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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better dear hunting, and now your

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Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey, everyone, welcome to the wire to

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Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all

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Speaker 1: about shed antler hunting with a Purpose. Last week I

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Speaker 1: talked about shed antlers, but what I really didn't line

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Speaker 1: out is a plan to find them. That's what this

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Speaker 1: show is about, and it closely mirrors my style of

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Speaker 1: finding bucks that I really want to hunt. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of a methodical approach that involves a lot of planning,

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Speaker 1: a little freelancing, and just quite a bit of walking

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Speaker 1: with a purpose. Yea, Before I get too deep into

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Speaker 1: this episode, I just want to highlight a couple examples

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Speaker 1: of times when shed antler's led me to killing bucks.

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Speaker 1: After all, isn't that maybe the best reason to devote

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Speaker 1: some serious time to shed antler hunting, aside from just

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Speaker 1: kicking the cabin fever that sets in during these long winters.

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Speaker 1: The first time that I turkey hunted Nebraska with a

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Speaker 1: bow in my hand and a bunch of public land

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Speaker 1: to work with I found a solid four point side

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Speaker 1: laying in a patch of sumac on a hillside. It

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Speaker 1: was a cool fine, but it didn't distract me from

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Speaker 1: the task of trying to arrow a gobbler or a jake.

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Speaker 1: Later on that trip, on that same property, I found

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Speaker 1: another antler, this one a busted up five point side.

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Speaker 1: Got me thinking I had been randomly seeing deer during

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Speaker 1: my turkey sits, so the population seemed decent, But finding

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Speaker 1: antlers from two different bucks on public land made me

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Speaker 1: think the quality and quantity of deer was better than

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Speaker 1: I originally thought. And it also meant that the place

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Speaker 1: couldn't have been overrun with hunters because both antlers were

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Speaker 1: still laying there in April, and they weren't exactly hidden away.

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Speaker 1: They were pretty easy to find. So I went back

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Speaker 1: that fall with a buddy of mine, and I arrowed

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Speaker 1: a great eight pointer on that property, in a patch

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Speaker 1: of sumac on the very same hillside where I found

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Speaker 1: those two antlers. In fact, I've hunted that spot four

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Speaker 1: times since then, and I've killed three really good bucks there.

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Speaker 1: But it also has gotten a little bit busier. So

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Speaker 1: we started expanding our turkey hunting to include other parts

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Speaker 1: of the state and other properties. So a few years

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Speaker 1: ago on one of those newer properties, that same buddy

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Speaker 1: and I doubled up on a pair of Jake's out

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Speaker 1: where there shouldn't have been any turkeys at all, way

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Speaker 1: out in the Grassland hills. And that morning, that successful morning,

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Speaker 1: he also eyed up a great antler, and it got

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Speaker 1: me thinking once again, I think you know where this

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Speaker 1: is going. Fast forward to that fall, and we had

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Speaker 1: two velvet bucks dead in two days on that same

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Speaker 1: parcel of public land. Here at home in Minnesota, I

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Speaker 1: found sheds on public and killed bucks in those spots

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Speaker 1: later in Wisconsin. It's also happened for me, not coincidentally,

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Speaker 1: it has happened in other states as well, from North

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Speaker 1: Dakota all the way on down to Oklahoma. The shed

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Speaker 1: antler connection to filled tags it's real, but it's not

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Speaker 1: as simple as finding an antler and then coming back

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Speaker 1: later in the fall and shooting a buck there. Sometimes,

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Speaker 1: like in the case of those Nebraska sheds, a couple

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Speaker 1: of antlers can show you the caliber of deer living

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Speaker 1: in an area. That might be a thin connection, but

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Speaker 1: it's better than nothing. And in other cases, like I've

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Speaker 1: had closer to my home. I've found antlers and spots

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Speaker 1: that caused me to really investigate those specific areas, and

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Speaker 1: it turned out that those antler drops, they weren't an accident,

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Speaker 1: just like it was no accident that there were good

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Speaker 1: bucks using those spots later in the season. So finding

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Speaker 1: antlers it's valuable beyond just having a new cool keepsake.

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Speaker 1: But finding antlers comes in two forms, total accident and intentional.

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Speaker 1: While you can't really make a plan to find accidental antlers,

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Speaker 1: because after all, it wouldn't be much of an accident

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Speaker 1: if you plan for it, they're still valuable, just like

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Speaker 1: my sister and all of you find folks who were

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Speaker 1: accidents as well, because even though you weren't planned, we

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Speaker 1: are all very happy that you're here with us. If

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Speaker 1: you stumble across a shed, count your blessings and try

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Speaker 1: to divine any useful info it might provide, but also

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Speaker 1: make a plan to find shed antlers so they don't

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Speaker 1: have to rely on the whims of Mother nature to

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Speaker 1: deliver you a shed. How I do this on proper

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Speaker 1: teas I know, is to kind of divide them into

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Speaker 1: rough routes depending on the conditions in the likelihood of

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Speaker 1: other shed hunting pressure. I might cover the easy food

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Speaker 1: sources and the pounded trails on my first pass through,

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Speaker 1: just go for the low hanging fruit, or if I

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Speaker 1: don't think too many people are gonna come in there,

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Speaker 1: I might save that stuff for later in March when

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Speaker 1: I can take my little girls out and the snow

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Speaker 1: might have already melted. It doesn't really matter, because the

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Speaker 1: point is to know roughly where you'll walk on at

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Speaker 1: least one day, one little trip. Then it's time to

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Speaker 1: open up your on x app and start looking for

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Speaker 1: the places you didn't cover on your home run stretch.

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Speaker 1: Where are the secondary trail is going to be? Where

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Speaker 1: are the thicker spots that would be easy to walk

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Speaker 1: right past an antler. I start to subdivide properties into

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Speaker 1: those parts and make a plan to walk them. These

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Speaker 1: aren't as fun as walking a cut corn field that

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Speaker 1: is covered in deer tracks, but they also tend to

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Speaker 1: yield some of the best antlers for me. That's also

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Speaker 1: probably because I tend to shed hunt places that a

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Speaker 1: lot of people shed hunt. The easy stuff will be

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Speaker 1: picked over all winter long, but the nasty thickets and

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Speaker 1: creek bottoms and other areas that aren't as much fun

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Speaker 1: and as easy to walk. Those are the ones that

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Speaker 1: usually yield some antlers for me. Now it might seem crazy,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of the routes I walk differed by

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Speaker 1: only like ten or twenty yards. I view it like

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Speaker 1: I do fishing docks for bass. While it might be

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Speaker 1: easy to burn a spinner bait or a swimming jig

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Speaker 1: down one side and then the other, as you move

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Speaker 1: to the next dock, you know you're probably missing fish

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Speaker 1: unless they're really on the eat. The best dock fisherman

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Speaker 1: I've ever shared a boat with they always work both

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Speaker 1: those sides like that, but also every potential fish holding

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Speaker 1: point underneath. Now that means highly methodical approach, maybe with

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Speaker 1: a flipping jig aimed at every dock post and every tire,

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Speaker 1: every corner of a boat lift, every ladder extending into

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Speaker 1: the water to accommodate the kids when they go swimming.

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Speaker 1: Or it might involve the same targeted approach with a

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Speaker 1: waitless stick bait like a Senko skipped way deep under

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Speaker 1: the dock as far as you can get it. Whatever

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Speaker 1: the presentation, the approach is always thorough, very thorough. The

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Speaker 1: same rules should apply to shed hunting and this building

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Speaker 1: route strategy should work, but it will vary a lot

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Speaker 1: depending on the property size and the habitat on it.

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Speaker 1: And also, as I've mentioned, the likelihood of pressure. If

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Speaker 1: you've got forty acres of open woods at seven other

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Speaker 1: people shed hunt, your route will be their route, and

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Speaker 1: that sucks. That means you've got to think about timing.

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Speaker 1: As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, my buddies

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Speaker 1: and I used to do really well on big January

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Speaker 1: sheds when we had the opportunity to grouse hunt in

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Speaker 1: the first month of the year in Wisconsin. This is

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Speaker 1: totally anecdotal, so take it for what it's worth, but

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Speaker 1: big deer seemed to drop in my area in January

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Speaker 1: pretty heavy, and by the third week of February really heavy.

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Speaker 1: But I often see scrappers holding all the way through

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Speaker 1: March and occasionally into April. The latest I've personally witnessed

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Speaker 1: was a trio of three young bucks walking past my

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Speaker 1: blind on April eleven down in Nebraska, and all three

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Speaker 1: were holding both sides. Now front loading your shed hunting

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Speaker 1: to the beginning of the season and tailoring your routes

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Speaker 1: to the fact that you're looking for trophies is a

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Speaker 1: play that's worth considering. But I would also say that

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Speaker 1: if you live where plenty of snowfalls, you have to

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Speaker 1: pay attention to that as well. Where I do much

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Speaker 1: of my shed hunting, it's not uncommon to get fresh

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Speaker 1: snow every week for months. The new snow has a

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Speaker 1: great opportunity to cover up the freshly dropped sheds, and

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Speaker 1: that means that you can walk until you're sick of

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Speaker 1: it and still not find an antler if the snow

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Speaker 1: conditions conspire against you, which they often do. This affects

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Speaker 1: my routes because I tend to go where the deer

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Speaker 1: betting or where the hill sides get some extra san

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Speaker 1: to keep the snow packed down a little bit. The

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Speaker 1: deep swamps and the cooler areas, those just have to wait,

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Speaker 1: and they do during those snow heavy years, which are

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Speaker 1: more common here than not. Are actually a great equalizer

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Speaker 1: to us shed hunters. Even the construction workers I know

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Speaker 1: who are off all season and put on dozens of

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Speaker 1: miles each week, they can't find all the antlers when

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Speaker 1: they're buried under the snow. They just can't. That means

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Speaker 1: it might be a good idea to go easy on

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Speaker 1: the antler hunts once real winter settles in so that

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Speaker 1: you can really get after it when the snow starts

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Speaker 1: to melt. This time frame, which where I live, tends

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Speaker 1: to happen sometime in March, is the best chance to

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Speaker 1: find a lot of antlers. In my experience. It's not

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Speaker 1: always the best chance to find big antlers, but if

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Speaker 1: you just want the odds in your favor, the first

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Speaker 1: melt of the year is it. This has produced some

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Speaker 1: of the most fruitful days for me, including a handful

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Speaker 1: of days where I found anywhere from a couple on

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Speaker 1: up to maybe five or six. Now, that might not

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Speaker 1: sound like a ton, but when you're used to finding

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Speaker 1: no antlers on any given shed hunt, that is something.

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Speaker 1: And finding four antlers in one day, which happened to

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Speaker 1: me in northern Wisconsin about six years ago, is a

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Speaker 1: huge win in some areas. Regardless of the antler's size,

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Speaker 1: whether you plan perfect routes and stick to them or

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Speaker 1: time your hunts perfectly doesn't really matter. If you're not

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Speaker 1: paying attention while you're shed hunting, there's no chance you're

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Speaker 1: gonna find antlers. If you're really not paying attention, or

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Speaker 1: at least very very little chance. Now this might seem

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Speaker 1: like a forehead slapping statement, but allow me to explain.

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Speaker 1: I spent a lot of years being really terrible at

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Speaker 1: shed hunting because I wasn't methodical and I had a

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Speaker 1: lot of squirrel moments where I'd get distracted by deer

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Speaker 1: sign or something else. I wasn't looking down like I

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Speaker 1: needed to, and the results reflected that. I also shed

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Speaker 1: hunted mostly where I wanted to scout deer, which was

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Speaker 1: a good idea for scouting, but not such a great

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Speaker 1: idea you for shed hunting. Sometimes, if you're not good

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Speaker 1: at finding sheds, it's probably due to that or a

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Speaker 1: couple other reasons. Your brain probably isn't in the right

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Speaker 1: zone to pick out a piece of antler on the

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Speaker 1: ground a little glimpse of a time or that, you know,

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Speaker 1: seeing the base poking out of the snow. Sheds can

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Speaker 1: blend in amazingly well, especially on days when the sun

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Speaker 1: is high and the shadows are deep and dark. Side

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Speaker 1: note here, the best shed hunting days are overcast with

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Speaker 1: just a tiny bit of spring drizzle. Because having even

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Speaker 1: light to work with and a little moisture sheen on

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Speaker 1: the antlers, that's an absolute gift to my friends. But

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Speaker 1: back to the task at hand. It takes time to

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Speaker 1: be able to recognize a part of an antler as

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Speaker 1: your eyes are sweeping across the landscape and you're walking

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Speaker 1: just like I don't know, looking for morale mushrooms or

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Speaker 1: site fishing for small mouth in the spring. Rookies are

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Speaker 1: predictably terrible at this stuff. It takes practice to be

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Speaker 1: able to get into the headspace where you're good at

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Speaker 1: finding things that take a discerning eye. It's also easy

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Speaker 1: to zone out when you haven't found an antler in

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Speaker 1: three weeks and you have no faith that this passed

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Speaker 1: through the woods will finally be the one that produces

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Speaker 1: an antler for you. This might be the hardest part

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Speaker 1: because a lot of us are shed hunting places that

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Speaker 1: aren't very good for shed hunting. But not very good

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Speaker 1: is a long way from impossible. And there is the

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Speaker 1: reality that miles walked equals more sheds found. This is

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Speaker 1: a point I can't really stress enough. Although I've never

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Speaker 1: kept track of it, my miles walked parantler is probably

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Speaker 1: somewhere between like twenty to forty. Over the course of

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Speaker 1: my life. When I shed hunted a lot I'd go

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Speaker 1: nearly every day somewhere in the winter, and I'd find

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Speaker 1: an antler every couple of weeks in the course of

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Speaker 1: a lot of shed hunting. I'd often end the season

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Speaker 1: with like six. That's a lot of squeeze for a

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Speaker 1: little juice, but it might just be the best you

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Speaker 1: can do with your situation. And it does get better

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Speaker 1: if you make a plan and you stick to it

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Speaker 1: while paying attention to the conditions and doing a couple

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Speaker 1: of other things. The first is carry your binoculars. If

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Speaker 1: you don't have a chest harness for your binos by

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Speaker 1: one you'll thank me later in the hunting season, but

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Speaker 1: also put it to good use during shut hunting. I

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Speaker 1: don't know how many things I've seen in the woods

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Speaker 1: that were white or suspiciously antler ish, but it's a lot.

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Speaker 1: I used to walk up to every one of them,

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Speaker 1: only to find out that it was part of a

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Speaker 1: styrofoam cup or just a stick curved in the right

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Speaker 1: direction and caught my attention. Now I carry binos so

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Speaker 1: I don't have to walk directly up on everything that

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Speaker 1: I think might be an antler, and I have found

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Speaker 1: quite a few antlers as well through using binoculars, both

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Speaker 1: while scanning the woods or field and while investigating a

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Speaker 1: distant object that I just have a suspicion about. And

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Speaker 1: another thing that I do is slow down, and I

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Speaker 1: mean way down, not just kidding. I've never slowed down

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Speaker 1: in my life. I don't even know how to. My

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Speaker 1: natural gait is fast, and it pisces off my hunting partners,

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Speaker 1: my wife, and just about every short legged person who

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Speaker 1: has the misfortune to walk anywhere with me. I know

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Speaker 1: I'm supposed to slow down to find more antlers, but

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Speaker 1: I can't. It is not how I'm wired. So I

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Speaker 1: go fast, and I know that I'm aware of it.

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Speaker 1: This means that some of my routes tend to be

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Speaker 1: just the reverse order of some of my other routes.

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Speaker 1: Walking one way through the woods gives you a specific

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Speaker 1: view of the woods, while walking the opposite way gives

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Speaker 1: you a different view of the same woods. Think about

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Speaker 1: how many times you've been grid searching for a deer

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Speaker 1: you or your buddy shot and walked right past it

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Speaker 1: going one way and you turn around and holy crap,

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Speaker 1: there's a whole dead deer right there, plain as day.

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Speaker 1: This happens with antlers. A lot, So if you can't

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Speaker 1: get yourself to slow down, consider running a reverse play

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Speaker 1: and trying to pick them up while approaching from a

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Speaker 1: new direction. Understand that you will miss antlers, and then,

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Speaker 1: while it's not fun to fish, use water. As they say,

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Speaker 1: covering the same ground at different times of the shed

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Speaker 1: season will produce some bone for you. You'll also have

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Speaker 1: the benefit of the deer that hadn't dropped yesterday but

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Speaker 1: have today. I've found quite a few really fresh antlers

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Speaker 1: in my day that we're in places I shed hunt frequently.

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Speaker 1: I firmly believe that some of them weren't there just

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Speaker 1: days before, and that's enough to give you some hope

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Speaker 1: to keep trekking. This is especially true if you shed

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Speaker 1: hunt places like I do in the suburbs of the

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Speaker 1: Twin Cities, where a lot of people are out there.

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Speaker 1: You have to kind of live on that hope that

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Speaker 1: there's still box out there carrying that could drop an

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Speaker 1: antler for you tonight that you'll find in the morning

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Speaker 1: and nobody else is going to get to first. And

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Speaker 1: I should also say this, although it's really up to

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Speaker 1: you as an individual, but I don't shed hunt when

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Speaker 1: the conditions are super cold, and nasty. Where I live,

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Speaker 1: we get real arctic level cold fronts that move in

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Speaker 1: and they hang around for days and some times weeks.

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Speaker 1: These polar vortex type of events might keep the high

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Speaker 1: tempts in the single digits or sometimes below zero for

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Speaker 1: days on end. That puts a lot of the woodland

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Speaker 1: creatures in real survival mode. I don't feel particularly good

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Speaker 1: about pushing a bunch of deer and other animals around

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Speaker 1: when they need every calorie they can muster, so I

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Speaker 1: just try to stay out when the conditions are that bad.

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Speaker 1: This may not be much of a concern for hunters

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Speaker 1: throughout the southern half of the White Tail range, but

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Speaker 1: it is a consideration if you live farther north. Because

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Speaker 1: of this, I stay glued to my weather apps so

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Speaker 1: I can see not only when the frigid air is

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Speaker 1: coming in how long it's planning to stay, but also

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Speaker 1: so I can keep tabs on the snowfall. This is

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Speaker 1: also why I just tend to shed hunt less at

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Speaker 1: the front of the season and really try to take

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Speaker 1: as much time as I can when we start to

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Speaker 1: roll through February and get into some more favorable weather.

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Speaker 1: No matter you're hunt timing or your specific locations. Consider

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Speaker 1: developing a real plan for finding antlers if you're interested

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Speaker 1: in actually finding antlers and learning more about the woods

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Speaker 1: and the animals that inhabit them. This doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: be a militaristic approach, because that's not that fun for

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Speaker 1: a lot of us, but it should involve a little planning.

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Speaker 1: So consider your routes, consider the food sources and the

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Speaker 1: good winter cover. Consider who else is likely to be

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Speaker 1: out there scooping up the antlers before you get to them,

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Speaker 1: Watch the weather, lace up your boots, strap on your binos,

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Speaker 1: and get out there. With enough miles in the rear

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Speaker 1: view mirror, you should have a few antlers to show

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Speaker 1: for your effort. Now next week, just because it comes

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Speaker 1: up so often and it is the season, I'm going

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Speaker 1: to talk about shed antler dogs. While this topic was

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Speaker 1: super hot like a decade ago, it's kind of cooled

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Speaker 1: off a little bit in recent years. But training a

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Speaker 1: dog to fine antlers it's pretty easy, or it can be,

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Speaker 1: i should say, And it can increase your production, but

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Speaker 1: mostly it just gives you an excuse to spend more

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Speaker 1: time with your four legged best friend, long after most

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Speaker 1: of the bird seasons have closed up. That's it for

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Speaker 1: this week, my dear loving amigoes. I'm Tony Peterson and

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Speaker 1: this has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast. If

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Speaker 1: you want more white tail hunting wisdom, check out our

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Speaker 1: YouTube channel or visit the meat Eator dot com slash wired. Again,

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Speaker 1: that's the meat Eator dot com slash wired, and as always,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning in and for your

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Speaker 1: support