We recognize that trophy whitetail deer scouting includes shed hunting most notably during the late winter and early spring generally starting in February and running through the end of spring turkey season in late May. Deer scouting between the period of the start of the spring warm up in February and up to the beginning of spring turkey season in early April will yield the scouting trip thousands of acres to deer scout. Once spring turkey season begins deer scouting is restricted from all turkey productive lease land leaving the prime turkey hunting leases to turkey hunters during the spring season. The objective of this early deer scouting is not necessarily only the sheds seen on this page, but also the trails and rubs. The main advantage of deer scouting during this period is that the weather is cool making walking easy, no bugs and most important of all the foliage is absent allowing for much long range of vision than during other time of the year. While this is not news to many deer hunters, it is a reminder of planning criteria to consider to make each deer scouting and hunting trip as effective as possible. We always have encouraged deer scouting as the greatest enhancement of success there can be executed by the self guided deer hunter and while scouting may begin in the early spring we also encourage a return for scouting just days before the deer hunt. Our Kansas, Missouri and Iowa deer habitat of tree lined creek bottoms cutting through large agricultural farm land connecting many small wood patches allows for easy stalking over ridgelines to glass for movement.
Email summary from one of the Associations more successful deer hunters while out collecting his stands after the season: "This spot became one of my favorite deer scouting spots during the later half of the season. Most days hunting I would see 30 to 40 deer during the morning or evening. I got to the point of being disappointed if I would only see 10 or so while out.
Spooked about 30 deer out of the cornfield during midday while retrieving my stand. On the way out found the largest shed shown in the pictures. Got out to look for the other half, and walked up a draw into a pasture and kick out a herd of about 70 deer. In the herd was 5 bucks as big or bigger than the largest shed along with the buck still wearing the other half of the shed I found. All the deer spooked and ran over a hill, but within a few minutes about 30 of the deer came back over the hill and came back into the draw. A friend and myself watched a 10 pt., 8 pt., 8 pt. with only 1/2 rack, and the largest body deer of all of them (no rack), mill around and bed down within 60 yards of us. These deer were not spooked by us being there, we were not in camo and not standing motionless. We were talking and moving our hands and head and these large bucks just laid down and watched us. Again the 10 pt. and 8 pt. were both larger than the rack in the picture. I measured the largest rack in the picture and if the other side is symmetrical, I’d estimate it would go 150-155. It has more mass than any other rack I have had in my hands and keeps large mass all the way out to the end of the beam and points.
The first 3
pictures are of the additional whitetail deer sheds found in the
same corn field along with the previous 4 larger sheds. I found a total of about
13 in and around that corn field, with only 4 of them matching up to make 2
pairs. I gave up on finding the mates to the other 9 after my last scouting
trip out. I spent 4 - 5 hours and found 0. The last picture is a pair found on a
lease nearby, but several miles away. This pair was 20 yard out in a bean
field. I was amazed by how fast the rats eat them up. I at first though the
sheds were left from last year, but it would not be possible to make it though
planting, harvesting and hunting season in that location. I ask a conservation
agent about what would have eaten so much of the shed in such a short period of
time. It did not seem to be possible mice could eat that much and survive in an
open bean field. Squirrel might be a possibility, but more likely if the sheds
were in the timber not in an open bean field. The agent said it most likely was
a cotton rat. I had never heard of such an animal. He said they chew through the
hard outer part and into the softer inside and eat it like candy. It looks like
those rats can make a shed disappear in a fairly short period of time. I don't know if I will find many more shed this year. Turkey season opens today and I am switching gears toward Turkey hunting and fishing. Crappie were biting pretty good last week." And from another deer hunting member.
Go fishing and find a shed. The base was 7 1/8th's in. G-2 14 1/4 and G-3 12 ¼ again, assuming it had a 20 inch spread it would score gross 188 and net 178+/-. The best thing about this shed is it came from a state you don't have to draw a deer tag and is in a region not known for record book deer. And from another.
The attached photo is a 6x7 rack found while pheasant hunting in January. It was in the middle of a CRP field. There is still a strip of velvet on one of the points. The spread is 23 1/2". You can judge from the tape measure in the background. It has good mass & double crab claw eye guards. Just thought members would like to see what is out there. Good Hunting, Greg
One set Steve found on one day's walk.
The last point Steve told of that allows other deer hunters to have reasonable deer scouting and hunting expectations is that it takes over 5 hours of walking on average to find a single shed. Steve is one of those deer hunters that has a job that allows for much time in the field and has the physical body structure to allow for repeated long daily fast walks - all day long. For those deer hunters on limited time it is better spent on actual deer scouting for that next deer hunting trip than make the goal of shed collecting. |
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Here are a few
more pictures of sheds I found this year. I found quite a few more sheds from
the same deer scouting location as the 6 I had previously sent you pictures.
