RE: How do you PRESERVE Velvet Antlers?
Mathewsboy, it depends a lot on the degree of development of the antlers. The people who have responded have had good luck with the formaldehyde treatment but they would have shot their animals when the antlers were basically fully grown and hardening (I presume). With the buck that you have recently acquired, the antlers would be far from fully developed and have a huge amount of soft tissue. I don't know whether there is a good way to guarantee preservation.
I have shot at 8 or 10 bucks in velvet during early archery season (Sept 1) and have preserved them very successfully by 'freeze drying' them; they each spent a year in my freezer before being allowed out. I have never had a slippage or even a hint of odor problem. One is a nice5x5 I shot in 1985 and it is still like the day I got it. But again, these are all deer whose antlers were fully developed but hadn't rubbed the velvet off.