Posts

Top 6 Best Places to Find Shed Antlers

March 9, 2017/1 Comment/in Get Muddy /by Muddy Outdoors

Best Places to Find Shed Antlers

If you’re a deer hunter or any kind of outdoors-lover, you’re probably racking up some miles on your boots right about now in the pursuit of shed antlers. Why wouldn’t you? It’s a warmer-than-average winter in many parts of the country, the snow has mostly melted, and it’s the perfect time to get out there and check the woods. With everything you can learn about the deer you hunt or the habitat you hunt them in, shed hunting can be a great learning opportunity. But while everyone is consumed with the idea of looking for these magical shed antlers, they often get confused about where to look for shed antlers. It can be really intimidating if you own a very large property or look primarily on vast public lands; where do you even begin to search for something so small in an area so big? It feels like looking for an actual needle in a haystack after a while.

Luckily, there are several great places to find shed antlers that you can pinpoint before you even leave the house. The best places to find shed antlers are areas that hold deer during certain parts of their daily routine, which increases the likelihood of you finding antlers. When you start searching in these high-priority locations first, you can eliminate huge areas that have very little potential. Ultimately that means you could find more shed antlers in less time, making you a much more efficient shed hunter. High efficiency is critical if you’re dealing with huge properties and want to find some deer sheds before the mice, squirrels, and porcupines chew them up or another hunter finds them.

Where to Find Shed Antlers

We’ve listed some of the best places to find shed antlers below. Take a look through and see if any places come to mind on the land you shed hunt. If you can think of a few, prioritize those spots for a trip very soon. Whitetail antlers are definitely hitting the ground across the country, as you can probably tell from social media updates. If it hasn’t happened on your property yet, it’s likely to happen very soon. When to go shed hunting is a tricky question. The most accurate way is to use trail cameras for shed hunting. The Pro-Cam 12 is a great trail camera that you can use throughout the year to keep tabs on the deer herd.

First, let’s start with a recap on white-tailed deer habits and habitats. Deer are adapted to rest during the day and feed throughout the night. They are crepuscular animals, meaning they excel at dawn and dusk (i.e., low-light situations), but their eyes are adapted to see well throughout the night too. Using that knowledge, we know that deer will spend the majority of their day bedded down somewhere and the majority of their night feeding somewhere. It makes sense then that deer are more likely to shed antlers in one of these two areas since that’s simply where they spend most of their time.

Deer Feeding Areas

Let’s start with feeding areas, which many people adamantly claim is the best place to find a shed antler. Since deer would typically drop their antlers in a feeding area during the night, you’d have a great chance at finding a fresh deer antler before anyone else if you’re up against other public land shed hunters.

Agricultural Field/Food Plot

In much of the Midwest, corn and soybean fields are king when it comes to deer nutrition. They make up the majority of a deer’s diet during certain parts of the year, and are full of carbohydrates and protein, respectively. That should be obvious, given how many mature bucks have been taken out of a Muddy Box Blind perched on the edge of a corn field. But when they are harvested each fall, deer need to instead scavenge waste grain on the ground. This is an inefficient way for them to feed, and they will always seek out the easiest feeding method possible. If you can find a standing corn or bean field in the winter, you can be sure the deer will travel for miles around to gorge themselves. More importantly, fields like these are such a powerful magnet for whitetails that you could find shed antlers from deer you’ve never even seen on your property before. Winter food plots with corn, beans, tall brassicas, or cereal grains offer a similar attraction. People often overlook food plots for shed hunting. With all the deer gathering in these fields, you have a much better chance of finding a shed. If you don’t have any fields, you can also try supplemental feeders.

Winter Browse Area

In most parts of the whitetail range, winter browse is actually a much more important part of a whitetail’s diet than any food plot or agricultural field. Deer are adapted to have reduced metabolisms in the winter, and their digestive tracts even adapt to include the microorganisms to efficiently digest fibrous browse. What do we mean by browse? Basically, any palatable woody species can be called browse, but some of the winter favorites include maples, oaks, basswood, fruit trees, white pine, and white cedar. It’s important to note that deer will normally only eat the young and tender new growth from the summer before as that is easier to digest than older, tough, and woody stems. While you might be able to find young growth areas on your property, they will likely be scattered around and hard to pinpoint a specific location. But if you have any recent clear-cut areas from the year before, there is sure to be an abundance of young growth for deer to browse on. Public lands are usually full of these kinds of cuts, which can be part of your overall strategy. Make sure to check out any of these areas for shed antlers.

If you don’t have any on your own private land, you can create that habitat right now to increase your chances of finding a few sheds this winter and for many to come. Simply grab your chainsaw and cut down several trees in a small pocket (anywhere from a tenth of an acre to an acre or more). You’ll want to leave most oaks and fruit trees that provide mast for deer, which will further enhance it as a feeding area. But all the other undesirable trees can be fully cut down or hinge-cut. The freshly felled trees will provide lots of young tender browse that was inaccessible to the deer, but the sudden infusion of sunlight will also produce lots of stump sprouts next summer. If you hinge-cut the trees, it will become a thick area that can act as both a bedding and feeding area. That’s a great way to really increase your odds of finding a shed antler!

Deer Bedding Areas

Now we’ll talk about the other main area you’re likely to find most of your shed antlers. Deer will bed down in the same general area for the majority of the day. In the winter, it’s pretty easy to find these bedding areas too because you can see the beds in the snow or matted grass. That being said, you’ll want to wait to check out any bedding areas for shed antlers until you know that bucks have dropped them, simply because you can chase them to a neighboring property before they’re ready.

CRP Fields or Cattail Swamps

In the winter, deer need thick thermal cover to protect them from the cold temperatures and winds. Some habitat types to accomplish this goal include tall grass plantings or frozen, thick cattail swamps. Most Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields are perfect for this purpose. They are often planted with switchgrass, big bluestem, or Indian grass, which are very tall, upright, and clump-forming. These tall grasses shield deer from icy winds and stay upright through ice accumulation and heavy snows. Since they are usually located in close proximity to agricultural fields and make for a convenient bedding area, it’s always worth checking out one of these fields. Frozen cattail swamps offer a similar level of protection as they will grow extremely densely to protect deer from any cold winds. Just make sure it’s still frozen before you venture out into the swamp. Finding shed antlers in the tangled thick grasses or cattails isn’t easy though. You need to pretty much stick to trails and beds to find them.

Dense Conifer Stands

In more northern regions outside of the farm belt, dense conifer stands offer a similar level of protection from winter, with some additional benefits. Pine forests with a tall canopy help filter out snow, which keeps the snow levels in the understory very shallow. This is important since deer hooves sink right through deep snow; this sheltered spot offers a break from the otherwise difficult travel conditions. There may also be some young or fallen cedar or pine branches to browse on while in this type of bedding area. Deer may occasionally shift to bed on the southern edges of spruce plantations so they can soak up the sun’s warmth while being protected from the north’s icy winds.

Thick Brushy Areas

As we mentioned above, recently clear-cut areas provide tons of downed trees and limbs to offer a lot of concealment for whitetails. If they were cut a few years ago, there should be lots of additional growth too. Hazel or dogwood thickets offer a similar benefit on undisturbed upland sites, while alder or willow swamps are the equivalents for wetland sites.

Travel Corridors

Now that we’ve covered the two dominant sites to find shed antlers, let’s look at the last place you can find them. Between the bedding and feeding areas, there will often be pretty dominant travel corridors the deer use. These trails are very easy to notice in the winter, whether there is snow on the ground or not. Simply walk these corridors from one end to the other, paying particular attention to areas with obstacles across the trail.

Post Season Scouting

This shed antler hunting season, don’t take the scatter gun approach by looking everywhere. Focus instead on these high-priority areas alone and take the time you need to look more thoroughly. Don’t just casually walk through the area; you need to almost stalk and use your eyes to really scan the ground for any part of an antler. If you focus on the areas above, you should come out ahead when it comes to the search for shed antlers.

Using Trail Cameras to Figure Out When to Start Shed Hunting

February 6, 2017/0 Comments/in Get Muddy, Trail Camera Accessories, Trail Cameras, Uncategorized /by Muddy Outdoors

Increasing Your Odds at Shed Hunting with Trail Cameras

Deer hunting season has ended but another season is just starting. This season has tremendous interest right now, making it a sport all of its own. We are talking about shed hunting and its season is starting right now.

Whitetail deer sheds command huge paydays for those that find large and unique racks and are willing to part with them. More so, shed hunting has moved from a hobby, or an accidental encounter to the weekend hunter, to a necessity as more landowners take deer management seriously on their properties. Sheds also make for a nice trophy on the wall of that buck you have chased all season and expended time and resources for, even if you were unable to harvest him. Sheds also provide a record of what bucks have made it through and some information on what this season may potentially yield.

The Biology behind Antler Shedding

To understand antler shedding, we have to start with some groundwork on what buck antlers are. Antlers are composed of bone-like tissue that starts developing in early spring. The growth phase of antler development, which goes from early summer until fall, is where a buck’s antlers are covered in a soft membrane referred to as velvet. This velvet is a layer of nutrient rich blood vessels that supplies the resources needed to build the antler mass. The nutrients, such as amino acids, minerals, proteins and others, are what many hunters and landowners try to supplement throughout the summer to promote this growth and thus yield bigger antlers.

Antlers will growth rapidly for two to four months. As fall approaches, due to photoperiods, the levels of testosterone start to increase. The increase in testosterone constricts the blood vessels around the antlers and eventually causes it to die. Remaining velvet falls off or more typically is rubbed off as a buck begins to prepare for the rut. What are left are the hardened antlers we are so interested in during deer season. Antlers stay with a buck until about the middle of winter then they drop off. This antler growth process is repeated each year for the buck’s entire life.

The antler shedding (casting) part of this cycle brings us to the biology behind shedding. The process, both the growth and casting of antlers, is controlled by photoperiods and testosterone. However, there are many factors that lead to either early antler drop or late drop such as injury and social stress. Often times these factors do not hold a significant role, which is why the shedding process happens generally the same time of year each year. The main for this again is the amount of light, or photoperiod, available at a given point in the year. During antler growth, testosterone levels rise (antler growth) towards a peak (loss of velvet) and eventually decline into as winter sets in, which signals the physiological response of antler shedding. To complete the cycle, daylight starts to increase as spring and early summer arrives and bucks begin their new antler growth.

When Do Deer Shed Their Antlers?

Traditionally, shed hunting season starts in February and wraps up around the end of March. Certainly, sheds can be found throughout the year and usually can be picked up during spring gobbler season if the rodents have not consumed them all yet. However, the main focus of shed hunting is in these two months.

While testosterone is the main factor controlling antler drop, there are several factors that can have an impact on how these testosterone levels can change. The stress put on a buck from environmental conditions such as extreme winter weather and also contributing factors like poor nutrition or injury can all lead to lower levels of testosterone and accordingly expedite the timing of when bucks shed antlers.

Bucks that shed their antlers earlier than February are typically more mature, dominant bucks. These bucks are apt to shed early because their dominance gets them more involved in the rut earlier and for a longer period of time than younger, less mature bucks. Due to this, they can be left depleted after the rut and stressed to a point where antler loss happens earlier than other bucks in a region.

Conversely, late antler drop can be influenced by several different causes. First, unbalanced deer populations can create an atmosphere where some does do not get bred during the peak of the rut. In these highly skewed deer populations, does are being bred during the second rut and beyond. Bucks hold their testosterone levels up in these areas, which leads to them delaying the shedding of their antlers until late March or April. Second, first-year fawns that reach breeding weight their first winter will come into estrous. This usually happens well after the peak rut and is the main driver of the second rut in many places. Again, situations like these will keep bucks high in testosterone longer, delaying the shedding process. Finally, high levels of competition for does can cause late antler shedding. Mature bucks that have to spare more frequently to breed does produce more testosterone, which results in a later loss of antlers.

Reasons to be Shed Hunting This Year

Besides the fact that finding sheds can be profitable if you are good at it, there are other reasons to be shed hunting this year. First, finding shed antlers can give you some information about the buck that carried them. The most obvious fact is that he is still alive. Sure, a buck that shed those antlers may still have a misfortune in the coming months but making it past hunting season is the biggest challenge. Aside from car collisions and a disease outbreak, the odds are pretty good whatever buck left those antlers will be around come next season.

In contrast, dropped antlers do not always connect to that buck living in the area. Finding a shed clearly shows that a buck has passed through here but depending on food availability, weather conditions and other factors, he may or may not be a resident buck. In areas with high-quality forage and lots of it, bucks stick around. The opposite is true when harsh winters reduce food sources and poor habitats that make bucks more transient. This is where post season scouting for deer is important. Finding a shed can help you focus post season scouting on potential hunting spots for next year.

Second, spending time shed hunting is important for deer management on a property. Those that shed hunt religiously can start to put together the growth trajectory of individual bucks. Finding the same buck’s sheds year after year can piece together what he may look like this coming year. Growth rates will vary each year but by scoring an antler shed, even just one side, and comparing that score to last year’s shed of the same buck can give you an average growth rate. This is an advantage in compiling, albeit early, a hit list for the upcoming season.

The Big Question | When to Start Shed Hunting on Your Property?

Since we are on the precipice of shed hunting 2017, when can you be sure it is time to venture out and look for sheds on your property? The best way to decide when to go shed hunting is to use trail cameras.

Trail cameras provide a means to monitor the timing of antler drop in your area. You can use cameras to pinpoint when most of the bucks have dropped their horns. Also, trail cameras can track a specific buck to find that white gold set that eluded you during hunting season. With trail cameras, you can scout an entire property and even multiple properties quickly and determine when to go shed hunting makes sense.

Shed hunting success is all about coverage. The more miles you put on the ground the greatest chance you will stumble across shed antlers. Trail cameras, however, can save you valuable time. When to shed hunt should be based on when the majority of bucks have started dropping. Use your cameras to identify when about 50% of bucks have lost their horns. Your odds of finding sheds will be much greater when you know most bucks have lost their horns.

Post Season Trail Camera Surveys vs. Shed Hunting Scouting

Similar to why you should be shed hunting, post season trail camera surveys are a way to find out what is the overall status of the deer herd in your area. The most efficient way to accomplish this is by running a trail camera survey.

A post season trail camera survey provides more valuable information than summer trail camera surveys. Results with surveys this time of year can be used for determining population estimates, age structure, sex ratios and herd health after the hunting season. All of which drive what management actions are needed this year.

The differences between a post season trail camera survey and using trail cameras for shed hunting are how the cameras are setup.

Post Season Trail Camera Survey Setup

1 trail camera per 100 acres. Ideal but use your best judgment based on topography and how you have observed deer movements in the past.
1 photo burst with a 5-minute The most important setting when conducting a trail camera survey.
Run the survey for approximately 3 weeks before pulling the cameras and proceeding with the analysis. 1 pre-bait week, and 2 weeks of actual data, making sure bait is present at the site during the whole 3 week period.

Trail Camera Setup for Shed Hunting

Scatter trail cameras in the best places for finding sheds like food sources and bedding areas. Often trail camera density goes over 1/100 acres. This is in order to get more encounters and pictures over the entire property
Use a 3-8 photo burst or video setting on your Muddy Pro-Cam 12 to narrow down which bucks are shedding and to identify bucks vs. does once shed.
Run survey until the last buck has shed and check trail cameras every few days to determine when to go shed hunting.

Best Places to Hang Trail Cameras for Shed Hunting

Positioning trail cameras for shed hunting is very much related to where you would place tree stands for late season hunting. This time of year bucks have reduced their core area with a focus on three main aspects; food, cover and security. Knowing this can narrow down two main areas to concentrate your trail cameras for shed hunting.

Food sources are key areas for deer in winter and one of the best places to shed hunt. Even though bucks are moving less and relying on fat reserves, they still seek out places that have late season forage. Food sources like standing corn, beans and winter food plots will all be attracting deer. Deploy trail cameras on main deer trails coming to these spots to capture bucks as they shed their antlers. If there are no remaining agricultural food sources, do not give up. The main part of a deer’s diet in winter is woody browse. Use deer sign like tracks and scat to pick out these areas as potential spots for trail cameras and ultimately shed hunting.

The trails leading to food sources are likely coming from bedding areas. If you are trying to determine where to find sheds, start with bedding areas. Bedding areas are providing cover and security in winter. Bucks will spend most of their day in these areas. Southern slopes with thermal cover and easy access to food sources outlined above are perfect locations to place trail cameras and hunting for sheds.

Putting It All Together

There are numerous shed hunting tips out there but it really comes down to dedicating yourself to shed hunting. It is a combination of an art and a science. The art is taking your time, covering ground and being able to pick out even the slightest protruding part of an antler on the ground. Where the science comes in is using trail cameras to time the shed hunting season and to isolate the most likely places bucks are hanging out in winter. Combining these two will put more antlers in your pack and support your management decisions this season.

When do whitetail deer shed antlers? It is happening right now! There are some people out there that are naturals at shed hunting. If you are like most, however, you need some help when it comes to shed hunting season. It is ok to hike through the woods in the hope that you will find sheds, but a better approach is to have a plan. Using trail cameras to identify when to start shed hunting and areas that bucks are frequenting will vastly improve your odds when it comes to searching for white gold.