Although I was out of commission for about 4 weeks, I really don't feel like I missed too much. Yes, nearly all of the whitetail have dropped, and at this point the majority of mule deer as well. Elk are starting to drop as well, although I'm not cleared to hike snowy mountains just yet. The reason I haven't missed much? The weather has been grade A terrible. We have had a few bought of decent weather, up into the high 40s, only to be repeatedly followed by snow, making it near impossible to find sheds and much less enjoyable.
On top of that, this long drawn out spring is extremely harsh on critters, mule deer and antelope especially. Mule deer have fairly selective diets and specialize on sagebrush in the winter, while pronghorn also eat sagebrush and small forbes. Late winters that bring heavy snow that melts a little, then freezes over are brutally hard. It makes getting access to food extremely tough for them, and heavy winter kill is likely in a lot of areas in the west. Wyoming is projecting 50% mortality in some mule deer herds, and 70-80% mortality in some pronghorn herds. That's not fawn mortality, that's all age groups. Our winter here in Montana hasn't been quite as bad in most regions, but it is not a good situation across most of the Rocky Mountain West. Whitetails tend to have agricultural feed to survive on, and elk are much heartier, but they aren't exempt either. It is important to keep this in mind as you hit the hills this spring. Even if we have a solid stretch of warm weather, critters don't just magically gain their strength back. It takes weeks of good food for them to get back to a healthy weight. So lets all pay attention and do our best to not push critters around.
Sunday, March 26, brought some good weather and turned into an awesome day. One of my best friends Christian invited me up to walk an agricultural field for whitetail sheds, and it was the first weekend I was cleared to go shed hunt. I drove up Saturday night and spent the night at his house, then we hit the field around 9 the next day. It took a little while for us to pick up the first one, a busted two point stuck in the mud that I nearly stepped on, but after that it was off to the races.
Christian picked up a really solid four point, then I sniped one peaking out of the snow by his feet. Christian followed up by making a great spot of his own on another nice four point that only had two tines poking above the grass and mud.
Right after that, we turned and walked a small draw where I picked up another four point, and Christian picked up a really nice deadhead, with a main beam that takes a nose dive and an eye guard that hooks straight back.
Christian picked up a handful more smaller sheds along a fence line, and we rounded out the day with an even dozen antlers! While I only found the three, it was the most productive day of shed hunting I have ever been a part of.
This past Sunday, April 2, I was able to sneak out for a few hours with Hank again. It turned out to be a great day for a walk, a little breezy but relatively warm. We went to a spot I found a couple years back, and where I picked three whitetail sheds. It isn't a huge parcel of land, but it holds a lot of cover along a creek for bedding and is used as a travel corridor fairly frequently from what I can tell. The walk didn't turn up any sheds, but we did find another dead head, the biggest of the year. And interestingly enough, I think it actually died last fall. The second to last and third to last ribs were broken, and the buck had nothing but the skeleton and some hide left. I'm no expert, but my bet would be that it got hit back in the liver area and was never recovered. He died in a little depression too, that you had to walk pretty dang close to in order to find him. I'll hold back on posting the picture as it isn't the prettiest, but I will share a picture once I get his skull all cleaned up.
So there you have it, completely up to date on Dirty Merz and Hank's shed adventures. Best of luck to every one going out, hope you turn up some brown gold and good memories. Stay dirty!