NM Muzzleloader Muley

[nmtaxi]

Picked up a leftover tag (since I didn't draw again) for a muzzleloader hunt in southern NM. Took my brother and nephew on their first pack-in hunting trip.
Good times and a filled tag. I was surprised to see that the buck I tagged was still in full velvet in late October.




My brother and nephew getting their packs ready while the cows look on....



Home sweet home..




Some possible lion kills...



My buck from opening morning. He was acting real "rutty" despite being in full velvet...







Packout to the truck. Great adventure almost complete.

 

[bobbydean]

Congratulations.

Nice deer.

Good family fun.

Nice to see you post.

 

[LCH]

That's cool! congrats-

 

[hank4elk]

Very nice!

 

[LopeHunter]

Nice being able to jump on a leftover NM tag. Residency does have its advantages.

Velvet is a weird one on a normal buck this late in the season. I was in CO near Continental Divide on a mountain goat hunt a few years ago and only saw mule deer bucks with velvet in early October. Returned a year later a full three weeks sooner in the year to hunt for a buck and only saw mule deer bucks with zero velvet. Bummed as that meant the bucks with hard, pain-free antlers dropped below timberline into the thick stuff.

 

[kansasdad]

Looks like a good family memory created by you all.

Did your buck seem to have full size, normal number of testes? Just wondering if he had some hormonal defeciency, being expressed by a failure to release/drop the velvet.

 

[nmtaxi]

Yeah. I think he was going to rub off the velvet in the next couple of weeks. Saw lots of really small fawns still. Maybe the warmer climate stretches out the rut and has some deer on a different schedule? I've seen a few bucks come from that area late with velvet.

 

[Elkhunter24]

Congrats!

 

[Lefty315]

Very cool! Would love to have an opportunity at a nice velvet buck someday.

 

[efw]

Love those family hunts that’s super cool man congratulations!

 

[prhunter]

congrats

 

[Nick87]

Congrats, we saw a buck in full velvet around the 7th of October in Wyoming. We thought that was strange, let alone this late in the year!

 

[stillkickin]

Awe-some! Thanks for sharing

 

[fishing4sanity]

Congratulations! Neat looking area and great to hunt with family.

 

[Muleys32]

Crazy he was still in velvet!

 

[bobbydean]

Are you mounting the deer? How much more work is involved in saving the velvet? I assume you will do the work yourself.

 

[NM34R]

Congrats!
I’m curious about preserving the velvet too. My taxidermist said my buck was ready to shed and was completely hard horned so he couldn’t inject it to preserve it. He could strip it, leave it and put a preservative on it, or strip it and spray some sort of fake velvet on it.

 

[nmtaxi]

Preserving velvet isn't bad, just needs babysitting for quite a while with injecting. I use denatured alcohol first, injecting it, getting all the blood out, then inject velvet tan. I'll brush it on the outside too.
When I get a buck in close to stripping, I poke holes in everywhere and brush the velvet tan on. Never had any issues.
All that being said, this one's velvet got a little trashed on the blackout, so I'm just stripping and staining them.

 

[nmtaxi]

Here's a big boy in velvet I did for a buddy last year.