Antler Hunting After a Spring Blizzard

Shed hunting after a blizzard presents obvious hurdles, but it can still be done. In fact sometimes it can help concentrate your efforts in the right places.

Our annual antler hunting event at Prairie King Ranches was greeted with a two day spring blizzard. 8 inches of snow and 40 mph winds. But at the end, we were optimistic that this could well be shaping up to be one of those falls that we talk about for years. We found only 1 dead head, where our average is 10, and the average size of the naturally shed antlers was in the top three of our 34 year history.

The one dead head for the week was a dandy heavy horned old buck grossing 160. And my son Cort is carrying a couple of sheds from two different likely 4 year old bucks which we will be looking for in September!

Expert level: When you go out and find two nice lefts buried in the snow!

Resilient Genetics: Having hunted the same location in Nebraska for 40 years now, I’m amazed the common genetics that keep showing up in the herd. The two antlers on the right were picked up by my son Cort this week. The one on the left was from a matched set that sits on my mantle which Cort’s Grandfather and Great Grandfather found together in spring 1986. A buck that just so happens, I missed in the fall of ‘85. We will be looking for both of the bucks on the right this fall!

If you think about it, a blizzard with wind replicates in one day what the entire winter did to the landscape. It fills in some treed areas with snow, forcing deer to not bed there. Other bedding areas that are clear of snow were clear also in the winter and were the likely spots for bedding winter deer during the shedding season. Similarly food plot areas that are blown free of snow in a spring blizzard were likely the spots blown free during winter, thus concentrating the deer. So, many times a spring blizzard can set up a scenario where your efforts are concentrated right where they need to be to find the most antlers with the least amount of hiking.

Toward the end of the week, the sun had come out, melted off much of the landscape, and we had recorded one of our best trips ever.

2020, The Best Year Ever

For most of the world, 2020 has been anything but the best no matter how you look at it.  But, for an archery deer hunter looking to travel to Northern Nebraska, it might well be the best year in history.  That’s right, I said in history, here’s why:

As far as I know, I was the lone ranger starting an archery only Whitetail deer hunting outfit in Northern Nebraska back in 1991.  Back then the only ones that had quality deer were those who put the time, money, effort and patience into making it so.  Certainly the years that followed have been the best archery hunting opportunities ever to exist in my part of Nebraska.  That said, like any area there is a difference between the best years and the worst years. 

As an outfitter you work hard to minimize the differences, and we have.  But weather is that one wildcard that you cannot control.  I’ve always said that the difference in antler growth between a really wet year and a terribly dry year is about 10%.  Given this estimate, that 150 inch buck you were hoping to hunt may have turned into a 135 through the grueling spring/summer drought.  That said, some bucks will hole up in a spot where they still have everything they need.  In one of our driest years ever one of our bowhunters took a 175” buck that was as healthy and fat as ever.  By no means do I think he would have been a 200” buck if the year had been better.  He just had a nice, low stress place to live during the antler growing season, and plenty of food and mineral, which we helped with!

There is another factor though that is not often considered:  How many dry or wet years have there been in the area in a row?  The reason why I say this year may be the best ever is because we have not had so many incredible wet years in a row since QDMA came to our area.  Our last dry year was 2012.  It was a terrible drought across the middle of the state but it did also affect us up north, especially later in the summer and early fall.  Any deer born the year after that would be 8 now.  That’s probably 95% of our doe population and 100% of our buck population.  This means that these deer have not just had one great year followed by a bad one, then by an average one.  These deer have lived a life of luxury and gluttony for their entire lives!  They don’t know even what an average rain year is like.  They’ve never seen one!

Of course these weather trends are cyclical and they will pass.  I recently purchased an irrigated farm next to our farm in preparation for the drier years that will come again.  Having been in this for the long term, I did this to add acres, different crop hunting opportunities especially for early and late seasons, but also to be able to control a large amount of cropland to keep our deer fed during critical times without having to hope for a rain that doesn’t come.

With the best mix of food plots, alfalfa, corn and soybeans we’ve ever had plus 8 years of plenty, I’m convinced that this fall will be the best deer hunting we have ever guided in our nearly 30 years of outfitting.  If you are bowhunter looking to go on a bowhunting trip this fall, northern Nebraska is definitely an area you should consider.  If you want to hunt with us, season opens September 1.  Vertical or crossbow is legal and we do have a few spots left from September 1 to November 7.  We kill big deer every year, but years like this are what we live for-when the sky is the limit.

Prairie King Ranch, LLC
James Brion
406.369.0160
jamesbrion@icloud.com