Just curious. I talked to a few of my customers and fellow hunters having trail pics and sightings of bucks in velvet yet opening weekend. I’ve bow hunted for over 30 years in MN/WI and can’t recall this many sightings in mid September.
I do recognize a lucky hunter gets one on occasion.
I watched a 2 year for a while eating beans and acting very irritated by all the shedding velvet hanging in his face on the opening Sunday.
Not to sideline the post but I would love to hear the story and see more pics of the buck in your avatar.
DT
I think all the deer I had pics of were out of velvet by 9/5, which is a little later than normal, but not much. Always wanted to get one in velvet…maybe next year.
Out in South Dakota I had bucks with hard horns in August over the Holiday weekend. Which is EARLY for down here.
I saw two spikes and a small 6 on opening weekend in Mn that was still in velvet. The two bigger bucks spotted by our group were both hard horned.
My trail cams in SD showed late August most of the velvet was off.
I had one buck still holding velvet as of Tuesday the 16th, the next day he was starting to get rid of it down in SE MN.
I agree. I’ve don’t recall seeing the number of bucks still with velvet once bow season started. I shot my first Velvet buck opening weekend of Wisconsin opener. A “nice” 8 ptr.
I noticed that the regular bucks on our trail cams on my property (Pine county) that both had their velvet recently off pics right around 9/15 to 17. But it was only just off, you could still see strips hanging on one pic.
I don’t know if that’s normal or not for my exact area. What I’ve long heard is end of August, but how unusual 2 weeks later is, I’m not sure. I don’t have great pics from 2-3 years ago to compare.
Grouse
I remember reading about this buck in NAW a while back.
First, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while on my big buck although I hope to find another one same day.
Congrats Todd, I had hopes of getting a big 8 that weekend and it didn’t materialize. I’ve always wanted to kill a velvet just haven’t made the pilgrimage to ND or WY to get it done. It would have been sweet to do it in MN.
In my past trail photos the last 7-8 years Sept 5th was about as late as I’ve ever had a picture with velvet on. So it’s strange to here guys talk about seeing so many.
Now the the analytical question why and what effect is it going to have on the different phases of the rut…. It will be fun to see whats happening as it unfolds.
The last one shed here in KY on Sept 16 First one was late Aug 26ish
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