What to do with Velvet?

[socalkid]

I will be hunting A zone archery this year. I have not taken a deer yet and was wondering what to do with the antlers if they are still covered in velvet. I will not be shoulder mounting the buck (assuming I'm successful) but will do either a European mount or just antlers on the skull plate. Do you just let the velvet fall off or is there something else you do to preserve it?

[weekender21]

Will you be archery hunting in the A zone? If not, you won't have to worry about it, at least not in the Southern part of the A zone. All those bucks are velvet free by the end of July.
If the antlers have finished growing and are hard under the velvet, you might not have to do much of anything. The old way was to apply formaldehyde under the velvet. Most people send them off and have them freeze-dried now. One taxidermist told me to leave the antlers in a 0 degrees freezer for a year and them pull them out. So far I've sent all my antlers off and had them freeze dried. Last year I decided not to waste the money on a rather small buck, the velvet became loose from the steam while I was boiling the skull plate so I just pulled it off. You can always have a taxidermist stain antlers after the velvet has been removed if you don't like the all white look. Good luck!

[Raully]

Actually its not uncommon to see or shoot a buck still in velvet in the first couple of weeks of the A-zone. I've hunted that zone most of my life in the Santa Barbara area so they can still can be in velvet early August. SOCAL kid talk look up Chuck at Ojai Taxidermy. He does top notch work and can give you some good advice.

[weekender21]

For some reason there seem to be quite a few stags in the southern A zone, at least where I hunt. I have personally never seen a non-stag in velvet during rifle season. As a matter of fact, the bucks in the area I hunt are already starting to rub it off. By the third week of archery season it will be off all the deer. That's the cool thing about CA, there are quite a few micro climates and at least 8 sub species of deer in the state. Down here in San Diego I've seen bucks in velvet in early September....

[chap_dog48]

You can leave it on and actually preserve it. Here is my european mount with the velvet on. Scott at HDskullworks did it. It will cost a little more to do since keeping the velvet on is tough on a european. Kurt