August velvet hunt

[AT Hiker]

Thoughts? I didn't even know something like this was even in the works.
August 24-26 Archery buck hunt.
Better call your taxidermist before you decide to fling a arrow, assuming you want one mounted .


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[Goodtimekiller]

I'll hopefully be in colorado chasing bulls, although this may make me change my plans


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[fairchaser]

How do you preserve velvet antlers? Freeze the entire head or inject with formaldehyde? A velvet mount would really be cool to have.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I do think it's an interesting concept and will probably participate. We already lose a lot of the bigger bucks during that time frame to poachers so I am afraid this will make that worse since they will be able to tag them. In my area it will mean more big bucks getting shot over corn piles and from the truck in bottom fields and that is the one piece of this I really don't like. If it just wasn't for poachers I would have no reservations, but almost everyone poaches in my area.

I also don't like that this meeting with a vote was the first I heard of it? No chance for public input specifically on that topic that I'm aware of?

Anyway, like I said, it's interesting/unique and I will likely participate. I am hopeful some certain West TN WMA's I hunt will be available for this hunt and that's where I'll go instead of being around home.


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[TheLBLman]

In my area it will mean more big bucks getting shot over corn piles

x 2

Most killed will be "legally" checked in,
but I suspect a very high number will be "illegally" killed over bait
and/or with a bullet rather than an arrow.

Although the idea of a "velvet" buck trophy may be appealing to some,
the actual deer "hunting" this time of year (late August) can be akin to just shooting a Tom turkey feeding in a field during August,
(as compared to calling up a very vocal strutting Tom during the spring mating season).
It may not be so much a hunting event as it is a shooting event.

Of course, if not done over bait, yes, typically there will be some hunting skill involved to archery harvest a velvet buck.

Just hope this doesn't turn into a stepping stone to "legal" baiting (like in KY's velvet buck hunting)
along with a 1-buck limit (as in KY where baiting is legal, and velvet-buck hunting is well established over corn piles).

One of my concerns is that when the masses of hunters find out how ineffective their velvet-hunting efforts (deer just aren't moving much and are very sensitive to human disturbance during late August), new masses of hunters will demand legalized baiting, and that could very well lead to a 1-buck limit in TN.

Most of us do not want a 1-buck limit, but the easier we make it to kill any game, the higher the risk of the season & limits being reduced in other areas. Turkey killing has become so "easy", that we may soon see our turkey TN turkey season's limit cut in half, along with the number of hunting days cut in half.

It's not all bad (velvet buck hunting), just saying, there may be some unwanted, unforeseen consequences.

 

[AT Hiker]

How do you preserve velvet antlers? Freeze the entire head or inject with formaldehyde? A velvet mount would really be cool to have.

After you CAREFULLY cape the skin off the head you have a couple options;
If the velvet is still active you can either freeze dry or inject the tips with preservative (formaldehyde for example).
If the velvet is done you can still freeze dry or "tan" the velvet on.
Lastly you can always get artificial velvet applied or strip it down and stain the antlers.

I'm hear to warn you though, those mature bucks may not have a pretty cape. Tick infested, big blocky heads, tiny necks and broad shoulders. Hopefully by late August TN Deer should start filling out in their necks.


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[TheLBLman]

How do you preserve velvet antlers?

Easiest thing to do is . . . . .
Just peel off the velvet, throw away the velvet, save the antlers.
You'll also want to throw away the tick-infested cape, and maybe the spoiled meat.

Seriously, I suspect most velvet bucks killed (during this TN hunt) will not turn into a lasting velvet-buck shoulder mount.

Tick infested . . . . . tiny necks . . . . . .

Not very appealing for a shoulder mount.
Often the ears will be covered with over a hundred embedded, engorged ticks this time of year.
I can see why taxidermists charge double to deal with one of these heads.

 

[mattmillard510]

So is this a done deal? I can't make heads or tails of the wording


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[huntintn]

Hope all my neighbors participate, run all your bachelor group on my farm.

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[fairchaser]

I do think it's an interesting concept and will probably participate. We already lose a lot of the bigger bucks during that time frame to poachers so I am afraid this will make that worse since they will be able to tag them. In my area it will mean more big bucks getting shot over corn piles and from the truck in bottom fields and that is the one piece of this I really don't like. If it just wasn't for poachers I would have no reservations, but almost everyone poaches in my area.

I also don't like that this meeting with a vote was the first I heard of it? No chance for public input specifically on that topic that I'm aware of?

Anyway, like I said, it's interesting/unique and I will likely participate. I am hopeful some certain West TN WMA's I hunt will be available for this hunt and that's where I'll go instead of being around home.


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Where are you from Pickett? If everyone is a poacher I sure as heck don't want to come there. A poacher will be a poacher and a thief a thief. I'm not for making laws so it's harder or easier for them. They will just find another way. Evil always does. If they get caught, makem pay big time. This is an extra hunting opportunity a month before the regular season. I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. So what if others break the law; I'm not. That's all that matters to me. I agree there was no input but I figure they are just adding and not taking away and that's the reason.

 

[mike243]

Thoughts? more catering to bow hunters,they already have a month longer season and higher limit of does in this end of the state,should be a law against it,couldn't discriminate and have women hunts so they shut them down lol

 

[AT Hiker]

I assume you can fill both tags over this 3 day weekend, correct?

I'm thinking this is only private land as well.

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[MickThompson]

I agree- more catering to special interests without giving the public at large a heads up for them to comment.

The vast majority of deer hunters are gun hunters, and I doubt they'd be too keen on now hunters getting another season just for them.

To me, this was a bigger deal than the buck limit change. The buck limit debate was well known and publicized ahead of time and the change supported by many hunters and agency personnel. I don't think anyone but the commission saw this coming.


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[TheLBLman]

I do see both pros & cons with this new "opportunity"
but would have liked to have seen more discussion in advance of such a significant change.

IMO, it's a shame the commission can't see the greater merits of encouraging more small-game hunting
over so much focus on deer (and turkey) shooting.

This long weekend hunt will absolutely reduce statewide small-game hunting opportunities for the youth who would most benefit by more small-game opportunities (which does more to create more lifetime hunters). This SAME WEEKEND is the "Opening Day" of Tennessee's statewide squirrel season.

As an off-set, in conjunction with this 3-day velvet hunt,
there could have been a delay in the "regular" statewide opening of archery deer season (by at least one weekend).

Since we now have this early "velvet" hunt, in the future,
why not open the regular statewide archery season the 3rd Saturday of October?

In the meantime, perhaps our commission is providing too much specialized hunting "opportunity" to special interests
at the expense of the more "average" TN hunter, most of whom do not archery hunt, and,
many of whom would greatly appreciate more focus on small-game than deer?

Yes, I do realize this is a deer-hunting website,
but how many of us lifetime deer hunters didn't start out first with small-game hunting?
I would also ask what percentage of the lifetime deer hunters even find hunting deer in August something they find appealing?

That said, I continue to applaud most of our commission's oversight and input,
and do believe many of their decisions do greatly benefit the majority of our hunters,
as they do sometimes "see the forest" when many of us are blinded by the trees
and/or just stuck on being oppositional to any views other than our own.

 

[TheLBLman]

By the way, just as a thought to ponder,
as recently as the late 1970's (possibly into the mid-1980's)
a time when a lot more Tennesseans were considered "lifetime" hunters,
more went afield on the Opening Day of squirrel season than did for the Opening Day of deer season.

We had more squirrel hunters then than we have deer hunters now.
Ironically, we still have an abundance of great places to hunt squirrels.
Why did so many quit hunting squirrels?

 

[UpperTully]

By the way, just as a thought to ponder,
as recently as the late 1970's (possibly into the mid-1980's)
a time when a lot more Tennesseans were considered "lifetime" hunters,
more went afield on the Opening Day of squirrel season than did for the Opening Day of deer season.

We had more squirrel hunters then than we have deer hunters now.
Ironically, we still have an abundance of great places to hunt squirrels.
Why did so many quit hunting squirrels?

Id venture to say social media and television has helped change that. I don't see many hunting shows and social media pages focusing on the type of hunting we all grew up with such a squirrel, rabbit and bird hunting. The big names in hunting focuses on and promotes deer, turkey and duck hunting more than anything else. Besides, it looks way cooler to pose with face paint designs, a big buck or a couple straps full of ducks than a limit of squirrels killed with a 22 rifle in the blistering heat on opening day.

 

[Rob-HC Hunter]

Hope all my neighbors participate, run all your bachelor group on my farm.

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Agree with this. If you aren't careful during the early season with scent control and residual scent left in the area. You can do more harm than good.


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[Os2 Outdoors]

Velvet pics to come!!!!

Athiker get the phemalhyde ordered buddy!

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[FARMTOFIELD]

The visibility of these deer from roads, at that time, has me very concerned gonna be bad for areas like mine. I am anxious to see how the mature deer transition into their fall areas with the slough of hunters, that will be pushing them around before they usually move

 

[FARMTOFIELD]

I can show you 20+ deer that are 120-160 and a few bigger during that time. We have tons of people that aren't even from around here that ride through to look at deer. It ain't gonna end up well.

 

[fairchaser]

I can't stand it when people win a big lottery. Don't they know they are gonna have to pay all those taxes, not to mention all those friends and relatives coming out of the woodwork. It's just a terrible crying shame having to spend all that money. There gonna be thieves and scam artists everywhere trying to take their money. Why do people even buy a ticket? :bash:

 

[FARMTOFIELD]

I can't stand it when people win a big lottery. Don't they know they are gonna have to pay all those taxes, not to mention all those friends and relatives coming out of the woodwork. It's just a terrible crying shame having to spend all that money. There gonna be thieves and scam artists everywhere trying to take their money. Why do people even buy a ticket? :bash:

Wait and see...

Edited to add: I have no clue what type of area you live in so you may not see any effect, so you may not be able to wait and see. In areas where every deer for 75 square miles are concentrated in 10 square miles, it can't have a good effect. I'm gonna say 75% of the deer killed in that hunt is gonna be from the comfort and a.c. of the front of a pickup truck.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I'm reading that the early hunt will not apply to public land but can't find anything official? Anyway, if it doesn't apply to public land, that kills my plan to hunt.


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[AT Hiker]

...In areas where every deer for 75 square miles are concentrated in 10 square miles, it can't have a good effect...

If I had access to a solid summer feeding ground that supported a dozen or so bucks it would be very tempting to offer a guide service. I've driven by bean fields in August that literally had 5-6 solid mature bucks feeding in daylight along with many 2.5 and younger.
I'm sure I am not the only person to think about this.

Also, bean and pea food plots will be the new thing. At least that's what I would be planting.


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[bloodtrailing]

So much gloom and doom being said. I dont get it. Poachers poach when they have a chance not by the seasons. Corn pile hunters are corn pile hunters no matter the time of year. This will be a hot skeeter, tick infested hunt that will separate the tv hunters from the die hards.

 

[FARMTOFIELD]

So much gloom and doom being said. I dont get it. Poachers poach when they have a chance not by the seasons..

This statement couldn't be any farther from the truth, at least in my area.

 

[Mike Belt]

As mentioned in another thread you can always save the rack and skull to be mounted on a rutting buck killed later in the season. I really don't like this move simply because it's going to put human traffic in the woods prior to and during the hunt all the way into the regular archery opener. Talk about giving the deer a head's up.

I think the squirrel hunters dwindled because in most places there were no deer or turkeys to hunt. Once they broadened their ranges the small game hunter numbers declined.

 

[TheLBLman]

Poachers poach when they have a chance not by the seasons.

Actually, most of the deer poaching occurs DURING an open deer season.
Poaching during deer season makes it much easier for a poacher to get away with his crime,
as being seen with a dead deer doesn't draw much attention (during the season),
and he can even "legally" check-in an illegally killed deer.

IMO, this late August date is a tremendous opportunity for poachers,
most of whom normally would not risk it during the heat of summer.

I believe there will be a large number of "velvet" bucks illegally shot with a rifle,
and yes, many will be over illegal corn piles.

 

[TheLBLman]

I can't stand it when people win a big lottery. Don't they know they are gonna have to pay all those taxes, not to mention all those friends and relatives coming out of the woodwork. It's just a terrible crying shame having to spend all that money. There gonna be thieves and scam artists everywhere trying to take their money. Why do people even buy a ticket? :bash:

I do understand the appeal to those pursuing a "velvet" buck.
Just saying it's a small minority of deer hunters (interested in an August archery hunt, period),
and a large majority of hunters may be adversely effected by the decision to have this summer-time deer hunt.

IMO, rather than looking like you won the lottery,
it's more like we were unexpectedly levied a new tax.

Kinda telling that if it wasn't a good idea on public lands,
maybe it isn't such a good idea on private lands?
Saying this in the context of free-roaming deer being a "public" resource.

 

[FARMTOFIELD]

Poachers poach when they have a chance not by the seasons.

Actually, most of the deer poaching occurs DURING an open deer season.
Poaching during deer season makes it much easier for a poacher to get away with his crime,
as being seen with a dead deer doesn't draw much attention (during the season),
and he can even "legally" check-in an illegally killed deer.

IMO, this late August date is a tremendous opportunity for poachers,
most of whom normally would not risk it during the heat of summer.

I believe there will be a large number of "velvet" bucks illegally shot with a rifle,
and yes, many will be over illegal corn piles.

Yep