Let me just start this by saying, Bears suck. Not only do they chew up antlers but they jump up and scare you!
Sunday I was following a rub line of one buck that I think is a Boone and Crockett class, when from under a blow down pops up a small boar Black Bear. He stood up on his hind legs and stared at me from only 10-15 yards away! The wind was in my face so he never scented me and the woods were wetso he only heard me at the last minute. We stood eye to eye for a few minutes and then I asked him quite loudly,"what do you want?" and he turned and bolted off. I could hear him snuffing and wuffing as he ran down the hill. I am sure glad it was not a sow withcubs! Such are the dangers of shed hunting...
Tuesday. Well what a day! Let me start by saying that I don't usually like sunny days for antler hunting because the bright sunlight creates bright spots and camouflages the tines sticking up, but sometimes knowing WHERE to look is the primary key.I started off by looking in an area that was logged out about 5 years ago. Lots of winter browse and HOLY COW tons of deer sign! It was mostly doe and fawn sign though.Let me say that I do not find many antlers in areas with tons of deer sign. But I grid searched the area any way because I have found smaller antlers in this area before. However, none today.
The sun was hot and I decided to check out some shaded hemlock groves up at the top of a place we call "the hump" I like this spot because there is a network of lightly used trails that funnel up to a mossy/rocky topped hump that is surrounded with hemlock and striped maple and some red oaks. The back side has a small shelf with some blowdowns that drop sharply into a big wooded valley with beech, oak and maple.
I was moving along the back and looked down to my right, between two huge downed hemlock trees and saw two huge tines sticking up, boy what an awesome sight! Thick G3s and G2s. I made my way down to it through all the junk lying on the ground, over logs and the like to grasp up a tank of an antler. I had only admired it for a second when I looked over 10 feet awayand saw more tines! I couldn't get there fast enough. The first thing I noticed is the bladed browtine on the second antler. This pair is the winter 2006/2007 set that matches the winter 2007/2008 antler I picked up last week!
This whole area is a big buck sanctuary and I only come up into it once a year. I don't mess around in here at all except to antler hunt and I amvery quiet and use scent control when I do venture in. So I want to get out of there as quickly as possible before I jump the big guy up. I checked out the top of the next ridge and move out along the bank sides along some other buck trails following a rub line. Rub lines mark buck only trails and are used year 'round until the rut when bucks switch to using doe paths or crisscross them to find hot does. I made my way up a brush choked drainage that tops out in another hemlock swamp. This swamp is where I tracked a bruiser last Thanksgiving and where I found a shed then.
I decided to back track to see if I could find the match. I had looked for it earlier this season to no avail.
So I get to the spot where I found the Thanksgiving antler and I stood looking for a minute trying to figure out direction. I had searched in another direction before and found zip. Doing my best CSI work I re enacted what that deer must have done and headed towards the opposite direction than my previous searches. I took TWO steps and ducked under a spruce branch and bam! there was the mate! It was in almost perfect shape only 3feet from where the first one had lain. I can't believe I missed it last Thanksgiving.I must have all but set my back pack on top of it!
Just goes to show that you should always look within a few feet of the first antler you find, especially if it's a large/weighty one.
I hope to get back during the rest of my vacation, to the other drainage to try to find the match of the antler I found last week. It has to be close given this deer's habit of dropping them together.
Hope everyone is having good luck finding antlers as well. Look forward to your stories
Sunday I was following a rub line of one buck that I think is a Boone and Crockett class, when from under a blow down pops up a small boar Black Bear. He stood up on his hind legs and stared at me from only 10-15 yards away! The wind was in my face so he never scented me and the woods were wetso he only heard me at the last minute. We stood eye to eye for a few minutes and then I asked him quite loudly,"what do you want?" and he turned and bolted off. I could hear him snuffing and wuffing as he ran down the hill. I am sure glad it was not a sow withcubs! Such are the dangers of shed hunting...
Tuesday. Well what a day! Let me start by saying that I don't usually like sunny days for antler hunting because the bright sunlight creates bright spots and camouflages the tines sticking up, but sometimes knowing WHERE to look is the primary key.I started off by looking in an area that was logged out about 5 years ago. Lots of winter browse and HOLY COW tons of deer sign! It was mostly doe and fawn sign though.Let me say that I do not find many antlers in areas with tons of deer sign. But I grid searched the area any way because I have found smaller antlers in this area before. However, none today.
The sun was hot and I decided to check out some shaded hemlock groves up at the top of a place we call "the hump" I like this spot because there is a network of lightly used trails that funnel up to a mossy/rocky topped hump that is surrounded with hemlock and striped maple and some red oaks. The back side has a small shelf with some blowdowns that drop sharply into a big wooded valley with beech, oak and maple.
I was moving along the back and looked down to my right, between two huge downed hemlock trees and saw two huge tines sticking up, boy what an awesome sight! Thick G3s and G2s. I made my way down to it through all the junk lying on the ground, over logs and the like to grasp up a tank of an antler. I had only admired it for a second when I looked over 10 feet awayand saw more tines! I couldn't get there fast enough. The first thing I noticed is the bladed browtine on the second antler. This pair is the winter 2006/2007 set that matches the winter 2007/2008 antler I picked up last week!
This whole area is a big buck sanctuary and I only come up into it once a year. I don't mess around in here at all except to antler hunt and I amvery quiet and use scent control when I do venture in. So I want to get out of there as quickly as possible before I jump the big guy up. I checked out the top of the next ridge and move out along the bank sides along some other buck trails following a rub line. Rub lines mark buck only trails and are used year 'round until the rut when bucks switch to using doe paths or crisscross them to find hot does. I made my way up a brush choked drainage that tops out in another hemlock swamp. This swamp is where I tracked a bruiser last Thanksgiving and where I found a shed then.
I decided to back track to see if I could find the match. I had looked for it earlier this season to no avail.
So I get to the spot where I found the Thanksgiving antler and I stood looking for a minute trying to figure out direction. I had searched in another direction before and found zip. Doing my best CSI work I re enacted what that deer must have done and headed towards the opposite direction than my previous searches. I took TWO steps and ducked under a spruce branch and bam! there was the mate! It was in almost perfect shape only 3feet from where the first one had lain. I can't believe I missed it last Thanksgiving.I must have all but set my back pack on top of it!
Just goes to show that you should always look within a few feet of the first antler you find, especially if it's a large/weighty one.
I hope to get back during the rest of my vacation, to the other drainage to try to find the match of the antler I found last week. It has to be close given this deer's habit of dropping them together.
Hope everyone is having good luck finding antlers as well. Look forward to your stories
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