Searching for deer shed antlers will help you become a better hunter. Here's how

The pursuit of deer in Pennsylvania doesn’t end when hunting seasons close.

Many deer enthusiasts spend time in the woods during offseasons scouting for deer, using trail cameras and looking for antlers that fall from bucks this time of year.

Deer and elk have antlers which, unlike horns, are shed by bucks every winter and deer regrow a new set starting in the spring.

Daniel Bevevino, 41, of Russell, Warren County, and Daymian Shoop, 25, of Tower City, Schuylkill County, are two sportsmen who enjoy looking for antlers.

Last winter Bevevino found 32 antlers in northwestern Pennsylvania and Shoop found eight in eastern Pennsylvania.

Bevevino picked up on the hobby of antler shed hunting while working outdoors for an oil and gas company. He walked along buried utility lines to check for leaks and started finding antler sheds.

“The deeper (in the woods) I got, the more and bigger and bigger sheds I was finding,” he said.

“It got me hooked. I’m capable of doing this."

He found 10 antlers in 2021, about 20 in 2022 and 32 last winter.

“A lot of the spots that I continue to find and have success are the same areas from '21 and '22. It’s like their home range.”

Shoop found his first antler while walking along a creek about a dozen years ago.

“I came up over a log and found a big five point side and I thought it was pretty cool,” he said.

When he entered college, he started looking for antler sheds near Middletown, Harrisburg and Elizabethtown.

“Once I started finding sheds, I starting honing in on it and looking into it more,” he said.

Shoop usually finds five to 10 antlers each winter depending how often he can go.

“I know guys who walk the same areas as I do and they pick sheds up out of the same area,” Shoop said.

Timing for shed hunting

Deer lose their antlers at different times of the winter. Some deer have dropped their antlers already, while others might hold on to them for a couple more months.

Both men usually look specifically for sheds in late winter through the beginning of April before the woods starts to green up with new plant life.

“If I find any during turkey season, that’s just a bonus,” Shoop said about spring gobbler hunting.

It depends on how many people hunt for sheds on a property when deciding how soon to go. Bevevino said if it’s a place that has a lot of people walking, he starts looking at the end of January. If it’s a secluded area, he will wait and start hunting for antlers at the end of February or beginning of March.

“It lets you know that (deer) are there,” Bevevino said about finding antlers.

He talks with people who hunt on the same area who think there aren’t any deer there and he just smiles when he reflects on the antlers he has recovered.

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“My best advice is I know it’s difficult and it’s not easy, because it’s not, but sooner or later you’re going to, if you put enough time in, you’re eventually going to find honey holes that hold bucks and find sheds there, and you’re probably going to find sheds there year after year,” Bevevino said.

Those who want to look for antlers should be willing to walk several miles and spend time in the woods.

“You got to walk miles to find piles (of antlers),” Bevevino said. “The deeper you go (into the woods), the more sheds you’re going to find. These big bucks aren’t near the roads. They don’t want to be bothered."

When Bevevino finds an antler, he marks the location on his phone using the OnX app that provides mapping information. He likes monitoring how the antlers change from year to year. Sometimes they are just a little larger, but for some older deer they have the ability to make huge gains.

“Sometimes you’ll get into a buck who’s five or six, he’s hitting his peak and they just absolutely explode into a freak,” he said.

One buck in 2021 was a main frame eight-point about 125 inches one year that had a split brow tine that he nicknamed “Splits.” The next year, “he was probably 145 (inches), he was real wide.” said Bevevino, who had limited photos of the deer on his trail cameras but knew the buck was there because of his antlers. “We could actually have named him Splits for two reasons — split brow or because he splits out.”

Regulations on antlers

While you are allowed to keep antlers that were shed from a deer, the Pennsylvania Game Commission requires you to get a permit for antlers you find that are still attached to a deer skull. To own those antlers without a skull, you need to pay the agency $10 per point. Elk antlers still attached to a skull are $20 a point.

Where to look for antlers

You can find antlers in a variety of places as you never know exactly when the antlers will drop.

“A lot of my success in the public, like the Allegheny National Forest, has been along streams, stream edges,” Bevevino said.

He looks for streams that are deep enough that make it a challenge for a deer to cross. In those places, the deer walk along the edge of the waterway as a natural funnel. He also has been finding antlers where deer bed.

He looks in fields, but places with cut corn are a challenge because the corn stalks blend in with antlers.

He searches fields on a grid pattern starting from the outer edge and working around the field before moving toward the center.

“It can take quite awhile,” he said.

Bevevino usually goes by himself but sometimes takes one of his three daughters along.

“It’s nice," he said. "When they actually do find one, it gets them excited, interested."

Shoop goes out by himself, with a buddy or sometimes with his stepdaughter, Emma, 7.

“She enjoys going with. She hasn’t found one herself yet, but she’s been with me,” he said. "We found a little spike buck shed and she thought it was a the coolest thing in the world."

He may have the spike made into a knife handle to remember the day.

Shoop knows fellow hunters who practice shed hunting by tossing an antler in the woods and trying to find it. The activity trains their eyes to spot a tine sticking up or a beam along the leaves.

Binoculars help hunters scan the woods or to see what may appear to be an antler.

“The main thing I found is to go slow and pace yourself,” Shoop said about walking known deer trails. One antler he found last year was a shed that was more than a year old. “Walking to my stand I must have walked past that antler at least 30 times, coming to and from my stand and checking cameras. I just missed it.”

Depending on the property, Bevevino said it’s important not to search the same bedding area over and over.

“The biggest thing that I’ve learned over the years is, I will search where they feed, but I never go into the bedding until the beginning of March. What I learned is, that a big mature dominant buck that’s five or six, that if I keep going into his bedding area, he’s eventually going to give it up and take off and find a new bedding," he said. "When I do that, I have no clue (where he’ll be.) Most guys don’t realize they are doing this."

Shoop also searches bedded areas.

“Most deer, I’ve noticed, when they get up shake off and I know a lot of times that’s where a lot of guys find (antlers),” he said. "Creek crossings are another really good spot to look. Last year I found two sheds on creek crossings."

In the winter, Shoop said south facing slopes receive more sunlight, making them warmer places for deer to bed. Deer are going to spend more of their time there, especially if it’s a cold winter.

Both men said hunting for antlers is all about spending time in the woods.

“It’s always nice to be out in nature. You learn so much more about the animals and their habits if you get out there more,” Shoop said. “Sometimes you see things that not a lot people are able to see.”

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: How do you find deer antler sheds in the woods?