Shed Hunting Trip: Part One

Today was my first attempt at shed hunting.  I’ll just tell you right now, it was not a success.   The weather was less than ideal between the drizzling rain and the dropping temperatures.  The plus side, I got to spend some time in the great outdoors with my old man.

My dad and I started our shed hunting adventure on the families old air strip in Sullivan County, Missouri.  We walked to the same spot where I shot my first doe and proceeded to explore the wooded area just beyond the clearing where the deer wandered out of just a few short months ago.  I was feeling lucky today!

Dad had consulted some of Sullivan County’s expert shed hunters before we went out today.  One expert’s name was Bob.  Dad asked Bob if he knew any tricks.  Bob said, “Of course!  Just keep walking.”  Ok, that’s easy enough. I also remembered one of Shead’s Shed Hunting tips from my Knowing the Knob post a few days ago.  One of them being to look for south-facing hills.  The other was to walk really slow.  I would walk a few feet, then stop, turn around and look around 10 to 15 feet from where I was standing.  Then I would walk a few more feet, step and repeat.

Nothing.  Zilch.  Nada.  No sheds. We did find some deer droppings, a fresh rub and lots and lots of paths. I also learned several things today:

1. DON’T wear ankle socks with neoprene boots.  By the end of the afternoon they were at the tips of my toes and my heel was rubbing against the back of my boot.  Not cool.
2. DON’T wear holey jeans when you’re going tromping thru the woods.  Reason?  Duh…thorns!  While I only broke skin just a little bit, I got scratched up pretty good.  Stupidity on my part.
3. DON’T grab onto dead tree limbs when you try to lower yourself down into a creek bed.  Picture me slipping and landing directly onto my butt.  I’m just glad the Goretex coat I had on was long enough to save my holey jeans from getting muddy!

Here are a view pics that I snapped today.  Since it was raining, the pictures are pretty gloomy looking, but found some neat looking trees, a colorful rock and some serious thorns!  ENJOY!  ~ Beth