HOW TO FIND MORE MATCHED SETS OF SHED ANTLERS THIS WINTER

By Tony J. Peterson – The MeatEater

Ihave a poor memory for a lot of reasons, but one recollection I have that is almost as crisp as the day it happened involves a pair of forky antlers lying in a buck bed. I’d been fighting the late-March ticks in north-central Minnesota for hours when I walked halfway up a grassy hillside and found my first matched set.

Even though they might break 20 inches if I measured them, which I won’t, it was a special moment. It had taken me years of shed hunting to find a matched set, which is something that doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult. It can be, and just like with all things deer hunting related, the quality of your spots will determine the actual difficulty level.

Since I was shed hunting public land in the Twin Cities, the quality of my spots was pretty low. In fact, on a good year, I might pick up four to six antlers. The odds of two of them coming from the same buck are extremely low. A matched forky set might not mean a thing to most people, but to me, it was damn cool. And I wanted more. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL STORY