We’re keeping the shed hunting tips flowing and this time it’s from author Joe Shead.  Joe is the author of “Shed Hunting:  A Guide To Finding White-Tailed Deer Antlers” and creator of the DVD “Go Shed Hunting.” He has also worked as managing editor of Deer & Deer Hunting magazine and written for numerous other publications. So I think it’s safe to say that he is one of the most qualified shed hunting experts in the hunting community! Lucky for us, he was kind enough to offer the Wired To Hunt Nation some great shed hunting tips. So check them out and make sure to share some of your favorite tips too!

Joe Shead’s Shed Hunting Tips

1. Look for southern exposures, such as south-facing hills and the south edge of a forest. The south face receives the most direct sunlight in winter. Deer bed here to soak up radiant heat, much like a cat lying in a window. Direct sunlight also reduces snow depth here first, making it easier for deer to bed, travel and find food.

2. Check under scattered evergreens. Whether it’s a lone cedar in the middle of a fallow field or a handful of scattered pines in a hardwood forest, check under every one, particularly under the south side. Deer are drawn to these odd features on a landscape the same way a fish is drawn to weeds, rocks or logs in an otherwise featureless lake.

3. Walk slower than you think you need to. There are a lot of things on the ground that look like sheds and many other things that can cover up sheds. Sheds look a lot like sticks, brush and cornstalks so your eyes need time to separate the grain from the chaff. Your pace should be dictated by how fast your eyes can thoroughly scan the ground, not how fast you can walk.

4. Look for pieces of an antler. Sometimes you see a deer’s tail twitch or you see a glint of antler before you spot the whole deer. It’s the same way with sheds. Sheds can be buried under snow or grass or may be projecting only part-way from behind sticks or logs. Look for a piece of tine, a round base or the M-shape of an antler lying tines down or a W-shape of an antler lying tines up. Many times that 3-inch piece of antler you see sticking out behind the grass is attached to a much-larger antler.

5. Keep your eyes on the ground. As simple as this sounds, it’s amazing how often you’ll catch yourself looking at deer, birds, rubs or other things above ground level. Last week I watched 2 deer jump up out of their beds and bound uphill. On the way out of that area that night, I spotted a 4-point shed that I had stepped within 3 feet of when I was watching those 2 deer.

It’s official! Almost.  There is a new non-typical state record in Illinois. Chris Kiernan’s 37 point buck has finally passed the 60 day drying period and measured out to be 268 1/8 inches! It won’t be “official” until a Boone & Crockett panel comes out and measures it, but it’s safe to say the numbers should stand. Also of interest is that Chris Kiernan is a pro staff member for Elite Archery. Talk about some great pub for Elite!

Visit this Prairie State Outdoors article for more info.

Wired To Hunt is all about the next generation of deer hunters and when I see some guys really reppin what it’s all about, I have to give them a shout out. So I want to give mad props to the young guys at  Honey Creek Outdoors, specifically Brandon Vileta and Corey Yardley. They are currently putting together their hunting DVD  ”The Peak” HCO Fair Chase and based on the trailer that I have posted below, it looks pretty awesome. It’s great to see young hunters putting in the time and effort to get these big bruisers on camera. I may be biased, but I certainly enjoy watching someone younger than 40 on a hunting show! Keep up the good work fellas.

For more info on the work being done at HCO Outdoors check out their website and blog here…

Honey Creek Outdoors

Honey Creek Outdoors Blog

Happy Friday everyone! Get out of work, go have a beer and enjoy yourselves. Here is a good ole boy country jam with a deer hunting flavor to it, to send us all out on a good note!

February is a great time to spend all day wasting away on the couch, stuffing your face with potatoe chips….or it could be the perfect time to get off your butt and get back to the woods! Although deer hunting season is behind us, there is plenty to do outside and I would say coyote hunting should be near the top of your list. Check out my quick video tip of the day to find out why I would make such a claim!

Want to try coyote hunting but don’t know where to start? Here are a few more tips that I’ve picked up while trying to learn the trade myself.

• When deciding on a place to sit, try and position yourself on a high spot that you can see far out in all directions
• Sit in as open of an area as you can, while also being close to some thicker cover. You can call coyotes out of the thick stuff, but you want to be able to see them coming from as far away as possible
• Set up a decoy in front of you, this will help entice a coyote even more after hearing your calls. I picked up the “Edge Quiver Critter Predator Decoy” for around $20 bucks and I really like it so far.
• If you can afford getting an electronic call, go for it, I’m told they’re great. But if not, don’t worry. A hand call can work just fine. You might want to buy more than one, so that you can vary your sounds. I have tried the Flextone Dying Rabbit Call and the Knight & Hale Ultimate Predator Call. Both seem to work well.

So I’d recommend you guys get on out and try your hands at coyote hunting, I think it’s a fun winter pastime for a whitetail hunter and it can end up helping your deer population next year to boot! Give it and try and let us know how you do. For you guys with experience coyote hunting, it would be awesome if you could share one or two of your favorite coyote hunting tips in the comments section. I surely would be interested to learn more and I know plenty of others would be too!

Just checked some new trailcams I set up on the edge of a popular soybean field on my property and I had a bunch of doe and one small buck show up on the cam. Glad that I’m still seeing bucks with their headgear, makes me feel a little better about not finding any sheds every time I look! Hopefully my cams will help me figure out when the antlers are dropping, so that I don’t waste too much time searching until they are on the ground. Let us know what you guys are seeing in regards to deer dropping their antlers in your area. Are your bucks bald yet or are they still racked?

As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of Arrow Affliction and the work that Chris Brackett has done on that show, so you can only imagine how excited I was when Chris agreed to chat with me on the phone this past Friday. With the recent rumblings about Chris leaving Arrow Affliction, I knew I wasn’t the only one curious about what happened, so I knew this would be a great conversation to share with the Wired To Hunt Nation.  So without further adieu, let me fill you in on what’s new with Chris Brackett.

Chris’s Plans for This Winter?

Chris has been hitting the industry trade shows, such as the ATA and SHOT shows and the consumer shows will be starting soon. He will be traveling to Harrisburg, PA, Nashville, TN and Virginia to say hi to the fans and launch his new gear, underneath the Brackett Outdoors umbrella.  Very soon Chris will be releasing a new line of Brackett Outdoors “Rut’n Hard” Gear, which will include apparel such as hoodies, ball caps,skull caps and shirts. He was particularly excited about the style, which he described as really fitting what he is all about. In particular he mentioned some pretty badass black on black designs that he thought people would really like. This gear should become available on www.BrackettOutdoors.com soon.

Why Did Chris Leave Arrow Affliction?

Due to confidentiality agreements, Chris could only disclose so much. But when it came right down to it, Chris and Intermedia Outdoors (the company that owns AA) had differences of opinion on where the focus of the show should be. In the end, Chris said “it’s not about the money, it’s about making great television.” Chris said that he and Intermedia worked hard and well together, but in the end he wanted to do some things different and they did not want to relinquish control. “I’ve got some really cool ideas and they just weren’t cool with it. I wanted more control, but they just aren’t structured like that.”

Where Will Arrow Affliction Go From Here?

Arrow Affliction will continue to run through June of this year and then the next season will be taken over by a new host, Brooks Johnson. Brooks Johnson was the founder of Double Bull Blinds and in Chris’s opinion he is amazing with a recurve bow. But is he as hungry is Brackett is? CB has things to prove to himself and the doubters of his past, but does Brooks?  We will just have to see.

Chris commented, “I’ll probably still watch Arrow Affliction, I’ll cry but I’ll still watch it! It’s still my baby that I helped make.”

What’s Next For Chris?

Chris will be launching a new show, underneath the Brackett Outdoors banner, with a still undisclosed name.  Filming will be done this summer and fall, with the new show hopefully premiering somewhere around the beginning of 2011. So whats the new show going to be like? Chris explained that it will be “just as wild and crazy as me.” One example of a change he plans to make is to put the lovely Jodi Barnes in front of the camera going after some critters! You might remember her as the Ring girl who typically throws things in the air for Chris to shoot on Arrow Affliction. Well it sounds like she’ll have a much bigger role in his new project. Chris said of Jodi, “she’s a stone cold killer.”

Not only will Chris be launching a new show, but also a new movement.  Chris will be creating the “Rut’n Hard Warriors” which will be a club open to join to fans and fellow hunters who are similarly “afflicted” as he. To sign up he mentioned a cost of $100, but benefits include a hat, t-shirt, certificate and entry into frequent drawings and give aways that will  be sent out by Chris whenever he damn well pleases. He listed giving away three free extreme bowfishing trips as an example of the prizes he would like to give out. But two more big perks he mentioned got me especially excited.

First, if you are a “Rut’n Hard Warrior” you will be welcome and invited to join Chris at his farm at annual parties and bashes, of which some might include some entertainment from his buddies in the country music industry. Secondly, he explained that he is working out deals with his most preferred and frequented outfitters, to get discounted rates for any “Rut’n Hard Warrior” who joins Chris when he is hunting with one of these outfitters. Chris threw out the number of maybe $600 off when you join him at one of these outfitters. So essentially you’d get to spend a week hunting and hanging out with Chris and his boys at the camp and get an awesome hunt for somewhere around $600 bucks off! That sounds pretty sweet to me.

Overall it was an awesome talk with Chris, he covered a lot more in regards to how he got into the hunting industry and why he finds it so gratifying. But that will all have to be saved for another time. Needless to say, this guy has worked his ass off to get to where he is and he is in it for the right reasons. When it comes down to it, he does his show and his hunting because he loves to do it and he loves to be a source of entertainment for people. Arrow Affliction was awesome, but it sounds like he has much bigger plans for the future and I’m definitely pumped for that. I’ll continue to keep you all in the loop on what’s going on with Chris’s new project, as I’m sure it’s going to be some pretty awesome stuff.

And just as a teaser, I have one last big scoop from my talk with Chris that I’m not going to drop for a little bit longer. But a lot of you are going to be pretty pumped to hear about what Chris is planning on doing, so stay tuned for some exciting news in the next couple weeks!

Couple questions for you guys. What do you think about Brooks Johnson as the new host of Arrow Affliction? AND what would you like to see Chris do differently in his new show?

Check out this vid from Bowhunting.com covering the new offerings from Carbon Express this year. Some great looking new arrows from a company located in my home state of Michigan! Gotta love it. I’m thinking of picking up some Mayhems for this fall…

It’s that time of year that shed heads start hitting the woods and fields to search for some bone. Throughout February we will be sharing as many tips and tricks for finding deer sheds as we can and today I’d like to start with some great advice from the guys over at Heartland Bowhunter. For all of you that don’t know, Heartland Bowhunter is in my opinion the best produced and filmed hunting show on TV today. It’s awesome, you’ve got to check it out. This being said I ran across a great post on their blog in which they recounted a very succesful recent excursion out to look for sheds. They found a bunch of nice antlers and Mike Hunsucker of the HB team was kind enough to send me some tips that allowed them to be successful in their search. So remember these tips, hit the woods and hopefully you’ll be bringing some bone back home soon.

HB Shed Hunting Tips

- Look in bedding areas and fields where the deer feed. Essentially where deer spend most of their time.

- Carry a good set of optics. This will save you a lot of leg work on sticks that look like sheds.

- Cover a lot of ground. Chances are you might walk by some smaller ones, but the more ground you cover, the more likely you are to find sheds!

Whoah! Check out this buck! I just saw this pic pop up on the Big Buck Zone blog over at Outdoor Life and this is a monster. Supposedly it was 440 lbs before dressing. True? Who knows. Impressive?Absolutely. For more details, check out the article on BBZ. “Biggest Buck Ever“