Chewed up "yard ornaments"

One of the things I've tried to do this season is expand myhunting grounds. The more I talk to people about sheds, the more places Ihear about. I have found that Stoddard ,Munsonville, Windsor and Washington to be hidden gems, with immense open land opportunities and abundant moose and deer population.

I headed out to a place that I have been in before but not really looked thoroughly over. Almost immediately upon entering the woods I found significant moose sign. While creeping down an old abandoned farm road I looked out across a slough and noticed a hemlock covered peninsula jutting out into the summer moose feeding grounds. I noticed a number of winter chews on trees and some antler rubs on some sizable spruce and I knew in an instant that this was going to be the place to really start looking. I followed a game trail littered with moose and deer pellets over a spongy moss laden bog to reach the spit. Once I set foot on solid dry ground I could see up close that the moose spend alot of time in there. I covered the spit in three waves, outer edge by following the trail around the outside of the tree line where the rubs were all the way around. Inside edge ,This area the small hemlock was all browsed up and showed the most use and the inside where the moose bed down on the ridge that ran down the center of the landmass. When searching it is very important to go over a piece of ground with a fine tooth comb.

While scouring the inside edge I picked up my first shed of the day. A big but chewed side laying in the middle of the browse. Still with a lotof mass and weighty for its size ,would have been a cocker of an antler whole. I strapped it to the pack to use as a garden antler.
I Finished scouring the spit without any luck of finding the match. So I moved off the spit and followed the inside edge around the east side following astream. I climbed up a small rise and laying on a flat rock like an altar is a small fork moose shed chewed on the end . I am always amazed at some of the ways I have found antlers, hanging off logs, sitting up on stumps, stuck points down in the mud, in the middle of the road ,submerged in streams, just amazing.

Well the rest of the day was devoid of antlers but I did make note of a few trails and clearings that I will check into next week.

April swampin and slippin

So, as usual I am a little behind in my post.

On Thursday the I went back to Unity to attempt to find the matches to the antlers I found last week. But first I stopped to see my friend Dave Gokey at the taxidermy shop. He had mentioned that he had been ill so I wanted to check up on him. He had some real giants on the wall that duh, stupid me neglected to get photos of not to mention a splendid caribou that I was very impressed with. We talked for about 2 hrs I showed him the sheds from last week as Dave who keeps tabs on the deer around town is familiar with the area I had found these two. He let me in on the whereabouts of another buck in that vicinity with some very distinct set of antlers that he saw early last fall. Without giving much detail, it has a lot of junk sticking out all over the place. Along with a long tined 10 and a even bigger 8. Well with this new info I set off to my secret spot with visions of non-typicals dancing in my head. With strategic precision I placed my truck out of sight and headed up hill to Fields to access my spot.

I took extra care to not leave man tracks showing my entrance to the spot. While others may know of this spot during the rut, I need no competition for the treasures that await me on the ground. As I crept my way along a deer trail beside a grassy marsh area I scanned the matted down reeds and 40 or fifty yards out I could see what looked like a couple large tines poking up. the view through my binocs confirmed my suspicions. As I slogged out to my intended target It grew to the point that I thought it was a yearling moose fork. Imagine how awestruck I was after I examined it and found the basic conformation and brow tine of a whitetail!
A basic fork with the nub of a brow,measures around 22-23 inches long and from about a 2 years old. I Had not even reached the yard yet. I Traveled another hundred yards or so and crossed into the hemlocks on the backside of the pond and found the spot I picked up the 5 point antler last week. i followed the packed trail toward the south and not 40 yards away next to a dug up area where the deer had been searching for acorns was the match laying in the snow as plain as day. How in the hell did I miss it? My tracks where still visible in the snow not 5 feet away!. With that said it goes to illustrate the importance of searching an area from different angles and the necessity of turning around and examining the ground behind you. Case in point, I had traveled this same path last week only coming from the south toward the north. I have found so many that I had passed by simply by occasionally turning around to survey were I have been.

After some as it lay photos I pressed on to try to find the match to the 4 point side from last time or an altogether different antler After a lengthy search and a few misadventures with knee deep snow and more than a few steep icy deer trail and no more antlers I retreated from the woods with my two treasures, being as careful coming out as going in. It will be just a matter of time before I find more in that spot.

Next time I am heading to Croydon with Steve to try to find the match to my January moose shed or other moose sheds and hit up a big deer yard. This will give this spot about two weeks to melt out some more, Easter I will be at the farm. After that who knows, the far North? We will see.