Whats the best product out there to use for preserving velvet antlers. I started watching my soybean field tonight and noticed a nice 8 point out there in velvet and I know they will still be in velvet when the season starts in early sept.
Thks
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Van Dykes carries it and I've heard it's good to use....
.....Rolls around, the velvet will be in it's last stages of growth and will have started shrinking. If you have any good pictures of deer in velvet in the summer, you'll see that they are plump and smooth. When the velvet is at the end of it's growth it looks like the deer was "sleeping in it". It is all wrinkled and the hairs are pointing in different directions. That's because the antlers are hard and the velvet is drying out. I've found that it's easy to cure at this stage by soaking it alternatly in alcohol and a good borax solution. Start and finish with the alcohol and in between use the borax, putting it in each solution for a day and continue switching it back and forth for about a week.
And have them frezze dried.
Freeze
...has an atrificial velvet application that works great. It's a bit costly, but it looks very nice. And, it will not spoil over time. You have to strip the velvet off, then ship the antlers to them. I always send a sample of the original velvet, to help them match the color.