The regular 2025-2026 deer season will end on January 19, with the closing of the flintlock season. Those hunters that have been unsuccessful will no doubt be thinking about the big buck that got away, however, they will have to get busy cleaning guns and putting away their hunting equipment.

During the winter months to come, there will be hunters again taking to the bare woods. These hunters will be searching for antlers that the male deer have shed. This hunt for shed antlers will continue until spring when the woods begin to turn green again.

Often when discussing a buck’s rack, the antlers are mistakenly called horns. This is a misnomer since deer have antlers. The difference between horns and antlers is that horns have always been dead because they have no blood supply.

Horns, which grow on both sexes of a species, are made of keratin just as our fingernails. Antlers are grown only on the male members of the deer family. The exception to this is the female caribou, which has antlers, however, two weeks after giving birth to her young, the female caribou sheds her antlers.

An antler that is growing is referred to as being in the velvet. During this stage, the velvet is somewhat likened to branches of the staghorn sumac, hence, the tree’s name. An antler injured during the velvet stage will become overdeveloped and deformed, causing either unusual curves or points. Biologists have learned that this antler will become deformed every year of the buck’s life

Biologists have also found that if the deer’s antlers are in the velvet stage and the deer injures its right rear leg, the left antler will be stunted and vice versa. However, any injury to a front leg will cause the antler on the same side to become stunted.

When antlers are growing a buck cannot obtain all the minerals (calcium and phosphorus) needed from its food. Therefore, the buck robs minerals from its own skeletal system, especially from the rib area. The antlers are growing at such a fast rate that much stress is put on the bones of the deer, with the ribs becoming brittle and easily broken.

Once the antlers are finished growing, the minerals robbed from the buck’s body are replaced.

Many Native American tribes had different attitudes towards the white-tailed deer. It was thought that the characteristic forked antlers of the white-tailed deer represented a forked or double nature. Other tribes believed that the white-tailed deer was an animal helper, while the dark-tailed deer represented danger. One legend told was that the mule deer could change into a beautiful maiden that lured young men to her.

Then she would switch back to a deer, and the young men would die. If by chance, a young man survived the encounter he would possess great powers for the remainder of his life.

According to Native American legends, the deer got its antlers when a rabbit challenged him to a foot race with the prize being a set of antlers. After the racetrack was laid out through the forest, the rabbit asked if he could look at the path before the race. The other animals agreed to his request.

When the rabbit took too much time checking out the path the other animals went looking for him. The rabbit was found cutting brush to make a clear path for himself. The animals considered this cheating and awarded the antlers to the deer.

At birth, a young buck’s antlers begin to grow and by fall, the antlers will be only small buds known as buttons.

After a buck’s antlers are finished growing, the animal sheds the velvet on the antlers. This is done in conjunction with the amount of light. All bucks in the wild will shed their velvet in a three-week period.

All bucks will shed their antlers each year but not both antlers at the same time. In the wild, a buck could lose an antler one day and then lose the other antler several days or even weeks later. On one day, a buck’s antlers can’t be knocked off, however, a day or two later, the antler could just fall off. After the buck loses his antlers, he loses his interest in sex and his will to fight.

All hunters know that male deer fight during the rut, or mating season. According to the Pennsylvania Game News, tests confirm that a doe breeds with more than one buck and that 20-25% of the time, twins aren’t even full siblings. White-tailed bucks do not have harems, but do form a tending bond with does in estrous, staying with her for 24-48 hours. The majority of doe come into estrous at the same time, which means hundreds of thousands of doe need to be bred during a two-week period.

A buck courts one doe at a time, leaving the door wide open for all bucks to find a doe in estrous. No matter how dominant a buck is, he can only be in one place at a time, however the larger, more dominant bucks do more of the breeding.

In early March, bucks can still be seen sporting their antlers. As long as a buck can breed and there are does coming into estrous, there will be bucks seen with antlers. There are antlers that appear white, while some antlers appear dark.

It has been said that the dark-colored antlers are carried by older bucks. However, that is not true. The color of a deer’s antlers depends on what the buck is rubbing his antlers on during the rutting season. A buck will rub his antlers on small saplings. If the small sapling is a young hemlock tree, the antlers will become dark from the tree itself. However, if the young sapling is an aspen or young maple tree, the antlers will be whitened.

Whether called horns or antlers, a male deer sporting a nice rack will cause the hunter’s heart to pump faster, which could lead to buck fever.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.