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Hard antler PA buck on Aug 12th

Interesting, a friend of mine said he seen a 6 point that had already rubbed last Sunday. (MI)
 
I think the hunting public shared something about a shed buck they saw already as well.
 
Down in Lehigh county where I live, I had bucks with antlers into March still, but by April they were gone and growth was starting.
 
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?
 
mattpsu1 said:
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?
Click to expand...

this interested Me so I looked it, you are correct sir, and a couple weeks tjer interesting facts in their.

greatdaysoutdoors.com

Big Racks and Altered Antlers | Great Days Outdoors

Antlers are part of the fascination associated with deer hunting. Antlers. They have fascinated man since the beginning. Going back thousands of years, one can see man’s love for animals. Antlers are etched and painted on the walls of caves. Antlers were a trophy in a different way before they...
greatdaysoutdoors.com greatdaysoutdoors.com
 
mattpsu1 said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
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.
Click to expand...
If I recall correctly the tips did remain velvet which is what allowed them to continue to grow lengthwise through the tips
 
ketch22 said:
Down in Lehigh county where I live, I had bucks with antlers into March still, but by April they were gone and growth was starting.
Click to expand...
One of the best bucks we've had here over the years held antlers into mid May! It's common for "my" bucks to hold antlers into early April but I was blown away by this guy holding into May.
Other bucks had 3"-4" of new growth and that ~140s 10 pointer still had the previous year's antlers.
I've wondered if a late shed leads to a late start growing which could lead to a shorter growing season but that buck seemed to catch up. But there's no way to know if he would have grown a bigger rack had he shed 6 weeks earlier. We will never know.
 
mattpsu1 said:
If I recall correctly the tips did remain velvet which is what allowed them to continue to grow lengthwise through the tips
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I have a gard time understanding how (or if) the remaining antler would be hard and polished bone but the tips would continue to grow.
How would the blood supply that's needed for growth continue to feed the tips? Doesn't seem possible to me to have both types of antler at the same time (some hardened and some still growing).
 
Allegheny Tom said:
I have a gard time understanding how (or if) the remaining antler would be hard and polished bone but the tips would continue to grow.
How would the blood supply that's needed for growth continue to feed the tips? Doesn't seem possible to me to have both types of antler at the same time (some hardened and some still growing).
Click to expand...
I don’t think the entire antler was hardened. Just the outer shell. I’ll try to find the article and if anyone can sleuth better than I, then I appreciate it. Like I said, my memory is foggy but what I do recall is that these bucks continued to grow throughout their life with the same headgear and it wasn’t full velvet
 
So in looking at more recent articles, maybe the phenomenon is more like these deer are in permanent velvet. With colder climates actually breaking off at the ends. Anyways, an interesting trip down memory lane. They call them cactus bucks
 
mattpsu1 said:
So in looking at more recent articles, maybe the phenomenon is more like these deer are in permanent velvet. With colder climates actually breaking off at the ends. Anyways, an interesting trip down memory lane. They call them cactus bucks
Click to expand...

Correct, what are Commonly referred to as cactus bucks never get hard horns, theyare invelvet year round.

As far as deer holding antlers late into spring. There has been at least one study that showed that deer with great access to nutrition and low stress tend to hold their antlers much longer. I’ve never seen one in my area hold it’s antlers to mid May but, I have seen late April before.

Coincidentally, the earliest I have ever gotten a pic of a hard horned was several years ago and was also August 12th. I think like a lot of things when deer shed velvet is a bell curve and every once in a while we catch one doing something at the extreme end of the curve.
 
BTW, That buck was all by himself, the bachelor group was far away. Which makes sense. I doubt that any of the velvet bucks would want to be near him.
I have a busy morning today but I'll try to get some pics posted this afternoon.
 
I seen one 4-5 years ago on August 11 in a bean field that was shedding his velvet.But he was a big 150plus buck. I had to turn around pulled off road and looked at him through binoculars, was wishing I had a good camera.Hell of a sight, with that velvet hanging from his rack .
 
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