Rick Carter
Senior Member
Stephen Kosalac got this early season buck in Alberta, Canada.
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Shedding velvet
- Thread starter Rick Carter
- Start date
Super buck. Congrats to Mr. Kosalac.
How long will the color stay in the velvet? Does it get some special preservative?
How long will the color stay in the velvet? Does it get some special preservative?
Rick Carter
Senior Member
WV, The velvet begins to die from lack of blood as the calcium solidifies in the antler pedicels. They go from soft and bulbous to leathery and cracking in about a week. Once the velvet starts coming off, the deer will rub trees and even eat some strips of the velvet. The antlers look pretty bloody for a few days as the velvet comes off. Once in a while you see small sprigs of velvet that never came off, even on sheds. The velvet on this buck was in real bad shape when it came crated up. It was tanned and rehydrated in Krowtann and then glued back onto the spots it had stripped from. There was no way to inject them because the pulp and veins had already dried up. The red was all painted. It will look like it does now long after we are in the ground. If Stephen had killed the deer a few days later than he did, all evidence of the velvet would have been gone. The deer still had some of his summer coat with the long guard hair.
Illinoisbound
Senior Member
Great work as usual Rick!
Thanks for the detailed explanation Rick. Nice work!
