23 so far. The only pics I have are in the field or "as they lay" photos. i'll see if I can figure out how to post some.
Hopefully this will work I have a few days off from work starting tomorrow so hopefully I'll get into a bunch since the snow has finally disappeared everywhere except for a few north slopes
Nice sheds-I've been looking but no luck so far. Our local herd tends to move to the yards during winter, so it isn't unusual not to find many.
The deer by my place also migrate during the worst of winter. With the early, harsh start this past winter, I think most all the deer were long gone before the drop started.:frown:
Those shots of the antlers as they lay are sweet. Gives a newbie to shed hunting like me an idea of where to look.
Here's what I ended up with...I still have a chance at stumbling across one or two while morel hunting but I'm officially calling it quits as far as the shed season. I found one more after this pic which put me up to 30 for the season. All but 6 of these come from one farm that is probably about 300 acres, the deer around me don't "yard" but they do in a way migrate in the winter. I'm in the driftless area so we have lots of big ridges and ravines and the deer seem to always move to the south facing ends of the major ridgelines.
Kurtish, It's hard to say from the pic, but it looks to me that in a couple of cases you may have a couple years worth from the same deer? Is this the first year that you hunted this property? Given the size of the collection you have, I'm surprised that I can't see much rodent damage. I'm a little suspect of how fast antlers are attacked anyway. If you believe everything you read, it would seem any antler would be completely eaten away within a short time, but I see lots of pics of undamaged sheds. That is a real nice group you've got there. You would get my vote for Shed King of the Year.:bowdown::lol:
Nimrod, I've hunted this property the last 3 years. I only found 2 old sheds this season and I can't figure out whether I recognize them or not. The one definitely shares some of the characteristics of another fresh shed that I found, but it could just be the local genetics. Last year I found 38 sheds but most of them were off of 1 1/2 yr old deer....I've sifted through my pile from last season and I didn't find any that stuck out as matches to this seasons sheds but I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them are. As far as rodent damage I did really well in beating the squirrels to them this season. I only found a couple that had been nibbled on and none that had any significant damage. I make it a point to walk at least once a week from the week of Christmas through greenup so most of my sheds are found pretty quickly after dropping. From what I've noticed over the last 4 or 5 shed seasons is that certain areas produce more damaged sheds than others. I have one small pasture that I have permission to shed hunt and every shed I've ever found in there has been chewed pretty heavily. Then in other areas I find last years sheds without any chew damage. My feeling is that some squirrels have figured out that they like to chew on anters and some haven't.... I could be way off base on that theory but I really can't figure it any other way. Thanks for the compliment but I don't think I can accept the shed king status.... when you walk as many miles in the woods as i do you are bound to trip over a pile of sheds sooner or later:biggrin:
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