woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 you've gotten a heck of a start. you could say you're quite into the shed hunting this season. i haven't even been out yet. things have been too busy around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddyboman Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 GREAT STUFF!!! Keep it up. I enjoyed reading this thus far!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Cold Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 Nice finds and keep it up! Great pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 Wow, that is a lot of sheds there Matt. Some real nice ones too. Noticed, looks like a skull cap leaned up against the tree in this pic, but missed seeing mention of it. Funny how it goes here, I have found doe skulls and found a sawed off skull a couple years ago, but never found a single shed. Guess there are just not big deer that make it through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 8, 2012 Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 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! lol. I can find sheds Matt, just not in TN. Managed to find 2 mulie and 2 elk sheds over the few days we were in Wyoming back in 2010, only sheds I have ever found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted February 8, 2012 Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 i've found multiple skulls with attached racks. have yet to find a shed antler either. never looked for them much though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 2-10-12 Pickin's are getting slim for me lately. I think it's time to move on. Last few hikes have only turned up a 1-horned deadhead and a couple oldie buck skulls. Thought I was back in business today when I saw a small horn in the field. Turned out to be a busted rack. I'll throw it on the pile with the rest of his friends! Horn #19 ...and here's a shot of all my little skull finds so far this season. The dead buck mentioned above I just cut the solo antler off. The skulls I just give a quick cleaning if they have any flesh on them and hang them outside on the shed. I tried painting one white to see if I liked it. I may do that to the rest too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheProvider Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 Awesome funds!!! Got me pumped up to get out again. However its a lil bit different shed hunting here in BC in the mountains for blacktails hehe. A lot of bucks here are still carrying, just starting to get trail cam pics of bald bucks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Cold Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 Nice finds there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted March 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 (edited) Last month was a real dissapointment for antlers for me. I picked this area over pretty good so I've been itching to get into some new territory. Today was that day! Not long into my hike I spotted this little blaze orange beauty,lol. Looked like it was dragged out from somewhere and is actually laying in the tire tracks of where a quad had matted down the grass. It aint the prettiest horn in the forest but I'll take it. From there I headed uphill to a big green field. I never have any luck in these spots so I wasn't expecting much. Well what do ya know.....20ft of the edge layed a fresh fatty 4pt with a busted G2. Definately one of my better field finds. I need to get back and poke around inside the woodline a bit soon. ...end of the day take home. #20 & #21! Edited March 7, 2012 by woolybear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted March 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2012 This week has not been much fun for me. Lots of personal crap going on. What better to do then get out for another hike and say screw it all! Went looking for the mate to the fatty 4pt today. No luck with that. At the green field I had 4 bucks come out at 1:30pm...3 still wearing 2 horns and one baldy. The antlered bucks were impressive and demand a return trip. Guess who left the camera at home....? Anyhow, nothing around the fields but on my way home I cruized through another old orchard and found a couple more oldies. Thank you daylight savings time..scooped this set up in the last hour! A good ending to a bad day! Horns #22 & #23 and my 6'th set! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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