Ep.110 A Good Shed Dog Is Built One Mile At A Time

Spring in the North Woods turns into a real-life treasure hunt, and the prize is moose antlers hidden in cuts, fir thickets, and winter feeding areas. We’re joined by Maine hunter and YouTuber Cory Ryder to talk shed hunting the way it actually happens: long miles, wet boots, and learning to read the forest instead of hoping for luck.

Cory shares the story behind his Black Lab, Gracie, and how she went from an energetic puppy chewing on an old broken paddle to a focused shed dog that can smell what your eyes will never catch. We dig into practical shed dog training, why basic obedience and clear rewards matter, and how a dog’s maturity can be the difference between chaos and consistency. If you’ve searched for “how to train a shed dog,” “shed hunting with a Labrador,” or “moose antler hunting tips,” this conversation stays grounded in what works without gimmicks.

We also get tactical about finding sheds in Maine: identifying winter moose habitat in four- to five-year-old logging cuts, using rubs and browse lines as clues, and leaning on mapping tools like satellite imagery and tracking to cover ground efficiently and even match sets. Then we go beyond the hunt into the antler market, including buyers, dog chew demand, decor uses, and why coyotes, bears, and rodents seem so interested in antlers too.

If you enjoyed this one, subscribe for more working dog and big-woods hunting talk, share the episode with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. What’s the best shed you’ve ever found?

Check us out on Facebook  Hunts On Outfitting, or myself Ken Marr. Reach out and  Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!

Transcript

Welcome And Springtime Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:28

I'm telling you. I'm your host and fifty guys. You'll find it here. Welcome to the podcast. Hey, welcome to the podcast. Absolutely. I'm super pumped up and happy to have you guys listening in gals because this week, as usual, we've got another great podcast ahead. We talk with Corey Freder from Maine and his Black Lab great week. We talked about well, Corey is uh actually that's great. You can talk about off building off grid cabinet. That's really cool. But also the main reason we're talking to Corey is it's springtime. It's uh it's nice to get out if you have as much after a long winter. So if you different areas that had a long winter, so it's got spirits of winter right now. But it's it's it's great to get out, it's great for steer kids, elk kids, moose kids, whatever kind of kids you can find uh going out. So we're gonna be talking about uh why core got into kids, what got it? Um what ways to make itself better after doing it with the dog going out and just having a finding space with the dog that dog is just really does find its kids. It's got some great YouTube videos on its channel that we get into later. Uh that you can see for in action. We talk about dog training, we talk about uh selling kids, the market for them, why other animals in the woods might value them, and so much more not going to want to. So talking about working dogs and dogs in general on this one, milk dog food is deep stuff to do. If you're gonna deal with a dog day after day, or if you just want dog food and healthy at home, and milk folks got so many different blends to choose from all around the world, and they've got over 1,000 over 1,000 trusted resellers in North America. Go online to their website, you type in your address, and a trusted reseller, it's gonna come up indoor area and it can ship it right to your host, two-door. Also, three Canadian website, the Canadian access to fire, it's a magazine that can send directly to your host, and it's gonna give you the way to your font, it's gonna show you off, it's gonna show you anal guns, it's gonna tell you what's going on in the gun world for Canada, it's also gonna tell you what the new gun shows are happening, what's happening. It's a great way to stay informed, and also actually have print magazine in your hand that you're able to flip through and check out some guns for some articles. Uh I highly recommend looking into it. Oh, and if you're looking to get a hold of us to maybe come on the podcast or suggest somebody forward or just reach out to me, you can email me at hunts on outfitting at gmail.com. Or you can find us on Facebook, hunts on outfitting, or find myself on there at feel free to reach out if some of you guys have been. It's been great talking with you from all over. Yeah, Corey, again, thanks for coming on the podcast. Uh, you know, my friend Lane, Steve, we were talking about somebody on the podcast. I've been talking about it for the past couple springs on uh talking about tech dogs and you know finding out this with them. And Steve watching your YouTube videos for a bit and suggested you know, so I was like, all right, let me check those videos I looked, and I was like, yeah, those are great. So then, you know, last week we had a nice talk on the phone and you agreed to come on, and I appreciate that very much and for you know giving me some of your time. Uh Corey done a podcast before, you know how it works. If you could describe yourself a little bit so people know who they're listening to, how uh how what would you say?

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Uh yeah, well uh I'm glad you reached out to me. It's been uh good to get to know you a little bit. And um uh my name's Corey Ryder. I'm currently 38 years old, been living in Maine since 2018. Uh before that I grew up in Vermont, but uh I have the Maine Woods YouTube channel, and I recently have been transitioning to my hunting content, which includes the shed hunting, to the Cory Rider hunting channel. And uh I can get into the specifics of why I'm doing that um if you want, but sure um when and I've been shed hunting with my my dog, my black lab Gracie, since I got her in 2013. That's really what started me getting into shed hunting. Um and and yeah, and I started I started making videos in in 2019 was when I started making videos of of shed hunting with her, and and that kind of got some traction with the channel, and here I am.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah, here we are talking. Um yeah, well if yeah, if you want to we'll get into the sheds and all that, but if you want to talk a little bit about why you split your channels because I know uh you've got a bit of a project underway right now.

From Military To Off-Grid Builds

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yes, all right, so I'll try to give you the um uh abbreviated version of this, but um it was 2018, my uh basically since since I graduated high school, it was all military. Uh, that was the only sort of career path I pursued up until 2018, and um decided to end my time in service and and do my own thing. And and what I was trying to do was um I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to have a job where I could just be in the woods and have my dog with me all the time. And so I was trying to set up a guide service. I had I had uh I'm a registered main guide, so I was trying to set up my guide service, so I created a YouTube channel. And now I never I didn't know anything about YouTube or social media before that point. I didn't even I wasn't even a consumer of YouTube, let alone a creator. And but you know, starting a business marketing, and so I created this channel and I thought, well, this is a great way, it's free to market my my guide services so I could make some videos about different things that I would potentially guide, put that on there and and and and get some some clients from that. So I started making shed hunting videos. Um didn't really intend to guide shed hunting, although I do or have been asked quite a bit about that, but it was really just to like figure out how to make videos, how to film, how to edit, all that stuff. So I started making those videos and kind of turned it into a series that I called Shed Tour, and um did that for a few years. Um and I was really spending a lot of time in the spring shed hunting, you know, camping out in the woods, in the truck, whatever, and you know, going for like a month or longer doing it. So I turned it into kind of a series and I did that for a for probably 20 2019 to 20 23, maybe 24 is probably the last kind of series that I produced like that. Um and then uh but my ultimate goal with the channel, uh the guide service thing kind of fell apart with the the COVID and all that, but I figured out, well, YouTube is actually a business itself, you can actually make a living doing that. So I thought, well, why not just do that? And um I did my research and everything, and I knew like the niche topic that I was interested in was this off-grid cabin um sort of niche on YouTube, and and that was my goal. And it was it was really hard to to find like remote land in Maine where I could just have nothing around me and build a cabin. And um I fell into the opportunity in 2021 to work for North Maine Woods, uh, which is like three and a half million acres of it's private land, but it's managed by this nonprofit called North Maine Woods to keep to to create public access. And they had these old historic cabins along the St. John River, and um, so they hired me to work for them to restore a couple of those cabins. Um, you know, old log construction, um, on the river, a lot of history, really cool. And I so and I knew that was my like that what I was what I was trying to, that was the direction I was trying to go with the channel. So I spent this summer of 2021 uh rebuilding this old log cabin uh at a place called Nine Mile on the St. John River, um, which is there's a book written about that place. It's a pretty special place. And and I and I filmed the whole thing as much as I could, and I and I produced that, and that that video has it's a long video, it's like a four-hour video, but it's it's gotten millions of views on the channel, and it really grew my channel to the point of like self-sufficiency, right? I could I was actually making a living with my channel and I didn't need to do any other kind of work, and that kind of took off in 2023, I think, is when I was really like, oh right, this is actually, you know, practical, I can do this. And um, yeah, and then I was able to um it must have been 2022 because 2023 that summer is when I came across the opportunity to buy the camp that I have now, uh, which is a lease, but it had its old rundown shack of a building, and I I had to tear it down and get permits and everything, but I'm building my my own cabin now. So yeah, that's kind of the the story.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Yeah, that's awesome. Um yeah, it's neat how everything just kind of came about in a roundabout way, and uh yeah, that that's really spiked during COVID, I find, especially is just people seeing the off-grid building and lifestyle because I think people realized the simpler way is, you know, I think kind of the better, the better way.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Definitely, you know, just um self-reliance is a key thing, you know. No one wants to rely on the government or anything, right? If you can have your own ability to, you know, off-grid power solutions, wood stove for heat, um, potentially g, you know, hunt fish, grow your own food. Uh I mean, like that's the the dependency of that or the um reliability, I should say, uh of that, you know, that's key now. And just to get away from all the insanity, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Yeah, yeah. Well, I I think COVID really highlighted uh a few of the flaws in in the system for a lot of people. Yeah, yeah. Uh yeah, that's that's really cool. So you just being able to restore some of these historic places and then came about being able to, you know, have your own. It's uh yeah, I I've been watching some of your videos. It's been it's been a journey for you, a lot of work, but I'm sure very rewarding at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

It's very rewarding. It's definitely been a journey. Um I've learned a lot, I continue to learn a lot, and the growth um that comes with that is it's really important. We need to grow every day. You know, you if you stop growing, you're you're dying, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Um so Corey, how so how have you always grown up hunting in Maine? Or for sorry, for moment?

SPEAKER_02 12:56

That's an interesting thing. So I've always been interested in hunting. I didn't really I didn't really grow up in a hunting family. Um I just, you know, the books I read as a kid and everything, uh stuff from um, you know, my side of the mountain. I remember that book, the the Gary Paulson book, Hatchet and um you know, stuff about the frontiersmen and Daniel Boone and all that stuff. It was really interesting to me, the mountain men and everything. And I was just always, I don't know where it came from. I guess it's it's primal. Um, but I wanted to to hunt, you know, as a kid, I always spent time in the woods. But coming up hunting, like not really a hunting family, neither neither one of my grandfathers hunted. I think, you know, they were both World War II vets. I think they both maybe shot a deer or two. And that was it. They were never really hunters. My own father, not a hunter. He only reason he got into it a little bit was because I wanted to. And I think I was I was fifteen years old, I think. Maybe I was fourteen. I was with my dad, I saw my dad shoot his first year.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

And um and then I got my first year when I was fifteen, but it was it it was such a the way I hunt now, the big woods and tracking and just walking all day. It wasn't like that. I grew up, I grew up in um a town called Grand Isle, Vermont. It's a it's an it's a big island in Lake Champlain and it's a lot of private land, it's it's getting developed. There wasn't opportunities to hunt. It certainly wasn't big woods, and it was like it was stressful sneaking around, posted land try trying to door knock and get permission, and it was it didn't go well, you know. So I kind of didn't hunt really until not much at all, until I got into my twenties and I and I came to Maine and experienced the big woods for the first time and snow. And hey, you don't have to sit in a stand or sit in this thing and watch a field. You can you can find the biggest track you can find and you can just follow it all day long. That just blew my mind. And I was that that's I was like, that's it. That that is how I want to hunt, that's what I want to do. It's fun. It's I get exercise, I find moose antlers, you know, I I see I see things. I it's I love it, you know, and and I've gone full speed ahead with that ever since.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, so you got into that. Now did you get more into the shed hunting because of your, you know, your moose and deer hunting? Because I find when you're out looking for sheds in the spring and stuff, is that it can kind of help make you a better hunter because you're like, okay, this is where the animals have been, this is their movements, this is some of their paths. Now I know that obviously their winter habits and and ranges are usually different than their summer and fall, but it still kind of gives you an idea into the animal's life a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Abs absolutely. It's it's hand in hand. And the more time you spend in the woods, you know, the better woodsmen you're you're gonna be regardless of the season. But it, you know, my I guess my fascination is it started during deer season. I would I would hunt and I would in tracking bucks, I would come into this phenomenal moose habitat. I would see giant bulls, I'd find some sheds that way, and um I didn't really know it was its own thing to do, you know, but I I knew it was it's absolutely fun. I'd spend many days, you know, deer season looking for moose antlers more than than hunting uh itself, but um one season I had found it was actually uh I was deer hunting, I came across where two bulls had been fighting and there was actually a broken paddle there. Um so they'd fought and had snapped off the paddle, and I it wasn't a very big one, but I had that, and then when I ended up getting my dog um shortly after that, maybe uh a year or two after after that, that's that broken paddle is what I gave her as a puppy to chew on, and that's what got her familiar with antlers and and getting her, I wanted I wanted to have a I wanted to work with her. Uh I wanted her to have a purpose. And I was kind of doing some research on what you know, what can you you can train these dogs to do anything, and I'd actually looked into search and rescue with her um a little bit because I wanted something that's meaningful, you know, and then I discovered people were using dogs to shed hunt and I thought, man, that's great, that that's it, that's what I want to do. And we just I got her in late March of 2013, so it was coming right up on that shed season. So we just took to the woods, she was so small and so young, and we just started we just started looking, figuring it out together, and she'd get tired, I'd carry her back to the truck, she'd sleep in the truck, and I'd go walk around without her, and and and that's kind of how we we started doing that.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Okay, yeah, because I was gonna ask, I mean, some people you hear they get into shed hunting and they do it with their dog and they don't necessarily find more, but I mean, did you get the dog to find sheds? I guess you kind of answered that, uh, or it's just another great way to be have a woods experience with man's best friend. And then if you find a shed, great, and the dogs it the dog does have its purpose in mind as you're walking, like you know, they're looking for it.

Learning To Hunt The Big Woods

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, so the the latter end of that, like I really getting her is what got me into shed hunting. I didn't get her to shed hunt, I I kind of discovered it afterwards, but you know, and and I I had never spring shed shed hunted before without her. I I I had found some moose antlers before during deer season, like I said, but I had never gone out in the spring intentionally looking for moose antlers. So it was getting we could we started at the same time, and it was so I was learning, you know, I had to learn moose habitat and reading sign and maps and all of that to figure out where the sheds would even be. And then I had to figure out how to get, you know, to hone her in on uh on finding them and figure out how to read her and stuff. And it it was very simple. Like, um, and kind of the reason I'm saying this is you you you sort of ask, but I I do get asked a lot, you know, how do you how do you train your dog, you know, whatever. It's like it wasn't a like I did get some some book. There is there's books and you know, literature and stuff out there. How to train a shed dog, what it's like for a Midwest, you know, deer antler guy. And you know, I even bought the stupid, you've probably seen it, the little fake rubber deer antler thing with like a rope hanging out of it, and the the little scent you squirt on it. That thing was stupid, you know. I never used it.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

I know exactly what you mean. It's that fast pro, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah, very gimmicky, you know, she just chewed that up or whatever, and um I was like, ah, we'll just figure it out. And you know, it's a dog's natural ability um to to sniff them out, and they're very curious and they have a powerful nose and and it's what they do, and just a little bit of just guidance and honing them in, and they realize, hey, I get rewarded every time I sniff one of these things out, and and it just clicks for them. But you know, it's like like coyotes. I think I was telling you last time, coyotes find them all the time, you know? And um, you know, they're they're just a dog too. So um but yeah, and it was it so she was a puppy, you know, and that first three years, so much energy. She'd go in the woods and um and it'd be she just chaos, chasing everything from snowshoe hares to fishers, bears, deer. I mean, she'd go crazy and and it was it's unreliable w whether she was she threw her nose up it you know, I couldn't tell if she was leading me to an antler or who knows what. And then when she hit, it was our the season that she was turned three years old. So I guess it was our third season. She was so dialed in that it just like I was I it switched for me where I was now spending more time focusing on reading her than I was like scanning for Antlers myself. She was it just she kind of settled in with her maturity and it just and she knew she was dialed in, she knew what she was doing, and that was a lot of fun. Uh, you know, I just couldn't keep up with her, she was just going with that. Oh, it's in the land and um start finding a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yeah, I mean because I got it with people that dog finds it. The dog is not looking for sketchy. It didn't really work, but just getting her to skill like this. But you guys find I mean she went down this little hall or whatever and uh she found a mooch, and it's an older one too, but she sniffed that out. She found it.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Yeah. Um, you know, she that season that she turned three, she really became an asset. Like a lot, you know, a lot of people, their their dogs, they go out there and yeah, it's cool, they're a great companion and they love the nature walk, but are they really helping, you know? Right. Yeah, she no, she really became an asset. And when so our training was like, we were just doing it. We were out there in the spring doing it. Besides that, the rest of the year, um she always had antlers to chew on, she always had antlers to play with. I always would hide them around the house or the yard and stuff, so that she could always practice that, um, I guess you could say, but it was really just us in the woods doing it. And and it was usually, you know, mostly in the spring when the snow would melt. There was a few times that we did get out in the winter when the conditions were right. There wasn't too much snow yet where she could still run around, or the snow was crusted over so hard that I could go on snowshoes and she could go on foot. Um, but mostly is is in the spring. Yeah, and it was just doing just doing it, you know. It takes like anything, you know, it's it takes a lot of consistency, repetition, and and time. There's no there's no substitute for time.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Because I mean they they talk too. A dog helps as another set of eyes. Yeah, they're great nose, but you still gotta put in the miles. I mean, there's there's no substitute for just you know boot leather.

Why Shed Hunting Makes Better Hunters

SPEAKER_02 24:27

No, and burning it out. Exactly, exactly. And and that's where so I was um uh I was what they call a guard bum, so as National Guard, I was I'd go on orders for a period, and then I have time, and it was kind of like like that for a lot, and then I got hired as a an ROTC instructor. I was um I was uh working as a contractor, so that was kind of full time. So we were kind of limited, you know, I'd get maybe a week in the spring, and just wasn't enough for me. And um we could just never never do never really sc scratch that itch. Wanted to do it more and more and more, and I wanted to have like spring would come around and I'd and I'd get a week or a few weekends and it and it just wasn't enough, and I'd have to go off to the next training or um work or whatever it was, and um it sucked. I just wanted to be out there and then 2000 you know, eighteen, um when I left the military, I was like, all right, I got I got this is w what I'm doing now. Um actually it was 2019, it was that first spring, and I spent like I got a late start because I came from training, but we spent like a couple weeks and and that was awesome. Then the next season after that I spent like at least a month and I we just did it, you know, until we were too tired and it was too green and it was getting hot and buggy and and you just the the problem was when I'd go as late as I could go and then when the foliage comes out and it gets really green, I can't I can't see her anymore. You know, she'd be out ahead of me and it's so thick and green now I can't I can't see her. I can't even read her to see if she's you know what she's doing. And then it's hard to read the sign at that point too. Like you you know, you can't see rubs from a distance anymore or the brows, it all kind of blends together. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Yeah, w when you're out, what kind of area are you looking for when you're you're driving out in the woods with her and you're like, all right, let's try this spot. I mean, I'm guessing for you it's not a shot in the dark. You do have a rough idea probably of where to start looking.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Yeah, definitely. So like the the dog is a huge part of it, right? And they're huge asset. That's 50% equation, right? Because you are responsible for the other 50%, right? And that's you gotta read the map. And um, you know, uh shout out to Onyx Hunt. They they were a game changer, right? Because being able to have Onyx Hunt with satellite imagery, now now I can see things beyond um from a road or anything like that. And you know, and the question is really like w what is the moose habitat that you're looking for? And it's the their wintering habitat. This probably varies for areas that you're familiar with, you know, in up in Canada and everything. Um, maybe it's a lot of the same, but you know, the the four and five-year-old cuts from logging, especially strip cuts, where they have a mix of like that maple, um, hardwood regen growth, and then and then balsam furs, especially the strip cuts, you know, they really like that stuff. They'll get in there and they'll just pound that, you know, and you can it and you're looking for those things. Obviously, like all the other sign, you're looking for rubs, tracks, poop, all that stuff that shows, yeah, they both spent the winter here. Um, but especially like the maple whips, you can see that they're all um browsed off at like head height, you know, broken branches and the buds all eaten and everything, and that's a telltale sign of winter feeding, and you know, we'll get out there. And when you start to understand those areas, um, like seeing them on the ground, and you can be driving roads and you'll you'll see this stuff, um, but then you'll you'll look at it like where you are, and you're seeing the sign, and you can look at it on satellite imagery, right, with the onyx app, and you can see what it looks like, and you go, okay, and you're always looking for just patterns. All right, well, what other areas on the map look like this where I'm at now, which is good, and especially if you found sheds, and then you're just looking for those patterns. Well, there's another area over here a few miles away that looks like that. Let me go check that. Oh, hey, look, it's this it's the same sort of you know stuff, the vegetation, everything, and go look there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Yeah, yeah, it it it definitely has helped a lot the technology in that sense, just using maths and and figuring out the areas and yeah, yeah, it's it's like you said, it's been a huge game changer.

Training A Shed Dog In Real Life

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Yeah, you know, and like I I don't feel like I'm giving away any secrets. I think this is all you know pretty common knowledge now. I mean, i it for a guy that's never that's not familiar with it, it's probably you know mind-blowing information, maybe, but um for guys that know the woods, this is standard, you know. But one of the big things that we always look for anywhere we go, it are rubs, you know. We want to see a lot of um rubs, especially on fur and things like that, and that just indicates bulls that have spent time there, and usually in the winter, you know. Um in the fall during leading up to enduring the rut, a lot of times they'll they'll be smashing a lot of alders, um, getting the velvet off and everything else, but then in the winter they seem to hit the the furs more. And so that's you know, and especially when you get into an area that you're seeing clusters of rubs, you know, you're like you know, three or four rubs in a row, and you go a little bit, and then there's more and more and more. That's those are always huge, good areas. And we always like, I mean, we're a sucker for this. Like we'll see a rub, even if we're driving another road, just you can see a rub off in the cut or whatever, and we'll get out and run over there and check, because so many times we found antlers right at the base of rubs or in the vicinity of rubber. Oh, yeah, a lot. That's cool, yeah. And sometimes you'll be you'll feel like you've you've checked hundreds of rubs, and you're like, This is you know, you know, I don't believe this, whatever, but you know, you'll come up on a matching set right like plopped at the bottom of a rub, and you're like, oh, okay, I'll check every one now.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah. Huh. Yeah, that's neat. I never thought about that too much. Uh I'm more in deer country than east, I guess, but okay. How many times have you, and I do find some deer antlers here and there, but it's just usually happens to answer normally. I'll be checking fields before I take the tractor out in it to mow. Uh still not finding an antler in the tire, which has happened now. I know it's a little pricey. Yeah. Um how many times have you found a matching set? I is that common?

SPEAKER_02 31:31

Man, I don't know how to answer that question. We found a lot of matching sets, but we've also found a lot of singles. And I'd say um we've found more singles than we have matches. It all depends, you know. Sometimes they're they're right next to each other, and other times, you know, uh they they can be very far apart. I mean, hundreds of yards apart, if not further. Um, it is possible. I mean, because they they can create around carry around one antler for a few days.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

You know. Um, but also, you know, um to mention Onyx again, that's really helped us to match up antlers because with a tracking feature, right? When we turn that on, um are you familiar with Onyx? Uh a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Yeah, yeah, some people do. Uh I still haven't got I I should get more into using maps and all that. I've been using uh actually the Tacticam uh maps that they have on there for marking areas and everything, but I know I should get on on Onyx or something because it'd be I think it's a little more user-friendly.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

Okay, I'm not familiar with the Tacticam one, but it probably works the same way. But basically, like we'll get into an area and if we're gonna start to search, I'll just I'll turn on the tracker. So now um, you know, it's marking uh uh a dashed line basically on the map everywhere I'm walking. So I can walk all around, I can see on the map where I've been. So if I find something, I can now see where I haven't been also, so I can kind of you know connect the dots and and cover all the areas, and that's helped us turn up a lot of matches doing that.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

You know what I'm saying? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Yeah, yeah. Well it's like uh just if you're doing like a grid search, I suppose, too, it it's marking everywhere you've been and where you haven't been.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

You know, where you just keep covering new ground and you're not gonna retrace your old steps and all that.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Yeah. Yeah, no, that that is handy. I know I should get into that more. I I just started using, like I said, the Tacticam one that's here, and it's been handy marking some areas and and that, but um yeah, I'm sure Onyx is definitely much uh much better and more features on it.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Yeah, you mentioned something that um uh triggers something in my mind. You said, you know, you're you're checking the field so you don't run over an antler. So a lot of moose when this especially years when the snow is deep, it kind of the the moose end up using the the trails a lot more um when they've been packed down by snow machines and whatnot, because it's just easier for them to get around. So on those years of deep snow, a lot of antlers do drop right in the trails, and a lot of them are picked up by just people riding on snow machines.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Oh yes, yeah, yeah, I could see that. Depending on the year, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah, and um, but if uh we used to be able of course it it it's more and more competitive, more and more people getting into it, but we used to always, you know, just driving around um back roads and everything, and we'd find a few fresh brown antlers in these melted out roads, you know, they've been sitting there all winter, and you know, that's always a good spot to look. Hey, if you find one in the road, let's just park right here and just walk around, maybe find the match or find some others. Um, but it's harder and harder to do that now because man, by the time I mean there's there's a lot of people going out on snow machines to pick them up, and um and then there's a lot of people just riding roads in the spring now. So, but anytime that we can find like an undriven road, if it's got a good road network, and there's a good possibility that there could be an antler in the road.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Uh also too, I want to talk about you'd mentioned it earlier about because we were talking about it the other day about coyotes finding sheds. You want to talk about why because I don't think a lot of people really realize this, why the coyotes are looking for the sheds.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

I don't really know why, right? Like mineral biological. Yeah, I guess so. If um there's there's a lot of critters that are interested in them. That's what we were talking about the other day, from from the small stuff to mice and other rodents, and they'll chew on them for whatever mineral content um they have in them. You know, they're they're a they're a bone, they're a bone that grows externally from the moose, which is kind of crazy, right? And so um they definitely have some sort of nutritional value because all those small animals would chew on them, porcupines would chew on them, um, but also coyotes and bears too. Yeah, yeah. And um I was actually, I just saw an Instagram reel, some guy um there was a coyote den that he had known about for years, and he had found at the entrance of it there was uh like an old deer skull that the coyotes had had carried back there, and he went back, it'd been like two years, he went back to check it um to see what the activity was, and there was uh an old shed that the cut one of the coyotes had had carried back to the den and dropped it at the entrance. And so, yeah, I mean interesting. Yeah. Probably with the canines, they probably just you know, they like to chew on something, and it's it's they're a little softer than um actual like skeletal bone. So they they like to chew on, but I think a lot of the other animals do probably get some sort of mineral.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Because it's it's calcium that they're made up of, isn't it? I think. It definitely has to have a lot of calcium. Yeah, we we talked too the other day about how people are some people are against it, like oh, you gotta leave them there because animals need that. But they they don't necessarily need it. They if they find it, they'll take it. But we were talking that there's a lot of areas where these animals live that do chew on sheds that there's there's no sheds around, and those animals are fine. So I mean, taking it out of the woods is not it's not harming anything.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

Right? Like, you know, there's there's few states in the United States that have m moose in particular, right? And there's there's bears, coyotes, and all this, all these other animals. Well, what about all the other states that don't have any moose? And so no moose animals to chew on, and all those ex animals still exist. You know, it's not like it a staple of their diet by any means. No. And the other thing we talk about is like any any dead animal that's out there, that skeleton structure is gonna lay out there, and that the they chew on that too, and we're not hauling out, you know, yeah, full skeletons of moose and everything, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um and and it's not like we're finding all of them, right? There's always old ones out there for them to chew on.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I y you rarely come across it, but I have heard the odd person here and there. I don't it's not much for hunters, but about like, you know, taking them.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Um so if you Yeah, if so I was gonna say, if you know, if you end up posting any sort of thing on social media that gets enough traction, you'll end up with the antis and you'll and it you'll it's it's I try not to, but it's funny sometimes if you read the comments and you see, you know, people oh, you need to leave well I'm sorry, I'll I'll go put some back.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they just yeah, they don't have a clue. Uh well yeah, you're into it, that's all. Yeah. Uh so I want to get into talking a little bit about this is what do you do with them? The the antler market, what uh how big it is in the grand scheme of things, and uh just uh a little bit into that for people that don't know about it, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Yeah, and I guess um disclaimer, most of my knowledge is, you know, uh I'm from the northeast of the United States, so you know, and I know the market for for this. Um it might be different in in other parts of the country, and it might be different in the it sounds like it's different in Canada from what you were telling me.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Yeah.

Moose Habitat Maps And OnX Tactics

SPEAKER_02 39:47

Um, but there's definitely a market, and you know, there's been um sort of uh uh I don't know how many, but there's there's quite a few um companies that have started up, uh especially in Maine, that um buy and sell moose antlers, and they buy them in bulk at a wholesale rate. And the current wholesale rate is$20 a pound for grade A, you know, brown antlers, and they're cutting them up and making dog shoes out of them. And they use all the buzzwords, you know, organic, natural dog shoes, whatever, and they're and they're selling them all over um the country and um as little dog shoes, and you know, there's a huge markup on that, and that's that's a big part of the market for them. The the other one which has probably been around longer, is the like decor. So then you'll have sometimes people will just buy them um as is for just decoration. Um they just want a moose sailor to decorate their home, camp, lodge, whatever, but others will make furniture out of them. I've seen everything from tables, coffee tables, the big chandeliers, right? Those are yeah, you'll see them in a fancy like hotel sometimes. Um so you know, and then there's artists that do the engravings or paintings on them. And so, you know, they're a limited resource, they're they're a renewable resource, but they're also limited, and you know, the the value in them with an artist, they they can be turned into anything. Um, I've sold a lot of them in bulk over the years just because uh I've needed to. Um you know, if I'm gonna shed hunt for a month, but I can find enough antlers that it will, you know, cover the costs of of doing that, then you know that's what I have to do. And I never well, I haven't yet. I don't really I I haven't started my own business um doing that, but you know, it's pretty simple. Take antlers, cut them up into pieces, and sell them as dog shoes.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Yeah, yeah. Uh so how g what are the different grades of antlers? Obviously the brown ones are nice and fresh, so that would be would that be considered you find them what within a month of them dropping or a few months?

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Um no, not necessarily. Like as long as they find them in in they've dropped that year. Like they drop that winter, even if you find them that that spring and it's May, it's still fresh brown. And even if they're like broken a little or chewed, it doesn't matter because they're gonna get they're gonna get cut into dog shoes. They usually they get cut up, and if there's like a bad spot on it, they can just cut that out or even sand it down or so it's not a sharp edge or something. Um, and then and then it goes down from there, you know, the other grades, like if it's um older and weathered or faded and or you know, chalky. There there used to be buyers for all different grades, even the lowest quality that were just you know really chalky, but they were uh stony last time. They there was buyers. I don't know if there still is that there might be that would buy even the even the worst grades, the worst chalckiest antlers, and they were packing shipping containers and sending them overseas for oh god knows what.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Your guess is as good as mine. Yeah, medicine man kind of stuff in China and places. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

Yeah. Well, I haven't seen a buyer for that kind of stuff for for quite a while. The um I do have a guy that um he he'll come if I have a good pile of old ones, he'll come and and buy them from me. And what he told me he was doing is he's cleaning cleans them up, and I think he sells he sells them on eBay or something, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Okay, yeah. I suppose that. It's a unique item to have, and then it's good for the dog treats and then and also for um I know the age and markets big on things like that. Yeah, for sure. Have you noticed that there's a lot that there's a big influx of people in the woods because of social media and things, people wanting to get out? Has it has it turned into a bit of a fad or with finding disciples?

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Definitely it's definitely the social media is definitely uh an influence on all of this, like it does everything. Um but there does there does just seem to be more and more people um all the time. And you know, I don't fight it, you know, you can't. You know what we don't own the woods and you just embrace it and it's what it is. But um, you know, like anything, there's people that have bad intentions that will you you know troll the social media to try to gain intel from certain people and and use that to to harm you by you know figuring out where you are and get there before you or whatever. There is a lot of that. I just you know, you can't control it, so um try not to let it control me.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Yeah. Yeah. Uh I think I I've gone out jet hunting sometimes with people and I've had that have wanted to go because I do find them. I don't necessarily look for them, but when I'm out I do find you know, I'll find a few deer sheds every year. It's normally when I'm scouting in the spring turkey hunting. Um people I don't think they realize these sometimes and a lot of the time it's a lot of miles to find a jet that's not floating. We'll we'll probably find one. It's I think people underestimate the amount of walking and searching that it takes for it. But it but when you do find it, it it is pretty neat. It's like a it's like takes you back to when you're younger, a nice, you know, uh Easter egg hunt.

SPEAKER_02 45:49

Definitely, yeah. You know, it's it is it is it's a it's a scavenger hunt, it's a treasure hunt. And um, you know, there are um a lot of difficult places to access. And you know, um I I'm willing to put in the effort. There's a lot of people that are willing to put in the effort, and uh, and that is rewarding. Um it gets frustrating sometimes when there's um people that that kind of want to cheat and they wanna say they want to use a a four-wheeler or something where they're not supposed to to access an area. And um, you know, I've been walking miles, you know, to get into a a place and and then here comes a guy on a four-wheeler along, knows he's not supposed to be in there with a four-wheeler and just goes right by you, you know, that there's always there's always some of that, you know, but there's there's places that are very difficult to access, and if you're willing to put in the effort and and put on the miles, you know, you'll find something.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Yeah, it it's it makes it more rewarding and and fun when you put in the hard work though for it.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

Yeah, and I and I like the exercise too. And um, it's just a great time of year to be to be out there. Um the weather's good, uh you know, the bugs aren't out yet, and um the woods they look almost like they did in the fall, so you can you're you you can see all the same sign and everything, and it's just a lot of fun, you know.

SPEAKER_00 47:26

Yeah, well speaking about that, Corey, do you have a real particular memorable day with you and Gracie out?

SPEAKER_02 47:34

Oh man, so many of them. I've been um I've been going through the uh the old footage as I as I kind of migrated over from the main woods channel to the Corey Rider Hunting Channel. Um I kind of started with the first piece in 2019 and uh been going through there, so I've been going through 2019 and 2020 that old footage and man, we had some good times, you know. Um a couple of the times that um that really stuck out to me are we we we're just kind of going freestyle, you know, just um places we've never been before, but looking for something that that looks good, looks appealing, and getting in and and we come across um you know, Gracie's throwing her nose up and and I'm running after her and she's on the sense of an antler. As I'm like trying to follow her, we're kind of coming through uh like strip cuts and and she's going straight into the wind, and I'm like looking as we're like cutting across these these buffer strips where there's like do you know what I mean by strip cuts? Oh yeah, yeah. So um I can look down them as I'm cutting through these buffers trying to stay on her because I I'm reading her and I know she's on the antler, and I can see like I can see antlers down these strips, and I'm like, okay, trying to take a mental note, but trying to keep up with her, and yeah, and uh of course she runs right up on a big brown, and we grab that and then we're circling back, and you know, it ended up being like we found like 21 antlers in this one spot, and and and and none of them matched the um the big brown that that that she had found when she had first took off. So I thought I was like, man, how could we we found all these antlers? We didn't match that. So I think we went back the next day and we kind of hit a a lower portion that straight line through the woods from where we found the 21 was was only like 400 yards, but it seemed like it was a lot farther away. So we're going through there and she threw her nose up again and and she found this big brown, and I didn't realize it until I put them together that it was the match. She had matched it up.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

Huh. That's neat. Yeah, that that'd be exciting. So you guys found that many in one day. Well, here's here's a question. What's the most you found in one day?

SPEAKER_02 50:05

I think that might have been a lot. 21, yeah. I think it was uh day.

Antler Markets Chewing Critters And Crowds

SPEAKER_00 50:14

Yeah, that's that'd be uh that'd be an action-packed day. Uh so how often do you take new people out and be like, oh, I want to get into this with my dog and and stuff? And uh what would be your advice for somebody that does want to start doing this with their dog and where to keep their expectations at starting?

SPEAKER_02 50:33

I mean, I'm always big on swing for the fences, but you know, is it's it takes dedication and you're gonna have you know, you gotta start with the small things, basic things, like just reading your dog and basic commands, you know, sit, stay, come, you know, the recall and all that. You you have to have this, the basic, like, disciplinary foundation to even be able to go into the woods and um you know, and then I it's like fifty-fifty. You have to train the dog's nose and you know, rely on the dog's nose, but you have to get the dog there. And that and and that part, that's you, you know, understanding moose habitat, understanding how to navigate in the woods and read the map, use on X, all those things. So, you know, it's a team effort for sure, and you know, you can't just expect to go out with no with nothing and and think you're just gonna, you know, wing it. Um that might work for some people, but really just you know get that foundation down and then just get out there and and do it. Just keep marching until you find something. And when you do find something, right, k get the dog to to to work, work on. So make the dog find it, you know. Um that like the when we'd get out there that that first season together, and we would just march the woods until I came across something that I could see, and I would before I'd react, I would get her downwind of it, so she would catch the scent and watch her, and as soon as she started closing in on it, you know, I sort I'd really encourage her and then make a big deal about it with rewards and praise so that she knew like this is a really good thing, like this is what he wanted me to do, and and then just we'd rinse and repeat that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

Yeah, no, that that's good advice. And I I I hear this too when you're starting off training your dog, people take a shed with their bare hand and throw it. Is the dog looking for the shed then, or is it looking for your scent?

SPEAKER_02 52:46

Uh, maybe a little bit of both. What I would do, like when she was a really young puppy, I would um when she wasn't, you know, I'd put her outside or in another room or something, and I would hide them around the house, like under furniture and in cupboards and stuff. And and then I would just let her find them on her own. And you know, she'd get over there and she'd be like, you know, trying to paw one out from under the couch, or she'd be like trying to open the cupboard because she knew I was in there, and and you know, it was the same thing. And then we'd do it outside. I'd hide them around um in the morning, like before I'd leave for work, I'd hide him around the yard. When I got home and I'd let her out, I'd let her go, you know, we'd go around the yard and let her find them. So like, yeah, you might there might be some of your scent on there, but I think the scent of the antlers more more overpowers any any scent that you left on it.

SPEAKER_00 53:40

Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's what that's what I was wondering. I wasn't sure. Okay, that that makes sense. And then how big, how important is it to that when your dog does find it, you make a really big deal about it and let them know that, you know, that's awesome and you did an excellent job, not be like, oh nice, nice antler, but you're really you're giving them some praise.

Big Finds Advice And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_02 53:59

I I think it's really important. You know, that's what they live that's what they live for. They live, they want, they want to serve the master and they play off your energy. So the more they know that you're pumped about it, you know, the more they're gonna, it's gonna just uh add to their drive to to work for you. And because they know like it's it's just a really big deal.

SPEAKER_00 54:22

Yeah. Yeah. No, it it's great. I mean, anything I'm I'm always interested and want to know more about any working dog, no matter what it is. And uh it's been great having you on, Corey, to talk about uh your your shed dog Gracie. And um it it's interesting. And any activity that you can do with uh with your canine compadre, uh to me it's it's a great activity worth doing, especially one that you're out right in the spring and uh looking for sheds and uh just learning more about the woods.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

Uh yeah, definitely. I I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

Uh Corey, again, thanks for your time for coming on the podcast. If anyone's looking to see more of your videos, uh where what channels, if you want to name them again.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Yeah, well, there's going to be two places. There's the the main woods YouTube channel, that's my primary one, and then Corey Rider Hunting. And um, yeah, I'm in the process of getting that established and um migrating that shed hunting content over there.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

Perfect. Well, Corey, thanks, and uh good luck shed hunting this spring.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

Awesome. Hey, uh really appreciate you having me on. Absolutely.