A question has come up regarding the care for antlers in velvet. Going to touch on this. In the field, it is sometimes difficult to do as it is difficult to pack what you need on the trip.....particularly if you do a fly in trip or a pack trip. As with anything in life, if something is important to you, you will find a way to do it right.
When you shoot an animal in velvet, you need to drain the blood out of the veins under the velvet. You should be able to arrange with the taxidermist of your choice, a container of antler preservative and pick up some syringes with needles to put in your pack. I will post a web site, taxidermy supply house name and number along with part numbers so that you can order it in for your self prior to your hunt.
Cape out your animal as you normally do.....the less fat and meat left on the hide the better. Take your time. This could be your trophy of a life time or you may never get another chance at an animal like you may have just shot. .Splitting the lips, nose and eyes along with turning the ears inside out is important before any salting is done. Salt well into all areas of the cape at that point. Don't scrimp. If you can't salt, keep hide as cold as possible (freezing is better) by putting it in a rock cache on a mountain side away from sunlight and heat (North facing slope). Do not soak the cape in water as you may end up getting hair slippage. Take the velvet rack and poke holes in the tips of the antlers with the syringe needles then fill the syringe with preservative and start injecting it into the veins at the bases (pedistals). Take your time and be patient, it is not easy but if it is done right, blood will start to drip out of the tips of the antlers as you inject more preservative into the veins. When just preservative comes out of the tip of the antlers, that vein is done and move on to the next one. As a precaution, when you feel that you have replaced the blood in the veins with preservative, wipe or paint the preservative on the outside of the velvet on the antlers. Do it several times and then let dry. If you have taken your time and been patient, you should have successfully preserved your velvet antlers in the field and you should be able to have a mount that you are proud of for the rest of your life. Be very careful when you are packing them out as they are extremely delicate and you can tear the velvet.
You can order the preservative from AAA Taxidermy Supply House in Calgary at
www.aaasupplyhouse.com (1-877-250-8995). The product # is KAT-PT (pint) or KAT-QT (quart) and is called "Antler in Velvet Tan". It comes with instructions aswell. Syringes and needles should be available at drug stores, but the supply company has them aswell.
There may be other ways to preserve velvet antlers but this is one that I have tried and has worked.
Please feel free to PM me or respond to this thread if you have any questions and I hope this will be of benefit to any of you that pursue early season antlered game.
Marco Pilon
Sugar Creek Taxidermy Studio (403)597-5667