az.antlerenthusiast

Hey a little off of the topic, but these are all pictures from early to middle year antler hunting excursions. In every group there is always some reptile fans but I am not one of them. I know that I nead not say anything to you low-elevation couesers but for the rest of us here are some reminder pictures. Even living here in the cool pines , there still are people that end up getting an air vac trip due to snake bites every year. This can most certainly add a damper to your hunting trip. One guy near Heber was bit in the face(ouch!!?) Proper foot wear and a snake bite kit is never a bad idea. Wearing big floppy tennis shoes is probably not the best choice. A walking stick you can use for poking and proding in suspicious places sometimes is not a bad idea either. The more you walk through thistles and thorn bushes, the less goofey the thought of chaps becomes for added snake and thorn protection. I'm not propagating that you nead to be scared silly of snakes , but at least keep an eye out for them. Northern black tail (tell me if i'm wrong) crowndancer head rattler?? ugly plain old ugly On a liter note I did find a small 6 point brown today

So if I boil and bleach a head to alleaviate the odor it might be dubbed as "suspicious"? Unless the head is extremly wheathered at this point who would know if bullwinkle had facial hair or not?

not bad, not bad... 105 perhaps ?

Hey this is Jason. These are some of the pictures that me and antlerhead (Dustin) took this weekend and Monday 3/15 and 3/16. I had my new camera set on auto adjust setting but the pictures didn't turn out so great. During our trip we found 23 antlers between the two of us. Dustin had the luck of the draw this time. Within the first hour and a half after we set base camp he had already found a 360 p/u elk head! This head was 1 1/2 years old and was a bull that I have found 5 sheds from in the past. From there out he had the touch of Midas for the rest of the day(finding 5 browns and 6 other white coues and elk antlers). This is one of the very nice browns that Dustin found . It probably would have been from a 330 bull but mabe bigger. Though I wasn't quite as lucky, I did find my first elk brown of 09 as well as 3 -6x6 pairs of older elk antlers as well as some singles. I also found a small but cool coues head and a coues single shed as well. This was a cool set of year old sheds. I had found the same sheds off from that bull in years past. These were in about the 340 range and had really flat buttons. (pictured below) I didn't find no big old head but I still managed to pack out a 97 pound pack. I find it easier to tie 2 antlers to my pack and carry them over the front. To me the 20 lbs. over the front helps to offset the weight pulling you backwards. This is also why I reconstructed my backpack frame with square tubing. It added an extra 6 lbs to the packs weight but it stays stiff as a board. Nothing is more annoying to me than a pack that bows and flexes when you cinche some weight on it. Dustin wasn't far behind me with 75 lbs. The walk back to the truck took us 5 hours, but that was taking it slow and not overdoing it. During this trip it was really unique to see and film a coatamundi. I know that in some areas they are quite abundant but this is not one of those areas.

As a general rule the bigger/heavier the antler the earlier it drops, but I have seen exceptions to this many times. Around here the smaller and younger bulls drop around April 1 . Some of the older and heavy bulls are even as early as the end of Jan., while some of the spikes and small brush bulls still have ants. on their head in early May. So somewhere in the middle is your best bet I would imagine.

Hey way to skunk the four wheeler dudes! That has happended to me more than a couple times. Im sure they beat me to to quite a few, but I cant begin to tell you how many times I have found singles, pairs ,and even p/u heads within sight of a road(ants. that had been there awhile). Its amazing what you can find if you hit the thickets and unconvenient quad places. Even in places where quad riders are as illegal as heck and dont pay any attention to roads or trails, im still amazed what they can miss. Of coarse ant. hunting in areas that are not flat and/or open helps to skunk those lazy farts.

Congrats. on your find. Looks like you found a couple that were of good size and good genetics. I think its the dog that brings you good luck. Hope to see more pictures if you find the other set.

Thanks for the kind words. Antler hunting has by far become one of the greatest joys in my life. It has been cool ant. hunting with Dustin because he is one of the few people you can turn loose in a wilderness and not worry about.(getting lost, snake bit ,dehydrated etc.) He does have a thing for attracting bears though. Guess I was a bit off on the size of the head, oh well. Big none the less. No matter where the trip, there is always something unusual or special in nature if you are open enough to see it. Here are a couple more quick pictures. I'm running out of good pictures so this is about it .

I do own one but I never use it for antler hunting. As far as i'm concerned they could illegalize them and that would be just fine. If you are an older person ,disabled ,or handicapped, I could see an exception to the rule. Usually its not the people that really nead to use them that are destroying the forest, its the ones that are young and careless. If they cant enjoy being in the forest for the simple reason of being there, then throw them in a sandpit somewhere where they can all be psyco together. As far as just using ATV's to get to an antler before someone else, like it's a mad race, there is little or no sportsmanship or charactor in that. If you are capable of walking ;then do it! If you cant then I understand your story.

Hey good job Antlers are great to find , but antlers with good pictures and or video is even better. Looks like you did some good ground work to find those.

Hey good to see you having fun and finding antlers. My wife really enjoys the sport as well but not to the extreme that I do. Though antler hunting isn't really a reconized sport , it really is just as much a challenge and exercise as anything else in the sports catagory you could persue. Anyways I enjoy seeing your posts, keep it up.

cool to see a set of horns that are different than the norm. good job whoever found them

Hey this is Jason. Went antler hunting on Wed. 3/11. Found my first brown of 2009 though it was not what I was expecting. Last year by 3/6 I had found 5 elk browns in an area about 1 mile long all 350+ sheds. The elk have since changed there pattern this year. I moved over about 2 miles away this time. I went into an area that had been pretty dry for me during the last couple of years. I saw some slick headed bulls but I could not find their horns hidden in the jungle, it wasn't for lack of effort though. The brown I ended up finding was from a mule deer, but I'm not complaining either (You take whatever you can get. Know what I mean?) I did end up finding some nice year old elk antlers 2 being 340 or so in size, another small forky coues head,an old coues single shed, 6 chalkeys ,and 3 other smaller elk sheds. Found 14 total ,left 6 whites behind. I took video of 4 different coes bucks. All of which were still wearing their crowns, and probably will until April,or at least in this area they probably will. None of the bucks I seen were monsters but I know that they are there. This aprox. 7 year old antler I would have gladly picked up had it been laying close to the truck. Unless you are part donkey, picking up 4 or 5 ten pound whites,(along with the weight of your pack and keeper horns) is hard on the old back. So there it lays as a marker or for another crazy horn hunter. Pictured above are two antlers I found in the same area 5 years ago. I dont know what this buck would have scored but I would imagine it to be around somewhere in the 90's.?

This is a picture of my buddy dustin (Azantlerhead) preping his pack for the walk out to the truck . The truck was only mabe 2 miles away, but 1000 feet higher in elevation. During this trip we found very nice coues,m deer, elk sheds and a nice m deer head. Dustin found a 6X7 set of elk horns prob. in the 370 range. Between the 2 of us, with rack and tack we packed out about 170 pounds which for where we were was not easy.

These are about the only other pictures I could dig up from that trip. I took a picture of the elk shed because of the strange bend on the last point.

(Azantlerenthusiast) Hey this is Jason. This is a picture of a large shed I found in 06 .Wanted to know if anyone else had any pictures of very large 5 point sheds? I have found many 6 pointers this size but not very many large 5 pointers.

There was a shed laying near this head but not the 5 point in the last frame. The head that is shown I found about 4 years ago near a rock cove on a mountain face. This would have been a slightly warmer place in the winter and a harder place for a predator to sneak in on. This elk is a 7x7 and is in the 390's range. The shed I found near was I presume from the same bull except that it was an 8 point shed and slightly critter chewed. If not it sure had similar genetics. That and it looked about a year more weathered. The head was about 3 years old when I found it. I filled the cracks in the horn with fine-ground antler dust and elmers glue and some brown dye . I then stained it with an antler stain and clear varnished it for protection. The 8 point shed I doctored up and threw it in a chandelier which will be hanging in a friends house.

These are some of the antlers that me and Dustin found on 2/28 and 3/1 09. No browns yet , however with finding 18 antlers we were not dissapointed. Our find consisted of coues and elk sheds(no m deer). Between the two of us we found 2 coues deer heads(one in the 80's range, one with a broken antler) and 3 elk sheds in the 11 pound range. Two of the elk sheds were 7 pointers both of which I have sheds from the same elk from different years prior. It was still alot of fun and a lot of work.

This is a picture I am posting for my buddy Dustin(AZantlerhead). This is a coues head he found this last weekend 2/28. Dustin is known for having a knack for finding the such. Sorry the picture isn't the best quality. It was taken of from video footage he took because we didn't have a digital camera at the time. This is how the head was laying when he found it. Not a world record, but an exciting find none the less. I would imagine it to score in the 80's. For best we could tell it had died about a year and a half ago. The antlers were still brown and there was no crack line between the skullbone and the button like he was ready to shed.