Super Shed Sunday

I decided to put a different spin on “Super Bowl Sunday” this year. I set the alarm for 5:00 AM Saturday night and was up bright (dark this time of year) and early Sunday. By 5:35 AM I was headed for the mountains for half a day of shed hunting.

This is the earliest time of year I have shed hunted, but I knew from trail camera pictures that the snow was melted and Saturday afternoon brought rain. The wet, dark ground of compressed leaves and underbrush would make for perfect shed hunting.

I arrived at camp at 7:35 AM and after checking to make sure everything was in good order, I hit the woods. With a short day ahead of me, I decided not to go to the wilderness but focus my efforts behind camp. I knew I wanted to spend most of my time where Robert and I harvested our 2023 bucks but made a quick trip to Graveyard to start the day. I did about 2 miles there with no luck. After finding the third tree stand in the area, I headed back to camp for my next destination.

I drove down to the white barn and started my trek up to the “Buck Nest”. I made my way up to my trail camera before breaking left to the pipeline. I was planning on hiking up to Rob’s spot but after a quick hike on the pipeline, I found a nice trail heading up to the right towards the road. I decided to take it, and boy am I glad I did. I got up on the top of the ridge, where I found loads of sign topped off by a big tree with that was freshly rubbed. As I took a picture of it, I looked 10 yards past it and saw the beautiful sign of a shed. I was pumped. It’s hard to explain the feeling of finding a shed antler, but man is it addicting.

I took some pictures before making my way over to it and taking some more “as it lays”.

It didn’t take me long to recognize the buck as one that we had on trail camera in the backyard of camp. It was probably the biggest we had pictures of last year.

If you look close, you can see the bladed G2 matching that of the shed. I immediately started looking for the match. I spent the better part of an hour scouring the area for the 5 point left side to no avail. I decided to move on, but already plan on spending time in the area on future shed hunts this spring in hopes of finding the match.

I made my way around the point and got into an area where the bare earth was once again tore up with sign. “This is feeling sheddy” I said out-loud. Then, I turned around and saw it. Tines sticking straight up from the dark ground. “Hell yea!” I said to myself. I made my way over to the nice 4 point left side. I was elated. This matched my personal best (3 times) finding 2 sheds in a day.

With two sheds in hand, I did a quick look for the match to the left side with no luck. I made my way down to the truck around 11:30 AM reflecting on the day. Another great morning spent in Penn’s Woodswith just under 5 miles on the boots!

Here they are in all of their glory. Time for kickoff!