Like many hunters, finding those gorgeous while tail sheds in between the season is something that I look forward to. I grab our 5 dogs, a walking stick, some water and other supplies, and head out into the woods to see what bone treasures I can find. Today was the first day of shed hunting for us. We usually wait until after Valentine’s Day to give the bucks and chance to lose the sheds on the property.
Usually if you go out any sooner you risk scaring these bucks onto other properties and they may drop their sheds there rather than on the area you’re looking in.
I woke up at 730 and was ready to come home holding more sheds than I can imagine. I walked for 5 hours from one end to the other and back again and then over to the side some. I hadn’t found anything. I was tired, thirsty, hungry and discouraged. My excitement had disappeared, my pace slowed down, and I just felt like a failure. As I walked back to the 6 wheeler to head home I found a tiny broken point not 10 feet from where I had parked. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see that sooner…why didn’t I see that sooner? I drove back up to the house and my boyfriend’s dad said he was going to go and look in “Good luck,” I scoffed, “I looked all around there and didn’t find anything but this broken point.”
He shrugged and said he was still going to go. 30 minutes later he came back with a shed. “Where did you find that??!” I exclaimed “Right next to where you parked the 6 wheeler in the clover…” he stated. He ended up going back out for another 3 hours and came back with 5 more sheds! Turned out he went exactly where I had been walking. I was extremely disappointed. I spent all morning walking those hills, didn’t find anything, he went out and came back with 5. I couldn’t figure out what the heck was I thought back about the day and came to this conclusion:
When I left this morning, I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself. I wanted to cover as much ground as I could because I thought that would give me the best chance at finding the most sheds, and I didn’t find anything. My boyfriend’s dad casually went out and found 6 today. I realized that when shed hunting, it’s not about how much ground you cover but more about the attention you give to the area you are in.
I missed two sheds not 20 feet from where I parked my 6 wheeler today; I was so excited I wasn’t even paying attention. I went too fast and while I got a good workout, I got skunked today. I decided to take a previous shed we had found and throw it in a field and try and find it again. I threw it 10 feet and I could barely see it. So guys and gals, when shed hunting these are my 5 basic tips to you:
1. SLOW DOWN. It’s not about how much ground you cover, it’s about how much attention you put on the area you are in.
2. Don’t think that every shed you find will be in plain sight. Usually about 3/8 of the shed is actually visible so just because you don’t see a shed in that field, doesn’t mean there isn’t one
3. Looking in obvious areas isn’t a bad thing. The two sheds near where I parked were in a clover field where the deer come to eat.
4. Have some fun! Shed hunting isn’t just about finding the bone treasure, it’s about enjoying nature and learning more about your environment. I found a lot of cool things while walking about today including an old egg nest, some really cool scrapes, and I learned a lot about where 5. And last but not least, if at first you don’t succeed, TRY AND TRY AGAIN. Yes I was discouraged today, but tomorrow I am going back out with a new attitude and a little more patience. J
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