Aron Hershmiller has been out hunting, just as he has most years since his teenage years. His quarry is not an animal, but rather the horns that whitetail deer and elk shed each year.
“For me I would have started back in high school, probably back in the late ‘90s,” he said.
In high school Hershmiller wanted horns for a specific purpose.
“I was really into knife making and I made a couple of knives out of deer antlers, the handles at least,” he explained.
While initial thoughts of knife making becoming a hobby, or sideline faded, Hershmiller, maintained an avid interest in hunting, and that kept him interested in seeking shed antlers.
“When I find the sheds I try to hunt the them (the deer that dropped them) the next fall,” he explained.
Hershmiller said usually shed hunters are avid hunters like himself, but not all, adding he knows some who never hunt are still out looking for shed antlers.
While today Hershmiller said most avid hunters rely on cameras set up on trails to lead them to deer, when he was younger finding sheds as a hint to a deer’s territory was a key to hunting success, and that has stuck with him.
Most of the sheds Hershmiller finds he keeps. He admits to horns stored in his garage, and on the farm, although a few have made it into the decor of the family home.
“I tend to hang onto my bigger stuff,” he said.
But, over the years he has sold some of the smaller antlers, often to people who cut them up for dog chews.
Typically, sheds are found as a single horn that drops off. Then the search begins to find its mate.
Hershmiller said it’s not unusual to find a horn, them match it with its mate up to two miles away, an indication of the territory deer cover to find food.
Usually when Hershmiller finds a nice single horn he actually begins a rather detailed search, using a grid pattern, looking for its mate.
It’s the same when Hershmiller goes into a new area.
“I use a grid pattern on it to really cover it,” he said.
A complete set in one drop is a rarer find.
So too are elk horns
“A set I ended up finding (this year) they were on separate quarters but only about 300-yards apart,” said Hershmiller.
Since shed hunters are roving over many acres looking for their prizes Hershmiller reminds anyone thinking of taking up the search needs to get landowner permission.
The ‘season’ for seeking sheds can start as early as mid-December, and Hershmiller said he has heard some whitetail still have their horns now, as the end of March neared, which is unusually late,
“Typically it’s January and February,” he said.
