What is shed hunting and why do people do it? (Hint: This is not about the quest for small storage buildings). Your SDPB Outdoors correspondent ventured deep into the Dakotan outback -- with two dedicated shed hunters as guides -- to find the answers.
Shed hunting is the search for antlers shed by deer, elk, moose or any of their Cervidae cousins. Some people don't know that these animals shed their antlers and regrow them annually, but they do. Like a radio reporter leaving their desk, antlering is something male Cervidae must re-learn as if each time were their first.
Of every antler shed, only a small percentage are found by people. Some of them end up attached to light fixtures in Brooklyn bars frequented by people who use the word "bespoke." Some end up as doggie chew toys. Some end up in a random antler pile next to the doll heads in the yard of a dude with a gun rack on his truck.
Some shed questers hunt one and only time. Some stumble across a shed out of pure luck. Some hunt sheds with some consistency.
Younger Kramme and Wyatt Weber, of Presho and Pierre, respectively, hunt antler sheds yearly (documenting their antler and other hunts on YouTube as "the 605ers.")
They sell their finds to a buyer, but their hauls barely amount to gas money. "It's the love of the game," says Kramme. "There's nothing better than popping a hill or riding a fence line on a wheeler and coming across a brown set of mule deer horns laying five feet from each other."
Buyers pay for antlers by weight and grade: brown (new sheds), hard whites (somewhat aged) and chalk (older and drier).
Kramme (pronounced Kray-ME) hunts deer for meat, but says he and Weber would rather spend time hunting sheds. "If we had to choose to hunt or shed hunt, we'd rather pick up a horn than shoot a deer."
As with other outdoor sports, fulfillment comes from the quest itself, and with shed hunting, there's an opportunity for a more sustained relationship with the animals. "You got potential to watch [a deer] grow, picking up his horns year after year," says Kramme. "On some of the property where we get to go back every year, we get multiple sets off the same deer."
Kramme and Weber shed hunt in locations across South Dakota and sometimes Montana, on public land where it's allowed, and private land owned by family or friends. Sometimes they search on foot, other times on ATVs. Often they'll set up camp for a weekend.
"In January, February, between Wyatt and I, we'll both drive around and see where they're wintering," says Kramme. "Then you know they're going to stay there all winter and feed, and go to the draws that are close to bed at night. So, hit them fields, hit them draws and you're going to find a majority of the horns."
"The biggest thing is scouting," Weber agrees. "So you know where the deer are at prior to them dropping."
After that, it's all about covering ground and knowing what to look for. "It's a great big hide-and-seek for a grown man," says Kramme.