Chasing sheds
Serious business of hunting elk antlers starts with good place in line.

Snow falls on a string of 115 pickup trucks parked at the north end of the National Elk Refuge early Thursday morning. The men who slept in the trucks the night before cook eggs on camp stoves and sip coffee from tin cups like cowboys. They reminisce about the raucous night with newfound friends who have lived in the trucks in front of and behind them for the last night or two or three. In less than an hour, the caravan will lurch forward and snake through the refuge to the Bridger-Teton National Forest, where the men will hunt for antlers discarded by elk who wintered on the refuge or nearby. Lucky hunters will find dead elk near the creek and carry whole heads, complete with ivory canine teeth and full racks, back to their trucks. Three guys from Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, swear they were the first in town Monday night. They’ve been sleeping in their trucks since then. You have to come early to get a good spot in line, said Keith Jackson, 24. And a position at the front can make all the difference. If you’re in the rear, the other guys will scoop up all the antlers before you get there. Elk refuge officials allow antler hunters to start lining up on the refuge at 8 a.m. the day before the hunt. That’s how Jackson and his friends, Cody Steffler, 21, and Richard Johnston, 23, ended up fifth and sixth in line, though they say they should have been first. They were bumped by a few guys who crept into the queue ahead of them. Steffler and Jackson came out for the hunt last year. They were 17th in line and ended up with only three antlers between the two of them....