Earlier this year I was selected to participate in a special shotgun hunt in western Hennepin County on November 28th& 29th.These hunts are a lot of fun as you never know what you will see; this was my fifth time being selected. I setup stand the morning of the 28th as your not allowed to setup prior to the actually hunt. I sat in my stand the entire day on the 28th, I saw seven does but none offered a shot. I removed my stand and hung it back up in a different location just 40 yards for the following day. I was confident by moving my stand I would get a shot at a deer as I setup near a heavily used trail. I arrived in my stand around 0630 hours and planned on sitting all day. At approximately 0919 hours I saw this buck come from a group of large pine tree from the west. The buck was approximately 40 yards away, I could see that he had a tall rack on his right side but nothing else. The buck jumped on the trail I was hoping it would and started walking east, at 35 yards I grunted at the buck where he locked up its legs and started looking for what made that noise. I fired one shot at 35 yards dropping the deer. All I could see while it was laying down in the tall grass was the right side of the rack, which again looked pretty nice. I got out of my stand and walked over to the deer, as I got closer I could tell that his antlers were "funny looking". The buck was still in full velvet, the antlers were soft and somewhat flexible at the tips. I was very shocked as I have never heard of a buck being harvested in MN in late November still in full velvet. I registered the buck with the group who administers the special hunts and they have never seen or heard of this either. The deer was 3 years old, field dressed at 180lbs and had 17 inch spread. Why is this deer still in velvet and why does it have a "messed up" rack?? I located an article on the internet that explained both. Check it out if you wan. Very interesting I thought.(http://www.iwla-rh.org/html/DGIF_articles/deer_antlers.html)
I'm planning on having a European mount done; I will post a photo when done. Thanks everyone