Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 508: Foundations - What Makes Shed Antlers So Cool
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
- 0:11Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt
- 0:16Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
- 0:18Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson. In today's episode, it was
- 0:21Speaker 1: all about why shed antlers are just playing cool. It's
- 0:37Speaker 1: hard to believe it, my friend, but we're at the
- 0:39Speaker 1: time of the year where we should probably be thinking
- 0:42Speaker 1: about looking for some shed antlers. There are a lot
- 0:45Speaker 1: of reasons to shed hunt, and I'll probably cover like
- 0:47Speaker 1: ninety nine of them in the next few weeks with
- 0:49Speaker 1: this podcast, but for now, let's focus on what causes
- 0:53Speaker 1: antlers to fall off, the timing of the whole thing,
- 0:56Speaker 1: and why. I don't know. Well, like shed antlers are
- 0:59Speaker 1: just pretty damn neat. When I was in high school,
- 1:12Speaker 1: my uncle and cousin showed up for a visit. They
- 1:15Speaker 1: had driven down from the Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota,
- 1:18Speaker 1: where most of our remaining wild moose population hangs out,
- 1:21Speaker 1: and where most of our wolves hang out, and where
- 1:24Speaker 1: the fishing is still nearly Canada level good without the
- 1:28Speaker 1: hassle of having to cross the border and where very
- 1:31Speaker 1: few white tails live compared to most regions of the country.
- 1:35Speaker 1: They had with them a shed antler that was, to
- 1:38Speaker 1: put it bluntly, a freaking giant. We measured it for
- 1:42Speaker 1: the hell of it, and it went somewhere in the eighties.
- 1:45Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly how much, but big, big, big.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Suffice it to say that that antler fell off of
- 1:50Speaker 1: a buck that was a legitimate north Woods booner, the
- 1:54Speaker 1: kind of buck that makes people want to go hunt
- 1:57Speaker 1: in the boundary waters or maybe waited out a fresh
- 2:00Speaker 1: snow in the northeast and try to cut a set
- 2:02Speaker 1: of huge dragging tracks with the hopes that they can
- 2:05Speaker 1: catch up to the deer as he traverses miles of timber.
- 2:09Speaker 1: That antler wasn't just fascinating due to its overall size,
- 2:12Speaker 1: which included ridiculous mass. It was cool to me personally
- 2:17Speaker 1: because I couldn't find an antler to save my life
- 2:20Speaker 1: at that time. I mean I really couldn't. I could
- 2:23Speaker 1: barely kill a live deer of any shape or size,
- 2:25Speaker 1: and certainly couldn't do it with any consistency. I knew
- 2:29Speaker 1: people who did that, just as I knew people who
- 2:31Speaker 1: found antlers frequently, and they were both a mystery to
- 2:33Speaker 1: me what I couldn't do. I was just figuring out
- 2:37Speaker 1: how they were doing it. It wasn't for a lack
- 2:39Speaker 1: of effort on my part either. I shed hunted quite
- 2:42Speaker 1: a bit then, and aside from finding deadheads every year,
- 2:45Speaker 1: which was a guarantee, I never found a shed. In fact,
- 2:49Speaker 1: I didn't find one till I was in college, and
- 2:51Speaker 1: that was an accidental fine. While I was turkey hunting
- 2:53Speaker 1: in May, it felt like a lot of people knew
- 2:57Speaker 1: something I didn't know, which was true then as it's
- 3:00Speaker 1: true now. A lot of people had access to spots
- 3:04Speaker 1: where dear wintered, which is something I didn't really understand
- 3:08Speaker 1: or have access to back then. I also, i know now,
- 3:12Speaker 1: focused a lot of my shed hunting a little bit
- 3:14Speaker 1: too early. This is kind of like right after the
- 3:18Speaker 1: ice goes out and you get that first really warm
- 3:21Speaker 1: March or April day where the sun has just got
- 3:23Speaker 1: a lot of power to it. It's like easy to
- 3:26Speaker 1: believe then that the croppies will be up in the
- 3:28Speaker 1: shallows because they want of the first fish to move in,
- 3:30Speaker 1: But often the water temperature is just way too cold
- 3:34Speaker 1: at least in my part of the world, this happens
- 3:36Speaker 1: a lot. Sure, like you might catch a few specks
- 3:39Speaker 1: in the shallows if the conditions are just right, but
- 3:42Speaker 1: the good fishing will take a few weeks. A warm
- 3:44Speaker 1: weather that really gets those temps up, gets the bugs
- 3:47Speaker 1: and other potential food sources moving, and just positions the
- 3:51Speaker 1: whole underwater ecosystem to be at the right spot for
- 3:54Speaker 1: those croppies to be there. That might seem like a
- 3:57Speaker 1: weird analogy, bear with me. Deer preyed off of photo
- 4:00Speaker 1: period is um just like most game animals, game birds
- 4:03Speaker 1: and fish. Hell, I can't prove this because I'm not
- 4:06Speaker 1: smart enough, but probably every wild creature out there does
- 4:08Speaker 1: to some extent. Humans probably do too. But we know,
- 4:12Speaker 1: dear do We know that photo periods M, which is
- 4:15Speaker 1: the amount of daylight and the given day, plays into
- 4:18Speaker 1: the timing of the rut and has vast implications on
- 4:21Speaker 1: a buck's testosterone levels. We know that fawns need to
- 4:25Speaker 1: hit the ground in a relatively short window in the
- 4:27Speaker 1: spring in big numbers to achieve a successful drop. We
- 4:32Speaker 1: know that after the rut is over, a buck has
- 4:34Speaker 1: a lot of work to do to recover, and it
- 4:37Speaker 1: doesn't pay to carry around apparel weapons on his head
- 4:40Speaker 1: that only cause him to burn more calories with each step.
- 4:44Speaker 1: He doesn't need to fight his buddies because the competition
- 4:46Speaker 1: for doze is gone, and the benefit of having some
- 4:49Speaker 1: stabby things poking out of his forehead in regard to
- 4:52Speaker 1: fighting off predators, it's juice that just isn't worth the
- 4:55Speaker 1: old squeeze, So they fall off of his head, and
- 4:59Speaker 1: then idiots like me spend weeks and weeks looking for them,
- 5:02Speaker 1: and even train their dogs to look for them. It's
- 5:05Speaker 1: kind of weird, but it's also cool. The thing about
- 5:08Speaker 1: antlers is they dropped for a variety of reasons that
- 5:10Speaker 1: all produce the same result. As testosterone decreases in the
- 5:14Speaker 1: post rut phase, the tissue in the buck's pedicles begins
- 5:18Speaker 1: to weaken, eventually causing the connection to break and the
- 5:21Speaker 1: antlers to fall off. Most folks say this doesn't hurt
- 5:25Speaker 1: the buck, and I have no reason to believe it does.
- 5:27Speaker 1: But I also wonder how the hell would we know
- 5:30Speaker 1: if it's stung a little. I don't think deer would
- 5:32Speaker 1: give much indication that it hurt at all. This kind
- 5:35Speaker 1: of reminds me of that off stated fact about domestic
- 5:38Speaker 1: dogs that says something like, dogs look at us when
- 5:41Speaker 1: they're pooping because they feel vulnerable and they're looking for
- 5:44Speaker 1: us to protect them. I mean, that's cute, but couldn't
- 5:47Speaker 1: it also be that when dogs bowl up to drop
- 5:49Speaker 1: a deuce in your yard, they also just have a
- 5:51Speaker 1: very few options as what to look at. And if
- 5:54Speaker 1: we just happened to be there, they just happen to
- 5:57Speaker 1: look at us a lot. And since we've got like
- 6:00Speaker 1: five thousand years at co evolution, some of those looks
- 6:03Speaker 1: happened to produce eye contact. Maybe they aren't thinking, Man,
- 6:07Speaker 1: I could be attacked here any second. I sure my owner,
- 6:10Speaker 1: who's also my hero, protects me. I better make serious
- 6:13Speaker 1: eye contact with him to make sure that he knows
- 6:15Speaker 1: I might need him. It could just be damn, he's
- 6:19Speaker 1: watching me again. What's the deal with this guy? Does
- 6:22Speaker 1: he like watching me poop? I love him, but he's
- 6:25Speaker 1: kind of a creep sometimes anyway. I don't know. Maybe
- 6:28Speaker 1: it hurts the dealer when the antlers fall off, or
- 6:30Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't. It does scare them. We know, because
- 6:32Speaker 1: there's a few really cool trill camera videos out there
- 6:36Speaker 1: of that. It's also something that's not really easy to
- 6:40Speaker 1: pin down time wise. Of course, we know stressors like
- 6:44Speaker 1: an injury during the fall or an early super harsh
- 6:47Speaker 1: bad winner seemed to contribute to deer dropping their antlers early.
- 6:51Speaker 1: The bulk of the drop happens every year between January
- 6:54Speaker 1: and March. This isn't based on anything but personal experience,
- 6:58Speaker 1: but I kind of feel like where I tend to
- 7:00Speaker 1: shed hunt the most. The third week of February is
- 7:03Speaker 1: when I need to get really serious about pounding the
- 7:06Speaker 1: snowy trails in search of antlers. From that week until
- 7:09Speaker 1: it's time to think turkeys, I tend to find most
- 7:11Speaker 1: of my antlers, but I also find some of my
- 7:14Speaker 1: biggest antlers. In January. Before Wisconsin shut it down, their
- 7:19Speaker 1: grouse season in the North Country used to run all
- 7:22Speaker 1: the way through January. This was awesome for me and
- 7:25Speaker 1: my buddies because it mostly felt like we were the
- 7:27Speaker 1: only people out there during that month. I mean, honestly,
- 7:30Speaker 1: in like ten years of hitting the January grouse pretty hard,
- 7:34Speaker 1: I never saw a single hunter on public land who
- 7:36Speaker 1: wasn't a part of my hunting party. That's like probably
- 7:40Speaker 1: sixty or seventy days total, not another person out there hunting,
- 7:44Speaker 1: but they shut it down to save the birds, which
- 7:47Speaker 1: as far as I can tell, didn't really do a thing.
- 7:49Speaker 1: But I'm also bitter because I don't like losing hunting opportunities,
- 7:53Speaker 1: especially when I get the impression they're being taken away
- 7:56Speaker 1: for emotional reasons, not biological, and and I know when
- 8:01Speaker 1: they take away our hunting opportunities don't give them back
- 8:03Speaker 1: very easily. Anyway, That's a sore subject with me and
- 8:07Speaker 1: not germane to this podcast. Except for the fact that
- 8:10Speaker 1: the January grouse season put an awful lot of really
- 8:13Speaker 1: big sheds in my trophy room and extended my personal
- 8:16Speaker 1: bird season by a month, I don't recall ever finding
- 8:19Speaker 1: a small shed during those hunts, which probably has something
- 8:23Speaker 1: to do with what dear really drop in January and
- 8:27Speaker 1: the reality that finding a spike shed in the snow
- 8:29Speaker 1: is a hell of a lot harder than finding the
- 8:30Speaker 1: side off of a mature buck. Every single year, while
- 8:34Speaker 1: we followed our dogs through the north Woods looking for roughs,
- 8:37Speaker 1: we found big antlers. We find a ton of them,
- 8:40Speaker 1: because after all, we weren't in the kind of place
- 8:42Speaker 1: where there are a ton of big bucks, but we
- 8:44Speaker 1: found them very consistently from every year now. I often
- 8:49Speaker 1: go back and shed hunt there in March if the
- 8:51Speaker 1: snow allows, and rarely do I find big ones then,
- 8:54Speaker 1: although I do tend to get luckier when it comes
- 8:56Speaker 1: to smaller antlers, the exact hall for each trip doesn't
- 8:59Speaker 1: really matter. Although finding antlers is fun, what does matter,
- 9:03Speaker 1: at least to me is getting into the woods to
- 9:05Speaker 1: walk around and just look at places I either currently
- 9:08Speaker 1: hunt or might hunt in the future. There will be
- 9:10Speaker 1: plenty of this on future episodes of this podcast, and
- 9:14Speaker 1: I should also this should come as no surprise say
- 9:17Speaker 1: that I just love finding antlers as well. I remember
- 9:20Speaker 1: a former magazine editor who lives near me. He hit
- 9:23Speaker 1: me up in February to go shed hunting several years ago.
- 9:26Speaker 1: I suggested a spot of mine that is usually pretty productive,
- 9:29Speaker 1: but he said he doesn't like to shed hunt where
- 9:31Speaker 1: he can't deer hunt, so we went into Carlos Avery,
- 9:35Speaker 1: a gigantic tract of public land near where I live
- 9:38Speaker 1: in the Twin Cities. It was a lost cause, mostly
- 9:41Speaker 1: because the deer population there's pretty low, the shed pressure
- 9:44Speaker 1: is really high, and it's mostly a game of getting
- 9:47Speaker 1: super lucky in those conditions. But those miles were a
- 9:50Speaker 1: good way to look around on some ground that we
- 9:52Speaker 1: actually could hunt, so it wasn't all bad even if
- 9:55Speaker 1: the miles per shed found ratio is skewed in a
- 9:58Speaker 1: not so fun direction. Now here's where I'm going to
- 10:02Speaker 1: say something that I often say when it comes to
- 10:04Speaker 1: outdoor opportunities. Shed hunting is actually a lot more difficult
- 10:09Speaker 1: than it looks. Just like with actually killing big bucks
- 10:13Speaker 1: or catching thirty inch walleyes or whatever outdoor space you
- 10:17Speaker 1: pay a close attention to and count as one of
- 10:19Speaker 1: your addictions, shed hunting for most of us is a
- 10:23Speaker 1: really low return endeavor, at least in the interest of
- 10:26Speaker 1: finding actual antlers. It is, but that's not the sole
- 10:30Speaker 1: reason to shed hunt. Just like we don't bow hunt
- 10:33Speaker 1: all fall solely for the purpose of killing a big buck.
- 10:36Speaker 1: That result is a powerful motivator, but it sells the
- 10:40Speaker 1: pursuit way short. The same goes for shed hunting. After all,
- 10:45Speaker 1: what else do you gotta do in the winter. Granted,
- 10:47Speaker 1: there's plenty of white tail work to get accomplished, but
- 10:49Speaker 1: we've got time for that for now. Looking for antlers
- 10:53Speaker 1: is a great reason to spend time in the woods
- 10:55Speaker 1: and time in the woods. Lots and lots of time
- 10:58Speaker 1: in the woods is one of the best ways to
- 11:01Speaker 1: become a better deer hunter. It puts you where deer eat, obviously,
- 11:06Speaker 1: but also where they walk, where they bed, where they stage.
- 11:09Speaker 1: It puts you where they live. And that's not nothing,
- 11:12Speaker 1: my friends, and yes, I get the argument for spending
- 11:15Speaker 1: time in the woods where you can hunt. After all,
- 11:18Speaker 1: what good does it do you to find a whole
- 11:20Speaker 1: bunch of rubs or pick up a side in a
- 11:23Speaker 1: park that you won't ever be able to hunt, or
- 11:25Speaker 1: at least until I don't know, the zombie apocalypse rages
- 11:28Speaker 1: through and re arranges us into small tribes of gritty survivors,
- 11:31Speaker 1: and we don't have to follow the laws anymore. Well,
- 11:34Speaker 1: for starters, these kind of finds in places you can't
- 11:38Speaker 1: hunt tend to dispel or at least nullify, the notion
- 11:43Speaker 1: of quote unquote our dear. We love to say things
- 11:47Speaker 1: like my dear, do this or my dear never do that,
- 11:51Speaker 1: which refers, of course, to the deer that live on
- 11:54Speaker 1: the places we hunt, and more importantly, what we believe
- 11:57Speaker 1: about them. Those statements are shortcuts to thinking, which is
- 12:02Speaker 1: why we love them so much. If we know one
- 12:04Speaker 1: are harder. Hearts that are dear, do not visit scrapes
- 12:07Speaker 1: in daylight, or never travel through a certain swamp. We
- 12:10Speaker 1: can dilute the whole process of hunt planning down, but
- 12:15Speaker 1: exposure to new ground other dear and exactly what they do,
- 12:20Speaker 1: tends to reinforce the opposite mindset that dear dear no
- 12:24Speaker 1: matter where you live or where you hunt them. A
- 12:27Speaker 1: lot of folks don't like that thought, because they believe
- 12:30Speaker 1: that their dear are smarter and their dear are harder
- 12:33Speaker 1: to hunt than the other guys. Dear, And of course
- 12:36Speaker 1: that may be true in a micro level, but it's
- 12:38Speaker 1: not as true generally as we love to believe. And
- 12:42Speaker 1: if you get over that, you start to understand that
- 12:45Speaker 1: it will make you a better hunter everywhere. I promise you,
- 12:48Speaker 1: when you're shed hunting a tract of public land to
- 12:50Speaker 1: get some exercise in a late January day, you might
- 12:53Speaker 1: get rewarded with a shed, or you might find some
- 12:55Speaker 1: buck beds in a swamp that show you an overlooked
- 12:58Speaker 1: tidy hole, or maybe just gets you thinking a little
- 13:02Speaker 1: bit more about where the bucks actually bet on the
- 13:04Speaker 1: farm that you actually hunt. I've said it a million
- 13:08Speaker 1: times but I believe this so much woodsmanship doesn't come
- 13:13Speaker 1: solely from the single minded pursuit of big bucks. It
- 13:16Speaker 1: comes from time in the woods, learning about all critters
- 13:20Speaker 1: and often not really caring about what you're doing. I
- 13:24Speaker 1: can't tell you how many times grouse or pheasant hunting,
- 13:27Speaker 1: or squirrel hunting, or rabbit hunting, or turkey hunting, or
- 13:29Speaker 1: just during a cabin fever induced February shed hunt with
- 13:33Speaker 1: my little girls that something has clued me in to
- 13:37Speaker 1: something about deer. It happens all the time, and the
- 13:41Speaker 1: benefit is partially that shed hunting and all of those
- 13:45Speaker 1: other pursuits take me into the wild places that I
- 13:47Speaker 1: wouldn't go if I was just hunting deer or just
- 13:51Speaker 1: solely scouting for deer. Shed hunting specifically also ties into
- 13:56Speaker 1: something else that will make you a better deer hunter.
- 13:59Speaker 1: Work effort, physical effort. If you're shed hunting in the
- 14:04Speaker 1: real world, we're finding a bunch of cast antlers is
- 14:07Speaker 1: far from a guarantee. Then you're going to have to
- 14:10Speaker 1: put on the miles. In my world, in years where
- 14:13Speaker 1: I shed hunted a ton, and in years where I
- 14:16Speaker 1: shed hunted not a ton, but a decent amount I'd
- 14:19Speaker 1: average one antler every couple of weeks. That's piss pour
- 14:24Speaker 1: from a specific results standpoint, but that also might mean
- 14:28Speaker 1: thirty or forty hours spent walking through the places dear live.
- 14:33Speaker 1: The learning curve from time spending woods doesn't only bend
- 14:38Speaker 1: in your favor with dear habits and behaviors either. I
- 14:41Speaker 1: shed hunt mostly on public land, just like I hunt
- 14:45Speaker 1: all critters mostly on public land. There's nothing more obvious
- 14:49Speaker 1: during winter shed hunts than spots where people like to hunt.
- 14:53Speaker 1: There's still going to be stands in the woods, whether
- 14:56Speaker 1: they are supposed to be there or not. You're gonna
- 14:58Speaker 1: find cameras that are left up. You're gonna see tax
- 15:00Speaker 1: trails that are super obvious. Flagging on trails that's real obvious.
- 15:06Speaker 1: The spots hunters frequent, they're easy to find. They just
- 15:11Speaker 1: like the places deer frequent, start to become obvious. Pattern wise,
- 15:17Speaker 1: If you think that filling your brains database with the
- 15:19Speaker 1: most likely spots for your competition to set up in
- 15:21Speaker 1: isn't valuable, I've got some news for you. If you
- 15:25Speaker 1: hunt pressure deer, that is a huge component of being
- 15:29Speaker 1: successful and a constant reminder to do things differently. Which
- 15:33Speaker 1: not coincidentally contributes to success. This is one of the
- 15:38Speaker 1: things that justifies the work and the miles walked. You
- 15:42Speaker 1: become a better woodsman because of it, and it will
- 15:44Speaker 1: condition you to think about where the deer live, where
- 15:47Speaker 1: the other hunters usually try to kill them, and how
- 15:50Speaker 1: much work you're going to have to do to be
- 15:52Speaker 1: successful from season to season and year to year. Now,
- 15:55Speaker 1: while you're doing that, you might just spot a wall
- 15:57Speaker 1: of times poking out of a snowpack or the yellows
- 16:00Speaker 1: all grass. That's pretty damn sweet, and it's kind of
- 16:03Speaker 1: like muskie fishing, and that one bit of success in
- 16:05Speaker 1: a long day and mostly failing can carry you a
- 16:08Speaker 1: long ways. It lifts your spirits, keeps the fire burning.
- 16:12Speaker 1: It prompts you to make another ten thousand casts or
- 16:15Speaker 1: put on another thirty miles of shed walks next month.
- 16:19Speaker 1: So to wrap a nice bow around this, I'll say
- 16:21Speaker 1: what we all know, shed antlers are cool. Shed antler
- 16:25Speaker 1: hunting can be a hell of a lot of fun,
- 16:27Speaker 1: and even if it's not, it can be a great
- 16:30Speaker 1: way to go from a white belt to a purple
- 16:32Speaker 1: belt and deer knowledge or something like that. Of course,
- 16:36Speaker 1: it's not all about walking through the woods like a
- 16:38Speaker 1: Disney princess while bluebirds land on your shoulder and all
- 16:40Speaker 1: is right with the world. There are tucked into those
- 16:43Speaker 1: shed hunts, and better yet, those sheds you actually find
- 16:47Speaker 1: plenty of lessons on how to kill the bucks that
- 16:50Speaker 1: live out there in the woods where you'll hunt them
- 16:52Speaker 1: in about nine months. What shed antlers teach us is
- 16:56Speaker 1: what next week show is all about. And you're gonna
- 16:59Speaker 1: want to give it a listen because every antler you
- 17:01Speaker 1: find tells you a story that you want to hear,
- 17:04Speaker 1: even if you've got to fill in a few of
- 17:06Speaker 1: the details through just sheer imagination. That's it for this show,
- 17:12Speaker 1: My white tail loving brothers and sisters. I'm Tony Peterson
- 17:15Speaker 1: and this has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
- 17:18Speaker 1: which is brought to you by First Light. As I always,
- 17:20Speaker 1: thank you so so so much for listening, and if
- 17:23Speaker 1: you want more white tail advice, head on over to
- 17:25Speaker 1: them Eat eater dot com, slash wired and check out
- 17:29Speaker 1: our Wired to Hunt YouTube chat.