Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

SHED HUNTING THREAD - PICs INCLUDED


WalleyeChamp

Recommended Posts

Nice pics guys!!!

Did spend some time looking the other day on a cornfield that is pawed to the ground. No luck though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 703
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • TonkaBass

    79

  • lungdeflator

    49

  • matchset

    44

  • WalleyeChamp

    31

After seeing that a lot of people were already picking up antlers this season, I decided to go for a ride and see what I could find. 8 o'clock this morning I saw this one 10 feet off the road alongside a heavy deer trail. I also saw about 50 does and 3 shed bucks in a field. Time to get in shape for the season I guess!

1stshedoftheseasonDec312010.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice! I saw some shed out buck again today and one beast that I hope to find when he drops. Most the spots I checked today though still had buck holding their gear

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aint found any yet but I guess I have not looked either. Found my first one Jan 14th last year Hoping this year it going to be Jan 2 going out 2maro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Made a try at two of our favorite spots today and came up with 4 antlers. Not the big ones, but all trophies when you put on the miles! Found a matching set off a yearling, only to have a third one pop out when I picked them up that was frozen to one of the set. You can just see part of the beam in the photo. Up to 5 for the year!

1-1-11shedhuntDec071.jpg1-1-11shedhuntDec067.jpgShedsasof1-1-11002.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

found number 1 today!

Did you find that one around the house. Now that bow season is closed I will bring you too some of the land owners and introduce you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome! I haven't tried this year but last year and the year before I put on many many miles on foot in areas where I always see deer. Yet to find one! The only interesting find I found while out shed hunting was this!

n199101806_33576926_9484.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you find that one around the house..

closer to your house than mine smile it was almost too easy to find! i've got a feeling the match is in the corn tho frown

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went out after dark with a flashlight tonight and checked some bedding areas I have had good success in the past. Found this nice 4 point side about 9:30 tonight. Shed #6 for the year!

01031122141.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

haha nice cow

Texas Longhorn. There is a guy near me that has a bunch. The weird part is I found it on state park land. Just the head. No body. It was pretty fresh. In order to get into the state park this thing had to go through a lot of barb wire.

I am thinking one of the few cougars running around drug it out into the state park land. Way to heavy for a coyote to drag this thing. Wish I could have found the carcass to see if it was a natural death or something killed it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That cow will look cool on the hood of your truck!

Sadly I have a care. But ive looked online. If I bleach that skull, polish those horns I can sell it for a pretty good penny online.

Seen some smaller sized spreads go for right around 500$

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

dont use bleach it will eat the bone up!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not doing anything with it right now. I am just hoarding it. I have 3 people that want to buy it from me how it is already. Just debating if I should keep it for down the road or shine her up and sell it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would look good on the bow of a boat. Nav lights coming out the nose!

To bad this long horns didn't have those horns pointing down! Could be sort of a brush gaurd on the river wink

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd just call a local Taxidermist and ask them what they use for European mounts. You'll find the correct way to do it there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey guys! Thanks for the post!! I always like seeing pictures of any shed and hearing the story behind it. My first sheds last year were 1/11-1/12. So getting pretty excited now!!! I Have only been out on one little area so far but will be out again soon. Cant wait to see that 1st one of the year again!!!!

pureinsanity, what you want to do with that skull is boil it. A fresh deer skull takes 6+ hrs of time to really get them looking nice. With that one there you will want to do at least two boils. With the 1st batch just use water along with a tablespoon of bleach to kill any bacteria. Try to go 3-4 hrs if possable. Longer will not hurt. You may have to keep adding water as you go. Like said.... any amount of bleach will pay its toll on that bone. use a screwdriver and if needed a knife to work out any tissue but dont dig to hard. Let the water do the work. Also try to keep the steam off the horns. That alone will dis-color the area a bit. I have hung foil around the lower half of the horns and it helped a lot. Still trying to improve that!

You will not be able to get all the skull in the water. Take a ladle or something to keep pouring that boiling water over the top of the skull and around bases of the horns. The fresher the skull the more you have to do this. That bone has to get hot enough to blow the blood out. The guy that showed me this said count to 500 time and keep going till you cant stand it any more smile. Usually need a beer brake in between. Older ones you still want to do this so you dont get a water line. Older ones you can to a much shorter boil and less pours on top.

Second boil you will want to use peroxide. I usually go 2 parts water and 1 part peroxide. I honestly do not know what is right or wrong there that seems to work pretty good. Just make sure you are in a well vented area. That boiling peroxide cant be good for the lungs. Once you do this you will see the peroxide work into the bone and release alot more material than you would expect. It will start to turn white pretty quick. After a bit the tissue in the nasal cavity will release on its own and the hard cartilage around the ear cavity and base of the skull will be a lot easier to get out as well.

If you have any questions let me know here! If I was you I wouldn't give that find up unless I knew the guy. Not may guys get to have that in there bone collection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all, the first thing you want to do is try to get each horn off. There is a bunch of tissue/meat behind horned animals such as Longhorns, Antelope, Dahl Sheep. Antlered animals dont have this, such as deer, elk, moose, etc. If you don't, you will not only get grease running down onto your mount after time, plus that tissue back there will rot/stink and could attract bugs. So you will want to get this off. Not sure how much expirance you have with European Mounts, but here is the jist of a process you could do. The easiest way I get animal horns off is to sweat them off. Meaning, tie them up in a plastic bag, and keep in a heated area. After a day or two, pending how dry they are or whatever, you might be able to twist them right off. These can easily be attached later when it is complete.

Then you can go ahead with cleaning the skull.

I would suggest NOT boiling. Boiling is pretty much the worst way to go. Better would be Beetles, maceration, even simmering. Additionally boiling can cause the skulls to crack and cook the fat into the skull and also break down the bone structure. At most simmer not boil. I would also steer away from using bletch, as this will eat away the bone and could leave it chalky or flakey. Pending how much flesh is remaining, baking soda will help break that up safer, to were you will either be able to use water pressure or air pressure to remove all flesh.

Second of all, I'd be careful boiling (Heating) peroxide. Chemical reactions can take place even with the pan u possibility be using for boiling. Be VERY careful with H202 (peroxide) and heat......VERY flammable, EXPLOSIVE! I'm not sure if you get this same type of reaction from the weaker peroxide you find in drug stores. But I know the much stronger stuff I use for skulls, can't be heated.

I'm not saying MoJoe's advice won't work for you, but I do hundreds of skulls a year. I know there is more than one way to skin a cat, but thru experiences this is what I know. I don't use simmering, maceration practices anymore, as I've migrated, for a number of years now, to dermisted beetles.

If you got any questions let me know

Just be careful...and good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found they sell cow skull and horns in Mexico all cleaned up and polished for $40. When I was visiting my brother in Texas, I drove down and bought like 5 skulls and horns and thought I'd make money. I tried selling them in the paper for $100 each and got no calls. I took one to a consignment auction and it went for $25. I ended up giving one to my Dad, one to my brother, and have the last two sitting in the basement. I wouln't spend to much cleaning and polishing it if it's money you hope to make!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hunting 24 7, thanks for the info! No bad feelings here but honestly most guys in my shoes have no reason to keep dermisted beetles on hand. It sounds like you get to work with lots of skulls. I myself am a jealous man. That sounds like a great way to do it and lots of fun to boot. I should have been a bit more detailed with those instructions. Also never thought of being able to pull those horns off. That would be nice with deer!! Working around them is a pain in the butt!

The peroxide I use is your standard Hydrogen Peroxide "Topical solution" pretty diluted from the stuff you have I would assume. You can pick it up at wallmart or target for about 2-3 bucks per Qt. Usually use about 1.5 qts to 3-4 qts or so of water. I use an old electric heating element (similar to one on an electric stove) out in the garage and can not tell you the capacity of the boil pot. It was and old one that I was kindly granted to use from the wife to destroy smile. Its about 14" inches in diameter and maybe 6-8" deep. With that old single element it will not come to a full boil with the bone in there but pretty close if you give it time. Have not had one crack yet. We have had the lower jaw section from bears break in two. Most the damage done in the past was from trying to hard to remove the tissue to early and with a sharp knife. I will admit this is a pretty redneck job. By no mean a professional job but works? Hardest part IMO is getting the brains out "sorry". That may be graphic to some but true. This one pictured here cost me about $15 total between the wood, peroxide, hardware and some time.

winter10.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.