Locked up...

[Cskelton]

We had a really rough patch of weather over the last while. 20+ inches of snow, below zero. Its broke now, 60 and wind.. when it gets tough like that the deer pour into one of our hay fields that has Sanfoin planted in it. It's like crack for deer.... for about four days there was about 150 head milling about the field. I would park above and just watch them in the evening. They dont pay much attention to the ranger... on one of the last tough days I pulled up to see a buck with his head down. I watched him for ten minutes and he would not raise his head. This is uncommon for deer. I decided to drive out and see what was going on. I found he had locked horns with another much younger buck. He broke the younger deers neck and had been standing all night and day in fight to free himself from his dead opponent. He was in bad shape.. his head and neck had swelled to the point he could barely open his eyes. When I approached he gave one last massive effort then fell over... after ending his suffering, I studied the situation. The old buck, and I do mean old (no teeth left), had a massive, but narrow rack. He had sticker points all around the base of his pedestal. One of these, points back and down and is shaped like a fish hook. The other buck, was wide, his rack wrapped around the old ones. His antler got wedged under the fish hook of the old buck. It took me 20 minutes of prying to get them apart. A sad deal. I tagged the old buck, but dread eating it. . The younger deer wasnt salvageable. He would have been something to see I'm a couple years. He had a double drop tine on his left beam..

[gregszybala]

Wow, nature! Have never come across anything like that. Thanks for sharing.

[redrocks]

Wow is right...man that's something else

[Lindenmeier-Man]

I know it happens in nature. This pic fixes me up for Halloween. I quote Marlon Brando in the movie Apocalypse Now,
” The Horror , The Horror.”

[Narrow Way Knapper]

So in this case, the runt buck not involved in the fight gets the doe.

[Havenhunter]

Nature is neither cruel nor kind. Just culling her own naturally. Thanks for sharing what for many of us is a rare sight. I’ve seen 27 deer at one time but your sighting is amazing!
Deb

[clovisoid]

That older buck might be a sausage buck, I'd bet he created a lot of lactic acid and got gamey during that struggle.

I've seen a couple of skulls found in the wild of locked up bucks, they make pretty cool mounts. I might have just taken off both heads and cleaned them up.

[Cskelton]

Jerky....

[Cskelton]

I took video on my phone, but it's not letting me load it.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Chad, Locked antlers is a rare site. You did the right thing. The old guy was probably going down hill before the fight.