Bucks That Never Shed

I have heard and seen bucks that never shed the velvet, but it does end up dieing and withers off by itself. pretty rare. but i have never heard of those bucks not dropping their antlers. They will eventually drop, they just never seem to rub the velvet off. The one the I seen in person wasn't pretty, seemed as if the antler never truley got hard like the normal inside the antlers and they were very fragile and the skin and growth that doesnt harden up just dies off. Just my experience not gospel. But i have never heard of antlers that never shed and just kept growing.

I have heard of and actually seen one. A doe that had antlers and she was in velvet in the middle of shot gun season when she was shot. They said the reason she was in velvet was because she did not know to rub the velvet off

Bob sawmiller had a pie doe with horns

he told me she never had fawns and never shad the horns

then would freeze in the winter and brake off above the bases

the bases looked to be about 7" with points just coming off the bases

I think I heard that the famous "Hole-in-the wall" buck may have never shed his antlers, but I don't know how they came up with that theory.

Hey Jared,



My experience with castrated bucks was at the Pittsburgh Zoo several years ago. When my son was young we took him to the Pittsburgh Zoo. They had a petting area for little kids that was populated with a variety of VERY tame animals. Some of the deer in the area were whitetail deer. I noticed that they all had bumps on their heads, kinda like button bucks do, but nothing hard through the skin. Upon further looking at the deer, I noticed they were all bucks. When I inquired this to the keeper in that area, she told me all the deer in the area were bucks that had been castrated. Two reasons were explained to me, one was to keep the antlers from growing and two was to keep the hormone levels in control. Castration kept those boys calm and friendly and without antlers.



Also, I shot a 3 point during bow season about 25 years ago. When I rolled the "buck" over to gut him I was very shocked by what I found. He had BOTH male and female genitalia. His antlers were hard and normal and he had been rubbing trees, but he was a he-she. I contacted the local dnr if they wanted the animal for testing or anything...they declined. I should have taken pictures of it or something. Anyways, I didn't even eat the thing.

I have been told you need to do it at a certain time of year...or they will attempt to grow and be bloody...and may continue to do so...

I had friends that worked at the zoo through the years and have no idea where I heard it, but they talked from in depth and with experience through trial and error.

I never considered doing it, so I didn't retain much of the info.

I had a yearling that did not shed one of his cut buttons, the next year the antler grew around it.....uuuuuugly. recovered to a nice 170+ 3yr old

Yes... I have taken buttons/cut offs... off of a deer that is known to have problems...

Each time there has been puss/infection under the old...So I feel if you see new growth coming and growing around the old you should take them off...

I have picture on the old forum detailing it, but will post new pictures from this past season.



http://www.deer-forums.com/discus/messages/5/26850.html?1238559888

A shot of testosterone in late October will cause the velvet to dry.

I have a 5 year old buck that we castrated as a yearling. He was a wild baby given to us by the state and we didn't want him to breed our does. He is dog tame, never gets excited and has never grown antlers. His head is as smooth as the does.



Steve Griffin

Backwater farms