Son of a bitch. That’s typically what runs through my mind when I see a buddy walking towards one of those spots while shed hunting.
Maybe you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve shed hunted long enough, you’ll recognize that those spots almost always hold an antler or two. When this kind of place comes into view, you can feel the energy change in a group of shed hunters. Routes mysteriously converge. The pace picks up. Every shed-savvy...

If you’re thinking this is your year to travel across state lines to hunt whitetails, you’d better start planning right now. It takes months to conduct the necessary due diligence so you don’t end up dropping serious coin on a non-resident license only to have the hunt totally flame out.
Here’s the thing: most people start at the wrong point in the process. They’ll hear about Iowa’s giant bucks or how Kansas has tons of untouched walk-in ground...

Finding shed antlers is fun, but does scooping up a matched set at the end of February mean anything come November? It all depends on the details of a specific antler, whether you have any history with its previous owner, and what you plan to do with the information it gives you.
Mark Kenyon is a devout shed junkie who believes that a cast antler is most valuable when on a multi-season quest for a single deer. “The most important benefit to shed...

This time of year, chasing big whitetails couldn’t possibly feel further away. That doesn’t mean your downtime between deer and turkey season should be wasted though. If you want to capitalize on the long offseason, now is the perfect time to download onX, put your virtual boots on the ground, and start e-scouting. After all, success favors the prepared.
Locating Quality Public Land
When starting from scratch while looking for public land, there...

The best and worst shed hunting advice I ever received was, “just keep walking.” There’s a beautiful simplicity (and truth) to that maxim, but also dangerous deceit.
When I first began searching for shed antlers, I took this approach to heart and simply walked. As most beginning shed hunters do, I blindly traversed every square inch of every property I had access to. On occasion, I’d actually find an antler and it was a great rush. But the...

I still have three buck tags burning a hole in my pocket from last season. For most hunters, unfilled licenses end up in the garbage. These folks curse their bad luck. They wallow in sorrow. They try to move on. But this achieves nothing.
In my mind, the best thing to do with uncut tags is to make tag soup. The trick is a matter of flipping your perspective on the past season and learning from it. Then you’ll be able to turn this winter’s tag...