Still in velvet.
 

Today was the opener for rifle here. Saw smaller bucks hard horned, but this beast was still fully in velvet. A beautiful buck.





A bit heavy to hold out there! Next year he can get one...

That is a beautiful mule deer congratulations. He will make for one heck of a wall mount with that velvet.

That's a great looking deer, an awesome rack with the velvet. Will you be getting him Mounted?
-Jake

Thanks guys! I will mount this deer. I stripped the velvet. The air on the antlers was slipping already when I got him and was beyond saving at that point. I expect he would have stripped it in the next couple of days. I'll have to work to get the color on the antlers I want and go from there. I guess I'll have to shoot another earlier during the bowhunt to get the nice velvet mount! The artificial velvet flocking they put on looks okay, but not quite as good as the real thing.