Hard Horns Anybody?
Blog by Neil Dougherty
A frequent question I have been asked over the past couple of weeks is if I am seeing any bucks that have pealed their velvet. Jim from Central New York fired off a couple of pictures last week in an email that showed two nice bucks. One buck still was in velvet while the other had shed his velvet and was sporting a polished rack. Jim writes:
Interesting, my two farms, three miles apart, I believe both are 3 1/2 year old bucks. One has the velvet all removed, the other still in velvet. I am seeing rubs in the woods, now I know why. A nice 9 and a very high 10 pointer.
Should be a great hunting season. Am seeing multiple other bucks. The real big boys won’t show up until the end of October on the cameras when the action starts to heat up. -Jim
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For most of us in New York bucks typically start to peel their velvet around Labor Day weekend. Most scientists agree that the peeling process is driven by photoperiodism. That is, the duration of daylight that enters the deer’s eye. As the days shorten and the daily duration of daylight diminishes bucks start to enter into the initial stages of the chaos of the breading season. The first step of which is to peel velvet.
Our Buckeye camera project also has been documenting the shedding of velvet process. The first to peel was brought to our attention by Chris who wrote:
Did I see what I thought I saw on the Ridge Clover Food Plot last night? Looks like one of the eight’s peeled already. -Chris
In fact, the first bucks started to show up on camera with freshly cleaned antlers on September 3.
A nice yearling eight point buck and a two year old buck are pictured in the photo above. The younger buck has pealed while the older buck is still in velvet.
The peeling process typically is a short one. It appears that the velvet irritates or itches a buck. As he worries his antlers at some point he will cut the skin of the still blood filled velvet. As the velvet starts to bleed he will frantically start to thrash his antlers in brush or rub against small trees to quickly peel his newly hardened antlers. The entire process can be over in as short as a few hours or as long as a day or two. It’s not uncommon for a buck to eat the protein rich velvet strips once it is pulled from his rack. Could be he is looking for nutrients or maybe he just wants to hide the bloody evidence in an attempt to hide his presence from predators.
What are you seeing? Are the bucks peeling velvet in your neck of the woods? Anybody catch a photo of a buck half in velvet and half out? Join Ray and others as we document and discuss deer behavior during the 2009 rut. Ray writes:
Looks like most of the bucks are hard horned now. We’ve seen a few high 120 – low 130 class. Seems like a lot more 2-2/2 year olds than in the past maybe because of all the food (I hope). Still not a lot of does in open, caught a few on cam at night, but that will change as it always has in the past. How about you guys? -Ray
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Our bucks (down in south Florida) have been in hard horn for months now, by the middle of November alot of bucks in my area will drop there horn. never said we were normal down here
great talk yesterday in medina at mikes house. looking forwards to having you back soon neil