I read an article quite a few years ago so my recollection may be off a bit but it was about whitetail that had been castrated. Either intentional or accidentally through an injury, think barbed wire fence or some other foreign object and from what I remember, these deer no longer shed their antlers. And they continued to grow throughout their remaining life. And appeared mostly hard antlered. Not very symmetrical and such but maybe a possible explanation? When I say quite a few years back I’m talking high school Outdoor Life I believe and I’m 50 years old now. So 35ish years?
I've heard about that kind of thing happening but in this case the antlers are hard...rubbed. they are not still in velvet or still growing.
Now, could it be that the buck got castrated last year AFTER velvet shedding? Could that scenario allow the buck to retain hard antlers indefinitely?
I did see, and video him a 2nd time this evening...about an hour after the earlier sighting.
He was quite a bit closer so I believe that 2nd video may be a little higher quality. Looking at the little camcorder screen seemed to show a little spot of velvet still present on the tip of his right antler. That would most likely indicate that these antlers were grown this summer.
We will get a good look at these horns when I load the video on my computer and we can view them on a larger screen.