First elk shed of the year for me

This is the stinkiest antler ever found: a b grade, but the stain is where in the fall, a bear took a dump in the bowl of the antler in the fall, found it early winter, with the poop still frozen in it. After thawing it out and cleaning it with a pressure washer, it still stank to high heaven 5 months later when we sold it.

Huge antler, over 30 pounds, but didn't score very well with few times and narrow paddle. The dung was full of cranberry and blackberry (known as crowberry in the rest of the world, but blackberry up here.)

This the largest antler I've ever found weight wise, almost 33 pounds. I wear extra large gloves, 5'9" in my sock feet. A little taller in my platform bunny boots and mud boots.

Great pics

I like shed hunting probably more than hunting, but it close!

A few years ago when the deer were thick ,probably one of my better years. Lots of bad winters but they are making a comeback. Usually get 300-500 a year

Nice one I picked up last year.

The mass on it was crazy. Almost scored over 90 inches in spite of few tines.

So, how many brow tines it that; three, four, or five (can't tell if that little tine is at least an inch long)?

I enjoy shed hunting more than any hunting outside of spot and stalk on brown bears and huge bull moose. Like to see how close I can get. To the bears and bulls I mean, not antlers. Antlers I like to see how far way I can spot them.

18 countable tines. That was according to the collectors, who would know. No idea what system they use, B&C or SCI. Each tine counts for one point towards the final score.

Only 4 countable brow tines. If that little one would've been a tad longer, it would've been a new world record.

Thanks Leftlane, hope you’re doing well.

People that make jealous comments about trespassing are just jealous idiots. They don’t even understand how much public land is available to some or how easy it is to get permission to shed hunt private ground in places and even how much land those guys that have private have. I went for a little walk today, only found 3, but I hardly touched any of that 2500 acre farm. There’s a reason I’ve met guys from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Idaho in my turf while shed hunting. Our numbers are down right now so in comparison to other years we’re looking at a few lean ones but we will still drag home a couple hundred hunks of bone.

I got a copy of a proposal to next years BoG meeting. Has the same numbers and figures in the above post. Proposal written by Grant Kopplin. Is that you? Spent around half an hour talking to Pat Jones in Bethel. With moose pop as high as it is, and habitat not sustainable for the current pop, he didn't think reducing harvest would be a good idea.
I'm curious how reducing hunter, non res, numbers and thus reducing harvest will help, "balance" the moose pop.
Pat talked about locals renting boats to non res. Some guys getting good bucks for fishing boats they can't catch salmon with any more.
Cracker, you can't "overharvest" a population that's so large the young are starving.
Oh yea, when you ad in the 3x multiplier of PR funds, non res bring in more money to state F&G accounts by far than res. Be careful who you want to kick out!

Have they done a survey on the amount of browsable willow per square mile in our unit? I do not believe they have, or I have not heard of it if they have. Until they do something more than compare our moose numbers to moose numbers in other areas of Alaska that do not have the same forage, it seems there will be no middle ground. I'm not against non-residents coming out, it is legal, we have lots of moose, and it does bring in money to the young men, I encourage them to take advantage of it. But to take all antler restrictions away for non-residents, and allow a the harvest by non-residents to increase by 13 times or by 1,205% in 7 years is not sustainable, I garantee you nowhere on earth with any animal can sustain that increase in hunting pressure for very long. If we are looking twice as hard for half as many shed antlers that are smaller on average, it tells me there are not near as many moose as a few years ago. I think a good middle ground proposal is to put an antler size limit on non-residents. Some want to ban them completely or limit nonresidents to a few dozen every year, which I am not for, and some want it to continue as it presently is, which I also am not for. I think a good middle ground now that the population has been knocked down is antler restrictions for as many non-residents as want to come out, like other in other units.

I am not Grant Kopplin, are you?

Every year, especially in years with long winters with heavy snowfall, we have winterkill. A question I have not seen answered: is our moose witerkill percentage just compared to the number of moose winterkill in other areas of Alaska only, or is the forage that we have that can sustain a larger heard than in say, areas with more thick forest cover, like around the Kenai peninsula factored in. Another bone to pick with fish and game is, since they are bandying about numbers, what is the number of moose per square mile they are shooting for before they start restricting the number of non-residents or implimenting antler restrictions, or have they thought that far ahead yet? Are they just going to shoot off the population until it crashes and then implement harsh restrictions? What is their long range plan with some middle ground with our specific winter forage per square mile? Do they have such a plan?

Have made it out a few days this year. Weird year with lack of snow and elk spread all over the place, but I’ve still got into a few pockets.

Those are huge! Wow.

TE, you’re the exact type of guy I’m real envious of.
Beauty sheds!!!

Cracker, call Patrick and ask your questions. He's been the area bio for a long time. Proposals for the 2027 Region 5 BoG meeting have to be in this month. I can give you Grant's number if you want. He's got a proposal ready to go!

Will do.