I was always told, “anything that is easy to do isn’t worth doing”. If that’s true, and I believe it is, then finding shed deer antlers must really be worth doing! 

Well, maybe not if you’ve got all your marbles, but speaking for myself the process is better then a hundred dollar shrink. If you have any cobwebs that need cleaning, antler hunting will do that for you plus send you home with your tail between your legs.

For some it’s as easy as going out to the mailbox (in town) and finding an antler. For others is can be a lifetime treasure hunt that yields absolutely zero. Now if you are the lucky sort you might stumble onto as many as ten in your lifetime. If you happen to have a knack for finding them and are lucky you might find ten or so a year. (The last two sentences usually remove 99.9% of all players from the game.)

Listening to those that find antlers on a semi-regular basis it seems as though a pattern starts to emerge. “Try to find the smallest area that a buck spends most of his time in during the late winter months.” I guess just saying bedding areas, travel corridors, nighttime feeding areas would also do the trick.

On the other hand it seems like tractor, truck and four wheeler tires find them with more regularity than any hunter does. A master shed hunter once told me that the best place to find a shed antler is where the deer lost it! Hmmm…makes sense to me.

I would say that some stories about antler hunting could be more legend than truth. One lucky hunter told me that he found a plastic antler that had writing on it.  I didn’t ask him what it said as I was trying to put as much distance between us as possible!

Oh well, if you go another year without finding one; always know in the back of your mind that bucks grow new ones every year. This usually keeps shed hunters going back for more abuse. Maybe next year you will hit “Pay Dirt”.

Happy Hunting

    C.S. Bandit