This impressive set weighed in at a whopping 26 pounds (each antler weighed 13 pounds), the post said. Like other members of the Cervidae (deer) family, male elk shed their antlers each spring.

That’s what many wildlife watchers and deer hunters want to know as winter ends. Did the buck they were watching make it through the season? Finding an antler can answer that question.

In doing so I would take a detour through my nearby deer woods in search of some unburied treasure, namely shed antlers. Despite just over an hour of patiently walking while carefully scanning the ...