OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KFOR) – It’s open archery season for Oklahoma hunters and the Oklahoma Senate has pushed a bill opening a “velvet buck” season to the House of Representatives for the next step to act.

Senate Bill 910 seeks to create a nine-day velvet buck archery season that would begin on the Saturday morning before the last weekend of August and run through the Sunday evening of the last weekend of August.

SB 910 states that each hunter could only harvest one velvet buck per season and that buck would count towards the regular season’s two-buck limit.

Velvet according to Wikipedia is a living tissue that covers antlers as they regrow in spring and summer. The velvet is full of blood vessels that provide nutrients to the growing antlers. In Oklahoma, this usually happens from late August through September.

Current Oklahoma legislation states that hunters must have a hunting license, velvet buck permit or stamp to hunt in velvet buck season.

“We are working closely with legislators every day to provide them the information they need to make decisions on this bill and others. Oklahoma is one of the best states in the nation for deer hunting and we all share a goal to keep it that way. Our strategy is to provide as much hunting opportunity as possible while maintaining healthy wildlife populations and our biologists will continue to examine season and bag limit changes like these so we can make science-based recommendations”, says Micah Holmes, Assistant Chief, Communication & Education Division

The House of Representatives will now consider Senate Bill 910.

If Senate Bill 910 becomes law, the Oklahoma Wildlife Commission would issue regulations and the velvet buck season would likely not come into effect until the 2024-2025 deer season.