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Deer Antler Shed Hunting: The Post-Season Scavenger Hunt
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May 22, 2024
Antler shed hunting is the perfect sequel to deer season, and a great reason to get outside and go for a hike by yourself, with friends or family. Here are some shed hunting basics, when, where and how to hunt, including one tip you don’t want to miss to double your success!
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Hey everybody, Simon from LakeO. Today we're talking about the perfect sequel to deer season
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antler shed hunting. So every single year, whitetail bucks drop their antlers and then
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regrow them in the summer and into the fall. Every single year that provides lots of opportunity to
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get out in the woods in the springtime, late winter, and go find those antlers. We're going
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to talk about when, where, and how to go antler shed hunting and I'm going to give you one tip
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to double your success when you're out in the field. So when do you go antler shed hunting
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Bucks are generally going to drop their antlers from about mid-January to mid-March. So I like
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to go in February. There's really not a lot going on. You're in between hunting seasons
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you're kind of in between fishing seasons. The kind of doldrums of winter have caught up
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and it's a good excuse to get outside, get some fresh air. It's also great to take kids along
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take your pup, significant other, or just a buddy. If you're kind of like me, you like to be alone a
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little bit, go out by yourself. So February is the perfect time. You can also do double duty
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You know, you can scout for turkey season, you can take a shotgun and go squirrel hunting, you can go
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rabbit hunting, and do a little bit of both. Just again, it's just another reason to get outside
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So where do you do it? I mean shed hunting can be done anywhere. It can be done on
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public land, it can be done on private land. You really just, the only thing you need to make sure
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of is that you're safe and legal. You're not trespassing on anybody's property and you're not
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busting up anybody else's hunt or anything like that. So again, that's why I like February
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Waterfowl season is over, all the late deer seasons are over. There's really nobody else
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that you're going to be interrupting or crossing up. I mean you could start in January but I really
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wouldn't, you know. The areas and the terrain that you want to look for, it's going to be a little bit
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different than what you may be used to hunting in deer season. So in deer season you have other
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factors like the mating season, the rut going on, and there's going to be different travel patterns
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and so forth. Late winter, that's when you have to think about what the bucks are doing when
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their antlers are going to be dropping. It's going to be late winter, food is scarce, it's going to be cold
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and so if it's been really cold lately you might look for good bedding areas that might have some
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sunshine, maybe on a hillside, maybe on a south facing hill. If it's been super just cold and
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windy and miserable then look in deeper ravines and kind of, you know, more kind of bottomland
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areas. So you want to look for the bedding areas, you want to look for some food, and then you want
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to find the game trails in between. On the game trails what you're looking for is maybe a place
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where they might have to jump or climb or do something like that. Sometimes it's a
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sudden movement that kind of is the last straw that makes the antlers fall off. Sometimes it's
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kind of thicker brush that they get tangled up in, you know, vines and all that kind of stuff
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So those are the sorts of things that you want to look for. So how do you do it? This is
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the part where there's no replacement for just putting on miles. So it's really kind of
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a wild hike is what it amounts to, a slow wild hike. Now some people like to go fast but you're
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really, you're gonna pass up some opportunities if you're going too fast. So walk
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slow and methodical. Again, this is hunting, right? So you should be used to kind of walking slow
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using your eyes, tracking really slowly, and you want to look near and then you want to look far
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And what you're doing is you're using the aim small, miss small mentality. So you're not looking
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for, you know, a big, you know, Fred Flintstone rack of ribs sticking out, just sitting there
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right in the middle of a field. That's probably not going to be likely what you're going to find
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You should be looking for a little tine sticking up out of, you know, a bed of leaves. So you're
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looking for a little, you're looking for a main beam, you're looking for little tines. If you aim
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small, miss small, then you're going to find more than somebody who's just looking for, you know
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a gift that's just presented for them on the forest floor, which it could happen from time to time
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It's just not likely. Another method is to use your binoculars. I have, my hunting binoculars
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are 10 times to 20 times zoom. And so I can use them for closeup, you know, kind of detail looking
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really close and then zoom in real far and glass, you know, maybe the far edge of a field or get up
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high and glass the entire field and kind of span it back and forth. So I don't actually have to
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walk the field. And then I can spend more time, you know, in the woods and so forth instead of
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tracking back and forth. Now, the one tip that's going to help double your success
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If you find one, I'll say it this way. When you find one, stop after you're done high-fiving
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yourself or your buddy or your significant other, stop and turn 360 really slow and look near and
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then do 360 and look really far because more than likely the other side is going to be really close
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by. It's really not going to be that far. So do a really slow 360, look close, a really slow 360
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look far, and then start doing circles, wider and wider spirals. And that's how you're going to
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really just double your chances when you're out there looking for shed atlanters in the winter
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time. If you've found some cool sheds, especially in the Texas, Oklahoma, across the South areas
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love to hear about that. Hear your stories, see some pictures. And of course, you know
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subscribe to our channel because we've got a lot more hunting material coming up too
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