Got this email from longtime Big Deer blogger Dan Hermon a while back:
Mike: It’s getting close to time to hit the woods and crop fields for some sheds. What advice do you have in terms of shed hunting? I know they fall off at different times and different locations, but do you have any tricks of the trade to share? I’ll be taking my son out again this year and the only advice I can really give him is to put in the miles and search every step of the way. I thought the best deer blog in the country and its readers might have good advice for us! Thanks, Dan
Here are 4 great tips. Readers, please add any other advice you have to help Dan out:
A lot of people have no luck shed hunting because they look on one or 2 properties where the deer may not be this time of year. Get permission to as many farms and woodlands as you can. Then start walking. But make sure you walk where the deer are now. Remember that 90 percent of the deer are in 10% of the habitat this time of year, so you need to narrow your search areas down.
If you see 10, 20 or more deer feeding in an area, sheds are going to be close by. The best food sources to check are: 1) standing soybeans or a late-cut bean field where some pods are still on the ground; 2) thick, scrubby fields, with green shrubs with berries and maybe some locust trees with pods; 3) alfalfa, clover or winter wheat. But look ANYWHERE you see deer feeding on a regular basis.
Most good shedding is done in and around food sources and nearby staging areas. From there, branch out farther toward the bedding areas. And be sure to hunt the connecting trails between the two.
If you find several sheds in one spot this year, you will probably find more there next year and the next.
Good luck with your shedding, send us pictures and info if you find some good ones!
Great post Mike. Over the last few years I have really gotten into shed hunting. I almost enjoy shed hunting as much as I do actually hunting. ALMOST that is. I find you r advice to be spot on. I can normally return to my so called hot spots each year and find some good sheds. They both have 2 things in common food and cover.
99.999 percent of the sheds I find are on one particular food source.
With this extreme winter we’ve had I feel most sheds will be in the bedding areas that the herds have used. I have seen some very large groups of deer in certain areas. During this kind of winter, one in which the deer group up tight to specific feeding/bedding areas, the majority of sheds will be in closer proximity to one another than in years when the winter is light. For example one of the farms I hunt has been devoid of deer since mid January. The snow just became too deep to get to our food plots, so the deer congregated with other groups in nearby timbers that offered more browse, and protection from the elements. Up until the recent warm up seeing deer in open agricultural fields was NOT the name of the game. The deer are out there, but they didn’t winter in their normal areas. People all around are talking about seeing large herds of deer together. There is a large herd on the edge of my town that is numbering in the 40s. This is wood lot habitat and those deer are coming from a large area around my town. Some of those deer are no doubt miles away from their fall habitats. With the bitter temperatures I’m guessing many sheds are right in their bedding areas. With such extremes whitetails won’t travel as far to get food; much of their day would be spent bedding down (esp. at night). This year I’d hit bedding areas hard, but finding them might be tougher than normal.
In the south, the deer are hanging out in some thick stuff this time of year. So thick, that you won’t reasonably be able to find sheds there in any quantitity. A true needle in a haystack situation. The best bet here is to cover lots of open feeding areas – food plots, cut fields, pastures, and other feeding locations. At least in those areas you can see the sheds laying, even if it’s only a portion of the sheds that are out there.