August 6. At that point blood flow to the antlers will cease and the hardening process will begin. Toward the very end of August peeling of velvet might begin. September 5. September: Once September hits peeling of velvet continues or begins and most velvet will be gone after the first week or two of the month.
At this point each buck has their final, hard horned rack for the fall. The Kiln Merino-X Hoody is a do-it-all base layer that will keep you warm, comfortable, and odor free from September through May. With a touch screen sensitive thumb and index finger, this is the perfect addition to your kit for warm early season hunts.
The new standard for stationary hunts or late season stalks when staying warm is critical to success. What does that even mean? We meaning us whitetails addicts use some strange terminology when talking about deer. It all seems normal to you and me, but to someone on the outside listening in, we probably sound crazy. Whitetail hunters live for the November rut.
But sometimes the reality of the rut falls short of expectations. The remedy? The covering of the growing antler takes on the appearance of shiny velvet because sparse hairs grow straight out and are coated with oily secretions from the hair follicle. Beneath the velvet epidermis and dermis of the growing antler is a thick, fibrous protective membrane, called perichondrium when it covers the cartilagenous growth stage and periosteum when it covers the boney stage of the growing antler.
Beneath the velvet and perichondrium lies the mesenchyme growth zone, an area of rapid cell generation and growth. In the chondroprogenitor region these young cells begin to differentiate into chondrocytes and to form the columnar structure characteristic of cartilage and bone. The enlarged and columnar chondrocytes then begin the process of mineralization. Once mineralized, chondroclasts resorb the cartilage, and bone is laid down on the remaining "scaffold" by osteoblasts.
For more details on this process see the review by Price et al. There are two types of bone within an antler, spongy bone and compact cortical bone. Spongy bone makes up the inner portion and is less dense, softer, and weaker. Spongy bone is highly vascularized during growth, which allows the transport of nutrients and growth regulating hormones. Compact bone forms the outer shell of the antler, and its greater density and stiffness provide strength for fighting.
Spongy bone makes up about half the diameter of an average antler McDonald et al. Antler shape or form, known as conformation, is highly variable and depends on age, genetics, and nutrition. Points or tines are classified as typical points generally symmetric and arising from the top of the main beam and abnormal or non-typical points arising from other than the top of the main beam or asymmetrical with the other side.
Abnormalities include kicker points projecting laterally from a tine or beam, drop tines projecting downward from a main beam, extra main beams, palmation of the main beam or between tines, and clustered tines. Some deer antlers exhibit annual variation in conformation, and a deer's last antler set may be quite abnormal. The same deer at 10 years A and at 14 years of age, just prior to his death B. Another deer at maturity C and the year of his death D. While their antlers come in all shapes and sizes, most of their antlers look like thin beams sticking out by their ears.
The deer that will have the strongest and largest antlers later in life are those that have multiple tines at a young age. By this point, a healthy buck should have antlers as wide as its ears. They may also start showing signs of how many deer tines they will have when they fully mature. Most bucks have reached more than half of their optimal antler growth by three years old. At this age, its neck should be full and its chest should be deep.
The spread of the antlers should grow past the width of the ears with an adequate mass. At four years old, the buck has developed into a strong, healthy deer. It is skinnier than it will be at full maturity. Most bucks reach more than three-quarters of their optimal antler growth at age four.
Generally, bucks' antlers fully mature between five and seven years old. During this time, they have also reached their optimal body mass to have a full, strong appearance.
The fullness and complexity of their antlers will depend on their access to nutrition and their genetic makeup. Since most free-range deer are hunted during their prime age of five to seven, you will find few deer older than eight years old. Until this age, deer antlers get bigger each year. As deer age, the shape and size of their antlers will decrease and their body mass will shrink.
A deer of this age will have weathered antlers to show their fights with other deer and their journey through life. Whitetail deer begin to grow their antlers in the spring, and you'll start to see deer losing antlers in the winter. Here is the general timeline of the whitetail deer antler growth process by month. Deer begin to grow antlers between late March and early April. During this time, two stumps of bone pop out from the deer's pedicles, wrapped in a thin layer of velvet skin.
The velvet contains the oxygen and nutrients needed for the antlers to grow into healthy, mature antlers. When the antlers of the whitetail deer are in velvet, deer try to keep their antlers from injury.
Any injuries brought on by weather, knocking into objects or other deer could result in abnormalities in their antlers. Since deer use nutrients from their entire body — such as the bones in their legs — they need to have proper nutrition from a young age.
April In the middle of spring, May is when more nutritious foods are available to bucks. During this time, whitetails prefer food and forage that is high in protein and other essential nutrients.
With time to fully recover from the winter, the whitetail deer's body can now fully focus on antler growth. At the end of May, deer should start to show a second point on their deer rack. The antler beams should also be about half of what their length will be at full maturity. May During the summer, after a healthy season of rainfall, lush, nutritious food will be available for deer to continue their growth process.
With more daylight available in June, deer produce the hormones needed to accelerate the antler growth process. By the end of June, a deer will have grown nearly all the primary points on its antler racks. At the beginning of this mid-summer month, the buck's antlers should be very bulbous.
Throughout the month, the beams and points of the antler will grow. By the middle of July, the buck should have massive mature antlers.
Adequate rainfall in the spring and summer will make more nutrition-rich foods available to deer to promote health antler growth. Antler growth could be hindered by a drought and a lack of nutritious foods for the deer. By the end of July, most bucks' antlers have fully formed, and they can begin the hardening process. Most bucks will complete their antler growth in the middle of August when the blood flow to the antlers decreases. The antlers will harden over the next 20 to 25 days.
During this time, the antlers seem to shrink because of the velvet shrinking. When a deer's antlers are fully mature, the antlers are cut off from the animal's blood supply. In the summer, you may find bucks of different ages traveling together. In late August through mid-September, the velvet dries up and the deer rub it off, strengthening their back muscles and antlers for mating season.
In the fall, bucks start the rut or mating season. As their testosterone levels rise, they leave their groups and start to branch out on their own. By this point, their antlers are hard and ready to fight for their mates.
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