Well we are on the board with our first sheds of 2023! All in all it is still slow going, but the past week saw a lot more of the whitetails near home dropping. In fact, over 60% of the bucks have dropped from what I observed. For the weekend Hank and I headed up North, where the report is much more bleak: I didn't see a single buck that had shed yet. It is kind of crazy to see such a big difference in deer herds that aren't all that far away, but there are many factors that can contribute to how long a deer holds onto his rack.
For the weekday rips around home, it was fairly uneventful. Windy weather wasn't a ton of fun to walk in, and although I saw a lot of bucks drop over the past 7 days, I still haven't picked up any freshies. I have been watching 4 bucks (two smaller 8 points, and two ~120" 8s) on a permission piece I have, which were all still packing on Feb. 8th. As of Feb. 15th, I had confirmed that three of them had dropped. I still haven't gone in to look for those horns tho, as they are still living in that little section and I don't want to push them unnecessarily. We did walk public ground a few days as well, and while we didn't find any antlers, Hank did see his first porcupine! Luckily there was no porcupine rasslin for us since I had Hank on his lead.
The weekend brought a lot of excitement, as I was headed to a permission piece that has historically held some mega whitetails. Hank and I loaded up and headed out Saturday morning, full of anticipation. We got to the property, and my first two impressions were 1.) Dang this looks like great habitat, and 2.) Dang theres a lot of cows down there. While cows aren't always a deal breaker, I haven't had much luck finding sheds in heavily used pasture land. Anyways, we headed in looking to find some fresh sign and to figure out how the deer have been using the land. that afternoon we covered mostly all of the southern half of the property, and it was brutal. Zero deer sightings, and only a handful of tracks passing through. Not ideal. I kicked around the idea of writing off the rest of the property and trying some public land spots, but my friend had told me the best place to look would be across the creek to the west. Not wanting to leave a place I had such high hopes for, Hank and I spent the night in the bed of ol Rip for the first time so we could go back in the A.M.
Sunday morning was a lot of the same: a lot of cattle sign, very little deer sign, and tough conditions. Bright sun and a lot of snow coverage can make for tough work. We did our due diligence tho, and saved what I thought to be the best bedding area for last. Combing through a stand of timber with some bare ground, I spotted the first shed of the year! It was chalky as all get out, but hey I'll take it any day. We found one more chalk-asouraus on the way back to the truck, but it was frozen to the ground and really only about 8" of a main beam, so we left it for the gophers.
The fun wasn't over yet though, as we headed out to check some public ground. The first spot was covered in fresh boot tracks, and 4-wheeler tracks, which was dissapointing. With a couple hours of the weekend's daylight left, there was one more promising spot that looked to have good food and really promising bedding areas. This proved to be true, as in the last hour of light we saw deer pouring out of that bedding area to feed. My jaw about hit the dirt as I saw three bucks over 130" meander out of the woodline, including one that i believe to be 150". Of course this was the one walk I didn't take my tripod and camera adapter with me on, so unfortunately I didn't get any footage to share or look back on. All and all it was a great week, and I'm very excited for some warmer temps and to start getting onto some fresh antlers! Good luck out there and stay dirty!
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