Montana outfitter and mossyoak.com contributor Luke Strommen is a shed-hunting machine. You ought to see the bone collection, hundreds strong, in his home hard on the shores of the famous Milk River.
“For me finding sheds is a rush,” says Strommen. “Plus, they tell me how many old bucks and which of those bucks survived the previous hunting season and the winter.”
Strommen starts looking for sheds before Christmas some years. “The earliest I’ve ever found one here on the Milk is December 10th and that was after an early rut,” he says. “Some years the antlers start falling off closer to January.”
He keeps looking into the spring and year-round. He’s found lots of sheds that are one or two years old.
Strommen’s top shedding tips:
· Everybody uses binoculars when hunting hard-horned bucks, but hardly anybody carries them when shed hunting. You should. “I once sat on a log and glassed 7 sheds lying around in different spots,” says Strommen.
· Check open fields, fence lines and riverbanks. “My very favorite spot to glass is a wooded area that was just grazed by a herd of cattle,” he adds. “You’d be amazed how many sheds you missed on previous days or even in previous years. The cows uncover and kick up some old ones.”
· Always check areas where whitetails congregated in the winter, like sunny, southern slopes and sunlit riverbanks and fencerows. On his ranch, Strommen finds a ton of sheds in stack yards and feedlots where deer come regularly to eat.
· Grid out an area to check and then walk it slowly.
· Strommen sometimes saddles up and rides woodlots and riverbanks. “I can’t tell you how many sheds I’ve found from a horse that I walked right by days before,” he says. “Antlers can be a whole lot easier to see when you look straight down for them.”
