rubbing off velvet

bucklover · Sep 7, 2010

I was fortunate to watch a decent four point buck go from full velvet to brown horn this past Friday. I was amazed at the short time it took. I was watching a bunch of bucks from about 800 yards, just observing them. This 4 pnt. came running in from up above these other bucks, ran past them and held up in some buck brush, just below me. He had obviously been busted out from the back side of the ridge. I never did see what scared him. Anyway, he stood there watching his back trail for about 20 minutes, never moving. His velvet had two small spots where the velvet had started coming off. The antler was sheet white, with red velvet hanging in small shreds. He finally settled down and decided it was time to finish the job. It took him all of 20 minutes to clean all the velvet off. He went from full velvet to white horn to brown horn in that 20 minute period. He started by working over some brush, then he went back and forth between brush and the ground. He walked away totally brown. None of the other bucks had started rubbing on Friday but by Monday night all those I saw had rubbed off. It just surprised me that the process took so little time.

bigandtiney · Sep 7, 2010

What a cool experience, BuckLover! I didn't know that bucks directly rubbed their antlers on the ground, I've never seen it. Thanks for sharing!

Big And Tiney

On your way up the mountain, don't forget to look back and enjoy the view.

AndymanSavage · Sep 7, 2010

That is really cool, I thought it took a while to get the color on the antlers...I guess not!

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ADDICT · Sep 7, 2010

Cool story. I would love to see that!

Longun · Sep 7, 2010

That is a neat story...thanks for sharing...

Brandon82 · Sep 8, 2010

VERY COOL! I was fortunate enough to see the same thing this year from nearly the same distance. It was only the second week of the season and 2 smaller bucks had already rubbed their velvet completely off. one of the smaller 4pts had about half of his left and he did the very same thing. He would rake his antlers on the ground and then let the bitter brush pull it all off. very cool to watch and it was my first and only time seeing it as well.

jbricejr · Sep 12, 2010

I watched a 3X3 on the ID-WY line rub his velvet off this morning and was very surprised to see him eat a lot of it.

Zeke · Sep 12, 2010

That's very cool and a sight that few have the pleasure of seeing.
I watched a buck in Montana start the process but didn't get to see the finished product. We were after pronghorn so we moved on too soon! My loss.

Zeke

Saskman · Sep 13, 2010

It is a cool thing to watch. I watched this guy do it on Saturday. He was in a bush about 40 yards in front of me thrashing like crazy. I couldn't get the camera up to get a photo becuase a couple other bucks would have busted me. I did get a couple photos of him as he walked up on the ridge to my left. He only had a couple pieces left hanging down along his face at that point.