Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Shed hunting.....

Anyone picking up sheds yet? My brother and I have been hitting it pretty hard the last week or so... No fresh brown yet, just chalk, but they'll be dropping any day now..













Ben

The little MD bucks around my house have shed theirs

Been in the 60's and windy.

Still not suitable for outdoor activities.





Clark

I've been around here multiple times and found nothing. I'm probably done for the year, but may stumble on a few during turkey season.

"Windy" does not sufficiently describe it...

Ben, I posted this on another thread today.

Month or so back. Most of the bucks we bumped were still adorning headgear.

2010 21 brown elk antlers

2011 20 brown

2012 26 brown

2013 19 brown

2014. 14 brown

2015. 2 brown

2016 0 brown thus far

Have seen fewer bulls this spring than ever before. They are most all gone from this neck of the woods. Good luck out there fellas. If you live in elk country enjoy the good days of picking up brown bone. It will soon be over for you as well.

What's the story, Timber?

Too many hungry critters have moved into the neighborhood. Finding lots of skeleton and fur piles but not seeing many bulls anymore or finding as many sheds as years gone by. Im actually contemplating going to Utah or Nevada to shed hunt. Have some friends that go over there now and do ok. One friend describes shed hunting now in SW MT as " a hundred people out looking for one bone".

Why not come join the masses here in Utah. I know guys who take more vacation time to hunt sheds than they do during hunting season. Its getting ridiculous how many people are on the mountain going off trail with ATVs, sitting on an animal until it drops one side then harassing the animal until it drops the other side,flying the country with drones or even ultra light planes, trained dogs, etc etc etc.
I guess at $15 a pound you can pay for an airplane.
Please everyone, if your going to hunt sheds, be mindful and considerate of the animals and the environment.

rant over

Sweet pics Ben, always a little rush when you spot a decent elk horn!


Roundoak, super sheds, wow!





Fishnut, that is insane.

People always come ask my dad to poke around and look for sheds. He's always cool, yeah sure.


Last month some assclowns took a couple full skulls right from an obvious 'display'. One decent 5x5 I shot 3-4 years ago and a similar size pick up.

I had them wedged in a barbwire fence by an old road sign and wagon wheel, right by the gate less than 200 yards from the house....

Seriously stupid.

I haven't done so well yet this year.

Last year was great. I found 9 nice big sheds prolly 280 or better including a 7x pair and lots of smaller non-typical stuff.
Followed that up with a few while hunting - a couple dead heads and a nice trophy pair.

Pair of deer sheds last weekend as they lay. Sorry to admit that's the best thing I've found this year.


My dead head collection grew by a couple while hunting last fall


This was a nice find, 6x7 pair (last fall though)

2015 I was pretty lucky. Had a lot of fun roaming around with my blue heeler.






This (barely) 7x7 pair was nice enough to nail to the barn. (last year)




Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. Maybe I'll still run onto something this season.

Nothing here yet.

Saw 60+ elk last weekend. 6 were bulls with full headgear.

Great pics Alamosa! Some dandies there....

Sam that stinks... I can't stand knuckleheads like that. Nash and I went out a couple days ago, hiked a few miles back in some fairly gnarly breaks..... Didn't find anything but 4 wheeler tracks, literally on every ridge and in every coulee we walked.

+1
My thoughts also.
I really enjoy when someone remembers an animal that way, creates a landmark, shares his icon on a fence or tree or old building.

Years ago I read in Bugle where the elk themselves would return to the site of old dead heads that hunters had placed on trees.

Mtcurman: The field adjacent to my house had 138 Mule Deer in it this morning and not one antler to be seen on a head anywhere.
Yesterday (April 18th) I answered an "emergency" call from my rancher friend who's two best ranch dogs were missing over-night.
I took my optics to some high ground over-looking about 1/2 of his ranch and out of 400+ Whitetailed Deer I saw just one smallish buck with antlers afixed was seen.
His dogs were also spotted swimming in a creek and rolling in mud.
The critters have "shed", for the most part in my area, (SW Montana) anyway.
I sold several antlers (and refused an offer for a shed Moose antler I found this spring) to a roadside antler buyer this past Sunday and his pickup bed was at least half full of fresh sheds when I got to him.
Its becoming quite a business in these parts.
My friend just 28 miles north of me sold $1,700.00 worth of Elk, Mule Deer and Whitetail Deer horns last year and that did not count the "nice" ones he kept!
Good luck to you all.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Fishnut: I know a fellow here in SW Montana that flies an ultra-light plane to spot Elk and Moose sheds.
He does well!
He marks their location on a G.P.S. and then comes back later afoot and retrieves the previously spotted sheds.
He enjoys the flying, the Hunt for sheds and then the exercise to retrieve them.
I don't think I have ever heard anyone complain about his type activities - that is, until YOU referenced them.
Hmmm...
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Mtcurman: A friend of mine was Hunting sheds South East of Ekalaka, Montana last week and came upon some folks who had trailered horses over 1,100 miles to Hunt sheds there!
Rumors abound around here that "unscrupulous" shed Hunters are now using infra-red night vision goggles to steal sheds off of private lands!
I don't know?
But I do know a rancher that used to pick up 200 to 300 sheds a year and as of the last few years he gets maybe 20 a spring!
Shed poachers are suspected because if anything he has many more Deer on his ranch than he did in the past.
The reason he picked them up in the past I guess they would harm his farm equipment and tires and they sold for a couple bucks a pound?
He did start selling them on a yearly basis some time ago but now he finds so few he only sells them every few years.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Check the pics on this thread from the main forum.
Unfortunate circumstance to go along with them.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth.../1/Wolves_being_wolves._Still_hun#UNREAD

Alamosa,

Does your dog sniff out antler or does he just go along for the ride?




Travis

I sometimes pick sheds up when I see them...but have never gotten into it. I know they can be worth ~$8 a pound, but just can't get into looking for them.

Like mentioned above, there are people that get SERIOUS about it. That's just fine with me as they spend less time in the woods during actual hunting season. There's been several places where I found an obvious wintering area straight up full of sheds, but I leave them lay, unless it is a big moose or matched elk shed or something. People say I am nuts to do it, but if I didn't shoot it, I don't want it...

I thought all of our deer had dropped, but we had a good 3 x 3 mulie pass through our yard about 2 days ago.

Doing a spring bear outing in a couple weeks so I should be in some good elk country for that.

She has a tremendous ability to locate antlers but she is a spoiled little diva and only brings one when it is her idea to do so.
It is so frustrating because if I send her for one I get nothing but then she will occasionally surprise me with one.

We got her when the old girl on the right, Heidi, reached a ripe old age and got close to the end. RIP.

I could tell Heidi to find an antler and she would begin a systematic search until she came up with something.

Brown elk's bringing close to twice that currently.

As long as they go to them, you're doing pretty good!




Travis

We raised a few litters of high dollar Labs. A young man bought 3 pups to train for shed hunting, he said a good shed dog can bring 3K or better. I thought wow, I just use them for a few birds and Ducks.

Found this monster Tuesday...

I really enjoy shed hunting. Used to find a bunch every spring, up until WY implemented a shed antler season for the western side of the state. Which they did for good reason as the winter range where all the big mule deer bucks from the high country winter at was an absolute zoo with people watching those big 200 inch deer until they shed, then they would run out and pick the antler up right after it hit the ground. Caused the deer a lot of undue stress in the winter. But there are a few people who cheat and go out before the season opens. It's created a situation where law abiding folks don't find much, and the guys who go in early have an all out bonanza of antler picking with no competition.

4th set off this bull we've found, he lost 20" from last year.