What Shed Antlers Can Tell Muzzleloader Hunters About Their Deer Herds with Bob Zaiglin
Editor’s Note: Searching for shed antlers and hunting bucks without a gun when the season is over will help you compile the most-complete information about the whereabouts of deer, according to well-known deer manager and writer, Bob Zaiglin of Houston, Texas, a certified wildlife biologist.
Determining the Condition of the Deer Herd by Studying Sheds:
The best time a muzzleloader hunter can lease land or to look for place to hunt is after the rut. If a muzzleloader hunter is considering leasing a particular piece of property and wants to know the condition of the deer on the land, he should be able to walk over the lease and find sheds. If he doesn't discover any sheds, then he must question how-many deer are on the lease. The same is true of public lands. If public lands are available where you plan to hunt this season, but you aren't sure what the condition of the deer herd is on those lands, then walk the land after the season, and search for sheds. Too, sheds will tell sportsmen how well they're doing with their deer-management programs. For instance, if your hunting club is attempting to produce numbers of bucks, and your members don't find very-many sheds, then realize something is wrong in your deer-management program. Also sheds will tell you the size of bucks you have on the property and the general condition of those bucks.
On some of the ranches I’ve managed, we collect all the sheds we can discover every year. Then we measure every shed. Although the data doesn't give us any age criteria, it does give us a bio mass of antlers. We can tell by the sheer volume of antlers we pick-up, whether we have a number of bucks or a few bucks, and whether we have little or big bucks. I've personally been collecting and weighing sheds for years. I'm attempting to evaluate from the sheds whether we've had a good year, a great year or an average year for antler development on the properties we manage. Something else we're able to determine from sheds is that we can better predict for the hunter what size bucks he'll have to hunt the upcoming year. If we find numbers of small, scrappy antlers, then we can project that hunters may not bag very-many large trophies the coming year. But if we locate some quality racks, we'll know our hunters the following year can expect to harvest some trophy bucks. So, collecting sheds helps the muzzleloader hunter keep his expectations of the upcoming buck harvest within more-reasonable bounds. Bass fishermen have learned that bass usually are in only 10-percent of a lake's area. Deer follow much the same pattern in the woods. Shed hunters quickly will learn where their chances are best on any piece of property to find deer and take them with their CVA guns.
The Significance of Locked Deer Antlers:
Shed hunters also may find one of the most-discouraging sights in all of nature – two bucks with antlers locked in combat, and both deer dead. When a muzzleloader hunter discovers two locked racks, the first thing he knows is that the sex ratio of the deer herd is probably approximately one buck for each doe, because bucks fight more and therefore lock horns more often when there are fewer does. Finding two bucks locked in combat was thought to be very uncommon in past years. However, one time, the ranch I managed had 15 bucks radio-collared. Out of those 15 bucks on the 100,000-acre ranch, one of those radio-collared bucks locked-up with another deer. One year we found two sets or four bucks that locked antlers – one pair in December and the other in February. These bucks were a tremendous size. Two of these deer had racks that scored close to 170 points on Boone and Crockett. When you're out hunting sheds, you may discover bucks with locked antlers.
Becoming a Year-Round Deer Hunter Can Help You Take Trophy Bucks:
The outdoorsman who wants to become a trophy hunter and consistently take big deer must learn to hunt all year long and carry his gun into the woods only during hunting season. Not-enough time is available during hunting season in most states for a trophy hunter to unravel the mysteries of the big bucks. Even if the sportsman does determine what the deer in his area are doing, the season may be over before he has a chance to intercept a buck in the woods. Although deer are not that smart, they have learned to avoid hunters. Most always on any given piece of land, a few bucks continually will escape hunters. These deer seem to have a sixth sense about how to avoid hunters. Unless a muzzleloader hunter is willing to hunt trophy bucks all year long, he not only never may find a trophy buck to hunt, but also he'll never develop a strategy for taking that deer. If you truly want to hunt a trophy, the odds of bagging that trophy buck are best for the hunter who makes the commitment to hunt deer all year long. Shed hunting is an integral part of trophy buck hunting for CVA outdoorsmen who understand what sheds mean, where to look for the sheds, and what to do after they find them.