Late April shed

On April 22, Itsy and I went shed hunting on a private farm that is steeped in Whitetail mystery. My wife has seen an extremely large deer in velvet early last year and my friend Dave witnessed a massive 10 pointer in the corn field within easy shooting distance, but he could not take it because he did not have permission to hunt the farm.

After aquiring permission to shed hunt this several hundred acre farm, I have found now 3 antlers in total and many bones of other types including the pictured Fisher skull. To an antler dog a bone is a bone is a bone and Itsy has found LOTS of bones- deer, cow, pig etc... as well as some antlers!

I went back out on April 24 by myself because the area I wanted to search was a mess of down trees and found this antler, which is the largest of the 3 I have found on this property.

After showing this one to both Dave and my wife, they have both confirmed that this is not the giant that they saw.

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This antler would score around 66" had the G2 tine (estimated at 9") not broken off. It currently scores about 57"

Easter finds

Easter was the end of Rob's current dry spell

Sunday he found the mate to the Moose shed he found back in Feb. It was within a few feet of where the other was, Rob even had been standing directly on top of it in Feb. The snow was just incredibly deep!!

Today he found the mate to the Whitetail antler he and Itsy found awhile back as well. Much farther from the first one than Rob would have guessed. It was up on a bedding hump/hill that came up out of the swamp

he says now his mental block is gone!

Diane
NHSHC

March shed hunting overview

Shed hunting has been tough this month. So much snow still in most of the places I go.

You keep seeing and hearing about all these sheds being found out West already, but it is a far far different hobby. Out there the snow comes and goes due to the wind and openness, and it is very common to go out and come home with a backpack FULL of sheds. It is so much easier than NH that it is often billed as a good kid's hobby due to it's ease. It is so much easier in fact that many of the most popular wintering areas have an Antler Hunting opening day to keep people from bothering the winter weary animals. On opening day (It's in May) at these places people line up at the gate and when it opens they ride horses or 4 wheelers or hike to get the best antlers first!

I'd love to see some of those people who claim how easy it is to pick up 100's of sheds a year to sell on Ebay come to NH and try the same. I think they'd give up in a hurry.

At any rate I found 3 sheds in March. I've been out a lot but the snow is still quite dense in many shady areas. Field edges and apple tree areas have been where these sheds were found, if you recall the icestorm had covered a lot and around the time the deer were dropping antlers they were hanging out in these areas

I picked up a nice 3 point (photo on the railing attached) in the middle of a hay field.

Then had a pretty dry spell, until the end of the month when the snow started to melt better

The second 3 point Itsy and I found under an apple tree at the edge of a field towards the end of the month.

The fork horn was found in an open stand of big Hemlock trees near the edge of a field. It is a fresh shed but is pretty chewed up from porcupine already due to being pretty near a porcupine den

That's it for the month of March, here's hoping the finds pick up before the ticks get bad!

Rob