az.antlerenthusiast

Took off with Dustin the Antlerhead last weekend. Still a little early for browns but that was to be expected. Dustin found all the major cool stuff this trip, but I wasn't disappointed in what I managed to find. Here is a pair of old coues antlers. Dustin found 1 side and I found the other side about 1/2 mile away on the same hillside( whats the chances of that?). Both had similar conformation and almost identical buttons. Old brown hog with one of his finds. Very nice 6 point shed. Old but good coues shed from this trip. 10 minutes before dark and a nice find for Dustin. Both of us had walked right by this head for a couple years. This head would probably be in the 320 class I would guess. This ended up being our finds for the weekend. We found our share of mule deer sheds, a couple coues sheds, and few keeper elk sheds. Dustins' haul. End of trail and a bit on the tired side.

Here are some pictures from my last couple of antler hunts. I found this shed when I was on a coues hunt with some friends. We split up for awhile which gave me some time to dink around and shed hunt for a little while. Any time you can find a 7x its always a good bonus. In persuit of a much larger buck we seen(115+), this buck was passed up. After coming back on the trip with nothing, he didn't seem like he would have been so bad. Especially since they had the chance to shoot him at only 20 yards or less. Thats the nature of the game though. This was my coues find of the trip even if it was only from a buck in the 70's or so. Well being antlerhead and I are both horse owners, we actually decided to put one of them to use. We hit the brush for a couple days on a mid. Nov antler hunt. We still hit the brush on foot but the over all journey was much easier. This was Dustins' pride and joy of the trip. This was an older head but in perfect condition scoring prob. around 90 or so. This was a very nice brown he found. If he ever decides he dont like it any more, I'll find a good home for it. This was my find of the trip. Terrible picture but huge antler. This is actually an antler I have been looking to find for over a year. I found the pair to it last year but it took me about 4 trips to find the matching side. It was only 1/8 of a mile or less away but in the jungle that I was looking in that was quite the challenge. I posted a picture of the matching side on August 10 2009 about 10 pages ago on this forum. On this trip Dustin had all the deer finds including: 1 mule deer head, 1 coues deer head, and 3 coues sheds. We both found our fair share of elk ants. including browns , year olds , 1 year old pair and some nice sized whites. Taking a break on the trail. Made for an easy pack out. This is the pair that took me a year to find. These antlers are at least 5 years old but could be restored to like new quite easily. The mass on both the 4ths and main beam are incredible. Not a record set but I still like them.

Took off this last weekend for awhile to hit up some old places. Didn't put allot of time into looking but I did find 8 keepers. This is a shed that is a pair to a large brown I found last year. Not a fresh brown antler but a welcome sight none the less. http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/uploads/monthly_03_2011/post-3284-0-24832100-1299548729_thumb.jpg Here are a couple coues sheds I found. http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/uploads/monthly_03_2011/post-3284-0-79796600-1299548798_thumb.jpg This is a very nice symmetrical pair. Seen quite a few bulls still packing racks but at least two antlers wont be walking away from me when I see them. http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/uploads/monthly_03_2011/post-3284-0-12611800-1299548878_thumb.jpg

Wow that is an amazing set of sheds! Looks like the white antler was laying there for more than 3 years before you found it? I actually found the pair to last years shed only about 40 yards from where the other one was. It was laying right in plain sight which was the interesting part. I gave it good effort last year to find the pair but maybe I looked to hard or was blind that day. Or maybe a critter drug it down a hill for all I know?.

you know when i find big sets it makes me mad as hel so i can see why he would look mad ... Ok guys i'll try to pose up a big old cheesy grin next time. I don't think the sheds were from the same buck just because they were about 3 miles apart. Never know for sure I guess.

http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/uploads/monthly_03_2011/post-3284-0-43900900-1299987088_thumb.jpg Found the brown last year and the pair to it last week. Had smallish 3rds but still a dandy pair none the less.

The coues sheds were all 1 to 2 years old. Most of the coues bucks I see in that area are still packing racks through April.

Looks like the same kind of camera that most bigfoot pictures are taken with. Those sheds are of legendary porportions! I wouldn't mind finding a pair half that size. Congrats. to Waylon on his find.

Took off this last weekend on a solo trip to have some fun away from the daily grind. Got alot of rain where I went but sometimes putting up with the rain is easier than the hot sun. I found 10 keeper antlers and left 3. 5 were elk and 5 were deer. The 5 deer antlers were all mule deer horns. Once again I got skunked out on coues horns but I am glad for what I did find. I know this was good coues country but i didn't look around the right bush i guess. 10 minutes from camp and first find of the day. Thats hard to beat. Do you want to find a bunch of antlers??.... Just leave your pack about 40 minutes away from where you are searching. Its a universal law I do believe. I did find a couple of good sized bear heads. Both were prob. about 8 years old and very busted up. Got 3 teeth out of the deal which were about as neat as anything. Old or not I still like em. They would look real nice in a belt buckle or display board. Here was a lucky find. It was only about 60 feet off from a main hiking trail. I would pick on hikers for not paying attention, but I too walked right by it on the way in. Several miles and several hours ahead in the rain down the old trail.

amazing.... very, very nice.

This one has been there awhile as well.

Very impressive! All Utah finds?

Nice job! Looks like alot of work.

You should have him drive around in the woods just for fun. It would turn some heads. Bet you would see some brake lights in your mirrors.

Very nice! Good luck on your elk hunt this year.

Very nice! Alot of work/fun in finding those.

Very nice! At least there were not atv tracks every 200 ft apart like I seen on my last antler hunt. Bet you do good again this week. Good luck!

Looks like you guys have done some super hauls. Like to see some more of your pictures.

Took off on a solo trip this last week. Went into some older and favorite areas. I found a coues horn. First one in a while. Yeah I wish it was a big-o brown too. It was not a big one but this way i'm politically correct for posting on this website. I seen my little buddy on the way in. Last year one of my shoes disapeared from camp in this general area. I think it was him or one of his kin. I actually ran across a group of about 30 of them which surprised me a bit. None of them were wearing a size 10 Colman shoe though. This was my first brown for the trip. This was also the first time in about 3 years that I have found a brown in this wash. This was about an 11 pound ant. even though he was broken on his 4th. This is a year old antler I found in the bottom of a wash. Even at a year old it was still a 12 pound horn. This antler had a split tine on the eyegaurd and alot of mass to boot. This was my highlight of the trip. Finding an 8 point brown adds a little bounce to your step at the end of a day. Found about all I wanted to pack back. In all I found 10 elk sheds ,1 mule deer shed, and 1 coues deer shed. Pack was around 100 pounds which was plenty enough for me. Wide loads are always fun in the brush. The older I get, the more respect I have for donkeys.

Make the dog pack the antler.

Took off this week with antlerhead for a couple days to antler hunt and we did a day trip with a G&F officer to check out an elk head that I found a week earlier. This was my second time in this area and the first time for Dustin. The gentleman from the Game and Fish dep. had been in this area several times and knew the area and names of the area very well. I learned alot just in the 4 hour hike in. This is one of those areas that you have to be 4/3 crazy or 3/4 mountain goat to antler hunt in, not sure which. None the less its some serious country. This is the elk head I found. Everything checked out good with the head so my thanks goes out to the efforts of the people that made that possible. He was an old bull with well aged teath and ivories. Not sure if he died of old age or had a predator induced death but be was an old resident to that perticular basin. With what I was told, the carcass and bones of the elk primarly looked like a bear was the main animal on the lunch line. This 7 point brown was my first find of the day. In the day that followed, Dustin and I both found older sheds from this same bull. Two from the palmated side and two from the typical side. At both finds the pairs were laying within feet of each other. Here is one of the antlers from the typical side. After a rather skunked out first day, Dustin more than made up for it on the second day. He found this very nice 8x7 set of year old sheds. They were well sun bleached on the exposing sides but not cracked up. The antlers are missing part of the eye gaurd on the one side and a tine was also broken/chewed off near where Dustins left hand is. Dustin told me he would give me these antlers if he ever gets tired of them. This is a rather strange old antler I found . It had a typical 5 point looking structure but had this strange kicker growing up the side. This kicker is almost 3 feet long. This ended up being our finds. In all we found 3 browns , 1 head ,several 1 year old antlers , 1 mule deer set, and several older ones. 19 antlers I do believe. We seen lots of coues bucks but we never found any of their sheds(but hey, bluegill are not the only fish in the pond). Dustin tying on his load. I ended up packin out 92 lbs and Dustin packed 82 lbs. For the area that we were in that was plenty enough for me.

Yes my wife has kicked my butt a couple times at antler hunting. I also know several other ladies that hit it hard and find many a browns year after year. However; there has got to be some more ladies out there that have some antler hunting pictures.

There are female antler hunters too??! probably get in trouble for this one.

Very nice pictures! great job

Well I took off in a new area in search of early browns. Spent about as much time checking out the area as antler hunting. Saw some slick headed bulls but didn't find where their recent deposits are. found a couple 2 year old 10 pounders. Shed hunting in the snow makes you wonder how many are burried out of sight. tales of a few years back. Found this 6x6 pair just before nightfall. I found an antler very similar to this one last april. It was from the opposite side and about 12 miles away. I I dont know if that is a genetic mess up or if the bull damaged his manhood but none the less its iteresting to see. Seen some sheep catching some rays. One of the genleman I met while I was there cued me in to where to look to see them. Came back with 8 sheds and about 90 lbs. Heavy or not I thought it was.