Perfect Pair

The winter months have slowly drug on, and I have been thinking about shed hunting since the 2022 hunting season ended about two months ago. With others posting pictures of sheds they were already finding, I have been itching to get out in search of the “white gold”. With a few warm days behind us and a nice weather weekend in the forecast, I planned to take a day trip to camp to shed hunt and check in on camp on February 25th.

I got up early and started the drive to camp at 6:05 AM Saturday. As I left, snow began to fall, which wasn’t in the forecast as of Friday night. I debated calling the trip off, but was too eager to get out in the woods and decided to give it a go. About half way through the drive, an inch of snow had accumulated which was obviously not conducive of shed hunting. Nonetheless, I kept going.

I finally arrived at the “parking spot” on the government road around 8:45 AM after a slow drive with two stops. I grabbed my pack and binoculars and headed into the big woods. The snow on the ground was going to make it hard to find any sheds, but I tried to remain optimistic that larger antlers could still stick out above the snow.

I made my way down to the meadow and across the creek. The snow was supposed to stop around 9:30 AM, so I decided to make checking trail cameras the first priority while giving the snow a chance to stop and begin melting as sun warmed the woods. I checked my first camera and began heading up through the Jeep Trail Valley. I made my way up on top of the First Finger to check my second camera before heading over to the Second Finger and all the way out the ridge. While a few sticks and leaves caught my eye, none turned out to be sheds.

The sign on the Second Finger was promising, so I dropped down the back side and headed back toward the Third Finger. I had success finding sheds in this area before, so I slowly picked my way along the hillside. By the time I made it back to where the ridges come together, it was 12:30 PM and I still hadn’t found any antlers. I decided to do one more push back through the Jeep Trail Valley while making my way back towards the truck.

I was pleased to find that the sun had at least melted some of the snow, and would certainly make spotting sheds easier against the wet brown earth. I stopped to take a few pictures of the melted snow, and as I did so, something caught my eye 5 yards to my right. I looked down to see the unmistakable antlers sticking out from under the snow. “No freaking way” I thought to myself.

I could immediately tell this was a big shed, and I snapped a few pictures and video as I picked it up. This had to be some of the toughest conditions I have shed hunted in, and I just found my biggest shed to date…for about 30 seconds.

While taking the video with the antler held out in front of me, I saw more tines sticking up 10 yards ahead. A matching set together! I walked over and took more pictures of the second antler, realizing it was a left side that certainly had to be the match. As I picked it up, I realized it had a split G2 making it even bigger than the right side I found minutes earlier.

I brushed off the matted leaves and laid the perfect pair together.

Unable to contain my excitement, I ran up on top of the ridge to get service and send some pictures of these awesome finds. As I headed for the truck, I continued searching, but admittedly not as eagerly as I couldn’t help but continue to look at the heavy antlers in my hands. My 2023 shed hunting season had seemingly already been made, but I already couldn’t wait to get back out and continue to explore. As I made my way out of the woods and arrived at the truck, I had to reflect on just how quickly the day turned around…and that, I thought, is what keeps us coming back for more.