woolys 2012 shed journal

[woolybear]

Figure I will post my finds so far this season before I loose track of all my pics. I've gotten off to my quickest start I can remember. I will try to get this up to date by tonight.

12/21/11- (day after seasons close)

Mostly looking for deadheads today in the creekbottom, but when this sore thumb jumped out at me, I scooped him up and slipped him right in my pocket!
Weather was ideal today....just "ducky"!

#1 for the new season is in the books... a little oldie 3pt!

[woolybear]

12/22/11

Hit a few berry thickets today where the dead deer seem to like to run.
To my surprise, #2 antler was waiting for me towards the end of my run for the day! Another little 2pt oldie, but I'll take all of these I can find before the snow starts flying again!

Also found a dead buck today. The real bad news is someone else had found him first and stole his hat from under me already.

[woolybear]

12-26-11

Got out today looking for a little B-day bone. I wasn't dissapointed!
Match set oldie 7pt in the pricker thicket. These horns cost me 2 pints of blood to rescue. Sure got cut up real good in this nasty stuff. Same thicket I pulled the monster 6pt set from last year.

The second antler is straight back from the first one at the top of the pic.



Here they are after the rescue. Tines are chewed off the one side but I aint too picky this time of year so I hauled it out anyhow.

[woolybear]

12-31-11

Spent some time checking out some brushy fingers that jut out into the fields today. Nothing in there but an old leg hold trap I packed out.

Between fields heading through the open timber I just about stepped on my first freshie of the season. Antler #5 was a nice hefty 5pt!

I was a little dissapointed when I picked it up and saw the antler rats had already started chewing the tines. Guessing no snow and where this antler fell in the open woods made it vulnerable to the rodents quick.
Searched for 3 hours for the mate but turned up nadda. I'll be back, but glad to get this one home before the snow hits tomorrow!

[woolybear]

1-5-12

Finally got around to getting fresh batteries for the cams so went to hang them today. Wanted to put one on the corn field so away I went after 3 days stuck at home with the flu bug.

When I got there debating what fence post to hang it on I saw this little fella in the stubble along the edge.
#6 is a little freshie 2/3/4 pt... I'll have to check to see if I've got any pics of this guy from season.







I made a few passes looking for the mate when I noticed someone already had a cam hung on the edge 20 yds from my horn. I'd walked right by it about 5 x's. I don't like my picture taken so I deleted the pics of me and moved on like a ghost erasing my footprints in the snow behind me as I left turkey scratch style,lol.

[woolybear]

1-5-12

Crazy day kept me locked up at home and only left me 3 hrs to hike. Just thought I'd make the rounds and check the cams pulling one that was in a scary high traffic area.

Before I could reach that last cam I came across this dead shedhead. Looking closer there were 3 spent shells right next to his skull, a set of quad tracks that ran through the fields, and fresh foot prints the last few days. I hope nothin' screwy is going on here. Bad guys beware, very few folks have ever seen me shedding and I have a decent zoom on my cam to catch any funny stuff you may be doing.



This area is very thick and the perfect place for someone to hide something thinking it will never be found. This is so true that even the deer use it to hide their horns. In a little 5x5 clearing, my eyes about popped outta my sockets when I saw these guys! Touching!!! Antlers #7 and #8 a nice fresh set.





This is the actual ATL from above!


I also saw 3 bucks still packing both sides today. Got a good one on cam still packing. And got a shed head on cam. It's getting contageous now. There really starting to drop steady already!

[woolybear]

1-12-12

With snow in the forecast tonight, I decided it might be a good day to go look for the mate to the big 5pt. No luck with that so I moved on to another block of woods.
Saw a few antlerless but nothing to get excited about.

I did however find another little horn.
#9 is a fresh little spiker. Found another dead doe too.

[woolybear]

1-17-12

I wanted to spend the day hiking since most of the snow got rained away last night. I decided the best way to do this was to get dropped off down in town and hike my way home through the woods. I expected to find more than I did considering the distance but adding one more to the season total aint so bad I guess.

Here's #10...a little 4pt side with a nice long,flat, brow tine and a little base booger point.

[woolybear]

1-25-12

Feels like I've been going through a bit of a slump here lately so I decided to hit a new piece of woods today one block over from my usual area.

Last year there was a cornfield above this freshly logged area. I never got a good look the way I would have liked to so I picked apart the treetops today when I stumbled on another good 8pt set.
When I saw tines I immediately began scanning a 10yd circle around it for the mate. I was a little discouraged when I didn't see it but as I sat down to take the ATL, there it was 3 ft away between the first one and the tree trunk. I didn't recognize it right away with the tines chewed thin. Once I dug them out they were in pretty decent shape for a set of year old antlers.

Antlers #11 and #12!

[woolybear]

1-26-12

My good fortune continued today when I scooped up #13 and #14 for the season.

I've been meaning to check this place out for several years now but never got around to it. Well, it looks like I'll be making time to get back in here now. Got a couple antlers to match up now and saw 2 more bucks with at least one antler.

This one was kinda cool. Looks like he was coming down the hill and.......BOOP... it just popped right off and stuck here!





...and out of the snow.



After that I kept heading down towards a goldenrod patch I bumped some deer towards. The trails and beds in here were thick and fresh.
I kept checking all the empty beds when I finally found where a buck had lost an antler and put it under his pillow for me......"the antler fairy"! The bare spot to the right is his bed. The base on the shed was still blood pink.

At the end of the day I was a pretty happy hiker!

[woolybear]

1-27-12

I must have passed by these antlers 5x's already this year and no telling how many times last year! Todays rain washed away all the snow and really made the "oldie green" POP! lol

I had both in the same ATL 5ft apart but you can't really see the 2'nd one all that well.
Anyhow, now that they've dried out they don't look half bad. It's a nice tall rack with a good sweep to the mainbeams.

Antlers #15 and #16!

[woolybear]

1-28-12

I headed back to where I found the last 2 freshies the other day. I wanted to take a look down lower in some pine stands but didn't find anything in there.

Pretty uneventful day right up till the time I was ready to head out. I got to the site where I found the kick stand antler on the side hill on the 26'th and decided to do a quick pass through the thickets about 50yds away. Glad I did! There lied the mate to the kickstand horn...antler #17 and the match to my 5'th set for the season!



Reunited at last! This is where my season is at so far. I'll try to ring in the month of February with some fresh antlers tomorrow!
Good luck guys and gals....I'm looking forward to all your finds as well!

[dbHunterNY]

you've gotten a heck of a start. you could say you're quite into the shed hunting this season. i haven't even been out yet. things have been too busy around here.

[toddyboman]

GREAT STUFF!!! Keep it up. I enjoyed reading this thus far!!

[Stone Cold]

Nice finds and keep it up! Great pics!