2021 Antlers

Geez good picture! Nice to get the picture snapped with that one still mostly buried, could’ve easily walked right by it.

Thanks Dan! A huge perc of having the dog out there is he doesn’t miss many even if I’m off my game.

This one made a nice pic. Must have plopped off his head and stuck base side up!

I put about 2-3 hours in hiking area’s I saw bucks holding within the last 2 weeks and didn’t find anything. A little disappointing but hoping they just haven’t dropped yet.

I live in Richfield close to a nature center. There is a nice 10 point wandering around still holding on to his antlers.

Nice find Haleys! Within the last week the majority of the bucks at the farm that were still holding have now dropped. Anything that’s still holding will now be dropping very soon. There will be lots of boot tracks in the woods after this weekend.

I have seen two bucks in the last three days still holding. This was in Pequot Lakes-Crosslake area.

I have been walking the woods pretty heavy the last 9-10 days.. Still no antlers for me yet. I have a nice group of bucks right where they should be but do not think they have dropped yet either. We seen two earlier this week still holding on so hoping this weekend produces.

deertracker wrote:

My girlfriend and I walked her tree farm last Saturday.

Oh here we go. Last fall she liked to ride the Harley. Last week she cooks. This week she owns hunting land. And you expect us to believe that she’s YOUR girlfriend?

Now quit fooling around in the woods and get her oven fixed.

Grouse

Had a big, wide, thick 10 pointer walk in front of the truck last night sout of St Francis in Anoka County and he still had both sides.

I jumped a group of four bucks this afternoon. 2 were missing both sides, one had a single, and the last one was a nice 8 point carrying around both still. I watched another buck feeding on a south facing hillside that had nothing but bloody bases. I looked for his sheds for a while but found nothing. I’ll be back out tomorrow making the most of this great weather.

Found this one this morning. Not huge but I’ve put a decent amount of hours in lately so to finally find something was nice.

Here’s my 2021 haul. A lot of looking. Wierd finding 5 lefts and only 1 right.

Here’s a cool one I was hoping to find this year. Now I just need to match him up. I have him on camera as well.

That’s an awesome find!

Hh – now that is a cool looking antler! Talk about character.

Would be sweet to find the matching side! Good luck. Hope you do!

New to the shed hunting game, spent 5 hours a day the last 4 days out at lake rebecca park reserve with not a single shed to show. Using all the pointers I’ve read and then some, but not having any luck. Anybody else searched this area before? Could use some help.

Austin shackelton wrote:

Could use some help.

Could be a spot others have been walking since February. Some people are out there catching them as they fall off the deer!
Midday might be best for lighting. Low horizon sun glare doesn’t help me.

hill hiker I found him! why are you so slow keeping up to him?

I prefer overcast days just to cut down on shadows. If you’re walking public land be prepared to walk way more than you have until you learn where the bucks are, and they’re not everywhere there’s deer sign. Once you finally find one or two you can go back to those areas year after year. Perch nailed it on the head when he said people have been walking that land since the start of February. Shed hunting has become very popular the last couple years, and the public within an hour of the metro gets hit very hard. I think more than a lot of people realize. Antlers often times don’t sit on the ground very long because people like me scoop them up as they drop

I think it’s much easier to learn areas when there’s snow on the ground. Not just because you can see deer trails, but you can also tell where the people have been and more importantly not been. Public land bucks will find those little pockets that people either don’t want to get into due to terrain or they just over look it for one reason or another. Pay close attention to south facing slopes and food. If you don’t have ag close by find the woody brows they’re feeding on. Look for the secondary trails that often times run parallel to the main trail. They seem to lead to the smaller more isolated bedding the bucks use. If you have access to private same thing applies, but the deer aren’t pressured so they tend to be more grouped up, and they don’t travel as far from food so there’s just more antlers in a smaller area.

Public land shed hunting anywhere around the metro is not easy, but very rewarding when you start to figure it out. It’s not as easy as youtube videos make it out to be for most of us. Just to put it into perspective I walk hundreds of miles in a 3-4 month period. Lace up those boots, and keep at it. As they say “miles make piles”!

Austin shackelton wrote:

New to the shed hunting game, spent 5 hours a day the last 4 days out at lake rebecca park reserve with not a single shed to show. Using all the pointers I’ve read and then some, but not having any luck. Anybody else searched this area before? Could use some help.

Aside from a little walking around last year this is my first year as well and I’ve put in quite a few hours over the last week or two and finally found the small one I posted about earlier this thread. If you’re into podcasts, look up the Wired to Hunt podcast. Aside from the great information in general, they’ve had several episodes entirely devoted to shed hunting. Go look in the February podcasts for each year and you’ll fine at least one full podcast a year on shed hunting, including one with a guy who literally wrote a book on it.

I’ve been doing the same thing as others have mentioned, really looking around bedding areas and hitting the hill slopes that face the south. I agree that you can learn a lot with snow on the ground, but pretty soon that’ll all be gone and hopefully some of those antlers will stick out a little more.

Yesterday i was out for about 5 hours, found a giant bedding area on a southeastern slope, about 50 yards from a farmers field, massive trail that honestly had more scat than tracks, right off of a water source and i still couldn’t find anything. And this is about 3 miles into the woods off of a minimum maintenance road. Going to check it again tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Hill hiker that is an awesome shed. Really cool looking.

You’re on the right track Austin. after looking the main bedding area over start walking all the trails out of there. There will normally be some smaller more isolated bedding areas the bucks will use. For some reason it seems like they don’t bed right in the same area as the does and fawns, but they’re normally not too far away.

Went out again today with my son for an extra pair of eyes, this spot seems like it would be perfect for finding them, has everything we could possibly want, bit they’re just not there to be found. Thinking about checking a different location. Any suggestions?

4 of us walked for a couple hours today. Trails every where but no antlers for us

I cant find em but my kid and the dog are having a good year

Walked about 5 hours over the last 2 days and found this one within about the last 10 minutes of that time. Like others have said, I’ve seen tons of trails and droppings but not much for antlers. I may get out for an hour or two here and there the rest of this month but I think as we turn to (maybe) full-on spring I’m mostly done for this year.

The FW found this one.

Too bad. Hope he got to pass on them genes a few times before he bit it.

Nice find haleys!
I put on about 2 miles on Sunday. No sheds found. Neighbor has around 80 miles with 11 found.