shed hunting

[shedfreak]

Its hard to find matches just due to the # of people in the woods. I have a group of about 8 to 10 hardcore sheddin buddies, and we match up alot between us, but on average, each of us gets anywhere from 1 to 3 matches every year, and they all get around 20 a year. We also do a lot of walkin together in the same spots. So theres times where maybe if we would have gone alone, we maybe woulda have had the set, but instead we went through and gridded an entire chunk with 4 guys, so one of us would get a side, and somebody either up or down from us would get the other side. Idk if that answers your question or not, and again, thats just my viewpoint on why we dont match em up jumbo style.... which I will always be jealous about!

[ChompChomp_YANK]

Shedfreek,

Nice to see your having good luck again this year! I was wondering if you know a guy named Bruce Guck I met him on a job site last week and he said he found over 250 sheds just last year!! He is into it big time. He got out a folder full of pictures that we looked thru for almost 2 hours!! he has some really cool stuff. He even has a set of 3 skulls locked together. He said he knew a few guys from around the duluth area. Just courious if you knew of him, Its always good to see your pics. keep it up!!! CHOMP

[certified jumbo]

shed freak - that does answer my question. its always more fun looking in groups. it sounds like to you a good group of guys to work with on that.

250 sheds, thats incredible. is he looking out of state or canada??

[ChompChomp_YANK]

He told me he looks in minn and out of state. He never mentioned canada. I forgot how many he said he has found so far this year but he told me that he takes 2 weeks off in march and travels the surrounding states looking for sheds. He showed me pictures of some rooms in his house and if it wasn't made out of antlers it had piles of antlers on top of it and of course they were all big!! All I kept saying was WOW!!

[Musky Buck]

That is pretty cool and I can understand the passion put into it, as I get older it isn't so much about taking a big buck anymore, finding sheds is a lot of fun plus you don't have to wake up at 5:00AM, sit in lets say a frozen ladder stand, and many more. Great exercise, the rubs on trees still have a fresh look to them, nature itself, and a prize if you find one. In our economy, fairly inexpensive and refreshing, a great way to spend a day. Good Luck guys, I'm waiting in one of those March and on shedding pockets of the state.

[shedfreak]

I havent heard of Bruce before, where is he from, do you know? Do you remember any of the Duluth guys he knew? and 250 sheds huh? canada would have to be one of the trips he took im assuming, to get that many... But ya never know I guess....Im gonna try and find some info on em...

[scsavre]

thanks for the info Jumbo, if your friend found a few in the area, that means i better get back to it.

thanks.

[ChompChomp_YANK]

Shed, he is from hastings. It sounded like he does alot in iowa and alot in southern mn. He has some hunting leases in mn and the group he is with only shoots trophy bucks. he shoots a recurve and showed me many of his mounts that he has shot and also has some of the previous sheds from, alot were 140" and up his largest was 200". He didnt actually mention any names but I asked him if he ever used the form and he said no. He said he was invited to a show up there I believe last year. I thought i remember hearing about some get together on the form last year? Does duluth have anything? Mabey it was ely? I think he also said he has done some seminars on hunting sheds.

[shedaddict]

Well I had a pretty interesting hike last night. I was checking out a new spot in the city. First I came across a 30ft frozen waterfall; I followed the stream down from it on a nice deer trail and came upon a Hobo camp. Can't say ever ever seen that shed hunting before. There was nobody there, but there were 4 tents set up and it looked like people were using it. I decided to get out of there just in case. On the way out saw two coyotes. No sheds, but an interesting hike to say the least!

[ChompChomp_YANK]

Shedaddict,

Not to worry I'm shur it was just some boy scouts trying to get there below zero award!!

[shedfreak]

HaHa if i had a dollar for every hobo camp ive come across! I keep my distance as well, never know if youll be dealin with some wacked out meth heads or something, no thanks!

[ChompChomp_YANK]

I still think it was probably just some boy scouts

[shedaddict]

Could have been, but then when I was circling around the camp, I came across a bike chained to a tree with one of the pull carts near it. Around all that was a bunch of aluminum and other misc metals ready for recycling. It's probably not the same guy, but I've seen a guy pedaling around with a bunch of scrap in the cart. Either way, it was a sweet find.

[ChompChomp_YANK]

Or a boy scout on a bike pulling a cart picking up trash?? OK I'm done lets talk about sheds again!!

[stick]

"Permit to Carry" anyone?

My motto is: "Better to have and not need...than need and not have."

[JimmyJames]

[PoorWordUsage] homeless people, who do they think they are campin in our woods? I'm bein facetious.

[scsavre]

That is a pretty crazy story. That would not be fun, being homeless in northern MN in winter.

Im going to find my first shed today. heading out now.

[jkcmj]

We spent a lot of time searching the last couple days on a trip up to Duluth, Ely, and surrounding areas. We tried following moose tracks to find the bedding areas but found that there was about 3 feet of powder snow that we could not stay on top of with snow shoes. We followed for 7/10 of a mile and found nothing. Super exhausting. Took a couple photos with the cell phone. Highlight of the trip was the snow sculptures they are making up in Ely for the winter festival. Amazing detail. A few pics for you.

[ChompChomp_YANK]

Got out for a couple of hours today with no luck. Most of the sign ( beds and big trails ) were covered in about 4 inches of fresh snow with more to come the next day or 2. I will be going back to this spot as soon as the snow starts melting. There was more sign than I have ever seen in this area.

Cool snow carvings!!

[shedaddict]

Wondering if you guys have ever noticed what looks like blue pee when you're out looking for sheds. I've noticed it a lot lately and didn't know what it was? I'm assuming it's something the deer are eating. Any idea?

[Jameson]

I was looking for sheds at a local park recently and noticed the same thing. Then I noticed that the buckthorn trees had all their berries eaten off up to deer level. So, my conclusion was the the blue pee was from deer eating the blue berries of the buckthorn trees. Could be other reasons, but in this case I am pretty confident that was the cause.

[jkcmj]

When deer consume Arborvitae trees it turns their [PoorWordUsage] blue/green.

Arborvitae

The arborvitae is an evergreen tree or shrub from the cypress family. They are found primarily throughout eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. The arborvitae has scale like leaves that are soft to the touch, rather than prickly. Arborvitae prefers colder climates to warmer ones.

Arborvitae plays an important role in the wild. Its leaves are one of the most popular evergreens eaten by deer and other mammals during the winter.

[Jameson]

They were eating those too. Well, red cedar which is close to arbs, so maybe the same thing happens?

[scsavre]

The blue pee is just me, i have been drinking the Splash windshield washer fluid again.

I have seen a few bucks with their head gear on still, so i think it might be a week or so still in my area.

I have noticed a ton of fresh scrapes and rubs though. I saw about 4 beds that have dirt scraped up all over, scratching it up and throwing it 5 feet, then a ton of broken twigs and what not. The deers feet had dirt on them still and you could see where he ran in circles from scrape to scrape. Seemed odd to be acting like that this late in the winter.

[shedaddict]

Funny that you say that about the washer fluid, when I first saw it, I immediately thought about that. Makes sense about what they are eating.

A buddy in north St. Paul had a nice 8pt in his back yard yesterday. I was out yesterday as well and noticed what looked like one fresh rub. This is my first year looking around the metro, but it seems like the bucks drop later here, or it was real early and everything is covered up.

[ChompChomp_YANK]

A buddy of mine lives near Lindstrom, MN. he watches the deer every night in his back yard (some think he is crazy ) he has had 13 different bucks from small to big comming to his feeders lately and only about 1/3 of them have dropped. The largest of them (130" eight pt.) still has both sides.

[certified jumbo]

Well, i got back on the board this last weekend after a month of finding nothing. Snuck out for a couple hours over the weekend with the wife. I found 2 small non matching antlers. But, i will take them. I've had a difficult time finding many big antlers this year. A big reason I beleive is because the bigger ones are under the snow in my area as most dropped the end of december and first part of january. This means i should have some good action in april though. Which will be fun!! Up to ten now on the year, not a lot of size though. Sorry no pics on these two in the field, no cam. Here's a couple pics at home.

Good Luck,

CJ

[buglefever]

The deer around here really hamnmer the cedars on heavy winters so there's "blue pee" everywhere. If you can find the cedars they've been chewing on, those can be some really easy sheds to find. Even when there's heavy snow the area around those trees will be beaten down, sometimes to the ground. Especially if they're feeding on a line of trees facing the south. And the antlers stick out like a sore thumb!

I got permission for one of those such spots yesterday. I'm the only one that asks now, but again this year, just like the last few, somone beat me there. Somone walked the line of cedar trees before our last snow. I didn't find a single antler in the easy spots. But I did go way to the back of the property to a little pocket where they have it tore up and managed to find a "tough" antler. It was a beautiful 6 pt....a basic 5 with split g-2s and really dark color with bark still on the base. All that was sticking out of the snow was about 1/2 inch of the brow and about 1 inche of the beam tip. Now I just have to beat the competition when the snow melts to find the other half!

[mooneyes]

I have never gone shed hunting...seems like a fun hobby to add to the list...not like a few more hours in the woods could hurt a guy! best part is there are no ticks unlike morel huntin

[shedaddict]

Jumbo, Buglefever,great finds guys! Bugle, any pics?