Young hunter a whiz at finding sheds

Imagine a hunt where your quarry can't see you coming. Nor can it hear, smell or feel your presence. Even if it could, it can't run away. Just how hard would that be? Well, ask anyone who has tried shed hunting.

Finding sheds might be as difficult as anything in the outdoors. They are hard to see because they blend into their surroundings so well -- even when they aren't buried beneath snow and leaves. If you don't get to them quickly enough, they're eventually eaten by small animals.

Shed hunters put in many hours and sometimes hundreds of miles walking to find these rare trophies. Sound like a lot of work? You better believe it, but it can also be a ton of fun. And it's an activity anyone can try. It interests hunters and non-hunters alike, of all age groups. Successful antler hunters, however, are few and far between.

"Success in finding shed antlers comes from a variety of different things, but most important is that you know where to begin looking," said Sam Wiersma of Cambria, Wis.

If anyone knows how to find antlers, it's Wiersma. At only 19, Wiersma has already found more than 200 antlers and he only started looking five years ago.

"Basically, I hunt year-round," he said. "I scout all summer, hunt all fall and use trail cameras to monitor where the deer eat, bed and travel. I get to know where the deer are, and then when I see on my cameras that their antlers are gone, I go out and look for them."

The strategy may sound simple, but it can be much tougher than it seems. Most beginning shed hunters simply take to the woods walking and staring at the ground. Sometimes that strategy works, but most of the time it just ends with frustration and limited success. But there are ways to put more antlers in your hands.

"First off, you need to scout," Wiersma said. "Scouting is the most important thing that anyone can do, it tells you where they bed and eat and these are the places where they will most likely lose their antlers."

Scouting involves looking at different fields to see what crops are still standing or even any places near farms where food is available for deer. In much of the Midwest deer will do just about anything for food in late winter, so finding these spots is critical. If your state allows baiting, feeding the deer will keep them coming to a spot over and over again, which will also improve your chances.

Uneven terrain, high fences and thick or rough travel corridors also offer great spots for shed antlers.

"I find a lot of sheds around rock piles, and at the edge of fields where a fence is," Wiersma said. "A lot of times the deer drops the antler when he jumps over the fence or if he knocks it off on a branch above his head."

Any spot where deer travel to get from their food to bedding areas is a great place to look for sheds but the most likely spot in Wiersma's experience has been in the food sources and bedding areas themselves.

"I find most of my sheds right near the food sources," Wiersma said. "Sometimes the buck just buries his antlers in the snow when he is digging for food but a lot of times they just drop off at the edges of the fields."

Not all of Wiersma's sheds have come from areas where he has scouted. He gets permission from many different landowners just to walk and find antlers on their property, mainly for recreation.

"I ask people that I know, or sometimes just go up to a house where the area looks good," Wiersma says. "Most of the time the landowners just let me go, and sometimes I even give them the antlers that I find. It works out good, they find out what kind of deer they have around and I add another shed to my collection."

At most of these locations Wiersma just starts walking and follows deer trails.

"Following deer trails can be a great way to find antlers, especially when you don't really know where to look," Wiersma said.

Once an antler is taken out of the wild it can last for many years, but if they are not found within a few weeks to months after hitting the ground, the rodents and other animals eat the bones for calcium.

After an antler is found it can be sold, put on display or used in a variety of crafts. Wiersma, however, has a different approach.

"To tell you the truth, all I do with mine is label the date I found them and throw them in a box in my room," he said. "I put the bigger ones on display but most of them just sit there until I want to look at them again. Really, the reason I want them is so I can compare them from year to year and if I shoot a buck it is pretty cool to have its old sheds."