COMMENTARY BY DR. DAVE SAMUEL
There are three things many deer hunters do in the woods every spring — turkey hunt, hunt for morel mushrooms and hunt for shed deer antlers. The motives for shed hunting are many, from a family outing to cash for antlers, to patterning big bucks or to just get some exercise in the outdoors. No matter what the motive, shed hunting is booming around the country with more people picking up those jettisoned appendages than ever before. Go to any region of whitetail country and there will be one person who is so consumed by shed hunting, that all hunters in that area will know his/her name.
I have such a friend in Ohio and his name is Wayne Bolton. Wayne gets a bigger thrill from finding a huge shed than he does from harvesting such a critter with his bow. Yes, you could say that Wayne is a shed fanatic. There are lots of those fanatics out there.
There are a plethora of reasons why deer hunters shed hunt, but for most, the ultimate goal is the relocation of those antlers on that particular deer during the following hunting season. Shed hunting is great family fun. You can take your kids and they can make noise, run around and with a little help, they might even find a shed antler.
Most people, including me, assumed that shed hunting was always legal in West Virginia. Not so. As late as 2017, we were the only state that did not allow shed hunting. At that time, antlers were considered “wildlife parts” and the only parts anyone could possess were those from a deer that you harvested. On rare occasions, law enforcement arrested people for shed hunting, but it was usually in association with trespassing.
In 2017, the DNR lobbied and educated legislators to this problem and a bill, SB 473, passed made it legal for you to shed hunt and pick up antlers. There was one exception; you cannot possess parts of a bull elk. Those big elk antlers are very enticing, but it is against the law to pick them up.
In most eastern states, there is no restriction on shed hunting, however, in the west, you find some restrictions. Most restrictions are imposed to protect deer, elk and moose from stress during colder months as they recover from the rut. Restrictions in states such as Wyoming and Utah are date-specific. For example, on public lands west of the Continental Divide in Wyoming, shed hunting is closed from Jan. 1-April 30.
Utah has the most shed hunting restrictions. If you shed hunt from Feb. 1-April 15, you need an “antler-gathering” certificate that you obtain free of charge from the Utah Wildlife Agency. To get that certificate, you must take and pass a course. Admittedly, that course isn’t much. It’s a 25-question test that will take about 10-15 minutes to complete, but once done you need that certificate on your person when picking up sheds.
Why are those western states being more restrictive for shed hunting? Antlers are worth money and that fact led to large numbers of shed hunters. So many that problems with animal disturbance and trespassing occurred. If you Google “deer antlers for sale,” you will get hundreds of hits. The uses for purchased antlers are many including jewelry, hand-crafted knives, lamps, buttons, door handles, gun racks, chew bones for dogs, wine racks and many other items made from deer antlers. Then there are antler collectors who are constantly searching for the biggest, most intriguing bucks. These are people behind the scenes who collect antlers just the same as someone who collects antique cars or paintings. You don’t know who they are or where they live, but they collect bone. The bigger and more unique the better.
I got on the website antlerbuyers.com to get the latest prices on antlers (those prices change monthly). The May 1 price for elk, Grade A, was $13 per pound, Grade B was $8. Whitetail Grade A was $10 per pound, Grade B was $6. Considering that a big elk’s antlers may weigh 40 pounds, you can understand the incentive for people crowding onto public and private land to find them. Today, COVID-19 impacts everything, including the price and sale of antlers. With the lockdown, Chinese buyers (and most antlers sold are bought in the Orient), have not been traveling nor importing antlers. Thus the prices dropped about 10%.
Let me add something on the Grades of antlers. There are five grades. Grade A antlers have good brown color, are in perfect condition, with no broken tines and no chew marks (squirrels and other animals chew on shed antlers). Thus, Grade A antlers have not been laying around for years and are usually freshly shed. Grade B antlers might have a broken tine, some chips and chew marks. But the color is still good. The other grades all reflect the above traits, and are in worse condition. Who knew?
While on this topic, I saw this on the internet this week. Three Utah men were arrested for trespassing and shed hunting. They were driving down the road and spotted an elk rack. They couldn’t resist, so they continued hunting sheds on private property and gathered 19 elk, seven deer and four moose antlers that were said to be worth $1,500 on the open market. The conservation officers waited for them to return to their truck, confiscated their antlers, and they now face a fine of up to $680 and could lose hunting privileges.
As mentioned, large-antlered bucks are in big demand by antler collectors. The high demand for world-class bucks has led to a new phenomenon; replicas. Skilled artists create molds and craft exact replicas of the original antlers using fiberglass. Then a taxidermist finds a hide and mounts the replicated antlers creating an exact duplicate of the original animal. Sometimes, these replicas are sold to collectors, however, the main reason replicas are made is because of theft. For example, in 2003, the Iowa state record non-typical buck was harvested. In June 2004, someone broke into that hunter’s home and stole that buck. Fortunately, the hunter had a replica made, and although he lost the original mount, he had the replica to keep in his memory of the hunt and the great animal he harvested.
One other aspect that makes shed hunting a bit easier than gun or bowhunting — you don’t have to get up so darned early in the morning to do it. With characteristically cool temperatures, a noon start-up time is just fine for shed hunting.
For the most part, the motives for hunting bone lies in knowing what bucks survived the hunting season and the post-rut mortality that is particularly hard on big bucks. And finding a unique set of shed antlers in a particular area often means the owner is still alive and probably lives relatively close by.
The quest for shed antlers in the spring is a unique way we can pursue deer without any damage to the resource. So the next time you visit your favorite hunting turf, get out of that vehicle and walk around that food plot, pond or field. You may be surprised to discover your best trophy — and remember, the next time you see those antlers, they may be attached to a buck of a lifetime.
Dr. Samuel is a retired wildlife professor from West Virginia University. His outdoor columns have appeared, and continue to appear, in Bowhunter magazine and the Whitetail Journal. If you have questions or comments on wildlife and conservation issues, email him at drdave4@comcast.net.
