When is it time ?

When do you guys decide “it’s time ” to look for shed ?

Do you talk with friends , follow the shed hunting forum on IDO , put out some food for them and stick a camera up , put a camera up on a heavy trail coming and going from food to a bedding area , drive around and find a pile of deer out feeding in the same area and keep coming back day after day and glassing till you see they have shed. what are your ideas on this so you don’t push these bucks out of the area till they have shed both sides ?

Plan A Put out some corn and a camera and wait.

Plan B Wait until 1st week of March and start hiking.

Come on Jason you didnt tell us your secret you always find big sheds

I’ll start hitting public areas and food sources from now until the end of february. Other than public ground or local farms that receive alot of pressure I just stay away from bedding areas until at least the end of february.
Looking through my old shed journals, the sheds are pretty far and few between till the end of Jan. then I seem to pick them up pretty steady till spring greenup.
Now is definitely the time to take evening drives and find where they are spending time feeding

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I’ll start hitting public areas and food sources from now until the end of february. Other than public ground or local farms that receive alot of pressure I just stay away from bedding areas until at least the end of february.
Looking through my old shed journals, the sheds are pretty far and few between till the end of Jan. then I seem to pick them up pretty steady till spring greenup.
Now is definitely the time to take evening drives and find where they are spending time feeding

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Good info shednut

If you have a place all to your own and have very few rodents (squirrels and rabbits), then it’s easy to leave until the snow melts. But if you have competition of the human or animal kind, I like to check once a week in the obvious spots and leave the harder spots until the snow melts.

It does also help to have a trail cam up to see when they shed.

Most importantly…don’t forget the ATL pictures!

Gman, All of what you posted is correct. Shednut hit it on the head about public land, hit this first and foremost. The deer in my particular area feed this time of year in only a couple fields so if I bump a buck out I’m pretty sure he won’t go far and will be back. Binos are great for finding sheds and examining deer to see if it has or had antlers. If I know I am pushing deer around I’ll always back out and search elsewhere. I’ve been following the post’s of a particular member of another outdoor site and he and his friends are up to around 30 sheds so far this year in the Duluth area. So NOW is the time to get out UNLESS you know your bucks are still holding thier antlers and my guess is alot are. I’ll be headed to some public land this w-end to see where the deer are most concentrated so I have my go to spot figured out in the up coming weeks. Best of luck and lets see another monster matched set this year!

about a week ago…

here is pool5hunter and I’s finds in about 6 hours of hunting on public land, 1 nice matched set and anthor small set with some little up and comers as well.

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about a week ago…

here is pool5hunter and I’s finds in about 6 hours of hunting on public land, 1 nice matched set and anthor small set with some little up and comers as well.

Off to an awesome season guys!

Heck of start to the season there Hook! Congrats on you and you’re bud’s finds

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about a week ago…

here is pool5hunter and I’s finds in about 6 hours of hunting on public land, 1 nice matched set and anthor small set with some little up and comers as well.

Thats a great start to the shed season

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Great post GMAN! And some great replies too!

First off I believe the secret to finding more sheds is that you have to concentrate and train your eyes what sheds look like laying on the ground. It sounds kind of stupid but it took me a long time to figure that out. I heard a good way to this is have a friend place some sheds in a grassy area and then have the other friend go look for them.

When to go shed hunting also depends on the condition of the snow. Right now the snow is pretty hard and crusty which means the shed will be somewhat visible on top. However, if the snow is soft and fluffy it makes it really hard to see them.

Congrats HookNFinger on some great finds!

Pool5hunter found everything except for 1 i found. pretty crazy to find that many sheds in one little spot

Great horns and some good pointers I tend to wait till Valentine’s Day to start looking because most of the deer have lost their horns by then. The bucks in the areas I look for horns are all still carrying them or from what I can tell they are although people are finding some when out walking around.

what gets those bases so chocolate colored? You think its genetics that those antlers are so bleached already or do you think they had been dropped for awhile?

Just hade a buck come in tonight with no horns he had them friday.

Sweet, Let’s see some pic’s soon G

I might go behind the house tomorrow if i get some time just because I know where they bed. I also had another half rack come in tonight with a broken leg.

Dang rats

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Dang rats

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Well I had the two bucks I have been watching come in last night with no horns so I went out behind the house this morning an only found human tracks guess I’m a little late. They both had them Friday night.

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Well I had the two bucks I have been watching come in last night with no horns so I went out behind the house this morning an only found human tracks guess I’m a little late. They both had them Friday night.

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That sucks !

GMAN you find that by your place.

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GMAN you find that by your place.

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Yepper

I will be over to find the rest

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I will be over to find the rest

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Bring beer with

sounds good maybe this weekend. Got any private land to go on I’m game.

Congrats GMAN on the nice find!

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sounds good maybe this weekend. Got any private land to go on I’m game.

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We are still waiting on the private , most of the boys still have both sides Cameras are out and will be checking again this weekend