Once shed of velvet, bucks spar and test their antlers on convenient branches, saplings, trees, and on each other once they, as deer hunters say, "are in hard horn." Researchers have determined ...

Members of the Cervidae family — including the white-tail deer, mule deer ... drying up the velvet. Once this starts, the velvet gets itchy, and the animals begin rubbing their antlers against trees.

Once the antlers have reached their peak in size, blood vessels begin to dry up and the velvet becomes annoying to the deer. They rub their antlers against trees to scratch this itch and scrape ...

THE DEER ARE ACTIVE ... THEY’RE TRYING TO GET THE VELVET OFF THEIR ANTLERS ON ON LIKE DECIDUOUS TREES. SO LIKE YOUR MAPLES AND THINGS. AND THEY CAN RUB SOME OF THAT BARK RIGHT OFF.

The strings of velvet hanging from the antlers will make a unique mount and there was a narrow window of opportunity for that to happen. Bumgardmer said once a deer begins to rub his antlers to ...