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

Feb Moose shed

Rob went out for a short antler hunting hike today in Springfield, Nh. The snow is still pretty deep in the woods there- in some places 3' drifted , 2' in most places and in the rare Southern spot not too deep

In an area that was 2' deep with 3' drifts around the bases of the hemlocks Rob went through a section of waist high hemlocks and found this antler.

Only a few inches were sticking up.

Rob ran out of search time but he'll go back there soon to find the match

Diane

Moose Sheds

Sat I went to a spot in Springfield that I had found moose antlers before.

As I was following deer tracks I happened to look down and saw something brown IN the deer track. I bent down to look more closely at this track in deep snow and noticed that the brown had antler texture. I swept away snow and found the base of a moose antler. With some effort a pried a nice right hand antler from the snow

I decided that the match could not be far and started to search in spite of the deep snow making the discovery unlikely

I took into account the position the antler had been lying and headed in the direction the moose likely traveled

About 150 yards away I saw the very end of a base and 2" of tine sticking up from the snow

Don't let the differences in the antlers fool you, they are from the same moose. I have seen him personally with antlers on his head and have 3 years of antlers from this same moose that we are guessing is approximately 7-10 years old.

The farm produces for me again!

Rob Richardson

The streak continues

I decided that I would go and check out some more fields and apple trees today before the storm arrives. I went back to our old homestead in Unity.

I was pleasantly surprised when my old neighbor Dave decided to go out with me (Dave is a taxidermist by the way) So there was a little competition there to say the least.

We checked the apple trees first and found nothing, then we went to a ridge behind the old house where there is always a deer trail. I found this nice small 10 point set lying together as if gift wrapped. Dave was a little jealous but he got over it.

We were following a much bigger track and we knew this rack was not his. One of the neighbors had seen a large 10 point with two side stickers and that's the one we were trying to find but no luck.

Nothing more for the day but will hit there again soon

Rob

Rob and Itsy go shed hunting

Rob took his 11 month old Rottweiler girl Itsy for her first ever shed antler hunt today.

They went to a State park near us and did a field search. When they got near some apple trees, Itsy dragged him over to a tree and started digging and whining. When Rob got there he discovered she had found a nice 5 point antler

Rob was very pleased with her.

Diane

Mon Jan 5 2009

On Sat I decided that it would be good to dump a load of apples for the deer. My nephew and I jumped onto my brother's Rhino and drove up to the apple tree which is next to the corn field.

before we could dump the apples we spied this beautiful set of 10 point sheds

It seems early maybe but I'm not going to argue

Rob