LAST EDITED ON Jul-11-07 AT 12:12PM (MST)[p]horns always are hard, it's antlers that are soft then harden after they are shed of their velvet. some may say horns, antlers what difference does it make. . . well, it does make difference in some circles so I suggest calling antlers antlers, and horns horns. A guy does not have to lie and die by that, but in general it's best to adopt the correct word.
In my observation, antlers harden generally starting the first of september for mule deer, and second week of august for elk. There is no exact data as some elk and some deer harden sooner and some later, so you have to consider mid aug through the end of september. Keep in mind that the antler starts to harden even before the velvet is completely shed. . . the bottom of the antler hardens first then it chokes off the blood to the rest of the antler and it hardens, th "velvet" either sheds off, or it's rubbed of or both. the process is quick, they go from velvet to brown antler if just a couple days. there is some variablity, some pack the velvet longer and some dont rub it off as well and some done brown up very much so all of this is general. as soon as you get specific someone says they saw a bone hard buck in July or a velvet buck in november. . . it happens. . .
