My friend Don Kisky, co-host of Whitetail Freaks TV Show on Outdoor Channel, uses his March shed antler hunts to do one thing: learn every main and secondary deer trail on his hunting property. On a shed hunt, he cuts every trail (new and old) and follows it to find where that path comes and goes; where it crisscrosses another trail; how and where a trail cuts through cover and bends around obstacles. Everything about a deer trail, Don learns it.
That helps him kill giant bucks the next fall. For example, one November day as Don was sneaking into a stand, he looked up and spotted a monster buck boring straight at him. He scanned the area and remembered exactly which secondary trail the buck was on, and where it curved so that the deer would be within 40 yards of him broadside in a minute. The buck kept coming on the trail as Don ducked behind a tree and drew his bow. He killed the 177-incher when it was broadside in the trail bend.
You can never learn too much on a shed hunt this weekend—walk and study those deer trails!