Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 334: Shed Hunting Masterclass

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Ep. 334: Shed Hunting Masterclass · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the wire to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:12
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
0:18
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode today. In
0:22
Speaker 1: the show, we are talking all things shed hunting, including
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Speaker 1: when the best time to shed hunt is, how to
0:28
Speaker 1: become a more efficient shed hunter, and much much more.
0:38
Speaker 1: All Right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
0:41
Speaker 1: to you by Onyx. Today's show we are talking shed hunting,
0:46
Speaker 1: and by that, of course, I mean the search for
0:49
Speaker 1: deer antlers. You know, it's early February as we speak,
0:52
Speaker 1: and that means there are a lot of antlers on
0:54
Speaker 1: the ground or or at least just about to be.
0:57
Speaker 1: So I wanted to devote this episode to getting you
0:59
Speaker 1: ready to hit the woods to find some of that
1:02
Speaker 1: white goal, pick up some of that bone. Now, this
1:05
Speaker 1: is going to be a little bit different episode than
1:07
Speaker 1: usual though, because I've I've admittedly had a little bit
1:11
Speaker 1: different week than usual, I think would be fair to
1:14
Speaker 1: say so rather than having one main guest interview, We're
1:18
Speaker 1: going to first open things up with a little chit
1:21
Speaker 1: chat with my buddy further about some of our favorite
1:24
Speaker 1: shed hunting memories and a few other odds and ends. Uh,
1:27
Speaker 1: then we're gonna share or I'm going to share some
1:30
Speaker 1: of my very best shed hunting advice of my own.
1:34
Speaker 1: And then finally we're gonna go back into the archives
1:36
Speaker 1: and hear from some of our past guests over the
1:39
Speaker 1: last six years were their absolute best shed hunting tips
1:43
Speaker 1: and tactics. So this one's just gonna be jam packed
1:46
Speaker 1: with ideas and insights to help you over the next
1:49
Speaker 1: month or two to just pile up those antlers. But
1:52
Speaker 1: first I've got to explain why my week has been
1:55
Speaker 1: a little bit different than usual. Um. First, you know why, right,
2:00
Speaker 1: I know why. So so you remember this, uh this
2:05
Speaker 1: shed hunting or this this little walk that turned into
2:07
Speaker 1: a shed hunting trip last week. If anyone listened to
2:10
Speaker 1: last week's podcast, you heard that story, Josh, you know
2:12
Speaker 1: that story. Um, I found trans antlers while taking my
2:17
Speaker 1: wife and son for a walk because my wife was very,
2:21
Speaker 1: very very pregnant, very uncomfortable, just wanting for this baby
2:24
Speaker 1: to arrive. Well, we did that walk, I found those antlers,
2:29
Speaker 1: and then like a day and a half later, Uh,
2:32
Speaker 1: Kylie had a doctor's appointment and so we went to
2:34
Speaker 1: the doctor's appointment, and we've been kind of in baby
2:37
Speaker 1: mode ever since the Sunday prior because she described like
2:40
Speaker 1: feeling like that she thought she was having some early
2:42
Speaker 1: labor stuff. So on Sunday, this being like January twenties six,
2:46
Speaker 1: I think with I was like, all right, it's happening today.
2:48
Speaker 1: I got everything packed, We're good to go. And then nothing.
2:50
Speaker 1: And then the next day nothing, the next day nothing,
2:52
Speaker 1: the next day nothing. So then I'd kind of just
2:54
Speaker 1: given up hope, like this is gonna be weeks we've
2:57
Speaker 1: got away to the real do date. Um, I don't know.
3:02
Speaker 1: You you know it. You know it's like just before
3:03
Speaker 1: the baby is born, you're anxious, you just want to happen, right,
3:06
Speaker 1: Oh yeah that those last couple of weeks before the
3:09
Speaker 1: dude day are just are crazy. Yeah, because yeah, it
3:13
Speaker 1: was just just I don't know how to describe it
3:15
Speaker 1: other than it's kind of like I don't know, to
3:18
Speaker 1: build up to like a big presentation and you've got
3:20
Speaker 1: some big meeting or presentation, you kind of get those nerves.
3:23
Speaker 1: You just want to get it over with so you
3:24
Speaker 1: can move on with your life. That's sort of what
3:26
Speaker 1: was going on, so hurry up and wait what it
3:30
Speaker 1: feels like? Yeah. So so we finally we get this
3:32
Speaker 1: doctor's appointment though, and at this point we're like, all right,
3:35
Speaker 1: it's probably not happening for another week week and a half,
3:37
Speaker 1: so I'll drive you to the appointment just to be safe.
3:41
Speaker 1: But I'm not getting too excited about anything. So we
3:43
Speaker 1: go to the appointment and I let Kylie go up
3:45
Speaker 1: to the doctor and I just stay in the truck
3:47
Speaker 1: doing some work. And I get a phone call fifteen
3:50
Speaker 1: minutes later and Kylie's like, markets happening. Now, come on up, Like,
3:55
Speaker 1: holy sh it. Um. I wasn't ready for this, So
3:57
Speaker 1: I go and I started trying to grab bags, bags,
4:00
Speaker 1: do you need? What stuff should I get? How fast
4:02
Speaker 1: I need to get up there? Um? And so then
4:05
Speaker 1: I had going upstairs. So I grab the stuff and
4:07
Speaker 1: I go upstairs, and um, we get we get in.
4:11
Speaker 1: They basically said that when she had her um, you know, appointment,
4:15
Speaker 1: they kind of reviewed stuff, checked out stuff, and what
4:19
Speaker 1: they saw it was just basically it's go time. Somehow
4:22
Speaker 1: my wife had been feeling anything. She didn't think she
4:24
Speaker 1: was going into labor, but it was happening. So we
4:27
Speaker 1: get in they do all this stuff. And um, without
4:32
Speaker 1: going into too much detail, two things. Number One, I
4:36
Speaker 1: had to go back out to the car to get something.
4:38
Speaker 1: So go back out to the car, and I realized
4:41
Speaker 1: that like an hour prior, when I had ran around
4:44
Speaker 1: getting all my stuff, I had forgotten to close the door.
4:47
Speaker 1: So I had the door opened to my truck a
4:49
Speaker 1: whole hour. So I guess I was a little frazzled. Uh.
4:53
Speaker 1: And the number two, when I got back upstairs, it
4:55
Speaker 1: just it happened like thirty minutes, bing bang boom, very tense.
5:01
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, we had a baby. So baby
5:04
Speaker 1: number two has arrived. His name is Colton. And uh,
5:09
Speaker 1: that happened four days ago, five days ago, stuffing like that.
5:14
Speaker 1: So I've been kind of off the grid since that, UM,
5:17
Speaker 1: trying to learn how to have two kids. It's been
5:22
Speaker 1: it's been an adventure. Drash, Are you ready to having
5:25
Speaker 1: another one? Well, we're not having any of those conversations
5:29
Speaker 1: that we're still very happy with just the one right now.
5:32
Speaker 1: So maybe maybe in another year or so we'll start
5:35
Speaker 1: having those conversations. But congratulations to you guys. Happy, excited
5:40
Speaker 1: for you guys. I can't wait to meet the little guy. Yeah,
5:43
Speaker 1: he's he's cool. He's super cute. He you know, Everett
5:47
Speaker 1: came out with very light hair and not a lot
5:49
Speaker 1: of hair and pretty light and he's kind of had
5:52
Speaker 1: varying shades, like at first it was kind of almost
5:56
Speaker 1: reddish or auburn, and then it became super blond and
5:59
Speaker 1: now it's kind of brown. But Colton came out with
6:02
Speaker 1: a great, big head of black hair. So yeah, man,
6:06
Speaker 1: he's he's cutie. I think I think he is your
6:10
Speaker 1: baby for sure. I My mom sent me some baby
6:15
Speaker 1: pictures of me. It's like a doubleganger. He's my twin. Yeah.
6:19
Speaker 1: Kylie sent that to Kelly. I was like, holy cow,
6:22
Speaker 1: that is crazy and really kind of weird. Howiltures we
6:28
Speaker 1: both kind of look like, I don't know, we just
6:31
Speaker 1: look the same, kind of like what I imagine my
6:36
Speaker 1: buddy Jason Tran looking like as a baby. It's what
6:39
Speaker 1: I and my son like. So yeah, man, it's been
6:44
Speaker 1: an adventure. He's he for some reason, when I'm on shift,
6:49
Speaker 1: he won't sleep at night, But whenever my wife's on shift,
6:51
Speaker 1: he sleeps great. So sleeps as sleeps. The work in
6:55
Speaker 1: progress right now, but otherwise stuff is going good. But
6:59
Speaker 1: it has and it is harder to get regular life
7:02
Speaker 1: up and going again. So I appreciate you find some
7:05
Speaker 1: time to to intro this one with me on a
7:08
Speaker 1: short timeframe. Are you getting pumped for sh on again,
7:10
Speaker 1: because that's on the mind for me a lot. I'm
7:13
Speaker 1: starting to see antlers pop up on social media and
7:16
Speaker 1: people are starting to scoop them up. So I'm I'm
7:21
Speaker 1: getting anxious to get out there. I'm just crazy with
7:23
Speaker 1: work right now, so I'm trying to figure out when
7:25
Speaker 1: i can get out, but I'm getting anxious for sure.
7:28
Speaker 1: That's a nice thing about sh hunting. Is this one
7:30
Speaker 1: of those things that if you've got a flexible job,
7:32
Speaker 1: or if any kind of flexibility your schedule to get
7:35
Speaker 1: out for long lunch break or something. It's the kind
7:37
Speaker 1: of thing you can kind of do in little bits
7:39
Speaker 1: of time. It's not like regular deer hunting where you
7:42
Speaker 1: gotta take a whole morning or whole afternoon or whole week. Um,
7:45
Speaker 1: you can say, oh, you know, from my lunch break,
7:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take an hour lunch break and I'm just
7:48
Speaker 1: gonna go walk this little patch of woods behind the
7:50
Speaker 1: factory here. You're gonna go walk this piece of public land. Um,
7:55
Speaker 1: that's chunka I got a big chunk of public right
7:58
Speaker 1: by me, and I'm planning on it in the dog
8:01
Speaker 1: out for a walk on one of these days during
8:03
Speaker 1: the lunch hour, and just I don't have very high hopes,
8:06
Speaker 1: but fund at least get the get the dog out,
8:08
Speaker 1: set the legs out a little bit, and who knows. Yeah,
8:11
Speaker 1: I mean it's just a good excuse to guess i'd
8:15
Speaker 1: for for me, at least it can be if you're
8:17
Speaker 1: not if you're if it's not time to go scouting yet,
8:19
Speaker 1: or you can't get to your main hunting properties to scout. Um,
8:22
Speaker 1: this is like your best excuse in February or March
8:25
Speaker 1: to get out there doing something. Um, after the cabin
8:30
Speaker 1: fever of January sets in. You just kind of need it. Um.
8:34
Speaker 1: That's a huge thing I like about shed hunting. Um.
8:38
Speaker 1: You know, as far as what you can how you
8:40
Speaker 1: can benefit from it from a hunting perspective, there are
8:44
Speaker 1: a few things. I don't get too caught up in
8:46
Speaker 1: what it does for me from a hunting perspective. I
8:48
Speaker 1: kind of do it for the pure joy of it.
8:50
Speaker 1: But you can, I mean, if nothing else, you can
8:53
Speaker 1: learn a little bit about what deer made it through
8:57
Speaker 1: to the next year, you know, like finding trans antlers
9:00
Speaker 1: the other day. Now I know for sure he's made
9:02
Speaker 1: it into February or January, and uh, you know that's
9:06
Speaker 1: a good feeling. And you can sort of confirm theories
9:10
Speaker 1: about where they might be betted because lots of times
9:13
Speaker 1: betting areas will be the spots you'll find the sheds,
9:15
Speaker 1: so that helps. Um. But man, I just like the
9:18
Speaker 1: fun of it. It's it's just like an Easter egg
9:22
Speaker 1: hunt for adults. Yeah, no, it's it's a blast. And um,
9:26
Speaker 1: I mean you wouldn't think it'd be that fun just
9:28
Speaker 1: walking around looking at the ground, But I don't know,
9:30
Speaker 1: there's something about it. It just draws you in and
9:34
Speaker 1: keeps you focused the whole time you're out there. Just
9:37
Speaker 1: you know, it's really that interaction that you have, you know,
9:40
Speaker 1: similar to hunting when you're when you're out there in
9:41
Speaker 1: the woods. Um, you're not just walking around aimlessly. You've
9:45
Speaker 1: got to you've got a goal that you're looking for.
9:47
Speaker 1: Kind of helps it helps you keep keeping the zone. Yeah.
9:51
Speaker 1: Well it's I think you know, the chemical inside the
9:56
Speaker 1: human body that creates a craving is dopamine, or it's
10:02
Speaker 1: when you get this little dopamine burst because of some
10:04
Speaker 1: kind of reward, it then caused you to crave it
10:07
Speaker 1: more and more. And what we get as a shed
10:11
Speaker 1: hunter when you see that time, or when you see
10:14
Speaker 1: that crown shape, or when you see the curve of
10:17
Speaker 1: an antler beam that bursts of excitement, that little dopamine
10:21
Speaker 1: burst is just the thing. I mean. I love the
10:27
Speaker 1: moment of confirmation, like, oh ship, I got one. That's
10:31
Speaker 1: the best thing. I mean. Do you remember our trip
10:36
Speaker 1: We did our North Dakota, Montana trip and I flipped
10:39
Speaker 1: the canoe in to the river and I'm soaking wet
10:42
Speaker 1: and we're walking through those nasty Russian olive bushes and
10:45
Speaker 1: then you pop onto that little opening. Describe to me
10:48
Speaker 1: what that feeling was like when you popped out of
10:50
Speaker 1: that thicket and you saw that big old triple brown
10:54
Speaker 1: type shed. I just picked up that shed right now.
10:56
Speaker 1: It's sitting right here by my desk. But that was
10:59
Speaker 1: I didn't even know, you know, what I was looking
11:02
Speaker 1: at until I picked it up. Could just the the
11:06
Speaker 1: triple brower, the big brow time is down and kind
11:09
Speaker 1: of the snow and leaves and stuff and I couldn't
11:11
Speaker 1: even see it. I picked up the whole a cow. Um.
11:14
Speaker 1: That was by far my best shot I've ever found. Um,
11:17
Speaker 1: and that just really kicked off. That was a that
11:20
Speaker 1: was a precursor of what was to come that day.
11:22
Speaker 1: That was just an absolutely epic day of shed hunting. Um.
11:27
Speaker 1: There's like two phases two there's two. I don't know
11:30
Speaker 1: how many of there, but there's two things I can
11:32
Speaker 1: think of right now when it comes to like the
11:33
Speaker 1: fun of the shed hunting. There's that moment when you
11:36
Speaker 1: see it like that burst I has talked about. So
11:38
Speaker 1: that's like step one. That's huge. And the second great
11:41
Speaker 1: moment is when you walk up to and you get
11:43
Speaker 1: to finally pick it up, you finally touch it, and
11:45
Speaker 1: you lift it up and you admire it and you
11:47
Speaker 1: look at it and you spin it around and show
11:50
Speaker 1: your buddies Like. That's the next really awesome little moment um.
11:55
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I'm trying to think what what
11:57
Speaker 1: then after that? Then I, at least as I keep going,
12:00
Speaker 1: I love to continue just admiring it. Once you pick
12:02
Speaker 1: it up, you look at it, then you keep walking,
12:04
Speaker 1: and then I love to just keep spinning around my
12:06
Speaker 1: hands feel the weight of it. Even like here in
12:08
Speaker 1: my office, I've got that match set from Tran on
12:11
Speaker 1: the bookshelf behind me, and like at least once a day,
12:13
Speaker 1: if not multiple times, I keep going back to a
12:15
Speaker 1: picking them up, looking at him, thinking about and being like, man,
12:18
Speaker 1: just two months ago, I was even a month ago,
12:22
Speaker 1: even a couple of weeks ago, really what is it
12:24
Speaker 1: to his early February? So yeah, a little over a
12:26
Speaker 1: month ago, Um, I was out there watching this deer
12:30
Speaker 1: with these antlers on his head, obsessing about that, trying
12:33
Speaker 1: to find that deer, and now like I'm holding a
12:36
Speaker 1: part of that creature that is I don't know, it's crazy. Yeah,
12:40
Speaker 1: it's wild. And I think one thing that you missed on,
12:43
Speaker 1: you know, after you pick one up, is there there's
12:46
Speaker 1: that immediate like reaction like okay, you gotta match him up.
12:49
Speaker 1: Where's the other side. It's gotta be around here somewhere,
12:51
Speaker 1: So you get that little again burst of of of adrenaline,
12:55
Speaker 1: you know, keeping your eyes peeling that same general area,
12:58
Speaker 1: hoping you can you can match the other side up. Yeah,
13:01
Speaker 1: I don't know. There's always seems to be that burst
13:03
Speaker 1: of energy right after you find one trying to find
13:06
Speaker 1: the other side keeps you going for a while. New
13:08
Speaker 1: optimism for sure, the huge boost of optimism, even if
13:11
Speaker 1: you're not the one who found it. If even one
13:13
Speaker 1: of the people you're out there with finds one, that
13:15
Speaker 1: always just makes I think everyone feel better and excited. Um,
13:20
Speaker 1: unless you're one of our friends. Just get a little
13:22
Speaker 1: bit more down every time someone finds one. Yes, as
13:26
Speaker 1: long as you help get two worked up about who
13:28
Speaker 1: finds the most sheds, then you can have fun. Getta
13:30
Speaker 1: gotta rejoice in the group's success. Um. Otherwise, yeah, you
13:35
Speaker 1: can get a little thanksgiving depressed on it if h
13:41
Speaker 1: But man, that's funny you bring that up, because I
13:44
Speaker 1: think the final thing I love about shed hunting is
13:48
Speaker 1: so much of the time it's like a communal thing.
13:51
Speaker 1: It's a thing you can go out and do with friends.
13:53
Speaker 1: I mean, all my best shed hunting memories are when
13:56
Speaker 1: I'm with people. Sure, I love get out there and
13:59
Speaker 1: just walking by myself and finding some but the best
14:01
Speaker 1: times they're like the trips where you go out with
14:03
Speaker 1: buddies or going out with my family or you know,
14:06
Speaker 1: like our Iowah shed camp. Um, just the fun times
14:10
Speaker 1: you can have because you're out there together your bs
14:12
Speaker 1: and you're talking. It's it's yeah, it's not nearly a
14:17
Speaker 1: solitary of sitting in a tree by yourself, and I
14:19
Speaker 1: love that, of course, but it's also fun to be
14:21
Speaker 1: able to do these things, just like turkey hunting is
14:23
Speaker 1: where it can be like just having a good time
14:25
Speaker 1: with your buddies. Um And if I think about my
14:28
Speaker 1: favorite shed hunting memories, I'm thinking our Iowah shed trips
14:32
Speaker 1: with the crew, just just stupid stuff going on, laughing
14:36
Speaker 1: all the time. I'm thinking about that North Dakota Motan
14:39
Speaker 1: trip that you and I took together. Just unreal scenery,
14:43
Speaker 1: unreal sheds, just like the camped out in the tents
14:46
Speaker 1: and the snow, our trips down to Ohio. Yes, our
14:51
Speaker 1: trips to Ohio. Those are great times. Yeah. So you know,
14:54
Speaker 1: and I'm mostly with the exception of like the North
14:57
Speaker 1: Dakota Montana trip. I mean, we haven't on like a
15:01
Speaker 1: ton of sheds as a group, but they're always just
15:04
Speaker 1: so fun just because they're just so laid back and
15:07
Speaker 1: you know, hanging around camp. You know, we're usually camping
15:09
Speaker 1: or doing something. Um, so it's just a great time.
15:12
Speaker 1: Even if we're not finding at Yeah. Okay, So speaking
15:15
Speaker 1: of that favorite shed camp or shed shrip memories, I've got, Oh, well,
15:20
Speaker 1: what's yours, I've probably one of yours first similar uh
15:26
Speaker 1: Andy burn That was exactly I don't know how that's
15:32
Speaker 1: not number one. It's the most ridiculous thing ever. Oh God,
15:35
Speaker 1: from a borrowed tent. It wasn't even his own tent. Yeah.
15:38
Speaker 1: So he's borrowing our friends sister's tent and he starts
15:44
Speaker 1: to break down the tent to go pack it up,
15:46
Speaker 1: and he forgot that he had a Mr Buddy heater
15:48
Speaker 1: in there on and so when he collapsed the tent down,
15:52
Speaker 1: it just burst into flace well in our and our
15:58
Speaker 1: buddy who Dustin Who's and it was he had left
16:01
Speaker 1: the day before. Yeah, and he's like, hey, we just
16:03
Speaker 1: leave that tent for I feel I feel like I
16:07
Speaker 1: feel like Andy even said that, He's like, although, maybe
16:09
Speaker 1: this isn't such a good idea because I tend to
16:11
Speaker 1: screw things up. Oh man, I know that heater was necessary.
16:16
Speaker 1: That that was a cold, cold weekend. That was cold.
16:19
Speaker 1: Speaking of cold weekends of shed hunting, that brings me
16:22
Speaker 1: to another favorite moment, which was at the end of
16:25
Speaker 1: our shed hunting trip in Montana. You and me. We
16:28
Speaker 1: were camped out in our little backpacking tents off the
16:30
Speaker 1: side of the road on some state land or blm
16:33
Speaker 1: land or something. And we go into town to go
16:35
Speaker 1: to a bar to kiss some food. And as we're
16:39
Speaker 1: walking in, some girl walks by and just are you
16:42
Speaker 1: this guy's camped out off that road down there, and like, yeah,
16:45
Speaker 1: that's us. Just you guys are pretty badass, pretty bad.
16:49
Speaker 1: I was a little disappointed that didn't make it into
16:51
Speaker 1: the book mark. I know, you know that the first
16:58
Speaker 1: and only time will ever be called badasses. I know,
17:01
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna take it and run with it. So
17:04
Speaker 1: those are those are two top ones? Uh? What about
17:09
Speaker 1: this one with Andy? So Andy Bradley were out there
17:11
Speaker 1: shed hunting in Iowa and he he comes walking along
17:16
Speaker 1: his grassy patch and he sees a shed, his first
17:18
Speaker 1: shed of the trip, right, and maybe his first shed ever,
17:21
Speaker 1: I can't remember if that's true enough. But he grabs
17:23
Speaker 1: the sheds I got one, and then Ross looks over
17:26
Speaker 1: he says, oh, I found that one last year and
17:28
Speaker 1: throw it back because it was all chewed up, is
17:34
Speaker 1: not good shape, And oh man, that's pretty funny that
17:38
Speaker 1: killed she hunting for Andy after that, he's has he's
17:41
Speaker 1: ever gone since? I don't know if he's ever since
17:44
Speaker 1: Ross ruined him. Oh god, I don't know. Those are
17:48
Speaker 1: those are three top ones for me? Yeah, I think another.
17:52
Speaker 1: I think another one you already mentioned It was you
17:55
Speaker 1: flipping the canoe. Yeah, that's a that's a that's a given. Um.
18:01
Speaker 1: I've got one that sticks out as not being very
18:03
Speaker 1: happy with you. This is our same trip North Dakota.
18:08
Speaker 1: We were in North Dakota at the time, and we
18:11
Speaker 1: had just taken a long hike to get around to
18:14
Speaker 1: this other side of this little section that we wanted
18:15
Speaker 1: to hiking. We're going and had we found any shots
18:22
Speaker 1: at this point yet? Had we hit the other side yet?
18:25
Speaker 1: Would you had just found the match set? Those are
18:27
Speaker 1: the found that match set out in the middle of
18:30
Speaker 1: that stage brush Bield just sitting there in the open,
18:32
Speaker 1: which is awesome, but that you know, we hadn't found
18:35
Speaker 1: much before that, and gosh, you're just walking along and
18:39
Speaker 1: the spot looks sweet and I'm I'm standing in my lane.
18:42
Speaker 1: You know, the unwritten rules of shed hunting. You're wandering
18:45
Speaker 1: eyes and cut into someone else's path and up ahead
18:50
Speaker 1: of me. There's this uh three or four point side
18:53
Speaker 1: Out of the corner of my eyes, he marked, just
18:55
Speaker 1: sprinting in front of me. I saw I called it before,
19:00
Speaker 1: or you saw it for sure? I don't know. This
19:03
Speaker 1: is your word against mine. I seem to be more
19:06
Speaker 1: trustworthy than you typically, So, um yeah, man, shed poached.
19:11
Speaker 1: May Well, we'll have to get out here soon and
19:16
Speaker 1: uh get after it, and you have an opportunity to
19:18
Speaker 1: try to return the favor. I guess well, we've got
19:21
Speaker 1: a We've got a spot that we could go together.
19:23
Speaker 1: I think would be pretty prime for sheds here in
19:26
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks, that eight or ten acres,
19:28
Speaker 1: a bunch of conifers right and right by a little
19:32
Speaker 1: creek bottom. I think might be dynamite for sheds. Why
19:36
Speaker 1: do I not know about this? Where is this? Dude?
19:40
Speaker 1: You know about this? We're a hum all year. Oh yeah,
19:43
Speaker 1: I totally forgot about that. You're right, yeah, So if
19:48
Speaker 1: there's any bucks that didn't get killed out there, there's
19:50
Speaker 1: a lot of them that got killed around me, but
19:52
Speaker 1: I totally forgot about man. I don't think there's a
19:54
Speaker 1: better area in that block than than right there for
19:57
Speaker 1: those duds to spend time during the winter, so it
19:59
Speaker 1: has got to be, oh, we should, we need to
20:00
Speaker 1: make a plan. I totally forget that. That's got me
20:02
Speaker 1: all excited. Yeah, I think that's I'm looking forward to
20:06
Speaker 1: getting my dog out there and running him around a
20:08
Speaker 1: little bit because I've never had him and he's quote
20:11
Speaker 1: unquote trained d dog that's very uh, very loose quotes there,
20:18
Speaker 1: but he's never been in a spot he could really
20:20
Speaker 1: find any So it'd be fun to get him out
20:22
Speaker 1: there and boom and see if they could eat a
20:25
Speaker 1: lot of deer ship and running, so yeah, exactly, and
20:28
Speaker 1: then puke everywhere and they get home. That's probably the
20:31
Speaker 1: reality of But yeah, man, all right, well let's get on.
20:37
Speaker 1: Let's make it happen. If I can find some little
20:41
Speaker 1: nugget of free time now between Chase and two kids around,
20:44
Speaker 1: I might bring every but every really evers enjoying the hikes.
20:47
Speaker 1: I took him out just the other day again and
20:50
Speaker 1: he's enjoying there. So Wade might be a little young
20:53
Speaker 1: for that, but we'll see soon. I try to get
20:55
Speaker 1: him out there, all right, man, Well this is this
20:58
Speaker 1: is perfect. I just want to kind of fluff fluff
21:01
Speaker 1: up the audience with some shed hunting excitement before we
21:04
Speaker 1: dined into the TIFFs and tactics and all that. So
21:07
Speaker 1: I am thoroughly excited. I am looking right now at
21:10
Speaker 1: the shed from holy Field, the shed from six Shooter,
21:14
Speaker 1: and the shed from Frank, all across the wall in
21:17
Speaker 1: front of me. All these bucks that um that I've
21:20
Speaker 1: been fortunate enough to see in hunt and a couple
21:23
Speaker 1: I've killed. And uh, I'm waiting to see what the
21:26
Speaker 1: next one of those might be. So let's let's get
21:29
Speaker 1: after it and pick up some bone here soon. Dude,
21:31
Speaker 1: can't wait looking forward to it. All right, let's say
21:33
Speaker 1: a quick break and then we're gonna get back with
21:36
Speaker 1: some of my very best shed hunting advice. I want
21:40
Speaker 1: to give you guys a heads up about an event
21:42
Speaker 1: coming up March. Oh gosh, I think it's March thirteen
21:46
Speaker 1: through the fourteen. Those are in March twelve through fourteen.
21:49
Speaker 1: It is the Quality Dear Management Association's Whitetail Weekend. It's
21:53
Speaker 1: down in Athens, Georgia. This is like their national convention
21:57
Speaker 1: for two thousand twenty and I'm one of the keynote speakers.
22:00
Speaker 1: I will be speaking on the fourteenth. That's March fourteen.
22:03
Speaker 1: It's a Saturday, and I would love to see you guys.
22:06
Speaker 1: They're all sorts of great events, educational, social events, demonstrations,
22:11
Speaker 1: and lots lots more. Head over to QDMA dot com
22:14
Speaker 1: to register. Like I said, it's down in Athens, Georgia,
22:17
Speaker 1: March twelve through fourt but I will be speaking on
22:20
Speaker 1: the fourteen. I hope to see you guys there alright.
22:23
Speaker 1: So now it's just me and I want to share
22:26
Speaker 1: with you guys a couple key pointers. I guess when
22:29
Speaker 1: it comes to shed hunting. We've talked about shed hunting
22:32
Speaker 1: a lot in past episodes. We're gonna share a few
22:34
Speaker 1: more of those best of moments here in a minute.
22:37
Speaker 1: But I want to share a few of my best
22:39
Speaker 1: of pieces of shed hunting advice. Over the last decade,
22:42
Speaker 1: I have spent a ton of time in the woods
22:44
Speaker 1: trying to become a good shed hunter and figuring it out,
22:47
Speaker 1: and a few of the things that have been most
22:49
Speaker 1: important to me I want I want to share with
22:51
Speaker 1: you next. And the first thing is all about timing
22:53
Speaker 1: the importance of knowing the right time to go shed hunting,
22:56
Speaker 1: because if you go shed hunting too early, there's some downsides,
22:59
Speaker 1: And if you go hunting too late, there are some downsides.
23:02
Speaker 1: So how do you figure that out? Well, here's what
23:05
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, and this is from an
23:07
Speaker 1: article I wrote for The Mediator. If you go to
23:09
Speaker 1: the meat Eator dot com you can find a whole
23:11
Speaker 1: bunch of my writing. But I wrote a little bit
23:13
Speaker 1: here on this topic, and I want to talk to
23:15
Speaker 1: you about that. So, if you go hunting shed hunting
23:18
Speaker 1: too early, think about this. The more frequently you walk
23:22
Speaker 1: through an area, the more likely you are to stress
23:24
Speaker 1: local wildlife. If you're shed hunting in an area where
23:27
Speaker 1: deer or elk struggle through tough winters, your presence could
23:30
Speaker 1: be detrimental to their survival. For this reason, an increasing
23:33
Speaker 1: number of Western states have put shed hunting seasons in place,
23:36
Speaker 1: delaying pressure until most of the winners passed. Antler collectors
23:40
Speaker 1: in the Northeast or Upper Grade Lakes might consider self
23:43
Speaker 1: imposed shed hunting delay for these same reasons. Early shed
23:46
Speaker 1: hunting by way of increased hunting pressure can also push
23:49
Speaker 1: bucks out of your area before they've even dropped their antlers.
23:52
Speaker 1: You know, if you're out there hiking around looking for antlers,
23:55
Speaker 1: that are still on top of a deer's head. You're
23:57
Speaker 1: wasting your time and you're reducing the chances of those
24:00
Speaker 1: antlers ever ending up in an area you can search. So,
24:02
Speaker 1: in an ideal situation, you want bucks feeling comfortable and
24:06
Speaker 1: spending large amounts of time on your property, and then
24:09
Speaker 1: only after the majority of those antlers have dropped do
24:12
Speaker 1: you want to go in there looking for him. So
24:14
Speaker 1: another thing to keep in mind though, is that snow
24:16
Speaker 1: is a factor when planning your shed hunts. It goes
24:19
Speaker 1: without saying that shed hunting in very snowy conditions is
24:22
Speaker 1: more difficult and usually a waste of time. So those
24:25
Speaker 1: are some things about going to early. On the flip side,
24:28
Speaker 1: if you wait too long, if you shed hunt too late,
24:31
Speaker 1: especially in areas with high squirrel or rodent populations, you
24:35
Speaker 1: then risk significant damage being done to those falling aislers.
24:38
Speaker 1: You know, the longer nailers is on the ground, the
24:41
Speaker 1: more likely another animal is going to come over and
24:43
Speaker 1: start chewing on it. Another thing to keep in mind
24:46
Speaker 1: is human competition that is rising every year more and
24:49
Speaker 1: more shed hunters are heading out there. So if you
24:51
Speaker 1: are shed hunting shared ground or public land and you
24:53
Speaker 1: show up late, there might not be any antlers left
24:56
Speaker 1: to find at all. So keeping all of that in mind,
24:59
Speaker 1: it's important to keep track of several different factors that
25:02
Speaker 1: should also help you to turn when the timing is right.
25:05
Speaker 1: The most obvious of these is the actual calendar date.
25:08
Speaker 1: The shedding of antlers is primarily driven by dropping two
25:11
Speaker 1: stosterol levels, and that's tied to changes in daylight. Since
25:15
Speaker 1: the change in photo period over the course of winter
25:17
Speaker 1: happens at a predictable rate, the timing of antler drop
25:20
Speaker 1: is also relatively consistent. For the Midwest, the peak of
25:24
Speaker 1: white tail antler drop tends to occur from early February
25:28
Speaker 1: through early March. It's also important to consider how other
25:32
Speaker 1: factors might shift the timing of antler drop earlier later
25:35
Speaker 1: kind of localized things, so variables such as how severe
25:38
Speaker 1: the winter was, what the available in nutrition is, or
25:41
Speaker 1: eading the health of individual bucks can all slide the
25:44
Speaker 1: timing of antler drop one way or another. So the
25:47
Speaker 1: best way I've found to keep tabs on these regional
25:50
Speaker 1: factors is to monitor the local deer heard with your
25:53
Speaker 1: trail cameras. So I like to check my trail cams
25:56
Speaker 1: I like to place them near the best winter food sources,
25:59
Speaker 1: checking them about weekly. When I see that more than
26:02
Speaker 1: fifty of the box of shed, I know it's go time.
26:05
Speaker 1: So with all that said, on most years, between February
26:08
Speaker 1: fifteenth and March fifteenth is usually the best time to
26:11
Speaker 1: start shed hunting, at least in my neck of the woods.
26:13
Speaker 1: So I would consider or at least recommend taking a
26:16
Speaker 1: look at those dates and then adjusting your starting point
26:19
Speaker 1: in either direction based on those things I just mentioned
26:21
Speaker 1: it save area of winter, available nutrition, and the results
26:24
Speaker 1: of your trail cameras. Now, once you know when to
26:28
Speaker 1: start shed hunting, the next thing is how do you
26:30
Speaker 1: become a better shed hunter? And we're gonna cover a
26:32
Speaker 1: few more different tips, but I think one of the
26:34
Speaker 1: most important things I've learned is the importance of being
26:37
Speaker 1: an efficient shed hunter. So here's a little bit of insight.
26:40
Speaker 1: I wrote up again for the Mediator website. The best
26:44
Speaker 1: and worst shed hunting advice I ever received was just
26:48
Speaker 1: keep walking. You know, there's a beautiful simplicity to that idea,
26:53
Speaker 1: but also this dangerous oversimplification. When I first began shed hunting,
26:58
Speaker 1: I took this approach to heart and I simply walked,
27:01
Speaker 1: walked and walked, and walked and walked and walked. In
27:03
Speaker 1: the most beginning shed hunters d I blindly traversed every
27:06
Speaker 1: square inch of every property I had access to, and yes,
27:09
Speaker 1: on occasion, I'd actually find an antler. It was great rush.
27:12
Speaker 1: But the more years I spent scouring the forest floors
27:16
Speaker 1: of the Midwest, the more I came to realize my
27:18
Speaker 1: approach was flawed. More precisely, it was inefficient. I found
27:23
Speaker 1: that the key to picking up more sheds is not
27:26
Speaker 1: just endless determined walking, it's actually more efficient walking. So
27:32
Speaker 1: why does efficiency matter? I found more than fifty white
27:36
Speaker 1: tail antlers last year across Michigan, Ohio, and Montana, and
27:40
Speaker 1: when studying the location of each of these antlers, a
27:42
Speaker 1: pattern emerged that was consistent with my own observations in
27:45
Speaker 1: the past decade. The vast majority of the antlers I
27:48
Speaker 1: found were located in the most predictable locations, and this
27:51
Speaker 1: pattern seemed to adhere to something I learned about an
27:54
Speaker 1: economics called the Parado principle, or more commonly, the twenty rule.
27:59
Speaker 1: This rule states of a given outcome generally results from
28:04
Speaker 1: of the input. When this is applied to shed hunting.
28:06
Speaker 1: It matches the pattern I observed almost perfectly. Somewhere around
28:10
Speaker 1: eighty percent of the sheds I found were located and
28:13
Speaker 1: only about of the area had access to And I've
28:16
Speaker 1: seen this now time and time again. Sheds are not
28:19
Speaker 1: spread randomly across the landscape. Instead, they're most commonly found
28:23
Speaker 1: in concentrated areas for very specific reasons. But this being
28:27
Speaker 1: the case, the most effective shed hunters are the most
28:29
Speaker 1: efficient shed hunters. It's those who spend the majority of
28:32
Speaker 1: their time focus on searching these key areas that have
28:36
Speaker 1: the most success. Rather than spreading your shed hunting time
28:39
Speaker 1: equally across the entire property. You want to apply a
28:42
Speaker 1: higher degree of thoroughness to the highest potential areas. So
28:46
Speaker 1: then how do you identify that top When looking at
28:50
Speaker 1: my fifty antlers from last year and the dozens of
28:52
Speaker 1: others from previous years, it's clear that the majority of
28:55
Speaker 1: sheds were found in one of two types of locations,
28:58
Speaker 1: either food sources or betting areas. When it comes to
29:01
Speaker 1: food sources, focus on those that are highly attracted to
29:04
Speaker 1: deer during the winter months. These food sources of the
29:07
Speaker 1: hub of the wheel that a winter white tails world
29:10
Speaker 1: revolves around this quality food at this time is hard
29:12
Speaker 1: to come by. For this reason, winter white tails will
29:15
Speaker 1: frequently relocate from the typical summer fall ranges to be
29:18
Speaker 1: close to the best food. Depending on your location, this
29:22
Speaker 1: quality winter food might come in the form of corn
29:24
Speaker 1: or beans, alfalfa, turnips, radishes, winter wheat, or any other
29:28
Speaker 1: number of quality agriculture or native forage options. The key
29:33
Speaker 1: to locating the best late season food sources in your
29:35
Speaker 1: area is to identify the fields or location with the
29:38
Speaker 1: highest amount of recent deer sign In particular, I'm seeking
29:41
Speaker 1: out fresh tracks and fresh droppings, rubs, scrapes, trails, all
29:46
Speaker 1: that stuff from last fault. They don't help you at
29:48
Speaker 1: this point because what matters is where deer have been
29:50
Speaker 1: through January up to March. Once you found those best
29:53
Speaker 1: food sources, you're halfway to you. But the second half
29:57
Speaker 1: of your high priority area comes in the form of
29:59
Speaker 1: betting areas near those food sources. Winter bedding can come
30:03
Speaker 1: in the form of sunny, southern facing hillsides, cedar or
30:06
Speaker 1: pine thickets, native grasses or crp, or any other kind
30:10
Speaker 1: of thick cover that's adjacent to that high quality late
30:13
Speaker 1: season food. Again, you want to confirm this by looking
30:16
Speaker 1: at these winter bedding areas and seeking out the fresh tracks, droppings,
30:20
Speaker 1: and oval depressions formed by bedded animals. So now you've
30:23
Speaker 1: got your focus area, how do you now use your
30:27
Speaker 1: eight percent of thoroughness in that? Once you've identified your top,
30:33
Speaker 1: it's time to apply your shed hunting time to these
30:35
Speaker 1: sections in earnest, placing a disproportionate amountitor focus in these
30:39
Speaker 1: high priority regions. Now, before my whole efficiency revelation, I
30:44
Speaker 1: would spend days grid searching an entire property. I'd walk
30:47
Speaker 1: a straight line down a border and then shift forty
30:49
Speaker 1: yards down and do the same thing going back to
30:51
Speaker 1: the other direction. The issue wasn't just that I was
30:54
Speaker 1: spending time on the low odds locations, but when I
30:58
Speaker 1: did actually arrive at the high odd spot, I was
31:00
Speaker 1: either too short on time to properly search them where
31:03
Speaker 1: I was so burnt out that my focus dipped. So
31:06
Speaker 1: rather than spending ten hours walking entire property, I'll now
31:09
Speaker 1: spend the first eight scouring the bedding and feeding areas.
31:12
Speaker 1: And when I do that, I'm fully engaged and I've
31:15
Speaker 1: got high hopes my time spent there is higher quality,
31:18
Speaker 1: more focused and ultimately more productive. With more time to
31:22
Speaker 1: spend in these small areas, I can make the extra
31:25
Speaker 1: effort to change my perspective, which means sometimes standing on
31:28
Speaker 1: top of logs for a different view, or looking back
31:31
Speaker 1: behind me in an area that might otherwise have been
31:33
Speaker 1: blocked by brush. I moved slowly, and I scan with
31:36
Speaker 1: more attention to detail. I pick up part of landscape
31:39
Speaker 1: for any telltale flash of white or curve of a beam.
31:42
Speaker 1: I carefully look behind down trees, underneath lone cedars, and
31:45
Speaker 1: in tall grass boarding food picking apart each particularly promising
31:50
Speaker 1: piece of habitat. In a perfect world, by focusing your
31:54
Speaker 1: shed hunting time on the top of a property, you'll
31:57
Speaker 1: have more time to spend on additional shed hunting area
32:00
Speaker 1: is and focus on the top there as well. The
32:03
Speaker 1: end result should be a hundred percent of your time
32:05
Speaker 1: or close to it spent in high probability locations rather
32:10
Speaker 1: than wasting on the low probability sections that comprise most areas. Now,
32:14
Speaker 1: of course, all rules are made to be broken, and
32:17
Speaker 1: yes I find sheds every year in random locations not
32:20
Speaker 1: associated with betting or feeding, but the general trend almost
32:24
Speaker 1: always applies. Efficiency is the name of the game when
32:28
Speaker 1: it comes to smart and productive shed hunting, and the
32:31
Speaker 1: twenty rule can help you achieve it. So those are
32:35
Speaker 1: two of the biggest ideas that I keep in mind
32:38
Speaker 1: when I go out shed hunting. Number one, timing my
32:41
Speaker 1: shed hunting to make sure I'm not going into early
32:43
Speaker 1: and I'm not going in too late. And then number two,
32:45
Speaker 1: when I do start hitting my spots, I'm efficient. I
32:48
Speaker 1: really focus on the highest probability locations now when it
32:52
Speaker 1: comes to how to spot sheds, how to pick the
32:55
Speaker 1: perfect little locations where there might be one, like underneath
32:57
Speaker 1: the cedar tree. All of us have been covered in
32:59
Speaker 1: DTA on past episodes and articles, but I want to
33:02
Speaker 1: share with you a few more pieces of advice from
33:05
Speaker 1: some of our past guests. First off, we've got Dan
33:09
Speaker 1: Perez from White Tail Properties, and I want to share
33:13
Speaker 1: the segment from our chat with him on episode forty six,
33:16
Speaker 1: in which he discusses how he starts his shut hunting
33:18
Speaker 1: process each year and the most important places he searches.
33:22
Speaker 1: And then finally Dan shares some very unique advice for
33:25
Speaker 1: a a special spot you might be able to find
33:28
Speaker 1: an aniler too concerning the the timing um I worked
33:35
Speaker 1: the edges the fields of stuff again, because I don't
33:38
Speaker 1: want to push him out. Uh So so when it's time,
33:41
Speaker 1: when when the majority the deer have dropped their antlers,
33:44
Speaker 1: then I'll answer the timber as well. This way I
33:47
Speaker 1: won't push him out by work in the fields. But
33:50
Speaker 1: now I'm looking for him in their antlers and their
33:52
Speaker 1: bedding areas, and and uh and a lot of other places.
33:55
Speaker 1: I look at bedding areas. And I'll tell you the
33:58
Speaker 1: best way that I look at is if I'm a
34:00
Speaker 1: deer and i'm I'm I'm out all night, okay, and
34:03
Speaker 1: now sun the sun is starting to come out, and
34:06
Speaker 1: and I catch those first warm rays that are coming
34:09
Speaker 1: from the south and from the east. Well, I'm just
34:12
Speaker 1: gonna I'm on a bed somewhere where I'm nice and comfortable,
34:15
Speaker 1: and that sun hits me because it's been cold all night.
34:17
Speaker 1: It's it's winter. Um. So, two places that I key on,
34:23
Speaker 1: I like to two key on edge uh. Edge and
34:28
Speaker 1: edges is very dominant here because of the the agriculture.
34:31
Speaker 1: You know edge um that is on the on the
34:36
Speaker 1: south and the southeast side of the edge. I look
34:39
Speaker 1: for that quite a bit. I slopes um the side
34:43
Speaker 1: of hogbacks or or hills or or or gullies the
34:48
Speaker 1: sides where it does two things. It Uh, You've got
34:53
Speaker 1: the the south facing slope if there's not if it's
34:56
Speaker 1: not heavily timbered, you'll get plenty of sun and it's
34:58
Speaker 1: warm and it's comfortable. That's where they bed and that
35:01
Speaker 1: the back side of that slope is it breaks the wind.
35:04
Speaker 1: It's important for them not to have that north wind
35:07
Speaker 1: on them. So it serves as two purposes. That's when
35:10
Speaker 1: I go into the timber when I'm when I'm in
35:13
Speaker 1: the field first, I'm looking at the at the south
35:15
Speaker 1: southeast edge is quite a bit. I don't. I don't
35:18
Speaker 1: hardly look at the shade side of of stuff very much,
35:21
Speaker 1: although I oh I will when I'm driving around. But
35:24
Speaker 1: most of the antlers I find will be where the
35:26
Speaker 1: where the deer finally bedded after a long night and
35:30
Speaker 1: they want to bed somewhere warm, you know, if that
35:32
Speaker 1: makes sense to you guys. So so the south facing
35:36
Speaker 1: slopes and the south facing edge is a big deal
35:40
Speaker 1: for me, and and and and and the other thing
35:42
Speaker 1: to go along with I think you mentioned something about
35:46
Speaker 1: I think about dry bedding. I'm not. I'm not sure
35:49
Speaker 1: the context of what you said, but dry bedding is
35:52
Speaker 1: really important also because when the snow falls, everything's wet
35:57
Speaker 1: and you would think that uh uh oak leaves would
36:00
Speaker 1: be good, but the oak leaves get pretty muddy out
36:03
Speaker 1: out in the timber. I like, I like cedar, think
36:05
Speaker 1: it's cride a bit. And maybe that's what you mentioned.
36:07
Speaker 1: Maybe it was cedars. I'm not sure cedars, pines, anything
36:10
Speaker 1: that provides really dry bedding. UM. A lot of people
36:14
Speaker 1: plant the warm season grasses on their properties. When those
36:17
Speaker 1: grasses fall over, they provide really dry bedding as well.
36:20
Speaker 1: Those deer, you know, it's cold and then they don't
36:22
Speaker 1: really like to lay in a mud puddle. So so
36:25
Speaker 1: I I I key on those areas. I try to
36:28
Speaker 1: What I try to do is knock out the areas
36:30
Speaker 1: that are the hottest spots first. That's that's where I'm going. First,
36:34
Speaker 1: of course, the hottest areas UM, and it changes with time,
36:38
Speaker 1: is is the the post season food sources, the best
36:45
Speaker 1: post season food sources, because you know there's food sources
36:48
Speaker 1: that were hot, really hot during hunting season that at
36:52
Speaker 1: the end of this, at the post of the season,
36:54
Speaker 1: their cold. Maybe that's that was clover, for example, it
36:57
Speaker 1: turns dormant as soon as the freeze is there. It's dormite,
37:01
Speaker 1: you know. So some of the hotter, hotter food sources
37:04
Speaker 1: obviously look for antlers in those food sources and around
37:08
Speaker 1: those food sources. So now I could venture into the
37:11
Speaker 1: timber around those really hot food sources. That's a that's
37:16
Speaker 1: probably my number one um, you know, And I don't
37:19
Speaker 1: on this particular topic of timing. I don't know if
37:22
Speaker 1: you want me to get into some other stuff, but
37:23
Speaker 1: I got some stuff that people don't even think of
37:25
Speaker 1: when when hunting antlers. And I could say it if
37:28
Speaker 1: it's the wrong timing, well, I hate to. I hate
37:32
Speaker 1: to have a cliffhanger here. Now I'm really intrigued for
37:35
Speaker 1: let's let's hear that now, and then I've got a
37:37
Speaker 1: million other questions now that I'm thinking of as you're
37:39
Speaker 1: touch on some of these things. But let's hear the uh,
37:41
Speaker 1: the not so commonly thought of antler tips. I have
37:45
Speaker 1: found probably more antlers doing this than especially farms, were
37:50
Speaker 1: not too many people mess around the ponds. There's years
37:55
Speaker 1: where it's not so wet and there's not so much
37:59
Speaker 1: snow like there is right now so so water even
38:02
Speaker 1: in the winter is not very available. And some of
38:06
Speaker 1: the southern regions also it's it's never available. And if
38:09
Speaker 1: you have a year of drought um ponds, there's antlers
38:15
Speaker 1: laying in ponds. If those ponds have never been dry,
38:19
Speaker 1: they've never gone dry, and no one's ever done this,
38:22
Speaker 1: you may have a wealth of antlers in your pond.
38:24
Speaker 1: And what I what I do is I take a
38:25
Speaker 1: long pole, very long pole depending on the size of
38:28
Speaker 1: the pond, with a rake head on the end of it,
38:32
Speaker 1: and UH dragged. In other words, I reached as far
38:35
Speaker 1: as I could reach into the pond, and then I
38:37
Speaker 1: dragged back towards the shore. And when you feel on
38:41
Speaker 1: the end of that rake you feel it a little
38:42
Speaker 1: bink bink. You know you have an antler on the
38:45
Speaker 1: other end. And I and I drag them out, and
38:47
Speaker 1: it's kind of cool because you know, like I I've bought,
38:53
Speaker 1: I bought a new farm. Let's see, it's it's been
38:55
Speaker 1: three seasons now. And the first thing I did was
38:57
Speaker 1: dragged the ponds. And I didn't find that many these ponds,
39:01
Speaker 1: some of them dried up, but I found fifteen antlers
39:04
Speaker 1: by dragging ponds um. And the cool thing about it,
39:08
Speaker 1: there's nothing eating those antlers. There's nothing eating them, and
39:11
Speaker 1: the water actually preserves them. They'll there'll be a different color.
39:15
Speaker 1: There'll be a little little shade of an arm of
39:17
Speaker 1: a brownish like not a dark brown, but but kind
39:21
Speaker 1: of a medium brown color from being underwater. They've been
39:24
Speaker 1: there for a long time. But the antlers still perfectly intact.
39:27
Speaker 1: Nothing they don't unlike an antler that's been laying out,
39:31
Speaker 1: you know, like here and in the South, squirrels eat antlers,
39:34
Speaker 1: Mice eat antlers, they eat them very quickly. In the West,
39:37
Speaker 1: where they don't have so many squirrels, in some cases
39:40
Speaker 1: no squirrels, and antler may lay there for years without
39:44
Speaker 1: being touched. But the antler will it will dry out,
39:47
Speaker 1: you know, it will kind of bleach out, and and
39:49
Speaker 1: and and when you pick it up, there won't weigh anything.
39:52
Speaker 1: But the ones that you pull out of the ponds,
39:54
Speaker 1: they they'll be perfect, you know, I mean that they'll
39:57
Speaker 1: they'll they're they're still have the same amount of maryl
40:00
Speaker 1: they're solid, you know. So that that's something that I
40:03
Speaker 1: know a lot of people haven't have have not done.
40:05
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm probably the only one crazy enough to
40:08
Speaker 1: try it. You know, you take the cake for the
40:10
Speaker 1: craziest most unique shed hunting tip I've ever heard. Yeah. Now, now,
40:16
Speaker 1: probably now when we when we acquire a farm, I
40:19
Speaker 1: won't be able to find anilers because I'll let it
40:21
Speaker 1: out of the bag because and continuing on, we've got
40:25
Speaker 1: Joe Shed, an outdoor writer and shed hunting expert. He
40:29
Speaker 1: actually wrote a book on shed hunting, and we had
40:32
Speaker 1: him on episode one of the podcast. We pulled a
40:34
Speaker 1: couple of excerpts from that, and I want to first
40:37
Speaker 1: start with Joe tackling the same question that I talked
40:40
Speaker 1: a little about earlier and the Dan mentioned too, which
40:42
Speaker 1: is where do you find the most sheds? But Joe
40:45
Speaker 1: has got some specific details which I think are very helpful.
40:48
Speaker 1: So here's what he had to stay on that. Well,
40:51
Speaker 1: you know, in the simplest terms, I mean, you're going
40:54
Speaker 1: to be either betting, feeding, or traveling between those two
40:57
Speaker 1: areas in the kind of wintertime. So you can kind
40:59
Speaker 1: of narrowed down to those three types of things. You know,
41:02
Speaker 1: it might be farm fields, it might be uh, haystacks,
41:06
Speaker 1: it could be you know, just um, forest brows could
41:09
Speaker 1: be the feeding areas, UM, betting areas. UM. It could
41:13
Speaker 1: be a good thick cover. It could be some conifers,
41:16
Speaker 1: you know, some pine trees or something that provides some
41:18
Speaker 1: shelter from the wind catches the snow holds it up
41:22
Speaker 1: in the branches. UM. But a lot of people don't
41:25
Speaker 1: realize too, is that sometimes the best bedding cover is
41:29
Speaker 1: a lack of cover. UM. And that's where the south
41:31
Speaker 1: facing hillsides come into play. UM. That's always a really
41:34
Speaker 1: good spot to look for, said, because that's the area
41:37
Speaker 1: that gets the most direct sunlight in the winter. And
41:41
Speaker 1: you'll find if if you're in a snowy region like
41:43
Speaker 1: I live, UM, the north slope will have a lot
41:45
Speaker 1: more snow than the south side because the sun's beaten
41:47
Speaker 1: down and melting it. And a deer is a lot
41:50
Speaker 1: like a cat. Like there's you know, like a cat
41:52
Speaker 1: in a window soaking up that sunlight. A deer is
41:55
Speaker 1: going to do the same thing. It's it's trying to survive.
41:57
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's trying to conserve body heat. And
42:01
Speaker 1: a lot of times a little bit on that self
42:02
Speaker 1: slope sometimes east slope as well, trying to take advantage
42:06
Speaker 1: of that morning sound too. UM. So those are things
42:09
Speaker 1: that looked for. I guess in general, UM, you know
42:13
Speaker 1: good feeding, good food sources, UM, south slope of hills, UM.
42:19
Speaker 1: You know betting areas that might be you know, thick
42:22
Speaker 1: cover like pine trees like I said, or thick brush.
42:25
Speaker 1: It just kinda depends you focus ever on, like fence
42:31
Speaker 1: crossings or creep crossings or I guess where do you
42:36
Speaker 1: typically find a majority of your sheds? Yeah, well the
42:40
Speaker 1: fence and creek thing as you mentioned, I'm sure you
42:43
Speaker 1: know is um they're jumping that obstacle of fence or
42:46
Speaker 1: the creek and and on impact they can lose on
42:48
Speaker 1: the antler UM. And I have found sheds lane right
42:51
Speaker 1: and creeks before. Um. Everybody talks about the fence crossing
42:55
Speaker 1: have actually when they found very few sheds of fence crossings,
42:58
Speaker 1: but they do occur. Um. I guess I don't look
43:01
Speaker 1: a lot of along a lot of fence lines the
43:04
Speaker 1: fence lines either, but you know most of my sheds um.
43:09
Speaker 1: And it comes down to the areas I searched to
43:11
Speaker 1: where I live, we don't have agricultural fields, so everything
43:15
Speaker 1: is looking for us. UM. So then you know your
43:19
Speaker 1: your food source really can be pretty much anywhere it's
43:21
Speaker 1: not a really defined area. So as a shed hunter,
43:24
Speaker 1: I kind of am a bed oriented, UM person. I
43:28
Speaker 1: look for dear beds. I look for areas where they're
43:31
Speaker 1: you know, either defined bed in one particular spot or
43:34
Speaker 1: maybe like a ridge line where they're going to bed
43:36
Speaker 1: all along that ridge. That's kind of how I look.
43:39
Speaker 1: And I know I've shed hunter with other people and
43:41
Speaker 1: we have we have different styles, and it's kind of
43:43
Speaker 1: comes down to what we're used to. Guys are more
43:46
Speaker 1: agricultural areas are going to be more likely to you know,
43:49
Speaker 1: look those field edges or whatever. And you know, you
43:53
Speaker 1: kind of start with what you know, but you should
43:54
Speaker 1: be willing to adapt to different situations as well. Right, yes,
43:59
Speaker 1: speak like locations. One um on the on the bedding
44:03
Speaker 1: area side of things. One kind of randomly popped on
44:06
Speaker 1: my head that UM, And I gotta say, Joe, UM
44:09
Speaker 1: taking a step back here. When I first got into
44:11
Speaker 1: shed hunting, UM, I don't know, eight years ago or
44:14
Speaker 1: nine years ago or whatever it was. Now, Um, I
44:17
Speaker 1: did pick up your book and I read it and
44:19
Speaker 1: it definitely helped me. And I think I read this
44:21
Speaker 1: in your book originally, and now I've seen it play
44:23
Speaker 1: out in my own lifetime and time again. When you're
44:26
Speaker 1: on a hillside or in a forest or something and
44:30
Speaker 1: you have like an individual conifer tree, an evergreen tree
44:33
Speaker 1: by itself. I've seen so many times that those are
44:37
Speaker 1: the spots where a buckle bed and you find a
44:39
Speaker 1: shed there, you know, that little cedar tree or something
44:40
Speaker 1: by itself in some tall grass or something. I always
44:43
Speaker 1: zoom over to those locations if ever I see one,
44:45
Speaker 1: because that seems to be like one of those little
44:47
Speaker 1: wild card spots kind of where um, you know, it's
44:49
Speaker 1: like the spot within the spot, like it's a betting area,
44:52
Speaker 1: but then that specific spot within the bedding are tends
44:54
Speaker 1: to be that isolated bedding tree or something. Um, do
44:57
Speaker 1: you find that kind of thing still too? Yeah? You
45:01
Speaker 1: you definitely nail it right on the head. Um, if
45:03
Speaker 1: I could pick out like my ideal spot to find
45:06
Speaker 1: a ship, it would be like a one lone conifer
45:09
Speaker 1: tree and a hardwood forest on a south slope of
45:12
Speaker 1: a hill. You know it's and if you think about it, um,
45:16
Speaker 1: if you know trappers are really good at reading the landscape,
45:18
Speaker 1: do you think about your own hunting situation? How many
45:21
Speaker 1: times have you been walking through the woods where it's
45:24
Speaker 1: maybe hardwoods or something. There's one big tall white pine
45:26
Speaker 1: in that hardwoods, and I guess what somebody's gonna stand
45:30
Speaker 1: hanging in that tree. You know, it stands out. I
45:33
Speaker 1: mean people relate to it, animals relate to it. You know,
45:36
Speaker 1: he'll find uh bones underneath these trees where a fox
45:39
Speaker 1: or a coyote is sat there and just chew down
45:40
Speaker 1: a bone. I mean, it's something that sticks out from
45:43
Speaker 1: the landscape, and it's it's not just dear that pick
45:45
Speaker 1: up on. But yeah, you're absolutely right. Those those bucks
45:48
Speaker 1: have a out of their way to better than beneath
45:50
Speaker 1: that lone tree or or just a few scattered pines
45:53
Speaker 1: here in the area in an otherwise hardwood forest. Continuing on,
45:58
Speaker 1: here's Joe talking about out his advice for how to
46:02
Speaker 1: better spot sheds, So not just where to look for him,
46:05
Speaker 1: but how to look for them and the best conditions
46:08
Speaker 1: when you're out there looking for anlers. What kind of
46:12
Speaker 1: advice do you have for people to actually help you
46:16
Speaker 1: see more sheds and actually spot more sheds, Because it's
46:18
Speaker 1: one thing to know where you should be looking, it's
46:20
Speaker 1: another thing to actually find them. How do you how
46:22
Speaker 1: do you get better at that? Okay, that's a good question. Uh. Well,
46:27
Speaker 1: the first thing, and it sounds simple, but I always
46:29
Speaker 1: tell people to keep their eyes on the ground because
46:32
Speaker 1: the first couple of times that I go out for
46:35
Speaker 1: the year, I'll be seeing deer. You know, I'll be
46:38
Speaker 1: I'll be in deer hunting moment. I'll be looking, you know,
46:40
Speaker 1: three ft off the ground trying to see a deer
46:43
Speaker 1: when I need to keep my eyes on the ground.
46:44
Speaker 1: And it's something you really have to consciously tell yourself.
46:48
Speaker 1: I'll go with a budding and he'll be like, did
46:50
Speaker 1: you see that rub? And I'll be like, what rubbed?
46:53
Speaker 1: Because I wasn't looking at you know. Um, it's not
46:57
Speaker 1: that extreme all the time. I mean I certainly rubbed
46:59
Speaker 1: and stuff, but you really need to be looking at
47:01
Speaker 1: the ground. Um, and that's where they're gonna be. Um.
47:05
Speaker 1: And it sounds simple, but until you you know what
47:09
Speaker 1: people always talk about throwing an antler out and uh
47:11
Speaker 1: and looking for or if you're with a buddy and
47:13
Speaker 1: he finds a shed, maybe he doesn't touch it and
47:15
Speaker 1: you come and find it. And until you kind of
47:18
Speaker 1: get in that situation, it's it's kind of like catching
47:20
Speaker 1: a fish until you feel that how a wall I bite,
47:25
Speaker 1: then you kind of understand it. And once you find
47:27
Speaker 1: that first shed, then something seemed to click, and all
47:30
Speaker 1: of a sudden, after that it becomes easier. You know,
47:32
Speaker 1: the same thing the first set of the years, It
47:33
Speaker 1: always seems to be hard because you're just not in
47:36
Speaker 1: that zone. And once, once you see it, it clicks
47:39
Speaker 1: in your mind and then you start realizing he's like, Okay,
47:41
Speaker 1: I'm looking for times sticking up out of the grass,
47:43
Speaker 1: and you know, it might not be a whole antler,
47:45
Speaker 1: it might be something behind the log or burying grass
47:48
Speaker 1: or something, and maybe just looking for a couple of
47:51
Speaker 1: inches of that time sticking out, and you start to
47:54
Speaker 1: kind of train your eyes to see it and develop
47:57
Speaker 1: a feel for what you you should really be looking for.
48:00
Speaker 1: Do you have there a weather condition that you really
48:03
Speaker 1: like to hunt in to shed hunting? Well, you know,
48:08
Speaker 1: but everybody else says the cloudy days are best because
48:10
Speaker 1: you're not squinting, and and after a rain because the
48:13
Speaker 1: match down the grass and the leaves and and uh
48:17
Speaker 1: makes a little bit of a shine on the amp
48:19
Speaker 1: or everybody talks about that, but it is hard to
48:22
Speaker 1: look into a in the sunshine. You certainly want to
48:24
Speaker 1: keep your the sun at your back if you can. Um,
48:28
Speaker 1: I guess I I go whenever I can. But ideally,
48:31
Speaker 1: you know, a cloudy day after a rain would be
48:33
Speaker 1: the best conditions. You know. Another thing I've I've sometimes
48:36
Speaker 1: done and heard other people suggest is trying to find
48:39
Speaker 1: like different perspectives. Like even if you've walked through an
48:42
Speaker 1: area once and it seems like you saw everything, Like
48:45
Speaker 1: sometimes it's a good idea to stand on top of
48:47
Speaker 1: a stump or kneel down and look around. Do you
48:49
Speaker 1: ever do that kind of thing, just to try to
48:51
Speaker 1: see things at a different angle or anything? Um? Yeah,
48:57
Speaker 1: you know a lot of guys talk about walking behind
48:59
Speaker 1: or looking the ad them once in a while as well.
49:01
Speaker 1: And and sometimes you'll see a shed that you walk
49:03
Speaker 1: right by them. Maybe the sun was in your eyes,
49:05
Speaker 1: or there's a branch in your way or something that
49:08
Speaker 1: caused you to not be able to see it. Um.
49:11
Speaker 1: But sometimes you know, I've certainly found sheds that I've
49:13
Speaker 1: walked within feet of and uh, I came back you know,
49:17
Speaker 1: on another path through there, just you know, by chance
49:19
Speaker 1: or whatever, And and here that antlers laying right there
49:22
Speaker 1: it was, you know, and it is maybe you know,
49:25
Speaker 1: behind a fallen log or something like that. Um, or
49:28
Speaker 1: maybe sometimes you just were looking left when you should
49:31
Speaker 1: have been looking right, you know. Um, that's another consideration.
49:34
Speaker 1: It's how fast you walk. Um, I was trying to
49:38
Speaker 1: not walk faster than my eyes can see. You know,
49:40
Speaker 1: if you're sweeping back and forth left and right with
49:43
Speaker 1: your eyes, if you're looking left, you got to make
49:45
Speaker 1: sure that you're you're not walking so fast that you
49:48
Speaker 1: haven't had a time to bring that vision back to
49:50
Speaker 1: the right before you keep moving. And again, if it's
49:54
Speaker 1: you know, real open terrain, you can walk a little faster,
49:56
Speaker 1: and if it's tight woods you cover, then you can
49:59
Speaker 1: need to walk a little slower. Yeah, that's a good point.
50:03
Speaker 1: Do you ever do you ever walk a whole property
50:06
Speaker 1: or a whole section twice or like come back a
50:08
Speaker 1: week later, specifically because of this fact that you know
50:12
Speaker 1: you're inevitably probably going to miss some definitely, um, you know,
50:17
Speaker 1: especially if you're really looking for a particular shed. Um.
50:22
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you just flat out miss him, and
50:24
Speaker 1: and you'll find a shed that you know, we were
50:27
Speaker 1: within a few feet of it before, and somehow you
50:29
Speaker 1: just missed it or I mean I've even you know, people,
50:32
Speaker 1: it sounds ridiculous, but I'm out there looking for sheds.
50:35
Speaker 1: I've stepped on sheds, I've kicked sheds and you'd think
50:38
Speaker 1: you'd see it. But yeah, I'll definitely come back, especially
50:42
Speaker 1: if there's something I'm really looking for. Um, you know,
50:46
Speaker 1: and like you were saying earlier, sometimes it's it's a
50:48
Speaker 1: good idea to come from a different angle and see
50:50
Speaker 1: things from a different perspective too, So um or you know,
50:54
Speaker 1: bring a buddy along and maybe they'll see something in
50:56
Speaker 1: a different way that you, you know, something that you missed.
51:01
Speaker 1: All right, So we've talked about shed hunting memories and
51:05
Speaker 1: stories with further You heard from me on the importance
51:08
Speaker 1: of timing when you start and end shedding. We talked
51:11
Speaker 1: about the importance of being efficient, and we heard from
51:14
Speaker 1: Dan and Joe in regards to the best spots to
51:17
Speaker 1: look for them, the best ways to find them, how
51:20
Speaker 1: raking ponds might help you find antlers. That's all we've
51:23
Speaker 1: covered here today in my shed hunting master class. I
51:25
Speaker 1: hope this has been helpful, just a little bit of
51:27
Speaker 1: a kickstart for shed hunting season. But I want to
51:30
Speaker 1: leave you one last thought. Um, I love finding antlers
51:35
Speaker 1: right getting out there and seeing that time taking out
51:38
Speaker 1: of the grass. Like we talked about earlier, that is
51:39
Speaker 1: a rush. But it's important to go into shed season
51:44
Speaker 1: with the right attitude, and we talked about we talked
51:47
Speaker 1: about this for years. This applies to hunting too. But
51:50
Speaker 1: if you go into it just determined to have a
51:52
Speaker 1: good time, to have a good walk with your buddies,
51:55
Speaker 1: to laugh, to enjoy each other's company, to enjoy nature
51:59
Speaker 1: and a beautiful day. If you go into it those
52:01
Speaker 1: types of expectations, you're going to enjoy shed hunting. But
52:04
Speaker 1: if you head out there saying to yourself, I better
52:07
Speaker 1: find five antlers today, are better find fifteen antlers today,
52:10
Speaker 1: or better find an antler, And if you don't, you
52:12
Speaker 1: get really disappointed and upset and frustrated and stressed. Well,
52:15
Speaker 1: you're just setting yourself up for failure. You gotta just
52:19
Speaker 1: have that positivity and stick with it, but enjoy it
52:22
Speaker 1: for what it is. Some days you'll find some some
52:25
Speaker 1: days you won't. But you're outside and that's pretty damn cool.
52:28
Speaker 1: So that's all I got to say today and shed hunting,
52:31
Speaker 1: I wish you all luck the The good time should
52:34
Speaker 1: be picking up any day now, so enjoy yourselves. Be
52:38
Speaker 1: safe out there. I hope you find some antlers, and
52:40
Speaker 1: until next time, stay wired to hunt.