Well this past weekend Paul had noticed on Saturday that Splitter the infamous buck from a farm I frequent in North Dakota had finally dropped his horns according to trail camera pics Paul retrieved this Past Saturday night. Not wasting any time with the threat of some more snow in the very near forecast, Paul got out on Sunday evening to look for Splitters sheds. A half hour into it he was looking at a very well used river crossing trail and at the bottom of the river bank right on the frozen river there laid one half of Splitters shed. 
Paul spent the rest of the evening till dark looking for the other half to no avail. Paul had found the same side shed as to the one he had from last year, Splitter’s right. Paul measured the shed which we believe is Splitters weaker side and his shed came up to 65 4/8”es. If the other side holds as strong as we think, this would put Splitter’s gross with his 18” spread at just over 150” most likely. 
Now that Splitter has dropped, Paul will be out in full force (depending on snow) searching his farm for sheds. I just hope I can get away after this weekend to help him find the other half of Splitter or sheds from other deer as I will be busy this weekend with the IDO booth @ the Whitetail Classic.
Here is where the plot and the story thickens on this buck we have been chasing/following over the last few years. A neighbor to Paul’s farm up there had a trail camera picture of Splitter from early October. Paul has just confirmed it was him, but he looked a lil’ different. We had started getting trail camera pictures of him last Fall on Paul’s farm in mid October and had noticed that it looked like he possibly tried to grow a G4 to his 4×4 main frame. Well it turns out that he did grow one, but must of broke it off sometime in between that trail camera pic the neighbor had and the one we had from October 18th?? According to the neighbors trial camera picture from early October Splitter had about a 4” G4 on one side which would put Splitter in the mid 150’es for total inches. Along with that Splitter had put on around 25-30”es from the year before. So if he puts on another 20” this Summer he would be pushing around Gross Boone this year. 
I just can’t wait to see what he grows this year. Like I have said before, we have chased bigger deer up there in North Dakota, not many as he will be this Fall, but there have been a few. However, I think for both and Paul the total net score of this deer really does not matter at all as we have been following this deer for quite some time and just to have an encounter with this deer next Fall would be unreal, but to actually harvest this deer would probably be a deer of a lifetime given the past history with this Bruiser we have come to know as “Splitter”.
***The above pictures are his shed from this year and his shed from last year. The search has been put on hold until some snow melts up there. There are drifts over Paul’s head from this last storm.
I bet it’s nice to know exactly when he dropped both sides so you dont have to search the same area over and over not knowing. But then again, I’m sure we’ve all walked past a shed or two in our day!
The flooding in the Fargo Red river Area in ND may be a real bad thing for finding Splitters sheds. If it gets as high as they are predicting (worse then 97), Splitters and all the sheds may be washed away to the bottom of the River and have BK’s 