Another shed hunt

I went back to the farm woodlot for another hunt.

Using my topo map I found 2 drainages that I wanted to search for antlers. This was an area
unfamiliar to me so I will likely have to go through it again.

On one of the logging trails that I do know, I stopped to think about a
buck I tracked through this area 2 years ago and happened to look to my
right and there lying in the moss under some hemlocks was a stout little
forkhorn antler. very good mass for a first year buck but short in the tine.

I proceeded to get into the ravine and was impressed with the layout. 2
small brooks run through it and converge with a high spot in between. This
area is shaded heavily with hemlocks and there was LOTS of sign. No antlers
that I found but I am sure that they are there and I just need to look
again. I had been seeing a lot of moose tracks from what I believe to be a
fairly large bull.

I worked my way back to the drainage area close to the lake that I am
familir with and work my way up. It was getting later in the day and I was
tiring but I still held out hope that I'd find something else. I was
following a winter deer trail and almost tripped over the base of a moose
antler under a spruce sapling. I instantly recognized it as the winter
2006/2007 antler from the same bull I found the fresh set from earlier this
year. Knowing this bull, I had confidence that the other antler would not
be far away. I made a big circle through beech and maple bordering the
hemlock swamp near the brook. Just when I had almost given up hope I spied
the mate in a hollow along the brook.

Both antlers show signs of fighting with another bull and there are holes
punched through both.

This of course means now I need to find the other bull's antlers.

I'm on vacation next week, so hopefully more to come