Pennsylvania Game News - April 2018 - 9

the sun's setting and the buck is huge!
After lowering his crossbow and
pack, Mike descended and made his
way to the apple tree to look for blood
and his bolt. He found neither. Then,
he tried to follow the buck's hurdles
through the incredibly dense understory.
"I couldn't get through and I didn't
see blood, so I looped around the heaviest brush - maybe 50 yards from the
apple tree," Mike said. "As I closed on
the buck's exit route, I saw him lying
dead."
Mike double-lunged Double Beam;
it had collapsed after only a few of those
big jumps. The crash Mike heard was
the buck's last lunge.

WHAT'S THIS?

As Mike stepped up to the downed
buck, he did a double take. Double
Beam had velvet antlers!
"I was stunned, unsure how to handle
the deer," Mike recalled. "I didn't know
if the velvet was going to fall off and
ruin the appearance of the antlers, or
worse, if something would break or be
easily damaged while we were fielddressing, moving and skinning the deer.
"This was the best buck of my life
without the velvet and definitely more
interesting with it. I wanted to do things
right!"
Mike didn't call Rick again. When
his brother arrived, he met and took him
to Double Beam.
Rick, too, was floored when he saw
Double Beam's heavy and tall velvet
rack. It's something few hunters ever
see in October.
Mike and Rick cautiously fielddressed and moved the buck. Back at
Mike's garage, they weighed Double
Beam.
APRIL 2018

He came in at 180 pounds fielddressed.
After taking the buck's head to a
taxidermist, Mike learned the velvet
wrapper on Double Beam's antlers contained no blood. The taxidermist also
confirmed the antler tines had sharp
tips and were fully hardened beneath
the velvet.
There was evidence that the buck
had started to rub the inside of the
innermost right beam, but the velvet
wasn't torn or loose.
So why was this buck still sporting
velvet?
Chris Rosenberry, Game Commission Deer and Elk Section chief, said
he and fellow deer biologist Jeannine
Fleegle and agency veterinarian Justin
Brown concluded the buck could have
had some sort of condition, or was just
going to shed its velvet later than other
bucks.
"Antlers remain in velvet if testosterone levels do not reach the levels
needed to cause hardening and velvet
shedding," Rosenberry said. "Insufficient testosterone production is usually
due to loss or damage to testicles or to
a birth defect - cryptorchidism - where
the testicles do no develop properly."
But Double Beam's genitals were
undamaged and seemed normal in size,
according to Mike.
One other thought from the experts
also was related to testosterone production.
"From the description provided by
the taxidermist, the antlers were hard
and the velvet was 'dry,'" Rosenberry
said. "Given the complex nature of
antler growth, a blip in the endocrine
system for some reason - injury or
disease - that suppressed testosterone
is not that farfetched."
9
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2018

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