need help presevring velvet on antlers

[soap creek]

Just got back from N.D..Shot a 4x5 mulie 1st mulie buck for this Ia. boy. He was in full velvet. I would like to keep it that way.Going to be a plaque mount.Freeze drying cost approx. $200. Looking for other options.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks Greg

[pintail_drake2004]

Look up Research Manikins-they have stores all over. There is a solution I remember back when we were mounting critters that you injected into the antlers under the velvet to help preserve it. Search "velvet" and see what comes up.

  http://www.rmi-online.com/

[Prairie Drifter]

Freeze drying is the only way to preserve it with out shrinkage of the velvet. There are methods of soaking it in "velvet tan" but they don't work well in my opinion. My advice would be to leave it in a frost free freezer for about 10 months. That will in essance "freeze dry" it.

[chinook907]

Yes, like PD said, put it in the freezer.  Hopefully your freezer is large enough.  

[Bill Sant]

A local taxidermist/friend told me to just keep it saturated with turpentine for about 5 days or until you couldn't squeeze any bloody fluid from the tips.  Just paint it on twice a day and let it sit.  Surprisingly it doesn't stink when it is all done with.  Have several bou racks preserved in such a manner and have had no issues.

[pete p]

i shot a buck a few yrs back in full velvet. i used a solution from Mckenzie taxidermy called velvet tan. you had to inject the stuff with a needle/syringe into the vien channels and really work the solution throughout the rack.  it looks great, no foul odor over the yrs. the stuff appears to have done a great job and has held up well over the yrs. check out the website, i think a bottole was around 15.

[LBOW]

I shot my caribou in 1985 and had it mounted by a taxidermist it was in velvet also he used formaldehyde. It has held up very well.   MIKE

[soap creek]

Thanks guys for the info, a local taxidermist told me about the turpintine treatment.I'm going to give it a try.He said freese drying was the best, but exspensive.

[soap creek]

Well I soaked them down with turpintine.Emptied freezer above frig. put in over night wich was all we could stand. Could smell it from the bedroom the next morning.Had 4 black garbage bags around it but still could smell it.Hanging in the garage now.My wife must really love me.

[Bill Kissner]

Her is another method a friend from Alaska told me about. I saw a large caribou he had mounted in the velvet using this method: He drove several very small tacks through the end of a small board. Then simply "pecked" the antlers with the tacks making hundreds of tiny holes in the velvet skin allowing the velvet to breathe and ultimately dry. The caribou antlers I saw were several years old and looked as if the animal had been just killed.

He said this was the only way he ever preserved them. I am going to try it if I ever kill another animal in the velvet.

[Lost Creek Bows]

I would mix up a batch of formic acid, or safe T Acid, pickling crystals, with the standard 1 lb of stock salt per gallon of water and sumerge the antlers in the solution for three days. It works on the hide so it will work great on velvet antlers also.

[soap creek]

Its been over week now. After soaking in turpintine and freezing overnight, then hanging in the garage, all's well sofar. Velvet seems dry,no odor, but I'am going to leave them in the garage a while longer. I'll let you know of any change.