Not only would the hunter harvest the 175-inch giant, he did it when the buck was shedding his velvet. "He had this one he'd been following since he was 5 1/2 (years old)," said Joe Bumgardner of ...

Deer hunting: MS hunter bags buck with massive 175-inch, partially shed velvet antlers 'He had this one he'd been following since he was 5 1/2 (years old).

By late summer, the velvet will dry up, and the deer will shed it, revealing his hardened antlers. Why do older deer have larger antlers? The size and complexity of antlers are not cumulative.

Starkville hunter bags deer with 175-inch partially shed velvet antlers landowner named ‘Houdini’ because of his disappearance during daylight ...

Once the velvet is off and only bone remains, the deer are ready for the mating season – also known as the rut – after which the antlers begin to demineralize and weaken.

Seasonal changes in deer physiology and behavior, like when bucks shed velvet and disband bachelor herds and when does become receptive to suitors, are triggered largely by changes in day length.

When bucks are shedding the velvet from their horns they’re often itchy. So they rub up against things, which can cause entanglement. From fall to mid-winter, deer rub their antlers both to shed ...

He was dealing with a deer with a pattern that made him almost impossible to hunt. ... Not only would the hunter harvest the 175-inch giant, he did it when the buck was shedding his velvet.

When a Mississippi hunter got in his blind on the opening day of the early archery season, the hunt didn’t look very promising. He was dealing with a deer with a pattern that made him almost ...