Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


Befo
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2020 12:34 am
Status: Offline

Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby Befo » Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:18 pm

Never found a shed. Don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've got a few basic questions:

(1) Ideal time of year to find sheds? Should I wait until a certain point?
(2) Do you focus on beds? Corridors? Feeding? All?
(3) Any other tips if I'm going to pull it off this year?

Thanks.


User avatar
littlebuckhunter
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2020 10:59 am
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby littlebuckhunter » Tue Jan 05, 2021 8:26 pm

Anytime around mid Feb and after. I walk food sources, travel routes, bedding.
Djp32
Posts: 292
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:37 am
Location: southwest pa
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby Djp32 » Wed Jan 06, 2021 1:18 am

The best time to go is debatable. There are always sheds out there starting in December, it’s just a question of do you want to look for 1-2% of them or look 75-99% of them. The longer you wait the more you risk other people and squirrels finding them first but the sooner you go you risk bumping the bucks around and really spreading them out making it tougher. So after many years of looking I’ve come up with the best tip and that is to just cover as much ground as you can. I like to hit the home run low impact spots early and fast and as March approach’s I slow down a lot and really start combing areas. Another observation that I’ve come up with you either have to be a shed hunter or a late winter, spring scouter. Yea you can do both but one or the other is going to get short handed.
User avatar
Sailfish_WC
500 Club
Posts: 2364
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 4:39 am
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby Sailfish_WC » Wed Jan 06, 2021 1:48 am

Anyone ever train a dog?

I’d love to know how to do that.

We’ll be getting a new pup soon and I’d love to learn him(or her)
Sailfish_WC <-- Deer watcher
bigbuckhunter88
500 Club
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:00 pm
Location: NE Iowa
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby bigbuckhunter88 » Wed Jan 06, 2021 3:29 pm

Where you located and looking on public or private? If public then ya better join the early crowd. Here there's people who don't hunt but shed hunt like you wouldn't believe. Walk different sections of public every night starting mid Jan til mid March. I like bedding and feeding and the most beat down trails between. Fence crossings have produced and also creek crossings or anywhere they can get jostled loose
bigbuckhunter88
500 Club
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:00 pm
Location: NE Iowa
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby bigbuckhunter88 » Wed Jan 06, 2021 3:32 pm

Sailfish_WC wrote:Anyone ever train a dog?

I’d love to know how to do that.

We’ll be getting a new pup soon and I’d love to learn him(or her)

Haven't done it but seems to be the new craze. Have some buddies doing it and one pup is really taken to it. He started her early with sheds as chews and started hiding them outside. He belongs to many groups on Facebook I believe which is where he's gotten the ideas
Befo
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2020 12:34 am
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby Befo » Thu Jan 07, 2021 1:33 am

bigbuckhunter88 wrote:Where you located and looking on public or private? If public then ya better join the early crowd. Here there's people who don't hunt but shed hunt like you wouldn't believe. Walk different sections of public every night starting mid Jan til mid March. I like bedding and feeding and the most beat down trails between. Fence crossings have produced and also creek crossings or anywhere they can get jostled loose


Thanks. Missouri public for me. I'm thinking that puts me toward the mid-January crowd, right?
bigbuckhunter88
500 Club
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:00 pm
Location: NE Iowa
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby bigbuckhunter88 » Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:02 am

I would guess so but hard to tell. Everywhere is different. Up here it will be the same people or groups of people til mid to late Feb and then you'll add in nonresidents and people who travel just to shed hunt into the mix of regulars
User avatar
moondoondude
500 Club
Posts: 530
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:16 pm
Location: Southern Maryland
Status: Offline

Re: Shed Hunting - Tips, Timing, Tactics?

Unread postby moondoondude » Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:26 am

If you go too early, you'll blow them out. Mid January, in most areas I would guess in mid Missouri, they'll still be packing. I don't know your season dates but at least here, the public lands are pretty hammered and pressured with a lot of deer moving off of them by that time.

Deer shed in areas where they spend time. The more time they spend in an area, the more likely that they will shed there. I find most of my antlers by focusing on food sources, followed by bedding areas, followed by travel routes, followed by they can literally shed anywhere.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 98 guests