Top 5 Tips for a SUCCESFUL Shed Hunt!

If you read my previous post, you know that shed hunting is no walk in the woods. Shed hunting, like many activities, seems like a real quick and easy thing to become successful at. This is not the case. You could walk for hours and hours and hours and never find a single shed, that was me today. I walked 4 hours and did not find a single shed. Sometimes you just get skunked. It's the same as fishing, you could do everything right and still not catch a single fish. Like fishing though there are some ways to focus your attention that will definitely increase your odds at a successful hunt. I have got five for y'all today. These are the locations on the property you choose to focus your attention on. You can just walk all lackadaisical and find success but if you focus on these key spots, you will find better success more often.

1: Groups of Sapling

Groups of saplings is the first spot I will check for antlers. I can be walking a heavy trail but if I see a group of saplings 50 yards away, I will stop what I am doing and bee line it that way. Personally, these saplings are the best place to look on your property. Thin trees, an inch or two in diameter, are a popular spot for bucks of all sizes to get their rub on. Come the springtime, with the weakening antlers, I have great amounts of success. A buck will come down his rub line and go about his business but that extra stress on the antler causes it to pop right off. Usually, both at the same time. I have found many pairs of antlers in these small sapling groups. So, if you have a spot on your property with a group of little trees that you KNOW show sign of buck rubs. I would definitely focus on that spot. If you only have 45 minutes, that is the first spot to hit.

2: Bedding Areas/Fields

Bedding Areas, like an area with lots of old oak trees and not a lot of brush, and fields with flattened grasses, are my second priority. Usually, if I'm walking back to the truck after a long day, I will try to weave my path into these areas. These spots still show lots of deer activity, and it is easy to see long distances. Instead of walking through six-foot-tall brush or Honeysuckle, only being able to see a few feet in circumference of your position, you can see 15 yards and the white of the antlers will stick out like a sore thumb. So, if you're tired after a long walk through the woods and you can't uphold the same vigilance as when you started, I recommend these locations at the end. Quite a few times at the end of a long walk I lose my "keepin' my eyes peeled" feeling and have actually seen an antler, not registered it, and had to retrace my last few steps to grab it. This causes Bedding areas and fields with flat grass to take second place in my top five.

3: Fences

This one may be a little unorthodox, but fences are a great place to look, and they take third place in my list. I use "fences" as a broad term. By this I mean any location that a deer needs to perform a leap to get over an obstacle. Often times it takes just that little extra boost of stress for the antlers to fall off. Any fence line where you know deer leap over the fence can give it that boost. There are videos out there online where a deer hops a fence and when it lands, that jarring movement causes the antlers to fall right off. These obstacles are a quick pitstop in the grand scheme of things during my walks through the woods for antler sheds. I have found quite a few antlers at locations like these, so it makes me never able to ignore these obstacles. I will always make time for a quick search near a fence line.

4: Obstacles/Brush

If you absolutely HATE having to duck under branches every step and your hat or jacket getting caught in a tight spot, guess what, deer do too! Just like how your hat might get taken off of your head while ducking under a branch that monster bucks antlers go through the same thing and pop goes the weasel. So, what do I mean by Obstacles/Brush, in my private hunting property I have a Honeysuckle/Buckthorn paradise. The path to my stand is the same path that the deer have been using for years. But even worse, I have a smorgasbord of brambles and thorns tangled in there as well. I can't take two steps without having to pick my hat up off the ground or ripping my jacket arms free of a thorn bush. It might be a pain in the butt to walk in these areas, but the deer do it too and their antlers will just fall off if they get caught so if you have the time and the will power, which I do not have sometimes, it is well worth it to go through the hassle of these obstacles.

5: Trails

Last but not least, it might be surprising, but beaten deer paths is my LAST location. Just wait, let me explain! By putting the heavily beaten deer paths last, I am not saying they are not worth looking at. Quite the contrary, trails are definitely worth looking at. The only reason that it falls so short on the list is because if you are like me and like to grid search the property, trails make it a little difficult to do so. If you follow a trail, it can take you on a never ending and completely UNorganized search. Eventually the trail will split into multiple trails, and if you're walking a new property, you do not know where the new trail leads. Just wandering around a property is not the best way to go about searching for antler sheds. You could walk the same areas multiple times or, even worse, you could miss whole patches of the property. Trails show the activity yes, but there are more efficient ways than just choosing a trail and wandering, hence it is at number five.

Overall Thoughts:

Searching for antler sheds benefits greatly from searching in an organized way. There is a reason that when you lose a blood trail you start "Grid-Searching". That is the most effective way to make sure you cover ALL the ground. I recommend grid searching your property 100% and I cannot stress it enough. But these 5 spots I mentioned should definitely garner a little bit of special attention. Plus, you can grid search each of these locations depending on the size. While grid searching if you come across ANY of these locations take a moment and pay it an extra glance. Look over the same spot twice to make sure you don't miss anything. Then, take a few steps and look at the same spot from a new perspective. Sometimes an antler out of view in one spot is obvious a few steps away from your first viewing location. In general, you have to put in the time to find that White Gold these 5 things just might help you focus those miles a little better. Miles=Piles!