HOLDEN, W.Va. — Jake Wimmer is the Wildlife Manager for the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan County.
His work keeps him on the property every day, but even in his spare time, Jake enjoys exploring the area along with other public lands in the local region. During a conversation last weekend on West Virginia Outdoors, Jake shared some of his theories about shed hunting and the best way to find the cast off headgear of whitetail deer.
“It’s like any form of hunting, there’s different tips and tricks to it and there’s some masters of the trade and some rookies,” he explained.
Whitetail deer shed their antlers typically during the months of January and February, although it’s not uncommon to see them with antlers as late as mid-March. The timing of the dropping of those antlers is typically associated with testosterone levels in a buck. During those days the rack seems to become an irritation to the buck and he’ll often rub it on trees or the ground trying to get rid of them and the nuisance they seem to create.
Wimmer said when it comes to finding those lost antlers, his theory is boot leather.
“I know some guys who will religiously concentrate on south facing slopes, they swear that’s where deer are hanging out at this time of year and that’s where you find the majority of your sheds. I know some guys who will go into the thickest brush you’ve ever seen in your life where any normal person would say absolutely not go,” Wimmer explained.
“In my opinion it’s all about miles. I could fight my way through that brush, but in the time it would take to do that, I could make another mile or two miles. That’s where I concentrate,” he explained.
Finding a shed is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack, but there are rewards. Jake said the biggest shed he ever found was a right side antler which roughly scored about 63 and 4/8ths inches when he put the tape measure to it. While that’s a nice antler, it’s not even close to his best find.
During the winter of 2021, while scouring an area in neighboring Mingo County, NOT on the Tomblin WMA, Wimmer said he came across what he considered a “unicorn.”
“I ended up finding a 10 point buck and an 11 point buck dead heads locked up,” he explained.
The two monster bucks had locked antlers, literally, and both ended up dying when they were unable to free their heads. It’s unclear if they starved or if in their weakened state from trying to unlock the tines they fell pray to coyotes.
“There was body parts spread out everywhere. I think the 11 point died first and based on the foot tracks in the area, the coyotes came in and finished off both of them,” he explained.
Wimmer took the rare find and had a taxidermist turn it into quite conversation piece, which you can see above.