Deer Sheds

I hunt mostly Southwest Alabama and Northwest Florida. As most of you on here can attest to, It is slim pickings on finding deer sheds. I hear about people in the Midwest that shed hunt and find them easily. My wife has a good friend that has family in Indiana her friend visits. They find sheds all the time. I have a picture of some monster sheds if someone can pm me to post pics. I will have to figure out an easy way to post pics.

During every turkey season I do a lot of walking and usually do find one set of sheds. Some places are easier than others. My brother and I hunted some public land that has huge hardwood bottoms and hills. It was like hunting in a Park or something. We found two different sheds on a hillside back-to-back one day. Awesome find. It's just hard to come by.

What are some tips to finding more sheds down here in the thick piney woods of the south?

Walk the edges of fields in April/May. The few I've found have always seemed to be around the edges of fields. Have to get them early, or the rats and squirrels will eat them.

Walk deer trails in pine thickets and other thick areas. Also check where they have to jump or duck like ditches or fences.

Go drive the tractor around, shouldn’t take long to find a few with the tire. That usually how we do it.

Come to work with me on my field days. Be ready to cuss, bleed, and question your (and mine) life decisions. Should find a couple 3 a day. Especially with somebody actually looking for them. I don’t really look anymore - just notice the easy ones.

Get a retriever. Start his training by playing fetch with an antler.

Find someone that has a lot of big rack deer that stay on their property. Big deer leave big sheds. Of course most are not going to let anyone stomp around and run their deer off that is why they have big deer. A lot of places in Alabama there are so few deer you may be lucky to find one or two sheds every year or two.

Get a lab and train him from a puppy, they take to it quick.

I have had good luck at creek crossings. I have found multiple matching sets within feet of each other walking creeks. Some years I will find several and some years, like this year, I will find zero. I planned on training my lab to do this for me but he ended up being a big damn doofus.

I have owned two shed hunting dogs. One of them would go hunt sheds on his own and putt them on the front porch. I have a pile of probably 300+ sheds in my trophy room

I have been fetching with the dog using sheds and have started putting them in the woods and then walking him through and letting him find them. Once he picks them up I will make him bring them to me. Anything else I should be doing to help train him?

I found one side years ago that was absolutely huge. I mean an Alabama monster. I found it in Jefferson County, but hunted in Dallas County. I took it to the club one work day and would slip around putting it out where it would be pretty easily found. We had a lot of fun with that shed. Guys would be beside themselves when they’d “find it”.

When I lived on Brindley Mountain I trained my dog to find sheds. Wife made me stop encouraging him when we had two different deer skulls with the spine still on them on our porch one day. Also had a few legs show up. I think he mostly found our neighbors waste pile, but I ended up with quite a few sheds, too.

What time of year would you guys recommend looking for sheds in Lamar county?

During turkey season through May.

You could start looking now. Some have already shed but the most will shed in March to early April.

go looking right after a rain, the leaves are wet and dark and the antlers will stand out more.