As Bo mentioned below, we were able to get down to our Kansas lease on Friday for one last shed hunting trip before the prescriped burn that will be happening in the next couple of weeks. Upon stepping foot on the property that morning I started my 32nd hour of shed hunting without a find. I had high hopes for this trip since we've only been skunked once while shed hunting this property in previous years, which just happened to be the last time I was on the property just a month or so ago. Well about an hour or so into the search, I finally had a change of luck. I was walking the edge of a large CRP field when I noticed what appeared to be two tines sticking up along the hedge row that bordered the CRP field. The antler appeared to be of good size, but little did I know what I'd found.

There is a buck on the property that we nicknamed Potato Digger during the '08 season. We had numerous trail camera videos and pictures of this buck and Bo and I actually had this buck at 35 yards during our first sit on the property back in September but was unable to get a quality shot at this buck. Well after I took a couple of more steps closer, I realized I'd just found one side of Potato Digger. I yelled over to Bo and as he was coming up I turned around and there was the match laying just 10 yards away. If there was one buck on the property whose sheds I wanted to find more than any other, it was Potato Digger and I was looking at both of them. It is a great relief to know this buck is still alive and living on the property. Both sheds measured right around 64" and with an estimated 19" spread (might be conservative), this buck would have scored 147" this past year as a typical 8 point. Talk about a great way to break a 33 hour streak of not finding a shed. Unfortunately we didn't find anymore sheds, but we did find one dead shed buck. But we're hopeful that many more antlers will appear after the burn this spring.

Here are a few trail camera pictures we've gotten of Potato Digger as a 4.5 year old during the 2009 season and a few pics of his sheds. I also have his right side from the '08 season so we are really writing a great history with this buck. Hopefully we'll be able to display his sheds with his shoulder mount after the '10 season.

Here is a picture of Potato Digger's right side from 2008.


ATL (as they lay) photos of the sheds as I found them.  You can see the match in the background of the first picture.  The interesting thing is that all three of his sheds were found within 80 yards of each other.