Shed Hunting

Shed Hunting by The Bowhunter
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More and more people are getting interested in shed hunting these days. But there are a few basics you must know before you go out and look for sheds. First of all you need to know when to look which is between January and April. But the best time is between March and April. This is the time when most of the bucks will have dropped. Sure some bucks will drop their antlers before years end but most of the bucks will still have them on during February. Meaning the best time to look is between March and April.

Secondly, you must know where to look for them. During this time the bucks may have already gotten back into bachelor groups and are keying in on food sources with good cover nearby. If you have been seeing a good number of bucks on a food source chances are they will be either on the food source or in the cover near by when they drop thier anlters. Therefore you should look for anlters in good cover near a prime, late-season food source.

When looking for sheds, I remember a old rule, the 3 inch rule. If you see at least 3 inches of what looks like an anlter you should take a closer look at it. This can be helpful when searching thick cover. But this isn’t always the case because sometimes you can’t see at least 3 inches of antler when in thick cover.

A good set of binoculars can mean the difference in finding 1 shed and finding 10 sheds. There are many benefits to having a pair of binoculars. First of all you cut down the walking by 50%. Instead of walking over to investigate a limb you thought was a shed you can look at it through the binoculars and tell if it is or isn’t a shed. Another is when glassing a field for sheds. You can do it from a distance instead of walking the entire field.