JACKSON — Deer hunters have almost reached the start of Mississippi’s September Velvet Season. The season is open from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15 and allows hunters to harvest a buck with velvet antlers while helping in the fight against Chronic Wasting Disease on private land. 

William McKinley, Deer Program Coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, said there is not anything different about this year’s season. He added Tennessee reported a new record high for velvet season harvests this year. 

Tennessee opened its first velvet season four years before Mississippi did and has seen increases in harvest each year. 

Resident hunters will need a velvet season permit to hunt the early season while non-resident hunters will need a deer permit. Velvet season permits are $10 while the deer permits went up to $100. The season is archery equipment only, legal bucks with or without velvet can be harvested, harvests must be reported and tested for Chronic Wasting Disease. 

“Hunters can check our website for freezer locations and participating taxidermists to submit CWD samples,” McKinley said. “We will have 59 freezers this year and added some new taxidermists.” 

Fighting against CWD

Velvet season is a great way for the agency to get a broad sampling of deer across the state. Hunters are encouraged to help fight Chronic Wasting Disease by submitting samples during the regular hunting season. 

“We appreciate hunters’ willingness to go out and comply with the regulations,” McKinley said. “It is a unique opportunity and we encourage them to take advantage of it.” 

Chronic Wasting Disease is a 100 percent, always fatal disease caused by an infectious prion in deer and members of the cervidae family. CWD prions are shed into the environment in the bodily fluids of infected deer. 

Healthy deer can become infected by indirect contact with these prions in the soil or direct contact with an infected deer. Prions persist in the environment for a long period of time long after a CWD infected deer dies. 

Deer do not show symptoms of CWD until the later stages of the disease which could be 12 to 18 months after they become infected which is why it is important for deer to be tested. The Center for Disease Control reports there are no CWD cases in humans from eating positive deer meat but it doesn’t mean the disease can’t spread to humans. It is best to avoid eating meat of a CWD positive deer.

MDWFP has several videos about Chronic Wasting Disease. One shows hunters how to drop off a CWD sample, another video shows hunters how to pull their sample to drop it off and a series of videos produced by the Mississippi State University Deer Lab on CWD. 

Hunters harvested 285 bucks in 2022 and 223 bucks in 2023. One buck tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease in Issaquena County in 2023’s velvet season. It was the first positive detected in the county since first detection in 2018. MDWFP reports a total of 318 CWD positives have been detected. 

Hunter considerations 

While temperatures are cooling off this week they will still be hot. Hunters need to prepare ahead of their hunt. 

“If they are successful they need to cool the carcass. They need ice to chill the velvet on the antlers because the velvet will spoil quicker than the meat will. They need to get those antlers wrapped and get the guts out as soon as possible.” 

A majority of Mississippi is in some level of drought at this time. McKinley said his observation from north-central Mississippi is that the area needs rain but conditions are not as severe as 2023. 

McKinley said the red oak mast crop is poor in north-central Mississippi. Water oaks, willow oak and cherrybark oaks suffered from a late freeze in 2023. The same freeze hurt the white oak mast production last year. Sawtooth oak acorn production is also down in north-central Mississippi. 

Production of hard mast can vary by location so be sure to scout and observe mast production in your area. McKinley said he has seen a lot of persimmons and hunters can key in on soft mast in the early season. Food sources in the early season are great places to hunt. 

“Find where bucks are feeding and glass from afar. Do your scouting from afar. That first chance is your best chance because after that they are educated,” McKinley said. “Bucks are habitual this time of year. One other thing, if hunters are in areas where we have missed most of the rains, little water holes will be great areas to hunt as well.” 

Hunters should not have any qualms about killing a buck in the velvet season. The 223 velvet season harvests last year were a fraction of the 120,991 estimated antlered buck harvest in the 2023-2024 deer season. 

Helping others

Hunters who may not have time to mess with deer meat early in the season can donate their harvest to help hungry Mississippians. Mississippi’s Wildlife Federation created a program called Hunters Harvest to help provide lean protein to food pantries across the state. 

Lincoln County hunters can donate through Diamond J, Boyd and Knight’s Deer Processors. It might be a good idea to contact a deer processor to make sure they are open during the early velvet season. 

To learn more about Hunters Harvest charity visit mswildlife.org/huntersharvest.