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Finding sheds in the deep south

With all the miles in the woods I've walked here on north Florida public land I've found 3 sheds and 1 dead head.......everytime I've gone to another state to either hunt or camp etc I've found sheds.....I think our local skunk ape population collect deer sheds to make tools or something cause they sure are hard to find.... I've had the same experiences as nutter and searching fresh burns are ur best shot at finding them around here
 
Weldabeast said:
With all the miles in the woods I've walked here on north Florida public land I've found 3 sheds and 1 dead head.......everytime I've gone to another state to either hunt or camp etc I've found sheds.....I think our local skunk ape population collect deer sheds to make tools or something cause they sure are hard to find.... I've had the same experiences as nutter and searching fresh burns are ur best shot at finding them around here
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The honest truth is there aren't a lot of sheds to find in some areas. The area I found 3 in one day is a top 3 WMA for buck harvests. On the SOAs I've hunted, I don't know that I've ever scouted a day and not found old sheds.

Scouting and not finding sheds is intel. Not happy intel, but intel. If you're honestly putting in the effort and not finding sign...you're putting effort into the wrong area and may need to lower your expectations.
 
Like Weldabeast mentioned I’ve walked a ton down here in Florida and even south Ga… I’ve found 3 sheds in total. And one of those was in a sandy clearing next to a lone oak tree. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have found but 2. It’s tough in our thick crap and green trees Year around
 
Other than burns..........which we dont have on the property I hunt. Where else are you finding them?
 
I watch utubes and the guys will be saying "oh man, it's really thick" or "it's so thick I'm not sure I'll have a shot" or something along those lines and I look and it's literary what a clearing looks like here....the local guys I talk to that hunt out of state say the same...our woods are so thick u can be less than 10yds from the 2 track road and not know it's there...u be checking ur map on the phone and it says ur so close and u can't see it. Wma that aren't managed as well as others and u can sometimes just have a hard time finding a break in the wall of vegetation just so u can get off the road/trail. The sheds are there but just nearly impossible to get access into the areas the deers spend much of their time and even then ur sight range to look at the forest floor is really limited. I have the best luck looking on islands out in the swamps or marsh finding sheds....but I don't get lucky much so keep that in mind hahaha
 
Mitchellfarmer1982 said:
Do you guys think it is bc of lower buck populations or any other number of reasons?
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I think it has more to do with land availability. 500 acres in the south isn’t the same as 500 acres in the Midwest for instance. If there’s 25 deer on those 500 acres they are spread across the whole 500 acres. Compared to the 500 acres in the Midwest where the deer are more concentrated in the available wood lots and river bottoms. That’s not even taking into account thickness of woods. Just my thoughts though.
 
Where I hunt the deer density is closer to 3 to 5 deer per square mile. That is any flavor deer, doe, fawns, yearling, etc. There are private parcels that hold a pile of deer but public land around here you're dealing with very low density. Add to that what MSbowhnter48 mentioned with almost complete forested conditions and they can be literally anywhere.
 
There are plenty of bucks in the South The deal is that they hold their horns really late More than common for deer to have horns in April Guys are not out walking and looking in thick crap with it 100 degrees That is why the ones that are found are found in open areas I have a pile of sheds from over the years and most were found either turkey hunting or bushhogging and planting plots
 
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