Shed Hunting: Hard Core or Casual?

Much as I like to deer hunt, I've never been a dedicated shed hunter. Sure, I'll pick them up as I see them when I'm out and about in the spring, but I don't know that I've ever left the house and said, Going shed hunting. Be back at dark.

See, I'm not much on hiking for hiking's sake. Camping just to camp -- no hunting or fishing involved -- is a lot like work to me. And shed hunting has some of the same drawbacks. There are no guns or bows involved, and no critters to eat at the end. Plus, I get sidetracked easily in the spring. Few things fire me up any more than turkey hunting.

But beyond my personal shed-finding flaws, shed hunting, at least where I hunt in western Kentucky, is tough. There's a lot of big timber and thickets. Though I'll sometimes find a shed or two around the edges of the food plots on our little family farm, picking up any more than that is never more than just blind luck.

My wife, Michelle, can attest to that. We spent last weekend on the farm, mainly to get away from phones and computers, but also to tend our clover plots before turkey season. While I was spreading fertilizer, she was scouring the countryside for sheds. She found one right next to the truck almost right off the bat, and was virtually astounded. I actually picked one up on purpose!

Of course, her subsequent efforts turned up nothing.

There's no doubt, plenty of people take their shed hunting quite seriously. And it seems some people are just gifted when it comes to finding them. Last spring while Hansen and I were turkey hunting in Oklahoma with Jeff Danker and Daniel McVay (Buckventures Outdoors and Major League Bowhunter), I marveled at the number of sheds those guys picked up while we were chasing gobblers. On the one hand, I'd say the open country out there (and the number of bucks on their place) has a lot to do with it. On the other hand, Jeff and Daniel found four or five sheds each to my none. So maybe a trained eye helps as well.

So what kind of crowd do we have here? Do you call yourself a dedicated shed-hunter, or is picking them up in the spring simply a byproduct of being in the woods, doing something else?