woolybear

Decided to take the road to my hiking grounds today. I'm always checking out all the crap folks throw out there windows that ends up along side the road. This time of year it's a real mess. The amount of empty cans is unbelievable. Anyhow, I see a car coming around the bend ahead and notice they tossed some trash on the shoulder a couple hundred yds ahead. I got up there and saw the empty McDonalds bag and some other junk. Then right beside all that was a rolled up lottery ticket. I had to pick it up out of curiosity. All the winning #'s were scratched off and all the players #'s were scratched off....fudge! A quick glance revealed a 29 in the top row and a 29 a few rows down. Alls I had to do was scratch off my prize!!! $40 :) It doesn't pay to be a litterbug!

That's what we like to hear! Glad all went well for ya Steve!

Good luck gents!

HeY Ruth, I think you forgot somebody...........ummm...., YOU!

What's up Mystery Hunter and HOBH? You boys better clean off your shelves to make room for this seasons "RT-Shedmasters Golden Antler trophy!!!" Good luck this year fellas! Lots of lonely antlers out there depending on us!

Thanks William! Yeah, I've picked up about 6 or 7 skulls so far also, but just little basket racks. Only one skull from this past season so surprisingly it doesn't look like too many went unrecovered here at this point even with our snowless season. I'll snap a group pic of them to post with my next find. Not sure how well my NY antler finding skills would work in your neck of the woods but I know a few properties around here you would think should hold some horns, but they never produce. You sure can't go wrong hiking them anyhow. Eventually a bucks gonna loose an antler where he's not supposed to and you'll be there to scoop it up when he does!

Yup, you sure live in a great area for anyone with a whitetail obsession- very envious on my end! Looks like another great set to look forward to hitting the ground. Good luck next hike stones!

Thanx guys! Added one more to the horn pile 2-4-12 Spent a good part of the day picking apart another overgrown field where I've been seeing the bucks lately. I've been through here a few times already and found nothing but it's big enough to give it one more look before checking back closer to spring. Well anyhow, besides my few old antler pieces I've ever found dragged up a tree by the squills, today I came across my first true hanging antler! Sun bleached white and not a tooth mark on it. No idea how old this thing is but it sure aint fresh,lol. A nice 4pt side with another base booger point! Got out today and saw a group of 5 bucks still packing both sides so I called it an early day. #18

I can hear the music playing but why aren't we dancing yet? That was my only question,lol.

Been kinda painfull to stand by and watch the fire burn out of this site. I think a few of the personal squabbles that took place a while back left a lot of sideline members choosing sides and therefore being a bit more selective in who they posted or replied to. Seems like that kinda snowballed and pretty soon posting was cut down to next to nothing so nobody felt like they were betraying anybody or playing favorites. For me it just got old whatching everybody "taking their balls and going home" whenever a bit of controversy arose. When that spilled over into a few members who couldn't post in the same thread without a personal attack between them, well....that wasn't exactly what I signed up for. When Scott had to come in and babysit the whole bunch, I think a lot of folks felt they had handled themselves in a mature enough manner that didn't deserve to be supervised so they moved on. All that said, I think those in charge of the site have done a great job of keeping it respectable and appropriate to audiences of all ages willing to act their age. Maybe it'll bounce back in the fun department...maybe it wont, but it's refreshing to see it hasn't stooped to the level of some sites just for the sake of site traffic. Just a few of my thoughts on this.

1-28-12 I headed back to where I found the last 2 freshies the other day. I wanted to take a look down lower in some pine stands but didn't find anything in there. Pretty uneventful day right up till the time I was ready to head out. I got to the site where I found the kick stand antler on the side hill on the 26'th and decided to do a quick pass through the thickets about 50yds away. Glad I did! There lied the mate to the kickstand horn...antler #17 and the match to my 5'th set for the season! Reunited at last! This is where my season is at so far. I'll try to ring in the month of February with some fresh antlers tomorrow! Good luck guys and gals....I'm looking forward to all your finds as well!

1-27-12 I must have passed by these antlers 5x's already this year and no telling how many times last year! Todays rain washed away all the snow and really made the "oldie green" POP! lol I had both in the same ATL 5ft apart but you can't really see the 2'nd one all that well. Anyhow, now that they've dried out they don't look half bad. It's a nice tall rack with a good sweep to the mainbeams. Antlers #15 and #16!

1-26-12 My good fortune continued today when I scooped up #13 and #14 for the season. I've been meaning to check this place out for several years now but never got around to it. Well, it looks like I'll be making time to get back in here now. Got a couple antlers to match up now and saw 2 more bucks with at least one antler. This one was kinda cool. Looks like he was coming down the hill and.......BOOP... it just popped right off and stuck here! ...and out of the snow. After that I kept heading down towards a goldenrod patch I bumped some deer towards. The trails and beds in here were thick and fresh. I kept checking all the empty beds when I finally found where a buck had lost an antler and put it under his pillow for me......"the antler fairy"! The bare spot to the right is his bed. The base on the shed was still blood pink. At the end of the day I was a pretty happy hiker!

1-25-12 Feels like I've been going through a bit of a slump here lately so I decided to hit a new piece of woods today one block over from my usual area. Last year there was a cornfield above this freshly logged area. I never got a good look the way I would have liked to so I picked apart the treetops today when I stumbled on another good 8pt set. When I saw tines I immediately began scanning a 10yd circle around it for the mate. I was a little discouraged when I didn't see it but as I sat down to take the ATL, there it was 3 ft away between the first one and the tree trunk. I didn't recognize it right away with the tines chewed thin. Once I dug them out they were in pretty decent shape for a set of year old antlers. Antlers #11 and #12!

1-17-12 I wanted to spend the day hiking since most of the snow got rained away last night. I decided the best way to do this was to get dropped off down in town and hike my way home through the woods. I expected to find more than I did considering the distance but adding one more to the season total aint so bad I guess. Here's #10...a little 4pt side with a nice long,flat, brow tine and a little base booger point.

1-12-12 With snow in the forecast tonight, I decided it might be a good day to go look for the mate to the big 5pt. No luck with that so I moved on to another block of woods. Saw a few antlerless but nothing to get excited about. I did however find another little horn. #9 is a fresh little spiker. Found another dead doe too.

1-5-12 Crazy day kept me locked up at home and only left me 3 hrs to hike. Just thought I'd make the rounds and check the cams pulling one that was in a scary high traffic area. Before I could reach that last cam I came across this dead shedhead. Looking closer there were 3 spent shells right next to his skull, a set of quad tracks that ran through the fields, and fresh foot prints the last few days. I hope nothin' screwy is going on here. Bad guys beware, very few folks have ever seen me shedding and I have a decent zoom on my cam to catch any funny stuff you may be doing. This area is very thick and the perfect place for someone to hide something thinking it will never be found. This is so true that even the deer use it to hide their horns. In a little 5x5 clearing, my eyes about popped outta my sockets when I saw these guys! Touching!!! Antlers #7 and #8 a nice fresh set. This is the actual ATL from above! I also saw 3 bucks still packing both sides today. Got a good one on cam still packing. And got a shed head on cam. It's getting contageous now. There really starting to drop steady already!

1-5-12 Finally got around to getting fresh batteries for the cams so went to hang them today. Wanted to put one on the corn field so away I went after 3 days stuck at home with the flu bug. When I got there debating what fence post to hang it on I saw this little fella in the stubble along the edge. #6 is a little freshie 2/3/4 pt... I'll have to check to see if I've got any pics of this guy from season. I made a few passes looking for the mate when I noticed someone already had a cam hung on the edge 20 yds from my horn. I'd walked right by it about 5 x's. I don't like my picture taken so I deleted the pics of me and moved on like a ghost erasing my footprints in the snow behind me as I left turkey scratch style,lol.

12-31-11 Spent some time checking out some brushy fingers that jut out into the fields today. Nothing in there but an old leg hold trap I packed out. Between fields heading through the open timber I just about stepped on my first freshie of the season. Antler #5 was a nice hefty 5pt! I was a little dissapointed when I picked it up and saw the antler rats had already started chewing the tines. Guessing no snow and where this antler fell in the open woods made it vulnerable to the rodents quick. Searched for 3 hours for the mate but turned up nadda. I'll be back, but glad to get this one home before the snow hits tomorrow!

12-26-11 Got out today looking for a little B-day bone. I wasn't dissapointed! Match set oldie 7pt in the pricker thicket. These horns cost me 2 pints of blood to rescue. Sure got cut up real good in this nasty stuff. Same thicket I pulled the monster 6pt set from last year. The second antler is straight back from the first one at the top of the pic. Here they are after the rescue. Tines are chewed off the one side but I aint too picky this time of year so I hauled it out anyhow.

12/22/11 Hit a few berry thickets today where the dead deer seem to like to run. To my surprise, #2 antler was waiting for me towards the end of my run for the day! Another little 2pt oldie, but I'll take all of these I can find before the snow starts flying again! Also found a dead buck today. The real bad news is someone else had found him first and stole his hat from under me already.

Figure I will post my finds so far this season before I loose track of all my pics. I've gotten off to my quickest start I can remember. I will try to get this up to date by tonight. 12/21/11- (day after seasons close) Mostly looking for deadheads today in the creekbottom, but when this sore thumb jumped out at me, I scooped him up and slipped him right in my pocket! Weather was ideal today....just "ducky"! #1 for the new season is in the books... a little oldie 3pt!

Doesn't take many antlers like that to call your shed season a sucess! Good luck scooping up a few of those!

$140 TYD anybody?

yep, just a standard SD card...nuthin' fancy.