Hunting for Shed Antlers

If you’re like most deer hunters, you spend the majority of your time in the woods during the fall and winter of each year. However, the habitat that deer live in, just like the animals themselves, are found there year-round — so get out and explore it, learn more about it, and find some shed antlers.
With spring just around the corner and whitetail bucks starting to shed antlers, there is a good opportunity to learn more about your hunting area and the deer that live there. Most hunters get excited when bucks start growing their antlers each year — it’s a chance to witness the impact of past management and look forward to future harvests. It really is something to get pumped up about.
But on the other hand, there are those hunters that get excited as the hunting season ends. It marks the fact that soon bucks will be dropping their coveted antlers. You know, there are ways to get a huge set of antlers on your wall other than shooting the big boy. He may have eluded you during the season, but you can still find his shed antlers!

Finding shed deer antlers not only ends with great rewards you get to take home, but also with some valuable information you can tuck away in your back pocket for next season. Information such as the quality of bucks that made it through the last hunting season, the number of different bucks that were in the area, and specific areas that these bucks used while in your area.
Shed antlers also allow you to physically track bucks that you may have been keeping a close eye on. Measurements that can be taken from year to year include common measurements such as beam length, tine length, and mass measurements.
A few tips to increase your chances of finding deer sheds:

• Look in and around late-season food plots.
• Examine travel corridors and water sources.
• Use a game camera to ensure most bucks have shed.
• Don’t wait too long. Rodents will eat and destroy antlers due to the coveted minerals they contain. In addition, warming weather will spur grass growth and make finding antlers more difficult.
• Keep an eye out for new hunting locations.