Ya, this ended up being a little longer than I planned.
Don't start reading unless you have a minute, or 10!
I was one of the few that went out for "the first" public shed hunt last year and I'll tell you what, for about 2 weeks leading up to the hunt my buddies and I could hardly sleep. We were told that the island had not been shed hunted at all for 10 years and my good buddy Larry Mower knew the place very well! He spends tons of time out there and knows other people that have as well. Seeing many monster buck pictures he and others had taken while out there just fueled the fire! I also like to video and photograph BIG BUCKS but after going half nuts trying to decide what to do I figured it would be best to leave my camecorder and tri-pod behind so I would have more room to carry sheds in my pack. I just took my camera for the as they lay pictures so I could share them with Larry later on. I honestly don't think I've ever been that excited and pumped up about anything in my whole life (except when my boys were born
)! I beleive there were only about 75 of us that bought tags in advance and we knew that not many others would know about it because of the lack of advertising. They ended up selling only 105 total out of the 300 permits available! I could only imagine the sheds we were going to pick up... After one very long Friday night of laying in bed staring at the ceiling it was finally time to go! Saturday morning I made the 1hr drive up and met my buddies. I had tags for both days and a camping permit for Saturday night. What could possibly be better!!! We all parked out by the gate about 45 minutes before light and waited for them to open the place up. As soon as they allowed us to head out we hit the ground running and headed straight for the South end where all the Big Boys were said to have been hanging out. As the day went by I kept wondering if I was in the wrong spot. I'd move up a little higher and then back down a little lower scouring the place and glassing all over wondering how I could possibly be missing 10 years worth of antlers! I should have been tripping on the things. After hiking the majority of the south end and some of the middle of the island (about 12 hours total) I was able to scratch up only 5 older antlers. Nothing big at all and each of the ones I found was hardly visible unless I nearly stepped on it. Most were stuck in a bush or hidden by rocks. It was easy to see that the place had been hammered by shed hunters long before we got out there. Nothing laying out in the open what so ever. Needless to say I didn't end up spending the night and I turned my pass for Sunday back in and got a refund...
This year when I heard they were having another shed hunt out there I couldn't decide what to do. Stay home and wash my truck or go out to the island and look for sheds... I ended up with a nice clean truck!
Normally I would consider myself one very sick and dedicated shed hunter. I've honestly done some stupid and crazy things for an antler. From frost bit on both ankles to driving 300+ miles just to go back and pick up 1 single antler I had spotted the day before right at dark... I'm not trying to brag, my point is I didn't stay home because I don't really care much about finding sheds. It was more because the place is picked over before we get there and once you do get there you definitely won't be alone for a nice walk out through the sage brush... Shed hunting to me isn't about trying to beat some jack @$$ up the hill so I can get them before he does (been there and done that too and it $uck$!). If you enjoy racing and fighting for antlers then the island is definitely the place for you. One more thing to keep in mind, if you do decide to go out to the island DON'T plan on picking up arm loads of 200" bucks. You never know what you might find, there are big bucks out there for sure but I personally wouldn't set my sights too high... Especially now that the place has been combed of all the whites. The way I see it is there are only about 250 deer or so on the island (I know I'm close). If they have 100 bucks out there I'd be amazed. That's 40 bucks per 100 does! Even if there are that many that is only 200 brown antlers to pick up total and now you have 300 people out there trying to find them! Good luck at matching up any singles you happen to come across. You'll be right where Tony is at this point. Wishing you knew who had the other side. Once you find out who has it you'll be wheeling and dealing and you'll probably have to settle on making replicas for $500 so that you can each have your own set. Thank the lord I haven't been so lucky!
Personally I'd rather go out and pick up a few mediocre sized antlers and maybe some day stumble onto a BIG one. At least I'd enjoy myself.
Hopefully the island manager can keep from letting people in early in the future. That was just plain STUPID! Maybe with all the extra funds raised by selling these shed permits they can afford more islands trail patrol and will be able to keep people from packing everything out before you get there. If they could do that and also cut back the tags to say 100 people max it wouldn't be such a bad deal. 300 is too many! Even if they had to raise the price on the tags a bit to make it work I'm sure they wouldn't have any problem getting rid of them. Especially now!
Until they do get a handle on it I don't plan to make the trip again anytime soon.
Alright, I'm done now. FREAK! Sorry for rambling on so long.
Good luck with the rest of the shed season.
NvrEnuf