THE FLIP SIDE: Velvet Buck Deer Of A Lifetime

ANTLER COVERING RARE FOR DECEMBER

A six-point buck that stepped in front of Jeff Danley in mid-December turned out to be the deer of a lifetime for the hunter from Springdale.

It’s not every day a hunter shoots a buck in December with antlers still in full velvet. That’s what Danley did when he settled in for an afternoon hunt with his muzzleloader rifl e near Elkins on Dec. 15.

The Middle Fork of the White River fl owed nearby while Danley watched for deer during his hunt on a friend’s land. Deer had been no-shows for two hours, then the six-point buck showed up about 4:30 p.m.

He had no idea the buck carried velvet antlers, which is rare so late in the year.

“I just saw it had three thick points on one side so I knew it was legal,” Danley said. His .50-caliber Encore muzzleloader fired and the buck fell 70 yards out.

“I didn’t see the velvet until I walked up on it,” Danley said.

The hunter couldn’t believe his eyes. Bucks normally lose their velvet before archery season starts, which was on Sept. 15 this year.

He took a picture of the buck with his cellphone and sent the photo around.

“The velvet hadn’t been shedding or anything. It was perfect velvet,” said Danley, who works as a Farmers insurance agent in Fayetteville. “It’s a rarity.”

That’s for sure, said Kenn Young of Clarksville, a top authority on Arkansas deer.

Young toured the state for years with his “Monster White-Tails of Arkansas” exhibit of trophy deer mounts and writes articles about deer.

The last December buck in velvet Young recalls was a deer shot in Kansas about three years ago.

A buck’s velvet carries nutrition to the antlers when they’re developing through the summer. Velvet is normally long gone and shed by late fall.

Young was frank when revealing the cause of December velvet.

“Generally it has something to do with some sort of injury to its testicles,” he said.

More than once Young has seen a buck leap and barely clear a barbed wire fence.

A buck that fails to jump high enough? Well, hello December velvet.

Danley said when he field dressed the buck, he looked closely and determined the buck’s reproductive equipment was intact.

“This is more far-fetched,” Young continued, “but there is such a thing as a testicular birth defect.”

If the deer didn’t appear to be injured, there’s really no way to know what caused the late velvet.

With a buck like Danley’s, the velvet just keeps growing and so do the antlers. Young said it’s his understanding these bucks don’t shed their antlers in late winter like normal deer.

They keep the same antlers from year to year.

Karen Gerhardt isn’t the taxidermist mounting Danley’s deer, but she has seen December velvet before.

Gerhardt, who won the 2012 National Taxidermist of the Year title, said a customer brings a December-velvet buck to her shop in east Benton County every two or three seasons.

No doubt Danley’s trophy will turn some heads when it goes on the wall.

FLIP PUTTHOFF IS OUTDOORS EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.

FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER AT TWITTER.COM/NWAFLIP.

Outdoor, Pages 7 on 12/27/2012

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