Last week we decided to trail off into the woods in search of sheds. Elk sheds can bring in up to $250 per antler. I am unsure of deer sheds and their pricing and demand, but the hype here is for sure elk antlers. We did a little bit of research and wanted to try this place close to town vs driving two hours into the national forest. We came up empty-handed but it was a great learning experience.
We enjoyed the mental stimulation it took to try and think like a wild animal. Following their trails and seeing where they could have possibly dropped their antlers. Looking at different tracks and scat. Teaching the girls how to stealthily move through the woods, something I think is extremely difficult for 4 women to understand. We did come upon a few deer and proceeded to follow them. Also, I saw a skunk run by and hide under a huge rock as well as a few elk who had fallen victim to either coyotes or a big cat. We then came across this neat man-made shelter which we all appreciated and thought was pretty neat.
We had a chance to try out our new GPS my dad let us borrow and it made things a little easier for us. We could confidently go walking off and focus on the hunt and not worry about following our tracks back to the truck. I believe we hiked 2 hours and went approximately 2.5 miles which were mostly up the side of the mountain considering that's where the elk like to roam.
Shed hunting does take some skill but is mostly just knowledge and experience. Most of the successful shed hunters already know where the herd resides and where the bulls bed down at. A lot of people do this as a source of income and we are already two months into the legal season to pick up sheds. We think most of the mountains have already been plundered through this late in the season. We will continue to do more hunts especially once we are further in the national forests in the next few weeks.