Saving Antler Tips

Merry Xmas everyone

So managed to shoot one of Santa’s reindeer on their way home last night and he turned out being quite hard underneath and I have been able to peel the velvet off him as you can see from the photo. He went 33 long but was very narrow.

He is little bit soft at the very end of his antler but not much, was wondering how I can preserve these tips to make them hard? Have heard formaldehyde mentioned by other but do not know where to get it.

If anyone has any ideas it would be appreciated



Attachment 240249Attachment 240250

the last velvet stag i shot was in the same sort of condition the tips went hard once they dried out but are a bit brittle now

Unfortunately, they are about a week away from being fully grown. All is not lost though, as you can file up the tips then stain them. You'll always have to treat those tines with kid gloves though. They will always be a bit chalky and easily damaged.
Just a heads up for the future for you ..... its possible to have a taxidermist pickle/cure the velvet and have it mounted on a plaque, as in one of the photos below.
Cheers....

Attachment 240258

Attachment 240259

Unfortunately if you've already stripped it, you can't really cure it. You'll lose an inch or so of the tips. In future, don't strip the velvet unless it's rock hard underneath.

typically wait for the new year plus a month to kill heads.

but i know i know, the kiwi tradition is getting in first- will start seeing "trophy pics" of freshly cast mature animals soon... oh wait, thats all over Facebook.

hooroo