 21, 2009

Hey guys I'm a new member of this site, but have been a fan for a while. I'm in high school and my dad and i are avid outdoorsmen and love to shed hunt whenever we can. We don't get to get out in the woods too often shed hunting because we have to drive a few hours to get into deer country. But throughout our shed hunting career we've collected just over a hundred sheds, nothing worth bragging about though. We go to New Mexico every year for a public land shed hunt in the spring. Whenever I read shed hunting articles they say to target south facing slopes. Does this apply to areas where it hardly ever snows? The unit we go to has thick forest in most areas and many pine trees. I was just wandering if the south facing slope hotspot applies to where we are where it's a very dry region.

hornsantlersandbigracks · Jan 21, 2009

yea i heard to check them to. but last year i found almost ALL of my sheds on the north facing. this is where they bed and under the trees is wherethere is the least snow so look there.
but it depends, so look everywhere!

hunterd · Jan 21, 2009

Thanks. We definitely put in the miles and it is pretty tough shed hunting out there though. We typically find about four a day, at most, with about 8-10 miles of hiking. Most are old sheds too. We found one six point elk shed last year that had just dropped and it is the pride of my collection. I guess the less you find, the more special they are.

feyerfighter · Jan 22, 2009

i live in an area where we don't get much snow, well atleast untill this year. anyway i have found most of my sheds on the north facing slopes i may have to change my tactics this year though still about 1-2 feet on the north slopes. my favorite areas are where a fire has burned through in the last 2-5 years and find the areas that are unburned adjacent to or with in the burn. the deer around here tend to feed in the old burns and bed in the unburned areas. i hit a place like that last year and found 14 sheds in about 3 hours. good luck

hunterd · Jan 22, 2009

Thanks for the tips. Hitting the edges of a burned area is an interesting tactic. We do have some burned areas adjacent to forest where we are. WE might give them a shot.

Cookie2 · Jan 22, 2009

We also don't get much snow and I find a lot of deer sheds in the bottoms of draws just inside the tree line.

mozey · Jan 22, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Jan-22-09 AT 10:49PM (MST)[p]I also hunt in NM; I've found numerous elk sheds on NES&W slopes. It does snow some in my favorite spot, but what I think I've figured out from the last couple years is elevation is key based on the snow line during drop season. Last year, it seemed I'd find a bunch 1-year old sheds at certain elevation, drop down in elevation some and find a bunch of fresh ones. Three years ago, I was finding them as high as 9,500 ft. That has to be snow line influencing their migration up and down the mountain.

I've also had a lot of success around the edges of burns and well worn routes to water, which is very key in NM. If there's a game trail going through a saddle that's got some cover in it, I'll criss-cross pretty much every inch of that saddle: found a matched set from a booner muley in a spot like that, both under the same oak tree, NE facing slope...

fatrooster · Jan 22, 2009

Good post with some good tips. fatrooster.

hunterd · Jan 23, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Jan-23-09 AT 08:47PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jan-23-09 AT 08:34?PM (MST)

Thanks for the tips mozey. We shed hunt in southern NM in unit 34 and I was wondering when the elk and mule deer shed. Last year we went mid march and were in the middle of the elk shedding season, I think, but all the mule deer we saw still had their antlers. We saw a 165 class ten point that still had its antlers. As it ran up the mountainside, I was praying it would drop them off, but it didn't. We didn't find a single fresh mule deer shed, but did find a fresh elk shed.

Mozey, I saw those Boone and Crockett sheds you were talking about in your previous post. Those were monsters! I don't think they have deer that big in the unit we shed hunt in.

mozey · Jan 24, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Jan-24-09 AT 10:30PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jan-24-09 AT 10:29 PM (MST)

Here's a decent desert set that I'm getting ready to W.A.M. that I found just east of 34:

Found both these on either side of a mesquite tree about 75 yards from an active windmill.

I barbary hunt all around that area during February and March. From what I've observed, the bucks start dropping about the second week of February and continue all the way through mid-March. Last year, I saw a bunch of bucks hanging out together March 7th and 8th. It was split about half and half those that were dropped and those that were still hanging on to one or both.

Don't know much about the elk in that area.