2016 shed antler thread!

[Tree Killer]

Couldn't find a thread for the sheds, so I'll get it started. Found a few yesterday here in Oregon.



Love all the slag on the base of this heavy antler!

[shedhunta]

Those are beautiful.  Surely got my blood pumping for a walk.  Still early where I live.

[dirtguy]

Nice finds!  I guess I had better get out there!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

the 2nd side of grand dad's 2015 head gear

 

the other side found 1/1/16.

[ron w]

 Cool stuff.......

[23feetupandhappy]

Awesome pics Tree Killer  

Axious to get out myself but about a month early here.......

Do Blacktails have a concentrated winter area or are you covering a lot of ground to find them?

[elkken]

Blacktail sheds are not easy to come by, I have never found one just laying there in plain sight. Usually they are in some tangle of blackberry bushes or vine maple thicket. Several years ago in February I was hiking with my two Golden retrievers and they found three in one day. They were fresh sheds so apparently they could smell the blood. All three sheds were in a tangle or buried in leaves and I would never had seen them.  A week later we went back to the same area and they found the other side to a nice 4x4 we had found the week before. My two boys are gone now and I think of them every time I see those sheds !

[Jayrod]

Awesome sheds ron way to get out there after them and Congrats to you!!...hope to see more pics from you!!

[Tree Killer]

Thanks guys! Little early, just getting started here.

Originally posted by 23feetupandhappy:
Awesome pics Tree Killer      

Axious to get out myself but about a month early here.......

Do Blacktails have a concentrated winter area or are you covering a lot of ground to find them?

Most don't, but there's some areas where bucks migrate out of the higher mountains for the winter.

[ksbowman]

Neighbor kid found these on a pond dam that I can look out and see from my kitchen window. The buck had to have spent the summer there. Funny the owner of the property told me several times to come on over and sit in a broke down tractor cab because there was a real nice buck there every morning. Guess this might be the nice buck. Sure dropped early.                                                                        

[superkodiak]

Wow!    does that can have a cup holder?  

[iohkus]

WHOAAAA!   :eek:

[Gun]

All the bucks I'm watching are still carrying. Mild winter so far.

[Hopewell Tom]

We had some rain and mildness last week that cleared the snow and I was going to go out, but lolly gagged and missed out. A foot of snow now, so will have to wait.
We had a nice buck rub in the yard at the end of November and his track is still around, so I'm hopeful.

[shedhunta]

Originally posted by ksbowman:
Neighbor kid found these on a pond dam that I can look out and see from my kitchen window. The buck had to have spent the summer there. Funny the owner of the property told me several times to come on over and sit in a broke down tractor cab because there was a real nice buck there every morning. Guess this might be the nice buck. Sure dropped early.                                                                            

I would get out looking.  Tough to be sure from a picture but I would say those are from last year.  Any more pictures?  They are beauties!!

[ksbowman]

I haven't got to hold them yet, if they were last years the squirrels and mice usually knaw on them pretty hard.

[Cocklebur]

Maybe the buck was injured and shed early. We had a nice buck do that a few years ago. We found the buck with a wound but no rack.

[kennym]

Got lucky this morn, not really shed hunting, but saw it from truck in short grass along gravel road! LOL

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great finds everyone.,  I will be walking around in the rain tomorrow looking for rabbits.  I know none of the neighbors shot anything this year except a spike and one doe so I imagine all the bucks I saw all summer may be leaving presents.

[Biathlonman]

They were dripping antlers very early in Ohio.  My uncle and brother found 3 sheds the week after Christmas.