Weekend Sheds!!

[Pike]

My buddy Chuck and I spent the weekend shed hunting on our lease in SE. OH. and found 15 sheds.
Here are our finds, my sheds are the left side of the table and Chucks are on the right.
I came home last night but Chuck stayed out this morning to pick a new stand location and found 2 more 5-pt sheds from different P&Y class bucks and I will post them when he sends them to me. Pike
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3648/2009sheds2cx5.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9954/2009sheds3wg3.jpg

Here Is another shed i found that was late for the group pic.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4161/2009sheds4sg5.jpg

Here is pic's of my good one's.
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8494/2009shedsmr4.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2039/2009shed6qt7.jpg

[jbrown]

hey pike try not to look so happy in your pics :D

congrats on some great finds.

[deerhunt45]

Nice finds! Enter a pic in the contest :D

[benehunter]

Whoa Pike those are some really nice sheds. Too bad those damn rats found them before you did.

What county is your lease in Ohio?

[sycamoreredneck]

I bet I seen at least 15 bucks with both sides still this weekend (Feb.14th+16th) They havent all dropped them yet, nice finds guys!!!

[huntnfish]

great sheds man..yea it seems this year more sheds are staying on longer then normal. but there is still sheds out there either from this year or last year

[Mountaineer]

Give the guy a break..he looks so pissed off because he lives in PA..Some of the worst hunting in the Union. Land of the scrub bucks:D


btw the nice sheds..ill be going out this weekend to SE Ohio..to my publicland spot.

[Pike]

Thanks Guys!! The reason I looked that way in the pics isnt because I was mad or pissed off its was because I was plum wore out from walking up and down them steep SE. OH. hills from dawn to dark and tore up from the briars and rose bushes etc. as I fought my way thru the never ending thickets LOL.
(not that im complaining, loved every minute of it)
As far as the bucks shedding late, in my opinion they are shedding earlier than normal atleast in my area, because we dont usually find many sheds until March
My buddy ended up finding 5 more sheds today and I will post pics of them some time tomorrow. Pike

[QDMAMAN]

Nice finds Pike.
The large sheds that you're holding look like they're from last year. I noticed they have the green staining on the burrs which I think is algae.
Cool stuff!

[Pike]

QDMAMAN, the matched 8-pt set is from this year, I saw him during the 1st.week of Nov., the other large shed is from 2 + years ago. I believe we also found a shed of the matched set when he was 1.5 years of age, it was found within a 100 yards of this years sheds. It is the very dark shed with 4-pts and the main beam is also broken off in front of the g-3 aswell. it is in the front row and 2nd from the end on the right side of the table. Pike

[medicsnoke]

nice sheds Pike, I was out all day.....well most of the day, damn honey to do list, but i didnt find any, good day for shed hunting tho...wet and overcast. I'll hit a new spot 2marow

[Siman08/OH]

Wow, you kicked my keister in ONE day. One of my goals is to become a shed master, and your setting a pretty good example for me!

[Pike]

Siman, thanks but im no shed master:biggrin: I just take my time and slow down
sort of like when Im still hunting for deer. I also start out just looking in their bedding area's and food sources, (every one we found came from their bedding area's this past weekend) I save the hardwoods, trails etc. until I start scouting and hunting turkeys. To me open hard woods, trails etc. are usually low % area's because they spend the least amount of time of their day in these area's.
If I start searching a bedding area etc. and Im not happy with the amount of fresh droppings, beds, and tracks I move on to the next area, ( I only get to shed hunt 4-6 days a year prior to turkey season since I live 5 hours away)
Once I find an area that has alot of fresh sign I sloooowww down and try to search every inch even if it means im going to get tore up by briars, rose bushes etc., but even by doing this I come up empty in alot of area's, even in area's that are loaded with fresh sign and I would have bet money that the area was loaded with sheds. I even get frustrated and start questioning myself, thinking that I must have walked passed them and didnt see them. But then I think about the turtle shell, small racoon skull or deer bone etc. that I spotted from 20 yards away and tell myself that if I found those things I would have found any sheds that were in that area.
Just have confidence to keep yourself from getting frustrated, just enjoy the day and the outdoors even if you are not finding them (the more frustrated I get the faster I walk and the less I concentrate, when this happens the less chance I have of spotting them) keep telling yourself that if you walk within eye shot of a shed you will see and it and if you look long enough you will find them.
The only other thing I do is force myself to stop looking for deer, rubs, scrapes etc. and only concentrate on bone or anything that looks like bone.
(just like when your still hunting you need to do the same, concentrate on looking for and ear twich,a patch of white an antler, or that line of a deer's back that seems to connect 2 trees etc.)
Also it helps that im looking in an area that doesnt get any shed hunting preasure, most of my buddies wont make the trip just to hunt sheds and it is usually just myself and my buddy Chuck looking for them.
Here is a few more good one's from last year. Pike
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/8314/oh2008sheds2vc2.jpg

[Pike]

Here is a pic. including the sheds that my buddy found on monday after I headed home, 22 sheds total for the trip. Pike
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8416/2009sheds7.jpg

[deerhunt45]

Great shed weekend for you and Chuck :bouncy:

Very cool...thanks for sharing the pics!

[Jake/ButlerCounty]

WOW that is a ton of sheds!