The Velvet Buck

[Moho81]

I wanted to make a post about my daughter’s velvet buck as it’s such a unique animal. The idea is just to get the info down not only for myself but for anyone thats curious about him like I am. 
 

This buck was seen on camera multiple times but never in person. On camera you could tell something was off with his rack but We never got a good enough picture to really see what was going on. The date on the below picture is correct but the time is off  The day after Christmas is usually reserved for staying home lounging around and checking out all the new gifts. Trying on clothes, assembling things etc. my wife decided to take my youngest to get her nails done (one of her gifts) so it was the perfect opportunity for me and my oldest to jump in the woods. We got in pretty early it was only 1:30 and not a lot happened until 4 when some does were out in the food plot. From our spot we have a pretty narrow shooting lane to the food plot which is between 140-170 away. We got her all set up on the tripod and were just patiently waiting for a big doe to give her a shot. 
 

I’m looking through the binoculars directing which deer are young and which are older and bigger when the buck comes from our left nose to the ground and broadside. I let her know the one in front is a buck and if she’s got the shot to take it. Maybe 1.5 seconds go by from me saying that to her pulling the trigger. There was so much smoke I could not see anything but the hint of antlers running right. My daughter didn’t see much more than I did. She saw him run after the shot but not in the injured tail tucked run you associate with at least a hit. 
 

At the end of the hunt our friends come out to help. We stayed in the blind to direct them to where the buck was standing thankfully with snow on the ground it was easy to pinpoint exactly where he was standing due to the disturbance in the snow. No hair and no blood found right away but being able to follow tracks in the snow let them at least find a pin drop of blood 20 yards away. 
 

We got down to join them on the track. It was nothing but a pin drop of blood every 5 yards or so. Would have been a very difficult track without the snow but with the snow we made pretty quick work of it. The buck followed a wide path that led to a snowmobile trail. Once he hit the trail he hung a left and that where we shined our lights the down the trail to see a white belly looking back at us! 
 

We were maybe 30 yards away from the buck when my buddy gets all excited shouting out that it’s the buck that we had on camera and had no idea what was going on with its rack. Now we are up next to it and it sinks in that the rack is still in velvet. My daughter’s buck, her first buck ever is in velvet in December in New York. A true once in a lifetime deer. 
 

Congratulations are said and jokes are made about how this hunt just got very expensive very fast due to needing a shoulder mount done. 
 

The following day I reach out to a few taxidermists to discuss the velvet and what if anything I need to do before getting it to them to preserve the velvet. Luckily one of the guys I wanted to go to has experience in velvet so I got to work caping him out. 
The taxidermist said the buck really has more doe like qualities than buck. From facial features to the thickness of the hide. I had him save the jaw for me so I can send a tooth off to deerage.com because everyone is guessing that he’s between 4-5 years old. The taxidermist doesn’t think that this is the deers first set of antlers due to how big they are compared to what he’s seen from other deer that don’t shed velvet. 
 

I never weighed him unfortunately. I got him on the gambrel and in the air before the thought to weigh him hit me and it was such a struggle to get him in the air I wasn’t doing it all over again. Perhaps next year I’ll invest in an electronic hoist. I did weigh the processed meat we got from him and that came out to almost 56 pounds. 
 

I’ll update the thread as time goes on and we get his age back as well as when we get the mount back I’ll take a quick measurement to see what he scores. Obviously it won’t be a big number but I’m curious enough to find out. 
 

One last thing. There’s a trail camera on the food plot. By chance it was facing the buck so we pulled the card and sure enough the exact moment she shot was caught on camera!!! If you zoom in you can spot the tuft of fur disturbed by the exit of the bullet on the ribs near the shoulder.  
 

  

[mowin]

Definitely unique.  I was hosting a youth hunter this yr. She shot a spike that was still in velvet.  Had the skull dipped, and velvet preserved.  

[nywaw]

Very cool!  Congrats to your daughter @Moho81 and also your youth hunter @mowin!

[mlamm24]

Any pics of the finished product?

[mowin]

14 minutes ago, mlamm24 said:

Any pics of the finished product?

I'll get one. 

[Wolc123]

That’s really cool that it still had velvet that late.  No doubt worthy of a shoulder mount and even more so, seeing as it’s her first buck.

 

I’ve been wondering what ever happened to this 10 point double drop tine  buck that I saw in velvet, during the September early antlerless gun season, a couple years ago:

I never heard of anyone killing him  or getting a trail cam photo of him.  

 

Edited January 7 by Wolc123

[mowin]

Finally got a pic... Thought she was getting it dipped, but went with bleached. 

[Rusty]

Cool buck and congratulations to your daughter on a truly unique trophy!

Typically, bucks that don't shed their velvet have damaged testicles, either from birth or an accident.  They don't produce proper testosterone levels so they don't do all the normal things that bucks do during the rut.  In addition, their antlers don't stop growing, so if they survive a few years they can grow some crazy racks.

We have a guy on our NJ site that let one of these bucks walk for a couple of years and ended up killing it as a 26 point monster.

https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/forums/topic/68046-transgendeer/#comments

https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/forums/topic/68910-a-video-of-my-26-pt-hermaphrodite-buck/#comment-920642

 

[mowin]

1 hour ago, Rusty said:

Cool buck and congratulations to your daughter on a truly unique trophy!

Typically, bucks that don't shed their velvet have damaged testicles, either from birth or an accident.  They don't produce proper testosterone levels so they don't do all the normal things that bucks do during the rut.  In addition, their antlers don't stop growing, so if they survive a few years they can grow some crazy racks.

We have a guy on our NJ site that let one of these bucks walk for a couple of years and ended up killing it as a 26 point monster.

https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/forums/topic/68046-transgendeer/#comments

https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/forums/topic/68910-a-video-of-my-26-pt-hermaphrodite-buck/#comment-920642

 

Abigail's spike was missing his berries.  Seen this a few times over the yrs.  One lost both the twig and berries.  Had a little hole to pee from

[Ncountry]

Cool deer. Many moons ago I shot a 5 point in velvet. Turned out to be a doe with antlers. I found out later that a few people in that area had been watching her most of the summer with fawns and thought something strange was going on.lol

[Moho81]

2 hours ago, Rusty said:

Cool buck and congratulations to your daughter on a truly unique trophy!

Typically, bucks that don't shed their velvet have damaged testicles, either from birth or an accident.  They don't produce proper testosterone levels so they don't do all the normal things that bucks do during the rut.  In addition, their antlers don't stop growing, so if they survive a few years they can grow some crazy racks.

We have a guy on our NJ site that let one of these bucks walk for a couple of years and ended up killing it as a 26 point monster.

https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/forums/topic/68046-transgendeer/#comments

https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/forums/topic/68910-a-video-of-my-26-pt-hermaphrodite-buck/#comment-920642

 

Yes so this guy had no testicles at all and no obvious scar from an accident either so possibly they never descended.  A cryptorchid buck is the closest thing we found that explained this bucks condition. 
 

Surprisingly he looked like he was dogging the does a little and his tarsal gland lightly smelled as well.  

[Moog5050]

Pretty cool Moho.  A rare trophy indeed.  Your daughter must be thrilled. 

[Moho81]

30 minutes ago, Moog5050 said:

Pretty cool Moho.  A rare trophy indeed.  Your daughter must be thrilled. 

She is. She’s a little like me in that she doesn’t get really excited over stuff but you can tell just by how she mentions it here and there. 

Now she’s on to talking about going on an Elk hunt. 
 

[The_Real_TCIII]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing! Looking forward to the updates

[Moho81]

Well after almost 3 months of forgetfulness the deer age kit has been order. I only did the 45 day kit and didn't splurge like @2BuckBizCT and get the one week kit. I haven't heard from the taxi yet but I also don't expect to until mid summer.