Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1006: Shed Hunting Strategies from East Coast to West with ShedCrazy Ben Dettamanti

Transcript

Ep. 1006: Shed Hunting Strategies from East Coast to West with ShedCrazy Ben Dettamanti · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week, on
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the show, I'm joined by Ben Dedimanti, also known as
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: shed Crazy on the Internet, to discuss all things shed
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hunting from east coast to west. All right, welcome back
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on the show,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: we are talking shed hunting, all things shed hunting from
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: east to west, north to south. We are going to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: talk shed hunting tactics, philosophies, strategies, habitat, planning trips, and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: how to do all of this no matter where you
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: live in the country, no matter where you want to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: shed hunt in the country. We're talking to somebody today
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: who has a level of shed hunting experience that is
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: broader than maybe anybody else in the country. This is
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  Speaker 1: Ben de Damanti, also known as shed Crazy over on
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Instagram and YouTube. Ben has relatively recently completed a pretty
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: impressive feat which is finding a shed antler in every
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: single state in America. That's pretty wild. He's found him
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: in Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Michigan, Montana, and everywhere in between.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: And so with that broad suite of experience, with that
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: incredible set of places he's found antlers, he has this
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: just really interesting perspective and set of experiences to share
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: with us. And so that's what we're talking about today.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: There's a lot focused on what you know, Midwesterners or
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Easterners should know if they want to shed hunt out west.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: But then also some of the things he learned as
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: a Westerner heading east to find whitetail sheds, and sometimes
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: how those ideas kind of cross pollinate, and what we
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: can benefit and learn from a Western perspective or an
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Eastern perspective. We talk through planning a Western or Alaskan
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: shed hunting trip and a whole bunch of very tactical
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: things that will help you spot more antlers, pick up
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: more antlers, and enjoy shed hunting more than ever, whether
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you're doing that, you know, in Mississippi or Minnesota, or
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Florida or New Hampshire or New Mexico. There's gonna be
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: some shed hunting advice here for you today that I
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: think will really help. So that's the plan for today,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: without any further Ado, let's get to my chat with
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: mister shed crazy himself. All right with me on the
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  Speaker 1: line now is the one and only Ben Deadamante.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Ben. Welcome to the show. Thanks man, appreciate you having
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: me on.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad this is happening. It's been a long
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: time coming. We are in the same circles, we have
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: been at similar events, at the same events together, but
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: we've never done a podcast, which is on me. I apologize,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I'm stupid, but I'm glad it's finally happening. So thanks
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: for being here.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Man, I'm excited to pick your brain. You are admittedly
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: self described as shed crazy, and I am two at
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: times of the year. This is that time. So I'm
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: hoping to pick your brain on all things fine and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: antlers because you've got a regional experience set that I
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: don't have. I feel like I've shed hunted a ton
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: in my neck of the woods. I feel like I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: know a lot about my region. But put me in Nevada,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: put me in Alaska, put me in Alabama, and I
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: would be blind. So you relatively recently wrapped up this
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: crazy project fifty sheds in fifty states, and I'm curious
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: about this. To lead us off here, Ben, it crossed
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: all of these places, all of these states. If you
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: were to kind of zoom out and think about what
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: was consistent across all those places, if you could point
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: to maybe I'm gonna say three things that were true
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: about finding sheds in every single state. What might put
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: those three truths be? Or like the three laws of
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: shed hunting, maybe from shed crazy they could apply no
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: matter where you are in the country and putting you
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: on the spot. I didn't worry about this one.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: But that's good.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Would those be?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question. I think that food is
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the universal language of deer in the winter. I mean
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: they're gonna be I mean every deer, elk, moose, all
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: of them. They primarily concentrate on calorie conservation and on
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: getting those calories in. So feed is always king in
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the wintertime. I always say about half your antlers are
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: going to be in or near the feed. So whether
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: that's a cut cornfield that still has some corn in it,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: whether that's you know, where we're at, it's a lot
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: of cliff rows, bitter brush for the elk, that's going
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: to hold a good amount of antlers anywhere in the world.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: So that's a good place to start. What are they
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: eating next? Is betting, you know, And that's just kind
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: of where they're going to spend the bulk of their
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: time while they're you know, recouping and kind of conserving energy,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: so there's always going to be some sheds in the bedding.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: And then after that it just comes Really it's just
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: like hunting, and it comes down to the transition areas.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: It's where they're traveling from their feeding to their bedding,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and they take the path at least resistance. A lot
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: in the winter, you can look at snow depths, so
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: you can look at things like fence lines, stuff that
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: they like to travel, natural corridors, contours of the earth,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: and a lot of times will concentrate those antlers into
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: like a very small corridor that they're traveling. So those
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: three things, I mean, it's just like hunting deers, Just
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: like hunting everything. It comes down to feed, bedding, and travel.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's uh.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: If I were to try to put together my list
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in my region, those three things would certainly be probably
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: right there. So that makes a lot of sense to me.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Now I want to put that on its head. What
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: is maybe one thing that you thought was a core
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: truth of shed hunting for you, that you thought was
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: going to be true maybe no matter where you were,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and then after you did this project, you realized, oh,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: actually I was wrong on that that only applies to
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: this spot or this spot, or doesn't apply anywhere. Now
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: that I know this new thing, is there anything like
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: that that stands out? Yeah, kind of like elk and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: western big game are very human avoidant, right even in
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the winter time, So when we're hunting elks sheds, we're
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: going as far away as you can be from anything
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that's gonna bump those elk and move them. So you know,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: big faces, backcountry stuff, south slopes, and I kind of
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: assumed all animals did that in the winter. But I
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: also found out that, you know, a lot of white tails,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: even urban mule, they are way more comfortable, like being
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: in someone's backyard, Like maybe it's the time of year.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: They just choose proximity to food over having to travel,
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  Speaker 1: and they don't care that there's people around because maybe
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: they're not being pursued, maybe the people aren't as active
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: out door during that time of year. But found a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: lot of white tail and you know urban mule, theer
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: sheds and blacktails actually in semi urban areas that were
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: like way way closer to people than I thought the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: deer would be comfortable. That's an interesting point. This is
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: a random aside, But I just randomly thought of this
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: after doing all this, seeing all this learning all this,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: do you like shed hunting more or less than before
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you started this? Like, are you burned out yet?
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah? No, I'm totally I'm bum burned out for sure,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: And like, uh h, I don't mind saying that. You
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: know when I when I started shed hunting, it was like,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: this is the only way I got to participate on
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: these like quality ELK units and stuff. I couldn't draw
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: tags or I didn't have the money to hunt out
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: of state. Soched hunting was it. It was the ticket.
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  Speaker 2: And I love traveling, I love seeing the world, and
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: like it was awesome to go out and meet people
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: from all these different hunting backgrounds. But after I got
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: home and done with like that two year project where
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I just traveled constantly, I was like, yeah, I'm totally
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: ready for a break. And even now as shed season's
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: kind of approaching, I find myself being like, I'm going
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: to focus on quality days in the hills instead of
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: saying all I'm gonna go out every single day and
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: try to pick antlers.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean by quality day on the hill?
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  Speaker 2: What does that look like so for me, like if
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I have a spot that I really want to check
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  Speaker 2: off my list for sheds. In the past, a lot
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: of times I would have maybe hiked it a few
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: different times, always being kind of careful to not bump
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: the deer out, but you know, to be the first
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: one there and make sure that if there's something big
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: there on the ground, I'm the one who gets it.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: And now I'm a little more willing to just say,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: let's let them pile up, you know, let's let all
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: the deer in the area drop before I do anything
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: in there, or maybe just like glass it instead of
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: hiking it, just to say, like when I do go
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: in there, I'm going to clean it up one day
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: and probably only be in there one day during the
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: year instead of hitting multiple times.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about that
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  Speaker 1: the western side of things, because I think I get
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: white tail shed hunting. Western shed hunting appeals to me.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a lot of people who have the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: same thought appeals to me, but it seems a little
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  Speaker 1: bit foreign. I know whitetail habitat, I know whitetail food sources,
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  Speaker 1: I know whitetail betting, on the elk front, it's a
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: lot more fuzzy on the mule deer front, a lot
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: more fuzzy on the moose side, a lot more fuzzy.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: If I were going to do a first time like
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: western shed hunting trip, not for white tails, but trying
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to look for some of these other species, what are
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: a few things that you would say that a Easterner
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: should should know about, should think about, and should be
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: aware of. That's different than you know, what I'm used
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: to in Michigan or Ohio or Iowa or Pennsylvania.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: It's a lot more physically demanding. You know, where we
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: shed hunt. Typically it's not always like that, but it
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: definitely can be. And especially in these states that allow
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: you know, the early hiking, you're going to be battling
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: some deep snow, so the physical exertion is a lot.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: And then also I think that you can save yourself
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of hiking by just doing a little bit
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: of pre scouting. Just by spending a full day maybe
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: cruising around, even glassing from the road and finding where
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: these animals are hanging out, you can increase your chances
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: by so much because a lot of people assume, oh,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: there's elk and deer everywhere, and there are you know,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: and there may be a few here and a few there,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: but especially the elk really tend to concentrate in the winter,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and if you can find those areas that are holding
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: a lot of elk, you're just going to have a
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: lot more success. So pre scouting is huge. E scouting
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: is huge. You know, Like I spend a ton of
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: time on on ITX just picking through south facing slopes
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: and trying to find areas that I feel like are
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: going to be you know, good for the elk in
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: the winter, where they're going to be able to get
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: away from the snow and have a little bit of
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: feed and then also catch a little bit of sun.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: But I mean there really is just like a few
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: things to look for. And then you know, also figuring
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: out the elevation that the elk are at. Even if
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: you you find elk and maybe you can't go hike them,
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: maybe they're on private or something, And if you see
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: what elevation they're hanging out at, you can take that
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: data and transferred over to public land where you can
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: go hike and find sheds with that same elevation.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: So elevation that's an interesting point. You mentioned south facing slopes.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: That's something that translates from my world too. And earlier
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you mentioned the importance of understanding what the food sources are.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: What are some of those key winter food sources? Now,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I know this depends on where you are, right, I
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: know Montana food source would be different than New Mexico
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: food source. But can you give me a handful things
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: to think about when I'm trying to find that quality
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: bedding or quality food And could you share with me
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: your thoughts both for elk and muelder.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Elk I understand kind of the desert the
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: best because most of my shed hunting experience has been
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: in southern Utah, eastern Nevada, northern Arizona, northern New Mexico.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: And those elk really favor cliff rows and bitter brush,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: which are just too kind of brushy, you know, plants, uh.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And it seems like, I mean, they'll kind of eat anything.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: As soon as that june grass comes up, that cheat
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: grass in the spring, the first green up that you see,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: they'll chase that a little bit, and that's usually pretty
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: close to the snow line. But they just kind of
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: like buckbrush, which is like bitter brush and mule, they
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: are the same. They kind of share that browse, and
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I feel like they chase the green as soon as
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: it comes on as well. So where we are elka mule,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: they are kind of eating the same thing, and they're
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: going to be roughly in the same areas. The bulls
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: kind of like to go a little higher than the deer.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: But I mean, buck brush is king around here. It's
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: what the division plants when they need winter feed sources.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: And like when you go out and do seating for
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: like a hunter project with the state, that's what you're
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: always seating is that bitter brush buck brush.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, and then what about like security cover, betting that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff, or like the what does that look like?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Mostly around here it's pinion juniper, and so they're hiding
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: in like a sea of you know, it could be cedars,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: pinion pines, junipers. The elk like the high elevation mahogany,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: and they'll usually bed somewhere close to an open face
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: so they can catch sunlight throughout the day. I've noticed
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: elk or way more inclined to seek, you know, that
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: solar so they'll get up during the day and move
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to catch the sun when it's when it's warming up
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: in the first of the morning. So it seems like
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: small stands of mahogany or even pine, they'll go on
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: the timber if the snow depth isn't bad, but they
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: just anything that'll hide them. But they can kind of
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: get out quick to feed and catch some sun.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, And what about timing for all of this, You know,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: it seems there's a whole bunch of different variables. I'm
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: sure they could impact the but what all are you
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: thinking about when choosing like the ideal time to go
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: looking for these antlers in your especially if you're going
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: to travel to go do this for one weekend or
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: one week or something like that. What's that sweet spot
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: of timing and what should I be looking at to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: determine like, yeah, this is the right time. No, we
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: got to reschedule or something that's got to change. Yeah,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: it's a really wide window. It's very broad, and a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: lot of people go at the very very beginning. A
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: lot of people feel like the biggest bulls drop first,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and I think generally that can be true, but there's
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of big bulls that hold onto their antlers
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: later but for ELK, they really start early March where
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: we are, but I think maybe ten to fifteen percent
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: will drop during that first month, and then it gets
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: more and more into April and then even some holding
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: into May.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: So May's pretty rare, I guess, but April is probably
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: the prime, the prime month where the majority of them
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: are dropping. So in my opinion, it's best to go
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: when there's the most antler on the ground. And yeah,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: guys are going to get out and snag a few early,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: but the majority antler is going to be on the
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: ground in April. So as long as your state's open
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: in April, I think that's a good month to go
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: hit it.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So on that, like on this whole front of timing,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and also the idea of like people maybe traveling to
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: shed hunt. I'm sure you've experienced there's more and more
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: people shed hunting every year. It's seemingly increasing more pressure
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: on the resource, on the landscape, on the animals. Some
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: states are instituting seasons. What what's your take on responsible
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: shed hunting, Like, how do we do this in a
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: way that's as responsible as possible that reduces stress on
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the animals. What have you learned about that what should
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: people would be thinking about if they want to do
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: this more, how do we do it the right way?
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Especially if we're traveling west like this, where you know
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: they're seemingly more and more pressure from folks.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if it's a deep snow area, I'm just not
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: going to pressure them. I'm not going to push them.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna wait until they either move out to go
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: in there and shed hunt it, or I'm just gonna
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: wait until the snow is pretty much gone. A lot
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: of the stuff we shed hunt there's no significant snowpack.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: It's desert country. And so if I'm like, I'm never
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: just gonna There's kind of this idea that shed hunters
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: pursue animals to make them drop their antlers, and I've
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: never seen that happen. I don't think it's an effective thing.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: I've never done it, but like it doesn't seem like
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: it would make sense. But the biggest thing is just
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: keep the four wheelers on the road. Like there's so
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: many people that go a buzz around in the brush.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: There's some gray areas and some states where it's kind
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: of allowed, you don't know if it's legal or not.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Then some states it's very illegal. But everywhere I shed hunt,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: I'm running into four wheeler tracks where people are just
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: driving their their quads just wherever they want. And that's
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the biggest frustration. I feel like that's the thing that
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: gets the most riled up. If I'm just hiking through
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: the cedars and through the pinions, and you might jump elk,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you know, and they might stand up out of their bed,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: they might run one hundred two hundred yards, but they'll
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: just settle back down. And if I'm to where I'm
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: jumping elk, I just try to move around them and
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: just kind of be quiet like you were hunting, and
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: you don't want to spook them out of the area.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: And in that way, I don't feel like they get
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: run run too much, you know in some of these
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: areas where there's a season opener and everybody hits it
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: at once. Yeah, they're just they're gonna get run and
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: they're going to get depleted, and and that's not ideal.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: So just do what you can to stop that from
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: happening and stay on the roads on the bike. That's
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: the biggest thing.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Does it feel like it's getting over pressured in all
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: your experiences out there, is it feeling like it's becoming
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: a problem.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. Like it's definitely more popular. There's
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: there's more boot tracks on the ground, there's more people
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: doing it, for sure. I feel like it peaked during
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: COVID when so many people were at home and had
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: time on their hands, and you know, maybe just were
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: dying to get out of the house to go do something,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: and that's something you could go do. That year, twenty
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: twenty even twenty twenty one were really really chaotic. Way
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: more boot tracks in the hill, way more people out
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: there doing it. But I feel like now it's kind
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: of tapered a little, kind of back to what it was.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: And yeah, they're I mean, you're going to see people.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: But when these these states put openers in, I feel
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: like that concentrates all the people, like into a couple
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: of weeks. For example, Nevada never had an opener until
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: a few years ago, and now it opens May first,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: and so May first, it's just going to be crowded
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: as can be out there, and it'll be crowded for
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: about a week and then it'll get hot and that
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: pressure will fade off. And that's just the way it is.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: So do you like the idea of having those seasons
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: and making people wait longer, or do you feel like
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: that makes I guess what's your take on that.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: I don't like them because I like freedom, but I
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: think that we as hunters can be responsible on our
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: own and I feel like we can make choices, you know,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: to not cause problems for the wildlife. Most people shed
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: hunting or hunters as well. The last thing they want
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: to do is damage the resource, and in my experience,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: most of the people out there genuinely care about the animals.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: There are a few bad examples, but to me, the
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: guys that are willing to harass animals anyway or willing
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: to maybe chase them or off road. Therefore, they're not
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: going to follow a shed season, So in my opinion,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: it just penalizes the law abiders.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you think about some of the concerns around,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: like how sheds have become commoditized and folks selling them
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and that whole money side of it.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I've bought and sold antler for years. It was a
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: part of my income when I quit my job to
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: do this full time, So I don't really I mean, like,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: the only real issue I have with it is like
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: if you're going to take from the resource in a state, right,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: then I think that you know that you should be
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: paying into that resource. Like I'm buying hunting licenses and
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: pretty much all the Western states that I shed hunt,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I'm applying for tags there. So I feel like if
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: I'm participating in the big picture of conservation, then I
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: don't feel like taking a few hundred dollars worth of
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: antler out of the resource changes anything, especially where it's
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: a resource that's just going to waste away on the
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: ground otherwise or maybe get picked up, you know, Like
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Nevada is a good example. I've picked up a lot
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: of sheds in Nevada. I've never had an ELK tag
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: in Nevada. I've put in for many years. I'll put
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: thousands of dollars into buying tags and applying in that
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: state before I ever hunt one. So I don't feel
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: bad about taking some antlers and selling them.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like the idea of the fact that, you know,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: buying that hunting license, that's a great way to give back.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Would you ever, I'm guessing I know, but what would
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: you think if a state ever came out with a
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: shed hunting license?
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: So that's happening right now in New Mexico. So they're
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: putting a two hundred dollars shed license in and it's
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: on non residence only, which I think is a little wacky.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I guess they're operating under the assumption that residents are
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: already paying and buying their licenses or funding it through
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: other ways. But you know, I'll complain about it, but
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I'll buy it.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. So one of their western species we
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: haven't talked a lot about yet when it comes like
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: food and covering stuff is moose.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: How much have you ever searched for moose sheds? Very little?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: So I've hunted Yukon moose sheds in Alaska, I've hunted
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Canadian moose in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, and then
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: I've looked for Shiris moose here in Utah as well
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: as Colorado. But I'm very unsuccessful when it comes to
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: those type of moose.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: So how in those other places where you did have
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: some success, how was that experience? What did you think
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: about that?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Oh? Man, Like, Alaska was the coolest thing ever. I
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: don't know how else to put it. Like me and
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: my buddy, I went with Adam Grenda. He's a super
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: cub pilot up there and big time hunter, and we
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: uh Man, I think we found somewhere around one hundred
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: paddles in three days four days, and we would just
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: fly him and mark them on on X out of
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: the super Cub and then land and go gather them up.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: And it was an unreal experience, one of the coolest
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: things that everyone wow.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: For folks wanting to try to do an Alaskan shed hunt. Now,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: I know, like getting a super cub and all that
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: maybe is outside of possible for most people. But anything
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: you tell anyone who was thinking about trying to do
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: some cool diy Alaska trip and find some sheds, would
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: you learn that could be applied for other folks.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: It's just like anything you know. They're in the winter feed,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's what all comes down to, Especially in
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: a climate that's as harsh as as Alaska. They live
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: and die by what they're able to eat. So we
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: were just focused the same way. We would hear they
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: were eating mostly alders, and we would just try to
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: find those all their patches where a group of moose
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: had spent the winter. They're typically snowbound and then they
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: dropped their antlers really early up there, moose across the
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: board dropped quite a bit earlier, and they would just
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: get buried in the snow. So we were just there
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: on the tail end of the snow melting off, trying
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: to find them as they emerged from the from the snow.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: So if somebody wanted to go do that, I have
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: had some buddies that have figured it out, but it's
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: not I mean, I don't know how you do it
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: on the cheap because the guys that I know that
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: have done it have hired pilots to fly them out
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: and then they go out and hike, and it's not
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: it's very expensive. So if there's a cheap way to
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: do it, I haven't figured it out yet.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure, just like anything, if if you want
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to do on the cheap, you got to burn a
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: lot of boot leather, that's for sure.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: I'm sure.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, don't tell me the specific state because I don't
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: want to spop burn any one place. But if you
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: were gonna pick the best kind of shed hunting adventure,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: like your favorite shed hunting adventure for the for your money,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: you know, for your time, if you're gonna go out
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: and do like an epic week long shed adventure. Is
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: there like a general region or species where you'd be like, man,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: this is the coolest thing, or this is the most
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: fun I had. Of all the places you went, of
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: all the states you hit, of all all the different
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: antlers you found, does anything stick out as like if
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: you could just have one for you fun trip, this
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: would be it.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, that's I'm always been addicted to el cantlers
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: and elk shed's, so you know, the most thing was insane.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: I would do that again in all the states that
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I that I did that in. But if you could
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: have a truly killer elk shed day, there's no I mean,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: there's nothing like loading a heavy, heavy pack full of
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: l cantlers, and specifically like some of these backcountry trips
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: we've done where you'll find too many antlers to carry
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: out and you go in there for a couple of
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: days in camp and leave them behind and haul them out.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like miserable, but it's so fun. Like
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: I think any backcountry elk shed thing is probably what
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I would pick.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Anything unique about planning a trip like that that's different
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: than planning a backcountry elk hunting trip.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's a little easier not having to
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: worry about me ca. You don't have to take with
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: you quite as many tools as far as that goes,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: You're not packing a rifle or a bow. The time
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: of year, you're cold weather camping a lot, and then
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: you get some nice afternoons, so it can be kind
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: of like the fall. I guess it's fairly similar. You know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: hunting gear, camping gear, overnight gear, and then the potential
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: of a heavy packout.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: How much does that kind of thing help your hunt?
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Like I understand the white tail side, but with something
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: like elk, I don't know if, like where I find
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the sheds and where I see them in the winter,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: does that translate in any way and help you if
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: you were going to go hunt that same region that
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: year or is it so different?
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: I can yeah, like it gives me good general information,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: like to see when I'm trying to select maybe a
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: limited entry ELK unit in Utah that I have a
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: potential to draw, I always look at what gets picked
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: up on the sheds or what I can find there
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: or where I can find the bowls in the winter
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: to know what the quality is like for the unit.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: But it also is just kind of a general idea
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: because these elk, especially in Utah, though, pull to different units,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: so you don't know. You might find a bull shed
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: on a unit and he's living on the unit next door.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: And so they're migratory, they wander a lot, they'll move
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: somewhere to rut, they'll stay through the winter and go back.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: So it narrows it down, but it's just kind of
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: general information.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: So on these western shed trips, elk, mule, deer, whatever
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: you talked earlier about glassing, tell me about how to
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: glass for sheds, Like, what does that look like? How
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: do you do that?
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Well?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: How much of your shed hunting is spent sitting somewhere
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and looking around versus walking around?
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Walk me through all that. Yeah, glassing is huge. I
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: mean I probably find as many antlers through the binoculars
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: as I do walking. And to me, it's just anytime
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: I walk out on a point where I have a
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: decent view, I'm gonna sit down in glass, throw your
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: glass on a tripod, get super stable and just pick
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: it apart. And I will honestly set a time on
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: my phone for like twenty minutes and say I'm not
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: going to move from this spot until that timer goes off,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: because I'll get bored with it and I'll want to
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: walk away. But I found so many antlers, Like after
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: twenty minutes or a half hour of glassing a hillside,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: the light will shift, the clouds will change, the sun
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: will change, and all of a sudden, an antler that
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: looked I mean that you couldn't see before is just
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: totally obvious to you. So I spend a lot of
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: a lot of time glassing. But it's also not sufficiently
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: covering an area. So like if you just glass a
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: hillside and think, oh I got it, No, it's I mean,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: it's so easy to miss antlers in the glass too,
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: so you still got to go grid it out and
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: go hike it. But I spend a lot of time.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: So when you're actually walking, are there any things you
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: do to help find those hard to see sheds when
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you're walking? Like, I love the fact that you mentioned
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: like you've set a timer, you wait for light to change,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. I've seen. Those same kinds
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: of things apply to like my walking, and there's certain
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: things that I do and I'm looking for white tail
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: sheds to try to you know. For example, as I'm
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: walking through a spot, if I see like a down
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: tree or something, I'll stand up on the down tree
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: to get a different perspective, and I'll make sure to
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: look behind me and all around me, because sometimes you'll
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: walk right past them and never see them. Are there
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: any other things like along those lines that when you're
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: walking that you found little things that help you.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like getting a different angle is huge, like in
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: glassing and in hiking both. I mean seeing it from
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: a different perspective where the sun setting it differently can
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: change the whole game. Tight grid lines, especially for white
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: tail sheds, you know, so you'll walk through maybe east
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: to west, then turn around to come back west to east,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: and even if it's the same ground you just walk,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: that perspective can be the difference in finding them. I
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: always look behind me too. That's one thing that I
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: found a ton of antlers where maybe the angle was
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: just wrong when you came through this way. But I
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: look back over my shoulders as I'm walking, and I
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: found a ton of antlers looking back behind me.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Back to glassroom real quick. I forgot to ask you this.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Everyone seems to have a different way that to glass.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: What's your style up and down, left or right grid? Like,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: how what's the shed hunting glassing technique that works best.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I always start with the places where I think there's
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: gonna be sheds first, So like, if I sit down,
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: I would be like, Okay, that patch of trees looks
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: like a place of bowl would bed down, maybe he
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: could catch a little sun. So I'll pick that apart first,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: and then I kind of moved the least likely places
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: from there. But then I do try to do like
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: a big left right grid over the whole thing before
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: I move on. So I think it's just the excitement
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: factor when you sit down, like, I bet there's a
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: shed there, so I look there first, and you know,
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: sometimes they are, but sometimes there's nothing. Yeah.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: So when you headed east on this huge adventure viewers
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: over the couple of year period, it was and you
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: started really tackling the white tail side of things. And
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: I think you've done some before that too, But what
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: was the what were the biggest challenges for you or
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: like epiphanies when you shifted towards all these whitetail states,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Like what was really different going that direction.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: That you were like a lack of snow to concentrate
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: anything was one thing. And a lot of the West,
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: it's easy to target areas they'll be in just simply
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: by snow depth, and a lot of the places I
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: went first in the Midwest hadn't had significant snow that year,
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: so the deer were just wandering everywhere. I was also
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: surprised by the amount of competition on public land. I
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: figured that there would be people hiking, you know, like
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: there is everywhere, but I mean I was the state that,
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: you know, I think of the most with this was Kansas,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: which is obviously a legendary whitetail state, so I'm sure
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of people hike there because the quality of
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: the deer. But I was running into people hiking like
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: the whole time I was there, like other people shed hunting,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: And I was really surprised by that. Lots of boot
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: tracks and and lots of trucks at uh, you know,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: the walking areas and stuff, so competition, And then also
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: surprised by how well a whitetail shed can hide because
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: they just I mean the way that they're built, you know,
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: they can lay times down and be basically invisible in
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: any type of vegetation. And a lot of cases you
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: got to step right on and even see them.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Have you found any little things that help you spot
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: antlers better? And the only way I can describe this
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: is like an example, in my world, I've learned to
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: spot like the gleam of that shine on an antler, right, Like,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: little things like that will help, but pop and once
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: your head kind of starts to look for that, then
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden they show up. Is there anything
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: like that for you in your world that you've found helps.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: You, Yeah, definitely shine like I mean, that's if there's
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: some on an antler, it'll pop even a distance. With elk,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: it's the parallel lines, like you'll see a lot of
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: time on an elk, the parallel line of the sword
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: and the fifth and like that's a dead giveaway because
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: there's very little in nature that's like perfectly parallel like
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: that and straight. That's one thing we look for white
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: birds and white bases. Surprisingly, that's one of the I
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: mean very often, that's one of the main things we see.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Is just you'll see it looks like a bright white
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: spot and that's all you can see. Maybe that's a
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: dark antler or something, but you can just see that
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: that white bird out there. I was surprised when I
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: started white tail shed hunting too, how many people wait
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: for overcast and rainy days because they say the visibility
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: is so much easier on sheds. I didn't know that
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: was a thing, but a lot of different whitetail guys
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: brought that up.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have a really interesting insight on the
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: white tail side that even though you're more of a
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Western guy, there aren't many whitetail guys who've shed hunted
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: in the Northeast, in the Midwest, in the South, and
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the West. So I'm curious if anything stood out to
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: you regionally, Like if I were to say, all right,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Southern States, only tell me something unique about finding sheds
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: in Southern States. Does anything come to mind?
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were all like in the thorns. They were
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: all in the greenbriers like and I don't know if
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: that's just the safety of it. They like to be
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: in there. But pretty much everything I found in like Mississippi, Alabama,
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: it was very very thick, like the deer. I mean
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: they would drop a few in the food as well,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Like we were mostly hunting, like in Alabama, it was
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: mostly cotton fields and We did find a few in
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: the food, but most of them were just like tucked
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: clear back in the greenbriers or the palmettos and the
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: thicker stuff. And I think, I don't know, it didn't
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: seem to me like a deer would want to be
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: in that thorny stuff. But they must be a little
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: more impervious to it than I thought.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing what they can just dig themselves into
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: sometimes to feel safe, the thickest, nastiest, thorniest stuff.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, ugly.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I heard you talking somewhere about how you couldn't believe
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: how pokey and briary and stuff a lot of these
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: places were too. Just how shut it up you got?
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I got just ripped up, like I would
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: come home from these road trips just with like thorns
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: bedding in my arms and hands and just tore up
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: on my arms, like I couldn't believe I got hit
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: in the lip with the thorn like flipped me in
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: the mouth, and like there was a few different times
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: like I bought some cheap rain gear at Walmart for Mississippi,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: and it was literally just like rags and tatters hanging
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: off of me. When I got out of there and
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: it was not good.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: I've had some years where I've worn the wrong pants
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: where I'll forget to wear like a really good pant,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: like a canvas pant or like a chatpant, and I'll
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: just come home in my thighs will just be just
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: like as if cats had scratched at the fronts of
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: my legs all the way up and down, because you're
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: walking through so many of those like multi floor rows, patches,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: and just the lads everywhere. That's that is the sign
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: of a long day of shd hunting and hopefully a
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: good one, but a painful one, yeah for sure. Okay,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: So continuing the regional idea, uh So, now let's go
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: up to the northeast, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and you like anything up there? Does anything stand out
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: about shed hunting in that part.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: Of the country.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: So a few of those states I was targeting moose,
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: and I learned a little bit about you know, what
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: those moose do. They are typically snow bound up there,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: and they're navigating deep and heavy snow, so that plays
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: a lot into it what they're able to eat when
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: there's you know, four or five feet of snow on
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: the ground, and then I was just I guess the
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: whole Northeast just in general. I was just blown away.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't know it was so mountainous, Like I hadn't
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: visited it much or spend any time out there, and
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: it's like many I mean, New Hampshire's like mini Colorado,
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: and it's just beautiful. Like I was blown away, there's
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: not I mean, there's not that many deer up in
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: those states. Massachusetts had some good deer we shed hunted
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: kind of in the suburbs of Boston and that was cool.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: But you know, those are fairly urban deer. They're coming
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: in and out of people's yards quite a bit, and
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: you know, there's public land, there's some parks and things,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: and they all get hunted quite a bit. So, but
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: not any really ag up there where we were. New
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: York was mostly agricultural stuff. We got permission to hike
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: some farms and found a shed on a power line
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: through through ag and same with Pennsylvania. We found in
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: and around ag fields. So I mean it kind of
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: runs the gamut really of all types of white tail
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: habitat all through those states. But just beautiful, man. I
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: love the northeast.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll hit two more big regions the Midwest white
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: tail hunting sheds. That's core white tail shed dream zone?
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Was it everything that all the white tail hunters say
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: first and then secondly what stood out to you as
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: far as like tactics are finding sheds? There are they
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: just behind every single tree and it's easy pickens?
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Or what did you I struggled my way through the Midwest, man,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: I had a hard time. I had a hard time
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: in Iowa. I hiked for two days in Iowa before
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: I found an antler, and it was a small brown
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: that was tucked in a willow patch that just got missed.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: But we were hitting public land and it was public
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: land that had been hiked a ton. We found a
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: couple of dead bucks. But yeah, it took me two
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: days to find a shed. I found at the end
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: of the second day, and then the people that we
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: were with found a couple small antlers, but everything by
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: the time I got there had been well picked over
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: and then there was deep snow, so we were just
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: trying to figure it out. We were in the northern
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: part of the state Ohio. The same story. I hunted
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: public land, I found chewed up antler at the end
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: of day one that was just like a real garbage
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: antler found a dead buck there too, but there was
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: boot tracks all over through the piece that we were hiking.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: So I was surprised at the competition in the hole Midwest.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: It was just there's just they're getting after it, and
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: there's the already exists this idea that that's where all
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: the big bucks are and that's where all the deer are,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: and people go there, and there's a lot of states
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: that have a lot of white tail that are a
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: lot less pressure than the Midwest.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like anything that you've said already would
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: be different for western white tail shed hunting?
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: I don't. Yeah, I think that the little that I
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: know about western white tails like would be like Montana
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: and Idaho, and I don't know that people target them
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: as much for sheds. I know there's some diehard guys
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: out there getting them. But I killed the white tail
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: buck in Montana this year, and every one of its
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: sheds was on the ridge that I killed it on.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: I saw that that was insane.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: So even since that video I posted, my buddy went
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: back and found another set. So his year prior to
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: the year that I killed him, So literally every antler
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: he ever grew we found within five hundred yards of
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: where I killed him. Is that?
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: So? I saw that on your social or somewhere, and
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: that made me wonder, you know, if if deer in
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: some of these western regions that was kind of like
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: mountainous like forest and stuff, right, just like the fidelity
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: to a single small zone for betting year after year
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: after year. That seems crazy to me. But you know,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: talking to other people out there or in your experience,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: have you seen like is that relatively common? Is there
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: going to be like a small small zone where this
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: buck is going to be like every winter that you
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: could you know, almost count on like that.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: I think that that is fairly common with those deer.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think they exclusively do that. But
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: the feedback I got when I posted that video was
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of people being like, oh, yeah, you know
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: this Idaho mountain buck I killed. We found all the
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: sheds right there in that same ridge or you know,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: several several years off of them. And the reason we
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: were there hunting that deer was because my buddy had
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: seen him on that same ridge about three weeks earlier.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: And so we were just went in there hoping he
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: might be around somewhere, and I mean we rattled him
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: in down the exact same ridge that he was on
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: and he lived and died, I mean right there. So
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: just a good ridge, good feed, a lot of brows,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: and a good timber pocket on the back to hide,
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: and that's where he lived his whole life.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Well, so basic shed hunting ideas and strategies we've covered
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: talked about pants being an important thing for shed hunting,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: and thorny spots, any other gear clothing stuff you throw
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: in your pack when you're going out for a full
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: day of shed hunting. Like this kind of sounds silly,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: but I know from spending a lot of days out
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: there myself that there are some things that, man, it's
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: really really important to make sure you've got with you.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: What's in your shed pack. What are some of the
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: key things that you're wearing or bringing with you that
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: help you do this? Well?
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, optics obviously you're huge, like the basic your western
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: hunting stuff that you're not going to be without probably anyway. Food,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Like if you want to consistently put down miles from
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: sun up till sundown, which a lot of Western shed
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: hunting is like you got to just fuel as you're
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: out there doing it. So I'm usually packing a lot
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: of different Like I like to carry jerky and cheese.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: That's my go to and I'll just eat that all
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: through the day so I don't ever crash out and
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: then electrolytes, you know something, maybe some candy to keep
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: your blood sugar going, but just whatever you need to
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: be able to push through a whole day. And because
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: the most common thing is to like run out of
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: energy after five or six miles and be like, oh
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: this sucks on, must sit you know. That's huge. Yeah,
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: brushpants are important. Brush shirt Like I have a shirt
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: that I wear that's actually for like loggers that is
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: saved my life. And the thorns many times we get
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: those burn thorns in Arizona too, and those new burns
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: that grow up and they're just lethal. So good clothing
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: is huge. Boots, I mean boots. I use different boots
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: to shed hunt than I do to hunt. I like
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: more of a cushioned boot to shed hunt. When you're
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: going to do like twelve or a fifteen mile day,
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: something with a lot more cushion in the soul. I
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: feel like I can go longer on them, like an
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Ultra or a trail runner or something. Okay, Yeah, and
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: like I listen to audio books on my phone, Well
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: I'm shed hunting. That's huge for me too, Even if
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: it's like just a small distraction, I feel like it
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: helps me lock in more. Maybe that's just my brain interesting,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: but yeah, like just kind of basic stuff. Gloves can
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: be huge if you're dealing with thorns.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going to say that one.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a pair of leather gloves just to be able
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: to fight through burn thorns or whatever.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: What do you think about sunglasses. I've gone back and
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: forth in sunglasses.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: I think they're for people with weak eyes. No, no,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: like I don't know. There's some new ones out that
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: are supposed to help you find mushrooms and antlers and
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: golf balls whatever, and some people swear by them, and
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: like I have buddies that just use like blue que glasses.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: They say they make antlers stand out more. But I've
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: never gotten into that.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: M Yeah, I've always I've always debated, like lots of times.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: I want to put them on because just will feel
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: better on the eyes because I have weak eyes. But
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: then I do wonder like, is this somehow hurting my
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: ability to make them pop? And then also it's you know,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: more cumbersome when I want to throw the glass up
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: and use my binox. You know, I don't want to
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: use my sunglasses and then throw off the binocular, So
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: I oftentimes take them off because of that. But I've
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: wondered because it's kind of like, you know, cloudy days
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: tend to be better for seeing antlers, So do your
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: glasses kind of act like putting a cloud cover on?
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: I've had maybe people message me to sell them for
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: finding antlers and offer to send me some, but I
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: haven't never tried them. Interesting, all right, So boots, Buyino's
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: good pants, shirt, gloves, bring your food, water, electro lights.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: I'll throw one more in there, which is always bring
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: TP Yeah. Oh yeah, I mean never roll without the wives.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Man ruin a day of shed hunt real quick.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the truth.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: What about getting access when you don't have public land?
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: You did?
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: You have to go down that road very often getting
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: you know, knock on door permission from folks throughout your adventures,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: either on this fifty state trip or anything else. Do
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: you have any advice on getting shed hunting permission.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like a lot of people are more
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: willing to give shed hunting permission because like, they don't
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: care you're not going to be shooting guns, you know,
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: to them, somebody walking around their property isn't that big
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: of a deal. One angle that we've used many times
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: in the past is that you know, it saves tires
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: on the farm equipment if you can get antlers out
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: of the field, and that's been something that's or a
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: few times where the farmer will be like, I'm always
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: running over those things. One situation, we ran into a
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: guy in South Dakota and we walked into like a
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: little teeny store and we asked the lady at the
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: desk if she knew this landowner, because there was a
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: landowner that had these farms that just looked amazing right
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: outside of town. And she said, Oh, that's my brother.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: He's pretty crazy. We're like, oh, cool, Like can we
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: talk to him? She's like, I'll give you his phone number,
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: and they're like cool. So as we were walking out of
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: the store, the lady comes following us out. She's like,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: this is him. He just walked in the store and
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: it's like, oh cool. So we started talking to this
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: guy and I told him what I was doing. I'm like,
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: can I, you know, come shed hunt your property and
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: he's like no, no, no, no, absolutely not. I can't
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: have anybody out there, you know, and you know, plus
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: my grandkids find him. I'm like, oh, that's a cool,
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: no big deal. He's like, but but I'll give you
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: a shed so you'll have one for your thing. And
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, I mean, I got to find it
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: or it doesn't really count, you know. And then he
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: started talking to us a lot about a pipeline that
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: was coming through their neck of the woods that he
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: was really concerned about. And so we made a deal
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: that if I would share his position or his petition
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: on Instagram about stopping this pipeline, that he would let
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: me shed on his place. And I'm like, oh cool.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: So I shared it for him, and we ended up
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: going out to his farm and I remember pulling into
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: like his grain bins where he parked his equipment and
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: looking over and there's like a smoke and big whitetail
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: shed right underneath the grain bin, and I'm like, we're
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: in it, Like this is going to be so good.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: So he let us go hike and I picked up
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: I think like five or six brown antlers in his
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: grain bins in the parking lot where the deer were
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: coming and eating his milo that he had in these bins.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: And then I walked down the main road to his
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: corrals where he was feeding cows and he had hey
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: and I could just see antlers just littered all the
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: way through these corrals and I went out there. I
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: was just picking them off as fast as I could go,
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: Like there was a spot where a buck could jump
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: the fence and drop both sides. And I can't remember
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: how many we picked up, but thirty plus antlers between
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: me and my buddy in about a half hour. And
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: then it snowed two feet like it just started pounding.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: But that was like the best success I've ever had.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: We'd just loaded up. We were there like for a
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: half hour. It snowed us out and we left, but
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: it was so wow.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: What do you take away from that as far as
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: like how the access came together? I mean, I know
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: that was like a random thing, but when I hear
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: your story, there's some things that stand out to me.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: But what do you take from that that could be
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: applied elsewhere.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: Even if they tell you no, Like, even if their
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: first instinct is no, you can't do that, Like just
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: talk to them a little bit and get to know
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: them a little bit. It might just be their initial
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: response and they might be cold to begin with. But
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: even if they tell you no, I mean, I like
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: that guy for example, if he would have just said no,
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: we're never going to do that, I still had his
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: phone number. I still might have called him in a
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: month and been like, hey, and just wondering if this
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: may be something changed. But just be friendly with them,
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: and if they tell you no, like you don't have
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: to go cold, and and you know, be upset about it,
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: because a lot of people may take a little bit
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: longer to warm up to the idea yeah.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Or also just the fact that you talked to, you know,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: the lady behind the counter to you know, just just
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: asking her about thoughts on that, and just talking to
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: anyone in these local areas I think is such a
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: great start. And so many people probably just are either
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: too antisocial to want to do that, or you know,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: just don't think anyone would say yes. But the answer
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: is always no before you ask, right, So it's never
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: going to get worse than that. You might as well
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: ask and talk to some people.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Another thing that's worked well for me, and I've used
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: this well for regular hunting and shad hunting. If somebody
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: says no, I'll always follow up, you know with you know,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: is there anyone else in the neighborhood who you think
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: might be willing? You know, just get a reference, and
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: then you know, now you can go to this other
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: person and say, hey, Bob down the road mentioned and
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: then now you've got kind of like a personal connection like, oh,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: this guy knows Bob down the road. Maybe Mark's not
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: such a bad guy. Maybe I'll let them go out there.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: And that's helped me too. Yeah, that's a good tip. Yeah,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: what about and this is this is something you kind
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: of just reference there a second ago. But I want
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: to circle back on one more tactical thing. You talked
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: about how you would seen I think can't er if
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: you say, as a match setter, it just a single
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: but at a spot where a buck jumped over I
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: think you said a fence or a creek or something
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: that's like an example that I've seen too, like a
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: very specific kind of feature that can sometimes lead to antlers,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: So hopping over a creek, hopping over a fence. I
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: can think of a handful of other things in the
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: white tail world where that are like very specific things.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: But when I see this very specific thing, I'm like, oh, yeah,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: I gotta at least check that out. Are there any
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: other like specific little things kind of like that that
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: you can think of, either out west or across the
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: country that you've learned, Like, if I see that, you
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: gotta check it because there might be an antler. Do
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: anything stand out like that?
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I Mean, fences are an obvious one,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: right because they can live their antlers when they jump it,
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: and they also travel up and down fences quite a bit.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: So I'm always going to walk a fence line. Most
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: of the time on public land, they've been walked. But
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: even I mean, if you're the first one there and
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: it's earlier in the morning, just go check it again
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: because anything could be there. YEA one thing with elk
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: that I always look for is isolated low hills of
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: the right kind of feed. So if there's like say,
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: a huge valley and there's only these few hills for
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: a few miles and they face the right way, and
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: they have that feed on them. Like odds are some
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: bowl laid down and shed as antlers there. So I
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: always just like there's a lot of times I'll be
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: driving down the highway, I'm like, oh, that's a shed
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: hill for sure, and I'll pull over and go hike it,
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: and a lot of the time there will be an
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: antler on it. But yeah, crete crossings and even highway
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: crossings too. I a lot of times, especially in the
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: desert estates where the elk are very dispersed, I'll cruise
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: the highway and look for elk tracks crossing the road.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: And there's been many times where you'll cut a fresh
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: track of bowls and then you go backtrack them and
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: find an antler.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: Nice one one more that I've thrown there from like
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: kind of the Midwest country, I've seen it, and probably
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: some of the Western stuff too. Is like an isolated
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: evergreen tree or cedar or something like that. If you
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: see like an isolated evergreen in some grassy brushy stuff
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: always seems to be the kind of thing that you know.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: I think deer and probably all ungulates are kind of
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: like bass and they want to find structure, like if
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: they're in an open area, if there's some piece of
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: structure that's different that attracts game and attracts deer that
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: are gonna bet up and hang out by that, they
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: just feel that safety. And so I always check isolated
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: cedars evergreens of any kind, especially if it's on a
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: south facing grassy hill or slope or anything like that.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a sweet spot. And then like you said,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: edges of fields, edges of fences, those can be pretty
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: pretty dynamite too. You mentioned like grain bins and hay
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. I've heard stories of
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: like that, but I've never had it happen for me.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Is that a one off for you or is that
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: something that you've actually seen in other places? Like it's
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: not like a once in a lifetime lucky find. But
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: can that happen elsewhere? Never?
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure it can. I've never really seen it
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: like that, Like that place had I mean a big
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: hate like a hay bale that was busted open where
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: there was I think three or four antlers in that
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: one pile of hay from a big bail, and I
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: think it had been a really really heavy snow year,
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: and I think it had those deer just ultra concentrated.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: So I think on that kind of a year, it
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: could definitely happen if you find a food source. And
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: also it wasn't this guy's main farm, like he wasn't
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: in and out of there all the time, so it
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: was actually really secluded for those deer back in there.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: And it's the right combination of circumstances. I guess.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, man, jealous, that sounds like a great half hour
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: I need to go back there. It was crazy, that's insane.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I saw that you take your boys out shed hunting
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: your kids. Got any advice for shed hunting with kids?
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean fake them out, like I don't have
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: any shame about that at all. Like I don't usually
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: take antlers out and throw them, like I know guys
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: will do that. But what I'll do with my boys
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: is just walk until I see one, and then I
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: make sure that they're the one to go up there
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: and find it. And sometimes you got to walk them
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: by it three times, you know, tell them, got to
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: get a little specific, like go check over here. But
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: you know that feeling that they get from finding it
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: is so much better than you picking one up anyway.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, that's the truth.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: I've even gotten to the point where sometimes I'll do
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: I'll do the same thing and I'll even find them,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: mark them on on X and then go back and
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: like get my kids or come back the next day
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: or something and go find them like that, because like
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: you said, it's so it's so much better for them
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: to find them, and you know, it's a hard thing
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: to have happened, like to be in a place where
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: you can have the kids out there and find it
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: that if there's a chance, you know, to get him
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: out there, As far as I'm concerned, it's worth it
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: because when trying to do it in the real world
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: with the kids out there, you know, just odds are
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a lot of hours without actually
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: finding one. So when you have one found, it seems
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: like it's worth a little bit of extra effort to
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: somehow get him out there and see that.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. My youngest seven and he found a
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: set of brown elk sheds this year that was like,
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's like a three hundred bowl, maybe a
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: little less, but I spotted him. He was like thirty
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: yards ahead of me, and I could see him side
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: by side on the fence line, and I was I
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: was way more excited than he was watching him because
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: he genuinely found him on his own. He was headed
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: over there anyway, you know, So I just stood back
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: and let him walk up on him. And that's the
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: greatest to me. That's what it's all about.
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's so cool.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: I guess one one last kind of actually finding Antler's
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: kind of question here for you? Is there? I mean,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: I just you've got this really interesting experience. But maybe
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, have you, as you've talked to people about
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: this project, have you found anybody else who's done who've
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: done this?
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: Or are you the guy?
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: I don't. I don't know. I've never found anybody. I've
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: followed a couple of leads, people like, oh this guy
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: did or this guy did, and I've chased him down
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: and it's no, I don't think. I don't think anybody's
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: ever done it before.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: So, with this very unique perspective, what is the single
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: greatest mistake related to shad hunting first that you've made?
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: And then secondly, what do you think the most common
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: mistake that most people make when it comes to shad hunting?
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: And that could either be you know, like a tactical
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: thing like actually, what will help you make, you know,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: find more antlers, or maybe something like a larger question,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: a larger thing related to SHD hunting. But I'm curious,
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: what's the biggest mistake you've made, and what do you
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: think is the largest mistake or most common mistake that
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: most hunters make.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: They're probably the same thing. It's probably the same answer,
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: and that is ignoring areas that you assume are hiked.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: I think that most people will do that. Like I
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: have some spots that I've hit now for years where
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: they're the dumbest spots. You would not necessarily expect them
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: to be holding anything. We have a spot in Nevada
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: that is literally right next to the highway. It's in
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: between the highway and another main road, and it's right
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: in the gap and it's only five hundred yards between
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: these two roads. It's just one little set of hills.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: And I drove by it for so long and before
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: one day hiking it and like just absolutely loading up
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: on antlers. And I'm like everybody else is doing the
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: same thing. They're driving by this little teeny set of
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: hills and they're like that gets hit that's hiked. It's
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: too close to the road. I'm not gonna I'm not
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: going to hit that. But on that one specific spot
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about now, we've pulled a three hundred and
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: ninety six inch set of elk sheds out of it. Whoa,
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: we pulled three hundred and sixty five inches set out
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: sheds out of it, pull the two hundred and five
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: and shed of mule deer sheds out of it, and
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: then on top of that, just like I don't know,
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: fifty or sixty other quality antlers, And it's just like
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: I was talking before, it's isolated hills in the middle
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: of a big flat, but it's right off the highway.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: I mean that biggest set of elk sheds. My buddy
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: Troy actually picked them up when we were hearing cars
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: go by on the highway, sitting there looking at the
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: biggest set of elk sheds we've ever found. So it's
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: just like, don't overlook those dumb spots that you can
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: hike in ten minutes. Like if something looks good, I
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: don't care if it's next to the highway, I don't
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: care if it's between the interstate lanes. Just go look
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: at it, so.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Kind of a natural file to that question. Then you know,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: you talked about one big mistake, and that being ignoring
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: those kind of two obvious places. When I was asking
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: that question, an idea came into my mind about what
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: I thought one of the biggest mistakes that other people make,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't so much related to you know, finding sheds,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: as it is related to having fun while shed hunting,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: which brought to mind the fact that like oftentimes me
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: and my buddies will go out there for a weekend
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: of shed hunting somewhere and sometimes as a friend or
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: two who within like the first four hours will get
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: super negative and and all of a sudden they are
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: like miserable, We're never gonna find any sheds, or this
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: place sucks or whatever it wants. You know, so long
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: you haven't find anything. Do you have any thoughts on
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: how to keep shed hunting fun? Yeah, Like, if it
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: quits being fun, quit doing it. Like that's what I
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: tell people all the time.
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: If it's if you're not having a good time, go
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: back to the truck and kick it and have a
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: drink and eat a sandwich and then go hit it
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: again in the afternoon. Like, if you're not having fun,
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: you're not gonna be that effective at it either. And
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, like a moment will come or
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: you're like, all right, I'm tired. This sucks. And if
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: it's just that push through. But if you're getting burned
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: out on it, as like a hobby as a whole,
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: there's nothing wrong with taking a day and just chilling
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: a camp like it's supposed to be fun. That's the
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: whole purpose of it. And I've been guilty of taking
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: it too seriously. I mean, there was a time in
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: my life where I shut hunting five days a week
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: and like it after a while, it's like it felt
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: like a job. It's like I gotta go grind it out.
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: I got to get this many miles per day, or
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: I'm not trying hard enough. I got to find this
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: many antlers if I want to sell them for this
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: much and do and like it just takes the takes
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: the fun out of it. It truly does. So if
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: you're burned out on it, if you feel like you
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: know you're not having the success you want to have,
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: like drink a monster, chill out, hang out under a tree,
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: you take a nap and then go get back after
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: it when it feels fun again, like there's nothing wrong.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: You don't have to be that die hard.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's that's really good advice.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Another suggestion I'll throughout there is like deal with friends,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Like shed hunting is so much more fun. I mean,
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: it's fun as a solo thing, don't get me wrong.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I enjoy that. But then also it's always more fun
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: when you've got a group of buddies and you can
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: get back together after you're walking or you meet up
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: halfway through or whatever it is. That's that's a great
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: It's a great way to you know, get some exercise,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: have good times with your friends, be outside and a
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: part of the year that maybe you're not usually going
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: to be out there doing something. It's a pretty darn
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: good thing. I can't I can't find too much negative
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: to say about shed hunting. It's a great way to
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: spend an early spring day. So tell me this, Ben.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: If folks want to follow more of your stuff, see
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: your video, see any of your content, where can they
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: find it and what should they be looking forward to
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: in the coming year.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all my socials are shed crazy solid one word.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: I think my YouTube's under Shed Crazy Official, but if
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: you search Shed Crazy, I'll pop up there. I have
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: a couple of videos coming up from an early higke
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: I did this year. We went out and looked for
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: some dead desert big horn rams, so that's coming before
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: too long. And then I did a project this year,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: try to do the Native North American deer Slam with
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: a thirty thirty. I just finished that project, so we're
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: going to be dropping a film that probably the summer,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: but it'll be like a step above in quality what
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: I usually do on the YouTube channel. I'm stoked for that.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: So that's all coming down the pike. And yeah, just
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: getting into shed season now, so you can look for
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: some some shed videos to be popping on the YouTube
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: before too long.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, I'm looking forward following along. You know what
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: we didn't get into in this conversation really at all,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: but that seems to be a big part of what
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: you bring to the table is just like a much
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: needed sense of fun and irreverence.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: I love the fact that you can, you know, the
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: fun that you bring to your social media, the crazy
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: things you do and say and you know, crack jokes
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: on I think is a much needed A little bit
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: of positivity in the social media world can compared to
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of the negativity out there, So keep that
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: up too, man. I appreciate that.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: Well, thanks dude, I appreciate it.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: I will, and thanks for this chat.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. It's got me amped up for shed season,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: gave me some good ideas, and I'm looking forward to
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: putting it into action.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, good man. Hope you have a good shed season.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: All right, And that's going to wrap it up for
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: us here today. Thanks for tuning in. Hope you enjoyed
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: these shed hunting tips, tricks, and philosophies you might call them.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: I certainly am excited to get out there and start
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: walking here soon. Usually like mid February is my start
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: date for shed hunting here in the Midwest, and that
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: is knocking on the door here. So best of luck
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: out there. Until next time, stay wired to hunt.